Aircraft Carrier to become Artificial Reef

[Mark Y]

A BRIEF 'MIGHTY O' TRIP REPORT

Our plans included diving the 'Might O' on October 27th, 28th, and 29th, but the Posidon would not entirely cooperate.  The seas ranged from 4 ft. to 10ft. on the 27th & 28th, but she did lay down on the 29th.   We saw our opportunity and took it.

We opted on a fast boat instead of a live-aboard as we wanted to party Pensacola surface-side in the evenings.  So it took us approximately 1hr. to make the trip shore-to-ship.  The weather was fantastic!  Cloudless sky, very little wind, and only one other dive boat tethered to the wreck.  The water was, I'm not kidding' 78-80 degrees is on the surface so I only dove my long-johns & drysuit - 300 gram undies not required!

We dove in two groups, first group being two rebreather divers and the second being two rebreather dives and one OC-Doubles diver.  Since the wreck sits in 210 ft. of water with the tower at 60 ft., we planned a nice long dive, with deco along the flight deck and tower.  We descended the tower, swam along main deck, starboard side heading aft - we counted the arresters until the third one and then dropped over to find the props.  After swimming around what was left of the props (some pictures where taken but I haven't seen the results yet) we made our was up and into a the hander deck.  I was the first one in and about 30 ft. into the hanger my dive light died (I had plenty of back-up lights).  The hanger is immense!  We swam to the port side, ascended slowly up to the main deck and crossed back over starboard and then back to the tower where we checked in out while doing some deco.  Now remember that the 'Mighty O' is not a wreck, it is a reef, and it has plenty of fish to support that claim (although it is really just starting out, I cannot imagine what it is be like in a couple of years).

Anyway, our first dive was (for me) approximately 2hr. & 25 minutes.

The teams were the same on the second dive.  This time we went up the starboard side escalator and explored the tower.  I went up the stairs from the flight deck to the main tower area.  Our max depth was about 187 ft. and lasted approximately 65 minutes.  We could tell it was getting late by the fact the moon was visible (while we where on deco).  When we surfaced, the sea was almost dead calm.

What is nice about this reef and it has something for everyone (as long as you're comfortable diving to 130 ft).  Deep, penetration, wildlife, spear fishing, history, wow!

We dove with Captain Ron Beermunder:
He is a good Captain and fun guy.  He called Thursday morning before I left and said we probably shouldn't come down as the forecast was really sketchy.  I really appreciated that - but since we already had our tickets went anyway.  Check him out if you're heading that way.

There is one surface attraction that I must mention, the 'National Museum of Naval Aviation'.  This place rocks!  If you like planes & museums, check it out:   I spent over 5 hrs. there and could easily spend 10 more.  It has a good representation of Naval Aircraft through out it's history.

Lastly, for those of you who plan on making a trip and would like further information, please PM me.