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Dive Report: Lubrafol 
Date: Saturday June, 13, 2001
Boat: SeaDog
Captain: JB
By: Mike Rodriguez
A bunch of the "usual suspects" and a couple of former trimix students of mine showed
up at the boat Saturday to dive the Lubrafol, a popular technical dive site off Ft.
Pierce. Everyone loaded the boat and we were on our way with smooth seas under a
sunny sky.
The Lubrafol, loaded with heating oil, was on its way from Aruba to New York in
May 1942 when it was spotted by the U-564 off Hillsboro Lighthouse in southeast
Florida. Shortly afterward, a torpedo hit the ship's starboard side igniting several of the
oil tanks. Since the ship was near shore, many of the crew made it to shore on
Boynton Beach and others were rescued by the Coast Guard. As it turned out, the
ship did not immediately sink and drifted north in the Gulf Stream (AKA Florida
Current) until it finally went under about 40 miles off New Smyrna Beach, Florida in
180 feet of water.
I dove the Lubrafol for the first time in August 2000. My buddies and I attempted
another trip a few months later but after making it half way there, we had to turn back
due to bad weather. I'd been anxiously awaiting another chance to dive this wreck, and
when I heard SeaDogs were running a charter there, I jumped on the opportunity.
I slept as the boat made its way to the site; we finally arrived 2.5 hours later and found
several fishing charters anchored on the wreck. Our captain called them on the radio
and graciously offered to wait a while until they were done fishing before we put
divers in the water. The reply was immediate and nasty. They told us to "stay the hell off their
wreck". It seems somehow the local fishing charter captains have purchased the
Lubrafol? Rather than reply sarcastically, our captain explained that while the fishermen
were on the Lubrafol 365 days a year, he brought divers maybe once a year. The reply
was again terse and nasty: "that's once too many". The fishing charter captain then
threatened to call the Coast Guard, to what end we didn't know. He then said he
would do his best to snag with his fishing tackle any diver he saw in the water. Truly
disgusting people these fishermen.
Anyway, our captain did his best to anchor us away from the fishing boats and the
divers prepared to dive despite the threats from the other boats. I volunteered to tie in
the anchor; when I was ready, I dropped into the water and swam forward to the
downline, then down. At the bottom I found the anchor laying on the wreckage. I
moved it to a secure place and tied it in with a short piece of poly-line I took
down for that purpose. My buddy arrived shortly afterward and we took off swimming along a
ledge in the sand next to the wreck. The visibility on the bottom was only about 20 to
30 feet, and we stayed near the ledge so we could find our way back. The temperature
on the bottom was very cold, near 50F.
We continued along the ledge until we came to a hapless crab that had gotten
entangled in fishing line and died. Its body was hanging off the wreck and
decomposing. Farther forward we reached a large, mangled part of the wreck but by
this time, I was shivering and ready to head back. My buddy didn't argue when I
turned around and we quickly made our way back to the line.
My buddy headed up the line, but I couldn't resist hanging around a while longer with
several other divers who were also near the line. I swam through some wreckage to
the opposite side of the ship and was startled by a large jewfish who thumped at me
when I got too close.
I followed the hull of the wreck a short distance passing a couple of large grouper on
the way. A white snowflake eel stuck its head out at me from under the hull but ducked
back in when I got close. Out in the sand I saw what looked like a porthole, but by this
time I was getting too cold to check it out. I swam back along the hull past
several other divers and hurried to the line to start up into the warm surface water for
decompression. I met up with my buddy and several other divers on the line.
Unfortunately, the moderate current and the load of all the divers on the line took the
ball underwater. Most of the divers let go and swam against the current to hold
position. With the load reduced, the ball made it back to the surface. My buddy
and I completed decompression free-swimming against the light current near the line.
Everyone was aboard the boat a while later and the captain tied the boat directly into
the downline to wait out the surface interval. By this time, the fishing boats had left the
area and we had the wreck to ourselves.
I got very cold during the dive and unfortunately, during our surface interval, the air
temperature dropped to about 68F, the wind picked up, and a wild thunderstorm
passed overhead. All this conspired to keep me chilled down. The storm finally
passed, but it remained cloudy and cool. When it was time for our second dive, I was
still a bit cold and although I was looking forward to the dive, I was dreading
the frigid water on the bottom.
I geared up, jumped in the water, and started down the line. As I descended, I felt thewater get cold around 70 feet. I continued down
and the visibility began to drop. Eventually, the visibility was so bad that I could only see about a foot or two. My hand
on the line was barely visible. Hoping this bad viz was only a mid-water layer
as it often is, I continued down. I was startled when my knee bumped into something solid.
I stopped and holding onto the line brought my face down to where my knee was and
realized I'd bumped into the wreck and couldn't even see it.
There was no point continuing the dive in zero visibility, so I started back up the line.
By this time, several other divers were on the descent. It was comical trying to pass
them on the way up in zero visibility as they continued down the last five feet to the
wreck and started up again when they realized it was hopeless to continue.
Fortunately, the water cleared up again near the surface and we were able to do a
quick deco in relatively good viz. When everyone was back on the boat, we pulled in
the anchor and started for home. We got only one of the two intended dives in, but
everyone had a good time and I'm looking forward to returning to the Lubrafol later
this summer when the temperature on the bottom is warmer!
Copyright
© 2001 Mike Rodriguez. All rights reserved. |