Many shipwrecks in the columbia river

[Lonestar]

The area immediately north of Peacock was no-ops due to the refraction waves (worse than the ones in the Gap at Tatoosh) but the crabbers went in there all the time. Which reminds me, there were a lot of commercial crab pots north of the spit as well, had a line wrap around one of the shafts on the 44 when I was doing my off-shore nav test (#@$#%$&@^) Combine that with the cooks feeding us chili dogs for lunch knowing the boat drafted 3 1/2 feet, there was a 6' swell running and we had to keep our face on the radar hood shooting beam bearings as we HAD to be within 50 meters of our datum. Bastards!

[CaptnJack]

Yeah I know the north side of peacock is nasty, there might be a do-able day in July though?

[Lonestar]

I'm thinking July-ish would be the time as to avoid the Buoy 10 mess; would have to have a couple of dates and make the go no-go decision within that week based on weather forecasts. I recall a thread of some folks talking about boat diving down the coast, did that ever happen? If so their input as to their timing etc would help with planning.

[CaptnJack]

There are good bar forecasts at least. I am not sure my boat is the right one to get out across the bar and around the spit from Ilwaco... Water Dog is basically unsinkable but only 15.5' long. Flipping her would really upset me too.

[Lonestar]

RHI right? Don't blame you, keels with sunlight on them are a really bad thing! On the upside it would give Stn Cape D something to do in case they were having a boring day, played it up right might even mean a helicopter ride to Astoria......

We're talking a drift dive from DIW to Titlow but gotta find the boat (aka coxswain) to do it. Why is it always so hard to find someone who is perfectly content to be bored silly sitting on a boat waiting to pick up divers?

In the interim, the search for a patsy, uh boat driver with boat, continues.

[Raydar]

Having grown up in the area, it's always been in the back of my mind to spend a little time with a sidescan out there. The Drexel Victory could be a potential dive. The Camden is a maybe, but it likely too deep, even if the conditions were right.

The Drexel seems to be right in the middle of the channel? What about some of those north of the north jetty but beyond the dredge spoils area? And/or deeper beyond the depth where storms have so much influence on the bottom. Like the Rosecrans or the Iowa?

According to the reports I've read, the Drexel drifted a little to the north before it sank. OTOH, it supposed went down just west of Buoy 6 (dredging half-remembered info from the brain now). Supposedly it also went down in ~200-250'. Which would put it beyond the bar a bit. *shrug* Lot of 'supposeds' and without time on the water, who the heck knows for sure.

From what I remember of Gibbs' "Pacific Graveyard", the Rosecrans and Iowa were basically destroyed in the surf.

[cofford]

I've been over the Columbia bar quite a few times. Diving there would be, uh, challenging at best. I can't see how you'd have much visibility at any time given the flow volume (the freshwater plume can extend out 100 miles in the spring). And, this happens there...

I would expect some decent wreck diving off the whole of the Oregon coast though. Sounds like a good sidescan project!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oregon_shipwrecks

[Raydar]

I would expect some decent wreck diving off the whole of the Oregon coast though. Sounds like a good sidescan project!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oregon_shipwrecks

Alas, most of them went aground and got tore to pieces in the surf.

I forgot about the "Larry Doheny" also torpedoed by the Japs.