Remembering the Al-Ind-Esk-A Sea

[kdupreez]

Nice one Scott and Walter on a cool article!

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/201210 ... -Esk-A-Sea

[LCF]

Nice article, and surprisingly accurate for a general news publication.

[CaptnJack]

Nice article very much unlike the nasty wreck :p

[BDub]

Nice article very much unlike the nasty wreck :p

+1

[Joshua Smith]

The poor Al never gets any love. I think I had 5 dives on it before we got lucky and hit it on a day with 20-25' viz. It'sactually a very cool wreck.
















You cherry pickers.

[CaptnJack]

The poor Al never gets any love. I think I had 5 dives on it before we got lucky and hit it on a day with 20-25' viz. It'sactually a very cool wreck.
















You cherry pickers.

You can pick the Al's cherry for me all you want.

[BDub]

The poor Al never gets any love. I think I had 5 dives on it before we got lucky and hit it on a day with 20-25' viz. It'sactually a very cool wreck.
















You cherry pickers.

I'm completely at peace with that

[Joshua Smith]

(Picking stems out of my teeth)

My point is this: if the Al was somewhere else, divers would be lining up to dive her. It's an amazing dive, given the right conditions. On an average day, its......not so great. But we like to use it as a warm up dive for dives like the Governor. Same profile, but no current.

[kdupreez]

I have not done the Al-Ind-Esk-A Sea, so I cant call her "The Al" yet

We dove the Fuller a few weeks back and I thought that was a pretty awesome wreck! (Yeah, can now officially call it "The Fuller".. ) Would really not mind going back there a few times!.. Just a PITA with organizing vessel traffic, etc.

We are honestly spoiled with the amazing amount of good wrecks and diving we have up here..

Lake WA and Puget Sound could keep ya busy for a long while.. and there's BC.. my bucket list grows..

[rjw]

Have to agree with Josh. On the right day it is a great dive, & on the wrong day ....well. From my experience typically the conditions are not much different from the deep wrecks in Elliot Bay or Lake Wa. dark, low vis and lots of silt. However your results may vary.
Rob

[BDub]

We definitely didn't do it on a "good" day. Vis could be measured in inches, and I can see how it'd be easy to inadvertently end up inside without realizing it. Still, I'm glad we did it though!

My motivation for doing it again just isn't super high is all, when we have so many other awesome wrecks that I'd like to do before revisiting the Al again.

I know people have had some fantastic dives on that wreck.

[rjw]

We definitely didn't do it on a "good" day. Vis could be measured in inches, and I can see how it'd be easy to inadvertently end up inside without realizing it.

That's the Al. You must have hit an exceptionally bad day. We have had a couple of those. Fortunately those are not the normal conditions. Give it another shot you might be surprised.

[loanwolf]

We definitely didn't do it on a "good" day. Vis could be measured in inches, and I can see how it'd be easy to inadvertently end up inside without realizing it. Still, I'm glad we did it though!

My motivation for doing it again just isn't super high is all, when we have so many other awesome wrecks that I'd like to do before revisiting the Al again.

I know people have had some fantastic dives on that wreck.

And that is when you drop down and go inside the freezer decks that run the full length of the ship. once you are inside you do not have any silt and the further you go in the less silt that you have just as any other wreck. laying on her side makes it a little confusing because you can go up inside and have no out without going deeper again to the main hatches. You can actually see were the fire started when Tommy was cutting the deck out for a new elevator to be put in between decks and the fuel line he hit that no one knew ran thought the area.

[RDW]

You shoulda been there when she was burning. It was interesting to watch from the helo deck on the USCGC Boutwell.
Actually, I cheered as she went down. I spent way too much time in court over the violations I'd written against that crappy ship. Semper Paratus!

[loanwolf]

You shoulda been there when she was burning. It was interesting to watch from the helo deck on the USCGC Boutwell.
Actually, I cheered as she went down. I spent way too much time in court over the violations I'd written against that crappy ship. Semper Paratus!

HAHAHA what you did not like the way Ed and the Indians ran the ship

[seainggreen]

Nice article! Kudos to Scott and Walter.

I'm in the camp of liking the Al. My first dive on her was "eh" with no vis. Second dive had pretty good vis. It's fun. And Josh is right, there is no better "workup dive site" for the Gov than the Al.

Laurynn