Hey gang....here is the official 'play by play' report of the trip to add to all the 'color' you all have been supplying! 
We had
several firsts on this particular NC WreckDiving adventure....it was the first NC trip jointly led by SingleDivers.com and RedWetandBlueDiving!!! (May there be many more!) We also had a new
WORLD'S RECORD for women on this trip...previous to this SD/RWB trip..the most women I'd ever had on a trip was 4....but we had 8...yep...8 women on this trip and can you say FUN!!! How about
FUN ON STERIODS!!!
Yes Women certainly do make EVERYTHING in life BETTER!! LOL!!!
Ok so past trips haven't been too bad....usually all guys and me and one other gal! Now if TF wanted to do a 'standard trip' I might even have her take my place...that gal is awesome!!!
We also had a wide distribution of divers
coming in from varied locations including Dallas and surrounding burbs, Chicago, Washington DC, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Raleigh, Baltimore, California, Alaska and even Germany.
I know we had a blast but the crew even told me it was one of the best trips they'd been on all year! We had a birthday in the house...and boy what a house it was...Ms. Malena aka Sharky and very soon to grace the pages of our site celebrated her 26th Birthday.
You should have seen me at Sam's club getting her cake and trying to remember if she was 25 or 26 this year. (She has spent her birthday weekend with me for 3 years now so you'd think I'd remember...fortunately I guessed and got it right! But we had a back up plan...we were going to make her 62 if we had guessed wrong!!!)
07-01-04 Thursday: 4 of us fly into RDU from Dallas and Chicago. (Can you believe Mr. California and Alaska drove????) Sophia, TF, and I meet up for Lunch with Dale aka Wreck Maniac, then shop for boat food and bbq food and finish just in time to get Gary at 2:30. We load the van and head Eastward to the ocean ala "MoreHead" City, NC! We arrived about 6:30pm and start hooking up with the folks that drove in to meet us. Mr. Alaska aka Mike was waiting for us as were many others. The rest arrived throughout the night and some in the early am. After getting checked into the hotel, meeting the wonderfully nice proprietors, checking out the boat and pre-loading some gear...we had a fun dinner at the "Ice House" and walked in 3 minutes til closing but they were sweeties and served us anyway!
07-02-04 Friday: The wakeup call was 5:30, breakfast and java was served on the dock and the boat was a short block walk away. We almost departed on our assigned departure time of 6:30 but a few last minute tank fills and equipment issues caused us to be a tad late but still ahead of the pack. (You most certainly want to be the FIRST group on a wreck and not the second or third!) On Friday the day dawned with a beautiful forecast and a docile sea, but a full moon the night before made some current a probability that was soon confirmed once we reached our destination. For our first dive we headed to the brand new Artificial reef sunk only a couple of weeks ago. The new wreck dive is the former United States Coast Guard Buoy Tender
Spar and rest in 110 feet of water with a profile reaching up to about 80 feet. She is sitting upright and intact approximately 400 feet away from the Aeolus, another NC Reef Project. The wreck has already attracted a moderate school of baitfish, several very large 4-6 ft Barracudas and a handful of Amberjacks. The suspected current was running about 1 knot, bow to stern, so our stern tie-in, compliments of Mike Daniel one of our awesome DM's, was perfect. This was the first time that either Mike or Roy Cowan the lead DM had ever dove on the Spar. You know they jump in with the anchor held to thier chest and 60 seconds later they hit the bottom...
simply amazing! Visibility was 70-80 feet and the water temperature at the bottom of 75-78 degrees on this Southside wreck. Although new...it was a great wreck to try out new gear...see what a ship feels like right after sinking and of course play around inside of without special training!! Even the gauges were still in her and it was really fun.
For our 2nd dive we headed farther in-shore to the
WWII wreck of the Suloide, a freighter that sank after mistaking the wreck of the Hutton for a German U-Boat and rammed it. They sank for their trouble. Once again Mike tied us in, twice, as the 1st attempt broke free. Visibility was hazy but in the 35-50 foot range with a bottom temperature of 71-74 degrees at 62 feet. (Inshore wrecks and East side wrecks run cooler in bottom temps as well as losing some of the pristine vis we get going South. The Southern wrecks are usually deeper so you don't get as much bottom time.)
