Wreck Diving
Off the North Carolina Coast

Shipwrecks commonly visited by divers off Cape Lookout in NC.

Hand-over-hand descent down the
anchor line to the Dixie Arrow.
Using the anchor line ensures that you
reach the wreck and conserves your air.

Shipwrecks commonly visited by divers off Cape Hatteras in NC.

I got my Open-Water certification in 2003. Since then, I've been taking additional classes, including getting my Nitrox/Enriched Air certification in 2003. Last year, I decided to go ahead and get my Deep and Shipwreck certifications. Once again, I went to Gypsy Divers in Raleigh. As usual, the class was great and the instructors were very professional. With only one or two little "hiccups," I was soon ready for my four certification dives to wrecks off the NC coast.

I won't go on at length about the wrecks off the NC coast. Let it suffice to say that there are a lot of them. Due to the presence of the Gulf stream, the water is surprisingly warm, too. Currents vary, but are usually moderate.

In 2005, I took a trip to Key Largo and dove a few times there. I had a digital camera and enclosure this time, instead of the film camera I had been using. The images made with the digital camera are just outstanding!

Some of the following pictures were taken with a simple Sea and Sea Motormarine 35 mm camera, while others were taken with an Olympus C5050Z camera in an Olympus PT-015 underwater enclosure (no external strobe). My shortcomings as a photographer will be evident. I took most of the pictures, so I'm only in a few of them. As I've told several people, I'm too busy staying alive at depths near 120 feet to worry about taking my own picture.

Gary poking around under the edge of the British Splendour, sunk by a U-boat in 1942.
(Click for a larger image.)

Tempting, but a bit too tight to do a swim-through. This is also the British Splendour.
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Sometimes it's like swimming in sardine soup...except the sardines themselves are still swimming.
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Lesson 24: Try to lead the ray when you take a picture. Otherwise, you'll just get the tail.
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A barracuda hovering around an Atlantic guitarfish. For some reason, the barracuda would just follow the guitarfish around.
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We were able to follow this turtle for several minutes, but it finally got irritated with us and took off.
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I didn't even want to think about what this was. It's a yellow lined arrow crab just hanging around.
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Hovering around the "Christ of the Abyss". It's covered with fire coral, so you need to be careful.
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A laid-back octopus. I must have shot six different pictures from various views. He remained patient.
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"Hiya, kids. Ah-ah-ah! I'm Froggy the Eel." I'll go back when it's ripe.
(Click for a larger image.)

Just hanging around the wreck of The City of Washington. A lot of nurse sharks around this wreck.
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Fire coral...don't touch! This is on the LDS Spiegel Grove.
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Hanging in front of the port prop of the LDS Spiegel Grove. The prop is about ten feet in diameter.
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In between dives on the boat. I dove with Horizon Divers and they were great!
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We took turns sticking our heads up into a pocket of trapped air at the LDS Spiegel Grove.
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Dive buddies just chugging along at about 100 feet near the LDS Spiegel Grove. Conditions were excellent that day.
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"Don't screw up...don't screw up...don't screw up...."
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Recovery in a rough sea off Jamaica. The trick is to time the swells.
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Standard tourist wreck near shore at Grand Cayman. Ho-hum.
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"The Secret Lives of Clams"
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Am I lost? The quarry is not that big. Not sure, though...let's check the map.
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Caught just hanging around in the quarry in Rolesville. I might actually look pretty calm and composed.
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I'm leaning on the wreck of a VW bug. No, I don't know the year. Great visibility, isn't it?
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Dennis, my instructor, has a problem with a fish attracted by his mask and regulator. We are diving the Fenwick Isle, off Beaufort.
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This picture is notable only because it's my deepest dive to date: the Proteus, a passenger steamship lying in 120 feet of water.
(Click for a larger image.)

A six-foot sand tiger shark at the F. W. Abrams. Surprisingly, these are pretty aggressive elsewhere in the world, but not in US waters.
(Click for a larger image.)

Typical older wreck...nothing but junk and fish. This is the F. W. Abrams, a tanker that sank in 1944.
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It took me the first 10 or 15 minutes to realize that rays like this one were all around the F. W. Abrams.
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I'm not sure that I even WANT to know what this is looking at me from under a piece of wreckage.
(Click for a larger image.)

Divers buddying up at the anchor line after descending 85 feet to the Dixie Arrow.
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A diver setting up a wreck line at the Dixie Arrow. This is the fastest way to navigate the wreck.
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Divers making their safety stop approximately 15 feet below the dive boat. I'm ascending to start my own stop (after accumulating 6 minutes of decompression).
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My first two Deep/Wreck certification dives were canceled due to weather and current conditions. The next day, the weather improved and we visited the USCG Spar. My maximum depth on that dive was 85 feet. (The Spar was sunk last year to create an artificial reef. It is about 300 yards from the Aeolus.) Later that day, we visited the Fenwick Isle, which lies in slightly shallower water.

With only half my certification dives completed, I had already made plans to dive a couple days from Hatteras during our vacation on Ocracoke Island. I signed up for a couple dives in the "70 to 90 feet" range, figuring I was OK for this depth after diving below 80 feet three times. I ended up diving the Proteus, reaching 117 feet, or almost 50% deeper than I had ever been before. We visited the F. W. Abrams later that day and then the Dixie Arrow the next day. Had a great time!

Moving up to the digital camera for my Key Largo trip was a smart thing to do. The camera produces much sharper images than I was getting with my cheap 35mm camera. Plus, you can immediately check your pictures to see if you need to adjust the exposure settings. The next item I need is a nice external strobe so I can eliminate some of the reflections from material in the water.

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