Wreck of the Diamond Knot

boydski · Post by **boydski** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:36 pm

We had exceptionally calm conditions this weekend along with very mild currents in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. This allowed us to get in four marvelous dives on one of my favorite wrecks, the Diamond Knot.

Visibility approached 80' at times (I had to keep checking the water temperature to make sure I wasn't in the tropics), and the mild currents allowed us to swim the entire wreck, which I've never been able to do before. We even managed to time the currents perfectly on three of the four dives. Of course on the "other dive", all 5 divers were blown off the wreck and had to ascend on their lift bags. But that seems to be the norm on the Diamond Knot. ](*,)

Photos from this weekends dives are posted on my web site at the Wreck of the Diamond Knot

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:56 pm

Great pics! I love the wolfeel. Viz looks amazing. What kind of bottom time did you get? Air or mix?

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:19 pm

Love the pics! Thanks for sharing!

boydski · Post by **boydski** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:13 pm

Nailer99 wrote:Great pics! I love the wolfeel. Viz looks amazing. What kind of bottom time did you get? Air or mix?

Hi Nailer,

We were running bottom times of about 35 minutes and breathing old mix that was topped off with Nitrox to something resembling 28/15. Deco on Oxygen and relatively short surface intervals in order to get the second dive in before the current started howling again.

peo · Post by **peo** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:36 pm

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

bnboly · Post by **bnboly** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:20 am

Great pics! What's the depth of the wreck?

Zen Diver · Post by **Zen Diver** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:27 am

Absolutely amazing photos Scott, really incredible. Nice to finally get an idea of what the Diamond Knot is all about.

-Valerie

boydski · Post by **boydski** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:33 am

bnboly wrote:Great pics! What's the depth of the wreck?

The top of the stern section is only about 75' deep with the bottom around 120'. The bow is a bit deeper, more like 100' on top to 140' in the mud. The wreck is laying on its Starboard side and has collapsed and twisted in the middle, which can make navigation challenging.

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:56 am

Superb photos, Scott! I always enjoy reading your posts about your dives....

It's been years since I last dived the Diamond Knot, but I do not recall ever having the visibility on any of my dives on her that you describe in your post and show in your photos. I've had 30 feet at best.....but 80????!!!! Wow! Poseidon was smiling on you!

- John

Jeff Kruse · Post by **Jeff Kruse** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:59 am

What day and time did you dive it? We were there around 1:30 on Sunday and had a great dive. We figured slack was at 2:30 on Sunday but when we got there it looked slack so we just went in. Nice pictures.

Jeff Kruse · Post by **Jeff Kruse** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:09 am

What is the best current station to use?

boydski · Post by **boydski** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:09 am

Jeff Kruse wrote:What day and time did you dive it? We were there around 1:30 on Sunday and had a great dive. We figured slack was at 2:30 on Sunday but when we got there it looked slack so we just went in. Nice pictures.

Hi Jeff,

We arrived at about 10 AM on Saturday, and some friends were just finishing their dive and said it was already slack, so we geared up pretty darn fast and hopped in. On Sunday, we figured we'd try the early 10 AM time again, but the current flipped on us about 10 minutes into the dive for Mr. Toad's wild ride. By 11 it was flat calm again and the grappel line was completely verticle when we jumped in at about 11:30.

I think slack usually happens off of tongue point about 90 minutes before slack at Angeles Point, but its hard to predict. I noticed the Current prediction for Angeles Point on Sunday shows slack water at 12:47 and max current at 12:51. $\:D/$ Not much of a window on that prediction!

Jeff Kruse · Post by **Jeff Kruse** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:13 am

I think we saw you driving back to PA just past Bachlor Rock around 1pm.

Good dive.

Thanks.

Jeff

CBFin · Post by **CBFin** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:09 am

That was my first dive on the Knot and after all the stories I've heard, we couldn't have had better conditions. It was actually a contingency plan for us. We were diving out at Neah Bay and the vis dropped drastically as a murky brown layer moved in and down. Rather than try it again on Sunday, Jeff suggested that we try the Knot instead. To say that I was excited would be a severe understatement.

All I really remember about the weekend were two first time dives for me. My first dive of the weekend was at Duncan Rock, and my last was dive was on the Diamond Knot. Both were under stellar conditions and fantastic dives. Everything in between was just a blur. Excellent call Jeff.

-Chris

Jeff Kruse · Post by **Jeff Kruse** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:18 am

And I was worried no one would want to dive the knot. :smt038 You guys looked great in the water.

I wish we could get a relativly accurate current prediction for this site. I think we through a hail Mary and it just happened to work out for us. :wav:

cardiver · Post by **cardiver** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:18 am

Sounds like you had a great time, Chris! I haven't seen you on line for a while. Lets get together and dive sometime soon.

Shawn · Post by **Shawn** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:25 pm

Sunday truly was a great dive on the Knot. There wasn't much current to speak of and vis was pretty good. The only bummers were the flooded computer and I didn't get to swim with the Pacific Whitesides Dolphin like the first trip to the Knot. Next visit to the Diamond Knot will be the brewery in Mukilteo!

Shawn

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:25 pm

CBFin wrote:All I really remember about the weekend were two first time dives for me. My first dive of the weekend was at Duncan Rock, and my last was dive was on the Diamond Knot. Both were under stellar conditions and fantastic dives. Everything in between was just a blur. Excellent call Jeff.

-Chris

Dude, I am so envious ... those are both sites I have never done. Made arrangements to do them both (Duncan Rock multiple times), and always ended up getting cancelled for one reason or another.

Some day ... (he says, wistfully) ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)