There were a few Flounders spotted and one large Sandtiger in addition to the large population of Toad Fish on this wreck. It is mainly a scattered wreck that has very little recognizable as a ship. I did however find a number of peices of porcelain plates and cups as part of my dive! Everyone seemed to enjoy the extended bottom time afforded by the shallower depth. Roy dove at the end after making sure that every diver was off the boat and then back ON the boat! He is the Best!!! And no one ever has a problem on 'his watch'!!!
That evening we had our
traditional BBQ get together consisting of fresh grouper, flounder, steak, pork, sausage, chicken and even
Sushi caught that day to start the evening off right. We hold the bbq on the dock behind the Fisherman's Inn our hotel so we can be rowdy and make all the noise we want as well stay up as late as we like! We presented a very surprised Miss Sharkey with her Birthday Cake and truly surprised her as she thought I'd forgotten! This usually ends up being the best meal on the Island and allows for everyone to really get to know everyone on the boat! The divemasters joined us as did the hotel proprietors. Usually the boat capt joins us as well but was having a late night getting all the tanks filled and the compressor rebanked for the morning.
07-03-04 Saturday: With the morning drill now a routine and gear already on the boat we departed on time at 6:30 and watched the sun rise upon a calm sea with a gentile breeze as we headed off shore to the wreck of the
U-352 in the hopes of finding a slower current to go with the good visibility and warm water we had the day before. The
U-352 was the second U-Boat we'd sunk in 1942. No we hadn't mastered sub detection skills yet but certainly could return fire when she fired first upon the Coast Guard Icarus and missed. We did not! Our two German divers were thrilled at seeing the U-boat...but then again... so was everyone else. On a normal day upon hitting the water you can see her outline. However today was not as perfect as it could have been but the current was slightly less yet a thermocline just above the wreck took 100+ feet visibility down to about 50 feet on the wreck and dropped the temperature from 79-82 degrees down to 73-76 degrees at 114 feet. There was plenty of life on the wreck including a medium sized IndoPacific Lion Fish hanging upside down just a few feet from the anchor spot near the stern. Everyone was so enthralled with the Lion Fish that most of them missed the Frog Fish directly below the anchor! There was also a large collection of spotted eels and a small school of Spade Fish around the wreck. This is truly one of my favorite dives!
For our second destination we headed to the
Aeolus one of the first artificial reefs sunk in the area in 1988. She was a boring dive until Hurrican Andrew tore her into 3 parts deposting them up to 2 miles apart and now she is loaded with Sand Tiger Sharks and wonderful marine life. She also provides some easy penetration and provides great photo ops as well. We found 35-40 feet of visibility and 73-76 degrees at 114 feet on her...certainly not a stellar day as vis is usually 70-100+. There were numerous Sandtigers cruising around including a few of more than impressive size. There were also lots of baitfish, Spades, Sea Bass and a few Grouper. The current was less here but still noticeable.
Upon arriving back at the dock we decided to do the group picture but getting folks lined up for it was like herding baitfish...they were all over the place!
After the picture, cleaning gear and showering...we decided to do an
"All Cook" on the dock again...people bought burgers, steaks, shrimp or whatever they wanted to throw on the grill along with some fresh veggies and corn and we had another wonderful dockside bbq!
07-04-04 Sunday: Sunday dawned to
"Happy Birthday America" as the 4th is truly my favorite holiday!!! The sun was shining and the seas were still fairly calm so we headed to the
USS Schurz my favorite wreck to spend the day. Mike tied us in near amidships to a boat davit on the port side of the wreck.
Visibility was about 50 feet and hazy and once again there seemed to be a thermocline just above the wreck that obscured some of the light and gave things that twilight quality. There were plenty of baitfish here as there always is and a few good sized grouper to compliment the large community of spotted Moray Eels that make this wreck home. There was a slight current but it was barely noticeable so it was no impediment to diving. Roy dove with a diver who was a bit rusty ensuring that he had two wonderful dives for his first experience of the Graveyard of the Atlantic! Our military commando types and others too discovered the ship's gold mine... and were waist deep in the ammo locker on the bow. I had gone in after the bulk of the group so had my turn at the ammo locker when they had finished. It seems our new diver from California diving with us just for the day was amused to see me also 'waist deep' in the same rooting position. The dive was so nice and 'artifact fever' had hit so we chose to do our second dive here as well. Upon return to the boat floor tiles and loads of ammo both US and British had been recovered along with some assorted brass objects!
