Dive Report: Hydro Atlantic
Date: Saturday afternoon June 10, 2000
Boat: Reef Cat
Captain: Jim Mims

By: Mike Rodriguez

A mixed bag of nine divers showed up Saturday to dive the Hydro
Atlantic.  This wreck is a 'real' wreck.  It sank in a storm
just outside the Boca Raton Inlet in 1987 while being towed south
along the southeast Florida coast.  It's over 300 feet long with a
64 foot beam.  The ship is covered with soft coral and hosts an
abundance of sea life.  It sits upright and pointing south on a sandy
bottom in 170 feet of water.  Due to the moderate depth, the Hydro
Atlantic is one of the most popular technical dives in the area.
Since this wreck was not prepped for divers, there are numerous
entanglement hazards, especially if you choose to go inside.  I dove
trimix 23/26/51 with 50% and 100% oxygen for decompression.

The wind was blowing 15 to 20 knots so we decided to take the
protected waters of the intracoastal waterway north to the Boca Raton
Inlet rather than, as we usually do, enter the ocean at the Hillsboro
Inlet and go north from there.  Our route on this trip would take
a little longer, but it would be a much more pleasant ride.

Finally exiting the Boca Raton Inlet, we were greeted by rough water,
and we were glad we took the longer route north.  I stood at the bow
of the boat enjoying the view of the ocean.  The boat, a catamaran
style with a low, unprotected bow, pounded over mostly four foot waves
and I held on enjoying the roller coaster ride.  At one point, an
extra big wave came toward us unexpectedly and the bow of the boat
plowed directly into the wave which crested several feet above my
head.  The wave broke over us and I was underwater as hundreds of
gallons of ocean poured over me.  I held on to the railing as
everything not tied down was washed aft.  The water flowed through
the boat and out the open transom like a river.  As quickly as it
started it ended, and the boat, not missing a beat, kept going
forward.  I was soaked but I didn't care and laughed out loud as
everyone scrambled to stow everything that had been dumped on the
floor by the water.  The captain slowed us down a knot or two and
continued to our destination.

At the site it was a beautiful day.  The air temperature was about
85F and the water was 84F.  There was a very light current running
to the north and the visibility was moderate at 50 feet.  One of the
other divers volunteered to take down the floatline.  The captain
set up and the diver jumped in while the rest of us got ready.  The
diver missed the wreck but we didn't know this at the time so when
we jumped in using the floatball as a guide to set up the free
descent, we ended up in the sand.  Fortunately, a little looking
around and we found the wreck.  We looked around for the floatline
on the wreck, but it wasn't there, so we just did our dive expecting
to shoot a liftbag to deco under.

I went to the stern and explored openings in the hull near the bottom.
The openings appear to have been caused by the impact of the hull
with the bottom.   I squeezed in thorough a narrow vertical crack
and spent most of the dive looking around in the large room.  After
a while, I exited and swam under the hull where it curves up and away
from the sand.  It's an eerie feeling to be swimming around under
tons of steel rusting right above your head.

Next I thought I'd look around in the sand near the wreck to try to
find artifacts that might have been missed by divers.  Since there
was almost no current at all, I took off my fins, made myself as
negative as possible, and went for a walk in the clean white sand by
the wreck.  I walked the length of the ship from stern to bow
picking up and examining anything that looked interesting.  When I
got to the bow, I turned around and walked back on the other side.  A
few divers passed by giving me a quizzical look so I waved at them.
I reached the stern again but found nothing worthwhile on my walk.  My
time was almost over so I put my fins back on as a small blue-green
eel watched me from under the hull, then I rose to deck level to take
one last look around for the floatline before shooting a liftbag.  As
it happens, the floatline was there at the stern.  The diver who'd
attempted to attach the line tried a second time while my group was
diving.

As I drifted off the wreck along the floatline, I watched a few of
the divers still down on the wreck swimming around.  I lost sight of
them by 100 feet or so but was later joined by them when they unhooked
the line and started up for their decompression which went normally.
Everyone was back on the boat a while later and since the seas were
still a little bumpy, we entered the Boca Raton Inlet and took the
Intracoastal back home.