Dive Report: Clinton
Date: Friday Night February 2, 2001
Boat: ReefCat
Captain: Jim Mims

By: Mike Rodriguez

A small group of divers from out-of-town showed up at the boat for a
night dive on the Miller Lite, though we would end up diving the
Clinton.  We loaded the boat and were off by 9pm.  Conditions were
pleasant; there was a quarter moon, the air temperature was 74F and
the water was about 70F.  The seas were less than two feet and the
light current was running south.  I was diving trimix 22/26/52 with
50% oxygen and 100% oxygen for decompression.

The Clinton is not often dived, though I've been fortunate to have
been there many times.  It's a 150 foot long steel dredge and has
double hull design, almost like a catamaran.  It was sunk as an
artificial reef in 1995.  The bow and stern of the two hulls are
square.  Each of the twin hulls has two big rings near the top and
bottom that may have held anchor pilings at one time.  The two hulls
provide numerous opportunities to penetrate the wreck which has long,
silty corridors.  The wreck sits upright about 165 feet deep on a sandy
bottom.

I geared up as we circled the site.  The grapple hook at the end of
the floatline wouldn't snag the wreck, so after a while I volunteered
to take it down by-hand.  The captain set me up, and I grabbed the
grapple hook and jumped into the dark water.  On the way down, I let
some line slip through my hand such that the hook hung about 20 feet
below me.  I do this at night or when the visibility is very poor so
that I'll have some warning when the hook reaches the wreck (or the
sand).  The couple of seconds' warning allows me to slow my descent
before crashing into the bottom.  On this dive, I spotted the sand in
plenty of time to slow down.  Hovering about 20 feet over the sand, I
turned slowly pointing my powerful HID light in all directions.  I
spotted the wreck about 50 feet up-current and swam hard to snag the
hook on the deck before the light current had a chance to take all
the slack out; unfortunately, the slack ran out about 10 feet from the
wreck.  I swam harder and was able to just snag the wreck.  Once the
hook was set, I relaxed in the gentle current and caught my breath
while holding onto a deck railing.  I swept my light across the deck
studying the wreck; it didn't take long to realize something was
wrong.  I was on the Clinton, not the nearby Miller Lite as planned.
The depth of the Clinton happens to be about the same as the Miller
Light, so I left the hook in-place and waited for the rest of the
divers.  A small crab was holding onto a deck railing about five feet
below me, it's claws extended into the current as it held on with it's
legs.  I spent 30 minutes content to just watch the cute crab and
contemplate the amazingly complex interplay of species and environment
that lead to the evolution of such a beautiful creature.

After a while, I left the crab alone and swam toward the bow of the
wreck.  I stopped there wondering why it was taking so long for the
other divers to arrive.  I heard the boat's engines as the captain
maneuvered into position so I covered my light and turned on my back
to look up and was actually able to see the boat on the surface
silhouetted against the moonlight.  It was a very cool sight.  I made
myself negatively buoyant and rested on my back on the deck watching the
boat on the surface as the other divers jumped into the water.  I shined
my light up at them to home into on the way down and within a few
seconds I was joined by the four other divers.

I waved at them as they arrived, then I dropped to the sand and made
myself as negative as possible.  I took off my fins and went for a
walk in the sand about 50 feet from the wreck.  As I walked around,
I spotted two red beady eyes in the sand.  I took a close look and
realized it was a buried fish.  I couldn't make out what kind of
fish it was, but it seemed to be boxy and about a foot long.  Its head
was maybe three inches wide.  I didn't want to disturb it by digging
it up, so I left it alone and unidentified, and I continued my walk
until I noticed a ray in the sand about 50 feet away.  I walked toward
it slowly but as I approached, it curled it front edge up at me, then
left.  I followed it a short distance, but when it settled back down to
the sand it was too far to walk while staying in sight of the wreck.

I walked back to the wreck, put my fins back on, and swam up to the
deck where the other divers were reattaching their deco stages as
they got ready to leave.  I hovered over them shining my light on
their bottles to help them see better, then we unhooked and drifted
off the wreck to begin decompression.

During deco, a purple aurelia jellyfish floated by and two of the
divers took advantage of the opportunity to relieve the boredom of
decompression by playing with it.  They shined their light into the
jellyfish from above and below which made it look like a foofy
lamp-shade I might find in my grandmother's house.

With deco over, we boarded the boat and headed back to arrive at the
dock around midnight.  Everyone had a great time and the guys from
out-of-town got to take home cool memories of some of the best diving
on earth!