black dragon

[Burntchef]

thought i would put a quick report on the latest trip to the black dragon

for details on the boat itself please visit here- http://www.dcsfilms.com/Site_4/DCS_Website_24.html

we took the aluminator out and had aboard randy williams, dan ( romer trece), rob ( rjw) paul ( bigsky), rudy, and myself.
the dive teams consisted of myself and rudy with a plan of about 15-20 minutes bottom time and the rest of the crew doing a planned 45 minutes of b/t.

the ride up to the customs office in canada was quick with howie going full bore, we did have some tense moments with customs as we were allmost denied because of certain colorfull pasts of some of the guys on board but in the end all was smoothed out and we were given clearance to go!!

a quick motor out to the site, a few minutes of mowing the lawn and dan managed to set the hook on the first try. then the deco station was put out which is a trapeze set up with bars set every 10 feet starting at 60. this is tied into the drop line and released by the last diver up for a comfy floating deco. once all this was done we slowly geared up as we were still waiting for the right time to drop.

finally all was a go and the pool was opened to sunny skies and what looked like still conditions. me and rudy let the other crew in first since they had a longer b/t then us, then we hopped in. current was moderate on the surface and became pretty strong as we dropped, and when i say dropped i mean pulling myself hand over hand for a very long tiring 160 feet.

vis was decent on the way down then right at the boat it opened up to a good 20 feet or so. dan was busy filming and there were some comical antics going on but i will let the others tell that part. current also seemed to drop as well. me and rudy toured the wheelhouse and decks, checking out the holds that once held the poor folks being smuggled. all to quickly we had to depart and head for the deco station.

we were on our 40 foot stop when i saw paul below me and i thought that was odd since he should still be on the boat but figured he got bored. ( know we know he had some bad air and called the dive) deco went off boring as usuall with the exception at my 10 foot stop i was looking down at paul and as his bubbles came up in large silver like mirrors i saw a reflection of myself hanging on the line with the sun glaring down from above. it was a awesome image i can barely do justice.

all in all it was a great day, great bunch of fun divers, and good times for all. big thanks to matt for setting up the trip and howie and the aluminator for a fast ride and way too many freakin donuts!!


"guys please eat all the donuts if you dont i will and my wife will be very mad at me!!"

[mattwave]

Howie, got to love him.

[Burntchef]

im very convinced that after being on his boat a few times he runs charters just to sneak away and eat junk food. gotta love it

[Pez7378]

Thanks for the report Howard! I wish that more "Tech" reports were written for those of us that are considering stepping up to the plate. It serves as a great motivator and also a learning tool as to how these dives sometimes go. I learned a lot just from the other day in terms of how you can plan and plan and plan, spend the money and not get "ON" the wreck. Pauls experience has been eye opening as well and I hope that something positive comes from all of that. I'm glad he was able to make the right decision and thumb the dive. I really wish I could have been there with you guys, and I hope Dan managed to get some decent footage.

For those of you that are doing these dives, Please write reports! Some of us may never get down to where your'e going, and some of us are definately curious. Some of us just want to live vicariously through your eyes, experiences and adventures!

[Joshua Smith]

"guys please eat all the donuts if you dont i will and my wife will be very mad at me!!"

That made me laugh- I've heard that every single time I've been on that boat. Great report! Thanks for posting it. We need more trip reports like this, but I'm as guilty as anyone of not writing them. BD is a cool wreck, I want to get back on her soon. I liked the part about seeing your reflection in the bubbles, I could picture it in my mind- we see little glimpses of stuff like that when we dive that are so amazing, and only another diver can start to really "get" what we're talking about.
On Saturday, we had to do 75 minutes of deco after 25 minutes on the Al, and as we got up around our 60 foot stop, there were some huge schools of small silver fish around us- they would swim by for a few minutes and be gone for a few.....then come back- as I looked over at my buddy Rob, I suddenly worried that I was hallucinating, maybe about to have an ox-tox seizure, or something- just for a second, as i looked at him hanging there in the bright green water- a school of these fish swam behind him- just far enough back that I couldn't see the fish. What I saw, as they swam by and changed directions, was a rapidly changing shape composed of bright silver flashes in the green water, almost like a huge silver "flame". It took me a few seconds to understand what I had seen- it was very psychedelic looking. Like you said, I just don't have the words to do it any justice.

[BDub]

Great report, Howard. I wish I could've gone. It's a great dive, and thankfully I'll be doing it again in about a month.

Has any of the line been cleaned up?

[Tom Nic]

Great report, and let me add my voice to the others in saying thanks for posting it

I too enjoy some of the technical dive reports even though I am not a technical diver. Keep 'em coming!

[Burntchef]

Has any of the line been cleaned up?

actually we had hooked into a bunch of line that was run back and forth a few times. but i didnt see a whole lot of fresh stuff, hopefully it blew off in the current. have fun.

[Romer Treece]

Great report, Howard. I wish I could've gone. It's a great dive, and thankfully I'll be doing it again in about a month.

Has any of the line been cleaned up?

yeah our grapple actually snagged onto some cave line, and a few of us worked at cutting some of the extra lines on the wreck, as well as cleaning up some of the extra anchors as well.