USS Oriskany June 4, 2006

Wow, what a dive. The Oriskany is huge. divers will be exploring her for years.

I drove up to Pensacola Friday and did 2 dives yesterday on the Oriskany. Weather and seas were great, minimal current on the wreck. Temp at depth 73 degrees.

Unfortunately the viz had dropped to 30-40 feet the last two days, versus up to 100 feet the last week or two.

Touched the flight deck at 135 feet, and then spent the rest of the time exploring the bridge.

I've attached a few pics straight out of camera, taken with the D200 and new 10.5mm. As you can see, she's massive, and there are already tons of baitfish on her. There were a few dolphins around, but I did not see any big fish on the wreck...yet!

I plan to go back soon and spend a long weekend up there. MBT divers, owner Fritz Sharar (850-455-7702) were a nice, no frills, operation. The divemaster Travis, worked for the salvage company that sank her and is taking 3 months to dive her over the summer, so he is very knowledgeable about the ship.

Pensacola is pretty much a navy town, so most of the divers on the boat were down to earth ex-military. For those coming in from out of town, be aware there may be spear fishing folks on board, though there weren't any yesterday. Remember to specifically ask for weights when you check in at the dive store as they do not keep any on the boat which is docked 10 minutes away. The dive shop does not own the boats. My only complaint is that my tanks were underfilled, which cut my dive time, so check that too.

What about a little Wetpixel long weekend there sometime?

Jeff

sorry, folks, having trouble uploading the pics. They are small 292KB JPEGS. Can anyone help?

Hi,

Resize your images to be 400 pixels wide or tall. Then save as JPEG with setting 5 or 6.

Then you should be able to attach. 292K is too large - 100K is the limit.

Can't wait to see some pix!

Cheers

James

OK, trying again.

I quickly changed them to gray scale; look better than shades of green

Jeff

What's the deal with diving this ship? Can you call and get a reservation with a reputable dealer then fly into Pensacola and dive the wreck? Say the same way you can go to the Keys, sign up with an operator and go diving? Versus having to be set up through a group or club or tech diving class?

Thanks, nice pics.

Yes, it's pretty much like the Keys. I set it up with mbt divers (mbtdivers.com Owner:Fritz Sharar 850-455-7702). It's a two hour boatride to the wreck. So it's an all day trip with a two tank dive. Cost for the dive was $145 plus tanks. There is apparently a bunch of other good wreck and reef diving in the area, which is mostly closer in than the Oriskany. I plan to head up there again in the next few months, hurricanes permitting, maybe Labour Day Weekend, and maybe make a 3-4 day long weekend of it. BTW, I stayed at the Suburban Lodge (I think about $80 a night), a minute from the dive shop.