Dungeness Crane

7 of us dived the Dungeness Crane yesterday off Doug's and Richard's boats. Not much is known about how it sank (though I'm sure there were some interesting conversations afterward), but it's a Manitowac that is absolutely carpeted with life.

The crane is just north of the Dungeness Spit between Sequim and Port Angeles, about 2 1/2 hours from Seattle. It's very exposed, with lots of current. Not a beginner dive by any means, but if you're comfortable in current it's well worth the trip.

We did 1 boat in, 1 boat out. Doug, Scott, Kirk Hamblen and I were team 1 and Richard, Melody and Rob Holman were team 2. We weren't sure what current was going to do (it was supposed to be weakening, but we'd also been told it's very unpredictable and can get squirly fast) so we planned on a 45 minute bottom time.

There was quite a bit of surface current, and the scooters defintiely came in handy for the descent, but once we hit the wreck, current was totally manageable. Scott was trying a brand new camera, housing and scooter mount and hopefully he'll chime in here with some pics. While he had some issues with the new gear, he did manage to pop off a few amazing pics.

The wreck is amazing. Absolutely carpeted with life...huge rockfish, more black rockfish than I've seen anywhere else, a couple of wolf eels and tons of barnacles. Vis was about 20'. Not as good as we'd hoped, but much better than the Sound has had lately.

We surfaced right at 45 minutes and team 2 got in for their dive, while we had to listen to Doug talk about his suit heat and his stupid Darth Vader helmet he bought for the long boat rides.

All in all a great day! It was a long day for just one dive, but totally worth it.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Steding on January 25, 2009 at 9:29am

Great dive.

I was really warm with the suit heat-and the Helmet kept my face toasty warm too.

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Permalink Reply by Eric B (Sockmonkey) on January 25, 2009 at 12:04pm

Cool deal. Thx for the dive report. Sounds like a fun day of diving and picking on steding.

I was wondering why you did the crane on singles. Was it a space issue on the the high speed rubber duckies?

-Eric

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Permalink Reply by Scott Lundy on January 25, 2009 at 12:37pm

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wiederspan on January 25, 2009 at 12:53pm

Space issue....

7 divers, 7 scooters. Not really room for doubles as well. We did 5 in BC in October, with full tech gear and scooters. 6 may be possible, but tight. No way to fit 7.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Steding on January 25, 2009 at 9:45pm

Space was one reason. 4 divers and 4 scooters is filling up the boat, toss doubles in the mix and I'm really a three tech diver boat with a tender (if scooters are involved).

But, more importantly, it was 90 feet at the mud. If I don't need doubles, they stay in the garage.

Sockmonkey (Eric B) said:

Cool deal. Thx for the dive report. Sounds like a fun day of diving and picking on steding.

I was wondering why you did the crane on singles. Was it a space issue on the the high speed rubber duckies?

-Eric

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wiederspan on January 26, 2009 at 7:26am

What he said (he can get away with saying that without getting any "old" jokes).

But seriously, on a dive like that, diving off a rib, if it's not needed, I'm not taking it, and doubles weren't needed.

Douglas Steding said:

But, more importantly, it was 90 feet at the mud. If I don't need doubles, they stay in the garage.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Steding on January 26, 2009 at 8:26am

Old? I can get away with not drawing old jokes?

This brings up a good point about diving off small boats:

1) make sure your wing floats your rig with full tanks.

2) take what you need-I've had people show up with double 108s for two 50 foot dives, if they need that much gas, there are issues, and I sure as hell won't help them get those tanks back in the boat.

Even the wonky Cove 2 rigs (all the weight on the rig themselves in the way of P, V, and T weights) don't really make sense-it is nice to shed twenty pounds of weight from a belt and toss it into the boat before climbing back in.

Brian Wiederspan said:

What he said (he can get away with saying that without getting any "old" jokes).

But seriously, on a dive like that, diving off a rib, if it's not needed, I'm not taking it, and doubles weren't needed.

Douglas Steding said:
But, more importantly, it was 90 feet at the mud. If I don't need doubles, they stay in the garage.