Oriskany Adventure

Hello everyone. I'd like to expand-upon the previous blog about my dive on the USS Oriskany three weeks ago. On Friday, Sept. 7th, my friend and dive buddy Scott Clegg and I winged out of Boston's Logan airport on separate flights. Having arrived in Pensacola on an earlier flight than I, Scott got the rental car, checked-into the motel (that we split) and stopped-at the dive shop nearby to rent the dive tanks with gas fills...MBT Divers. MBT Divers is an EXCELLENT dive shop! They are located at 43-B Navy Blvd., Pensacola, FL and can be reached at (850) 455-7702. And, without a doubt, many thanks to Scott for doing all this running-around. The next morning, we arrived at MBT anxious to get our tanks and head to the marina for the first of two planned days of diving the Oriskany. Disaster struck with the bad news that the seas were too rough to go out. As an alternative, we drove for an hour and did some interesting diving at Vortex Springs and Morrison Springs to the East...well worth doing as neither of us had ever been in a cave. Back at MBT that afternoon, we learned that one of the small dive boats did go to the Oriskany that day but some of the divers were seasick...NO THANKS! MBT rented us both twin 120's for the next day which we were "psyched" about...we normally dive 100's. Scott did a great job of planning our dive using his laptop with Deco Planner. The next morning we arrived at the dive boat, H2O Below (850-291-3501), with 10 other divers and headed-out. Excellent weather and calm-ish seas. The flight deck of the wreck was the deepest part of our dive (137 ft.) and it was a balmy 82 degrees! A big departure from the 42 degrees we experienced diving the week before off of Gloucester. We wore our drysuits but with only shorts/tee shirts underneath, no hood and very thin gloves (3 mm). The wreck was awesome and we penetrated the island several times and enjoyed the flourescent-colored tropical fish and occassional barracuda. There's an American flag proudly flying from the yardarm off the starbord side of the island. Not much sea life growing on the wreck yet...it's only been down since a year ago last May. The team that sunk the Oriskany did an excellent job as it is sitting completely upright. A husband/wife pair on the boat, Bill and Susan (co-owners of MBT), went down to the screws on trimix...220 ft. We were stung on our faces by tons of tiny jellyfish during the 20 ft. Deco. stop but it wasn't really a big deal. Scott and I along with Bill and his dive student, Dean, enjoyed dinner at The Fish House that evening in Pensacola...an EXCELLENT restaurante. We were seated on the outside patio overlooking a small marina. What an beautiful ending for such a great day. The next morning we were met with huge aggrevation trying to fly back to Boston...a storm to the West had caused tremendous flight delays. I didn't arrive at Logan until 3:15 the next morning! Well, that's my story. Dive the Oriskany...you'll love it!