Down too long in the midnight sea…

Beautiful day on the water today aboard the Independence II. The Diversion group wanted to hit the DYKES, so off we went. I’ve only been on it once before, but it must be a very popular wreck because that gallery seems to get a lot of search engine hits…

Anyway… this old steel hulled schooner barge sits in about 65 fsw only a couple miles off the beach. Steve had us tied into one end of the ship in no time and divers began hitting the water. Surface vis looked like absolute slop and I was almost resigned to bench warming for the day when reports of OK vis on the bottom started coming back. I geared up and splashed with the camera, to find about 15 feet of vis and pretty warm water on the wreck (low 50s maybe?). There was a decent surge on the bottom and a little current but I managed to sneak in behind some structure and get a few decent shots using the tripod. Huge schools of baitfish were cruising the wreck making it look like shimmering underwater sea when you hit them with your light (I was trying out my new Dive Rite 10W LED light and it is pretty sweet). Decent sized sea bass were hiding in the ribs in the middle of the wreck, while both the stern and bow high spots were covered in nice sized tog (I guess they know they are off limits). It was a pretty cool popping up over the ledge on the bow to come across what looked like a field of grazing blackfish as they munched on the mussels covering the steel.