Dive Report: RBJ Date: Saturday afternoon January 20, 2001 Boat: ReefCat Captain: Jim Mims By: Mike Rodriguez Five divers showed up at the boat early in the afternoon to dive the RBJ which is actually two wrecks, the Corey N. Chris, an Army dredge, and the Ronald B. Johnson (RBJ), a 226 foot long freighter which was sunk as an artificial reef and landed by accident right on top of the Chris. The hull of the RBJ broke as it settled onto the Chris creating two tunnels divers can swim through. The two ships are upright on the sand 260 feet deep. The group of divers loaded the boat in a light rain. Earlier, a heavy thunderstorm drenched the area. I knew the worst of the bad weather was over since I'd spent the previous day in Tampa visiting friends and had flown my airplane through the line of storms on my way home early that morning. The weather ahead and behind the line was overcast but not stormy. The wind was out of the northwest at somewhat less than 20 knots, but since the RBJ is only a couple of miles offshore, there wasn't enough fetch for the waves to build. The seas were choppy, but less than two feet. Although it was overcast, it was a warm day with temperatures in the upper 70s. I was diving trimix 15/49/36 with 50% and 100% oxygen for decompression. Once we were over the wreck, the captain dropped a grapple hook and the divers geared up. I would be the first in the water followed by two of the divers on scooters and a few minutes later by the last two divers who were planning short bottom times. The captain lined us up; I aimed for the floatline, and dove in. There was a very light north current at the surface which diminished to almost nothing at the bottom. The visibility in the first 50 feet of water was poor, only 30 feet; but as I got deeper, I saw it open up. At 150 feet down the visibility was 120 feet or so. The overcast sky made it darkish and gloomy at depth, but as I continued down, I saw a dozen friendly, curious jacks swim up from the darkness to greet me. I was happy to have their company as it meant I was getting close to the shipwreck below. When I reached the wreck I looked up along the line expecting the two scooter divers to be right behind me, but they weren't there. They'd had some trouble on the surface and would eventually join me about 10 minutes into my dive. I didn't feel alone, though, since by this time I was surrounded by jacks all seemingly demanding my attention. They circled me and followed me around the wreck as if I was the Pied Piper; my HID light reflecting back at me off their shiny scales. These fish can sometimes become so dense that they obscure the diver's vision, but on this dive I was glad to have them around. I swam down to the sand and toward one of the swim-throughs beneath the RBJ and saw a bull shark about 10 feet long swim by on the other side. Hoping to get a better view, I quickly ascended to deck level and swam across the RBJ to look for the shark. Unfortunately, the brief glimpse is all I'd get on this dive. I felt a little cold and checked the temperature. It was 66F; the surface had been around 72F. I swam out over the sand again and around the far end of the ships. The jacks stayed with me the whole time. Even though it was dark, the water was very clear and everything stood out crisply against the deep blue backdrop. I was happy. Dives like these are the best things in the world for me, second only to flying. When I reached about 100 feet away from the wreck I turned around and looked up at the silhouette of the huge cranes against the surface and noticed a couple of dive lights coming down the float line. The two divers who followed me into the water had finally arrived. One of them resecured the floatline and they began their dive. I hovered unobserved over the sand as they scootered around the wreck with billowing clouds of bubbles drifting up behind them. A few minutes later two more dive lights appeared. They belonged to the last two divers to join us on the bottom. One of them, my frequent dive buddy, had a new digital camera and was furiously snapping shots in every direction. I swam over and to help out in the gloom I vicariously shot some pictures of my own by refocusing my HID light for a wide beam and lighting whatever I saw him pointing the camera at. I did this until my 26 minutes on the bottom ran out. Then, I headed back to the floatline to begin my ascent. I was joined by the rest of the team shortly afterwards; decompression went well. Back on the boat we all talked about the great dive and speculated about what the weather would do overnight to affect our dive the following morning on the Hydro Atlantic. As it turned out, the weather was fine.