Diving in North Carolina waters in August conjures up visions of 80 degree clear blue water with 100 foot visibility……and the downside? Two hour boat rides to reach the wrecks.
That is what normal people get. Me…..it is slightly different. But let’s start at the beginning.
It is ten hours to North Carolina, no matter how you map it, it is ten hours to North Carolina and that is without traffic or stopping….for stuff like gas. With my current issues with my back, it just seems longer.
Thursday was a drive day and Friday was a dive day. We awake to warm temperatures and head for the shop to see if we will have flat seas. Discovery Diving was our shop and SEQUEST II our transportation, with Captain Jerry at the helm and Mate Mark, his trusty side kick.
The shop is a decent size and right on the dock, the staff friendly and helpful. Our tanks are moved each night from the boat to the shop for fills and returned the next morning ready to dive. There are freshwater rinse hoses at the dock and a decent amount of parking, all making for a pleasant dive experience.
Day 1
Our first day of diving, the seas are alive and kicking. This makes our trip out slightly longer than an NFL game and much more bumpy. Keep in mind my back and brace and as you can imagine by the time we reached the wreck of the Schurz, I was more than ready to set anchor and dive.
The USS Schurz was a 295 foot cruiser sunk in a collision in with the tanker Florida in the early morning hours of June 1918, in 110 feet of water. The irony of the Schurz was that it was originally the SMS Geier, a German navy cruiser seized during World War I and refitted and loaded back up with the original German guns and ammunition and sent back out to sea to fight the Germans.
Normally, this time of year the water is close to 80 degrees with visibility that can reach over 100 feet. Under the deck plates in the sand, ammunition clips can still be found and large amber jacks and bait fish swarm the wreck and deck gun lying in the sand.
Unfortunately with the arguable 10 foot of viz, we were lucky to find the anchor line at the end of our dive, although you definitely made out the hazy outline of barracuda, ever present during our hang. We ran a wreck reel and Jersey diving it was….just warmer.
Once back onboard, one of the other divers brought up some shells they came across in the sand and out of one crawled a decent sized octopus that ran across the deck making a break for freedom. With a little help from the divers he made the water and then just had to get past our barracuda friends and he was back home. Hope he made it.
We left the dark and murky waters surrounding the Schurz and moved inshore to the Spar and promises of………sharks. The infamous sand tigers of North Carolina to be exact.
The Spar was a 183 foot US Coast Guard buoy tender sunk in 105 feet of water as an artificial reef in 2004. It was named after the original Coast Guard Women’s Reserve and is an acronym for the Coast Guard motto “Semper Paratus, Always Ready”, and is alive with sand tiger sharks.
To get me diving, my gear is lowered to the water with a gear line, and I slip into my harness and buckle in midwater and I am off. Upon surfacing, I clip the gear off to the line and climb the ladder to board the boat. The mate then jumps in and carries my gear back onboard. Not a bad deal and more important.....it works.
As we descend the anchor line, we see that the visibility is slightly better here with 20 plus feet and upon arriving on the deck we are greeted with what appears to be a never-ending supply of sharks. Sand tigers are recognizable by their brownish coloring and gnarly toothed grin, a ragged row of teeth visible even when the shark closes its mouth. Sweet. Mark busies himself taking pics as we navigate around the deck. As you look around you are surrounded by these sharks with the sight of them suddenly looming out of the haze on all sides of you. Above the decks were also baitfish and large amber jacks which I happily poked and grabbed, and the sea life is rounded out with schools of spade fish, a splattering of blue chromos, queen angelfish and other tropicals. On the decks were assorted sea life including some outrageous yellow sea cucumbers.
On the line up were the resident barracuda which we found on every dive site, hovering just out of reach and eyeing us. I don’t know if they were hungry or curious, but they were definitely eyeing us.
Day 2
Today the seas were quiet and we had a much better ride out. Our target was the Papoose, a 412 foot tanker lying upside down in 120 feet of water about 36 miles south of Beaufort Inlet. This trip usually takes about 2 hours but today it is slightly longer as are all of our rides this weekend.
