Dive Report: Hydro Atlantic
Sunday, December 5, 1999
SeaHorse, Mike Halprin

By: Mike Rodriguez

THe day was warm and sunny for this afternoon dive.  Everyone was
loaded and ready ahead of schedule.  On site, there was a slight
north current, maybe 1/4 knot.  Visibility was only about 40 feet;
not as good as the 100 feet reported earlier.  The air was about
80F and the surface water about 78F.  I was diving trimix 23/25/52.

I had my camera with me.  It stuck and wouldn't shoot.  I smacked it
a few times and it started working again.  I got to the sand and took
a few pics of the crumpled metal of the hull.  They didn't turn out
well; not enough light from the tiny strobe, but the pictures are
better than nothing.  The Ikelite camera I was using does a pretty
good job with close-up and macro pictures though.

I went to the engine room and crawled way back inside.  I wanted pics
of the rust stalagtites.  I stayed there for about 20 minutes taking
pictues.  It was hard not to mess up the viz.  I tried to stay as
still as possible, but I still stired up a little.

While taking pictures, I heard someone else breathing.  I looked
around but didn't see anyone.  I later found out it was one of the
other divers who was swimming by.

After I took my pictures, I headed out and found a reel sitting on
one of the machines in the big room just outside the engines.  I
grabbed it and thought it was one more nice piece of gear to find.
In the last few months, I've found two masks, a lobster snare, and
a few other things, so finding the reel was a nice compliment to
the other stuff.

After exiting the engine room, I swam to thw bow of the ship to
finish my bottom time.  I took some pics of the school of small fish
that always seem to be hovering just forward of the bow of the ship.
I guess they like it there because the current usually runs down the
length of the ship which lies pointing south.  I was carefull not
to flash the stobe at a barracuda as I recalled a scary moment I had
with one at this same spot a few weeks back.

I had about three minutes left, so I took a last quick look around
the area under the wheelhouse, then headed up the mast to release
the downline as I'd agreed to do earlier.  I was joined by one
of the other divers who timed his entry to coincide with the end
of my bottom time.  We unhooked the line and drifted off.  The
snap that was securing the line wasn't attached to it, so I put it
in my pocket.

We held the downline as we drifted directly north over the length
of the wreck.  It was a nice ride and I took the opportunity to
look for other divers which there weren't supposed to be any left
by this time.

Deco went normally with everyone free-swimming around the line in
about 40 foot visibility.  Everyone had a great time.