# Oriskany dive report, Sunday, Sept 7



## SCUBA Junkie (Oct 2, 2007)

At long last, finally a day off and decent weather coincided. We could not have asked for a nicer day, and the ride out and back was outstanding, with no more than 1/2 foot swells both ways. Found vis on top to be very nice, but degraded somewhat on the wreak. Water was warm top to bottom with no thermocline at all. Apparently, our friend Gustov did cause a moderate starboard list in the Mighty "O", making everything 10-15' deeper than before. Several of the underwater morring bouys also seem to be missing. Lots of life, but nothing to shoot at. All in all, a very nice day, and I had the honor of inducting two new members to the Oriskany club


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## FishinFL (Sep 30, 2007)

Thanks for the report. Kinda makes you wonder how the O with survive the next hurricane....


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Hey Wayne...I had heard that from another person...that everything was aprox 10 foot deeper! Crazy...hope it doesnt get too much deeper....will start to put the flight deck in my "narc depth" :doh


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## Caver2130 (Jul 8, 2008)

This is what I posted on Scubaboard

I had the chance to dive her on Sunday and things were different, but great. On the first dive, the visibility was in the 40-50' range, with a decent current down to 40' and only a slight current on the rest of the wreck (I could easily back fin through it). I reached the top of the wreck at 80', with the top most structure reaching up to 76'. The list of the ship was noticeable, but on the dive I completely forgot about it. Internal and external structures were damaged, but not extensively. Anything that was loose, Gustav just helped lay it down. I got to the flight deck at 142' with spots hitting 146'. On the flight deck, rust and small debris was pushed into fairly neat piles, with large areas of the deck looking like it did when the wreck first went down. 

On the second dive, I noticed much greater visibility. I could just make out the bottom of the H2O Below from 92'. The most interesting thing that I saw was the reappearance of the "34" on the port side of the tower. Previously, only an outline was visible, as the Navy painted over the numbers. However, the numbers are clearly visible now, in bright white paint, which hasn't been seen for years!

As far as sea life goes, anything that may have evacuated the wreck for Gustav has definitely returned. Octopus, urchins, arrow crabs, wrasse, butterfly fish, and small grouper covered the top of the structure. Red and grey snapper and a handful of larger grouper were all over the flight deck, as well as some VERY large barracuda. Overall, dives 216 and 217 to the <SPAN class=highlight>*Oriskany* were some of the best I've had in weeks, despite Gustav's best efforts.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Thanx for tfillin in the detailas Josh!


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