Dinner was fun as half the group went "South of the Border" to a fun little Mexican Restuarant where Francis and Eileen aka Triggerfish were sung to by the Marachis!! They had a ball and were back early to watch the fireworks from the front of our hotel not to mention setting off a few of thier own! The rest of us went furhter down the street and ate at the Channel Marker. We watched our fireworks from our dinner table right off over the ocean and enjoyed a great meal together!
07-05-04 Monday: On Monday the wind returned and sent us east to the
Caribsea but that was our planned destination anyway so we could see
SHARKS 
so we were not disappointed. On site, Mike once again set the hook, tying us in on the very bow. He entry was delayed while waiting for a pod of Dolphins to clear a spot so he could drop in. They played with the boat for the longest time and had been running the pressure wave the boat made as we headed to the site. Unfortunately they soon became bored with us and head off into the distance. On the wreck the visibility was 25-40 feet with a bottom temperature of 71 degrees and sharks could be seen in just about every direction including up, down and all points of the compass. Many were taking advantage of the warmer water above the wreck and hovering in 60-70 foot range. During Roy's dive he said "I saw at least two dozen different sharks with several being simultaneous sightings. I also saw Flounder, Grouper, Spades, Trigger Fish and Barracuda." Hmm...and I thought Elileen was out of the water by then????
I must of been where he was as I saw at least that many sharks if not more.
Several divers including myself returned with shark's teeth as a memento of the trip. We spent both dives here and sadly headed back to the dock ending one of the best charters of the year to date. The DM's concurred and fully agreed that this group was the best trips they'd had all year!
Upon returning to dock the locals and drive ins started the mad dash to shower, and get on the road to beat or at least greet the brutal holiday traffic that awaited them driving to MD, VA, NC and yes back to Alaska for Mike. The rest of us which included folks from Ashville NC, Fayettville NC, Virginia Beach and our Fly In's all headed for dinner at the Crab's Claw and yet another Birthday Celebration for Ms. Malena! Several Steve's Lemonaides later...and loads of weekend tales...we finally called it an evening and said good byes to the rest of the gang leaving.
07-06-04 Tuesday:Most of the gang left in the early hours of the morning but our friends from Ashville and the gang from Texas and Illinois all had a leisurely breakfast at the 4 Corner Diner aptly named as it sits at the corner of the only intersection in all of Atlantic Beach! We walked to breakfast and then packed the van upon return and headed out for Raleigh again to start the journey back home! The return to the airport included our ritual stop at Wilbur's BBQ for traditional NC BBQ sandwiches and usually fly bye's of the fighter planes from Seymore Johnson AFB located in Goldsboro. The bbq was there...the planes were not. :dltears: We dropped the gang at the airport, got people checked into flights, and I dropped the rental car being returned to the airport with plenty of time to visit a few more minutes with TF and our Texan crowd and still make my planned boarding call. Arrival back to DFW was also uneventful and everybody's luggage including mine full of bullets was all intact!! Sigh.....I can't believe I've got to wait a whole month before I get to do this again!!! Anyone else want to join me? The next trip is Aug 13-15 in NC again. The conditions should be perfect in a month!
I'd like to thank everyone 
for joining us on this trip as it was a tremedous 4th of July celebration having both active military and DOD personnel diving with us as well as many previous military personel on the trip. These men and women represent the finest America offers to her people...they represent the defense against the threat of war so plainly seen this weekend diving on U-boats and their victims a few miles off our shore. They represent the security of our future and the survival of our country's lifestyle, democracy and values as we know them.
We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for the job they perform...they fight for us so that most of us never have to be touched directly by the scourges of war or worse yet the ravages of violent and evil enemies. Yet we take them for granted and worse yet...underpay them and undervalue and underrespect them. For all the men and women who have fought, been injured or died to keep our country free...let us all remember that Freedom is NOT Free!
May we all have the
HAPPIEST 4th OF JULY today and everyday!!! Thanks to all and God Bless, Kamala
