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+--- Thread: The Outer Banks, NC (/showthread.php?tid=5237)
The Outer Banks, NC - Scubasleep - 08-11-2010
I took a family vacation for a week in Avon, NC which is in the Outer Banks.
I knew we were staying right on the ocean, so I was hoping to do some shore diving. HAha!! Well no shore diving, The waves were a little too rough for that.
I was able to go with the LDS in Hatteras on some wreck dives. They had a really cool rope system that helped when going down and coming back up to the boat and it made the dive really easy. The wreck was F.W. Abrahms a WWII ship that had hit a mine. So we get down there and there was a lot of metal sticking up from the ocean, but not much of a ship left.
I reached 88 ft max depth with 60 ft of visibility for 33 minutes on the first dive. It was so nice to be able to touch the bottom and not sink into muck like the lakes in MN. I got to see some ocean creatures too, and had a underwater daddy long leg thing crawling on my hand and had a sea star (star fish) grab/stick to my glove, some big schools of fish 3 or 4 "Toad Fish" and lots of shells. I guess the first people in the water saw a shark when they were on their descent. I was bummed to have missed seeing it.
During our interval the dive master said we would stay there for the second dive, but she would take us to the other half of the ship (about 40' from the last dive) on the second dive and was really sure that there would be sharks there to see. Well something happened and she decided not to go to it, so no shark sightings. :'(
For my second dive I reached 86 ft max depth with 40ft of viz for 36 min. It was hard not to get lost looking down, and I had to remind myself to look up and check out what was out there. The DM pointed out a few sharks teeth and I found one on my own so I thought that was cool, at least I found proof a sharks were there.
I had no idea the amount of wrecks that are sunken off the Outer Banks. They call it the "Graveyard Of The Atlantic" because there is over 600 wrecks lined up and down the coast, it looks like a parking lot, its crazy.
Re: The Outer Banks, NC - Austin - 08-13-2010
The rope system is called a Carolina Rig. Basically allows you to follow a rope from wherever you enter the water and follow it forward to the mooring line. Hang a couple hooka lines off the back for those who run short.
The German U-boats had a hayday during WWII, sinking multiple merchant and cruise ships, sometimes in a single day....
Olympus Divers out of Moorehead City is a top notch operation. Look em up next time.