In March of 1942, the Papoose was traveling blacked out to hide from patrolling U boats, but unfortunately was spotted by the U-124 and torpedoed. The portside hit took just 4 minutes to flood the engines and make the ship a sitting duck for the next torpedo which ran under the lifeboats of the escaping crew and sank her.
Visibility has improved some today but not too much and we have picked up a little current as we travel along the hull of the upturned ship. We are tied into the rudder and we swim against the current as schools of jacks swim above the wreckage. We look about and the hull bottom is covered in corals and assorted barnacles and sponges, the ocean floor scattered with sea stars of varying sizes, shapes and colors. Unfortunately, we were unaware that the interior of the wreck was where we should have gone as it was alive with tropicals and other fish. Live and learn.
We leave this site and head back in with a stop again at the Spar and a shark fix. This wreck teams with Sand Tigers and although we plan on hitting the sand to look for shells we never really leave the deck area and our finned friends as we circle around the wreck. I will never tire of watching these graceful creatures and wondering exactly how you go about poking them….especially the 10 foot ones…..that’s a lot of fish to poke.
Day 3
I am apprehensive today as the seas are picking up again, but, as it turns out, they decide behave, and the ride out is long, but manageable. At least that is how it seems, or maybe it is just the excitement of finally getting to dive a submarine. Our destination this morning is the U-352, a 218 foot German U Boat lying in 115 feet of water.
The U 352 was the first U Boat to be sunk by the Coast Guard in World War II. Ironically in May of 1942, having failed to thus far sink any allied ships, the submarine sited what they thought to be an unprotected freighter and fired a torpedo which missed its mark. It’s mark turning out to be the US Coast Guard Cutter Icarus which immediately began to hunt the sub down. After 2 rounds of devastating depth charging the U 352 surfaced and the crew abandoned her with 33 crew members escaping to later be picked up by the Icarus and interned as prisoners of war and 13 crew going down with the ship.
Over the side and down the line we travel to arrive upon an intact and recognizable structure of a World War II sub. As we navigate up and down the wreck you can look in the torpedo tubes which fired on the Icarus and swim the conning tower which the Icarus straffed with bullets to keep crew members from possibly reaching the deck guns. As we swim along we see Stephan stop at each porthole or torpedo tube and try to squeeze in. Earlier, another diver had shared a bit of trivia with us….the average German submariner was 5 ft 8 and the average submarine bunk was 5 ft 4……Stephan is a healthy 6 foot and not only was he not going to be able to sleep on this sub…he wasn’t making it inside either.
As we move along it is not hard to imagine this as a working vessel, but I am mindful that it is also a war grave. While small in stature compared to other wrecks it is unique and makes for an interesting dive. Diving a submarine….another item I can now check off my diving wish list.
We go on up the line and head back in to make a stop just 300 yards from our previous days second dives. The Aeolus.
The Aeolus is a 426 foot Navy cable layer lying in 120 feet of water just 300 yards from the Spar, sunk in 1988 as part of the artificial reef program. In 1996, Hurricane Fran snapped the wreck into 3 pieces and rearranged it on the ocean floor, proof once again of the awesome power of the ocean.
While it is in close proximity to the Spar, this wreck was eerily devoid of sharks and as we swam along, looking about, I wondered what made one spot so popular for shark and just a few feet over another spot home to mostly baitfish, spade fish and tropicals.
We swam along an upper deck with arched openings that appeared to previously be some sort of a walkway. The walkway was filled with small fish and we looked about for where to go next, I spotted the outline of a lone shark making its way along to the end of the walkway and turning the corner and disappearing into the haze of water. The image was striking as it appeared as if this mighty creature was not just swimming about the wreck but slowly and purposely moving along this walkway just as so many sailors had so many years ago.
It was time to go up and since it was our last dive here for this trip I called out to the barracuda as we hung on the line. They remained ever present and circling menacingly close at times but stayed just out of reach. Mark, flashed me the do not touch sign just in case.
I guess a fitting end to the trip.