Dive Report: Pappa's Wreck
Saturday, December 11, 1999
Reef Cat, Jim Mims

By: Mike Rodriguez

We had great conditions today for the dive.  It was sunny, the seas
were calm, air temperature was 80F and water temperature was 76F.
There was a south current on the surface and a north current on the
bottom.  I was diving trimix 15/51/34.

I got to meet Ray and Cindy on this trip, both of whom I'd been
corresponding with via email.  We'd actually planed other trips
together before, but they were all canceled due to weather.

By the time we reached the site, it had become cloudy.  This later
made for somewhat gloomy conditions on the bottom.  Everyone agreed
to dive 17 minutes on the bottom.

The captain set up two of the divers who had scooters.  They agreed
to set the downline and the rest of us would follow shortly afterwards.
We set them up and they jumped.  After a few minutes it was clear that
they'd been unable to set the line.  The captain picked it up and
tried several times to set it.  The reversed surface-bottom current made
it difficult.  After several attempts, the captain thought the line
was at least close to the wreck so he set us up and we jumped.  By
this time, we could see the lift-bag of the other two divers who'd
finished their dive and were decoing.

I was diving a new TLS350 today.  I'd spent some time in a pool
the night before getting the trim worked out and checking the
fit, but things still weren't perfect, and I struggled a bit with
the suit on the way down.  I usually dive wet in the ocean so
my descents with the extra drag of the shell suit slowed me
way down.  It took me four minutes to get to the bottom.  It
usually takes me about two minutes to make this descent.  After
what seemed like an eternity, I was finally on the bottom, but
there was no wreck.  We looked around and saw the dark outline
of the ships, so we left the downline and swam toward it.  It
was a little dark, but still diveable without a light.  I had
a 50 watt light with me, so I switched it on.  I saw the other
three divers in this group and was glad that we all made it to
the wreck.

I started exploring and noticed there were not as many fish around
today as I'm used to seeing on the Pappa's Wreck... don't know why.
I swam down to the sand at 280 feet and looked around the bottom of
the hull, then I went up and into the cargo hold.  The engine room
sits right next to an opening at the end of the hold.  I confirmed
that there's another opening into the engine room from above and plan
to explore it next time I dive here.

I swam to the wheelhouse where there was in inviting opening I'd
like to check out on another dive.  I had one minute of bottom time
left, so I joined up with the other divers.  I pointed at my bottom
timer, and the reply was 'one more minute'.  A minute later, we were
all headed up as we drifted off the wreck.

As I approached my first deep-stop, I shot my lift bag.  The other
divers were well above me, so it made sense for me to deploy my
bag so they could use the line for reference.  We all completed deco
around my bag and a while later we were all on the boat talking about
the great dive.