Scootering the Wreck of the Orca

rjack · March 31st, 2008, 05:51 PM

I'm cross-posting my report from another list more local list.

I figured it would still be of interest though.

So a bunch of us did the Wreck of the Orca today on scooters. Its a 55ft tug up in Port Hadlock, WA which apparently sank in ~1999. We had coordinates for it from Noaa's AWOIS and hemmed and hawed on shore for a couple minutes with the GPS.

SLundy, Bdub and myself splashed first. Our strategy was to follow the bearing given to us by the GPS underwater out to the wreck. LLJ and RR splashed a couple minutes behind us. Their strategy was to scooter out on the surface and descend on the mooring bouy
which was very close to where the bearing pointed and where the wreck was likely tied up when it sank.

I had my big reel along and my team decided to run line (well I mostly did). 1/2 for the practice, 1/2 to give us something to help search with if we missed the wreck, I figured we could circle and hopefully snag it then reel ourselves back to it.

SLundy was our primary compass guy cause he had an X scooter mount. I
had a compass on the hull of my Gavin and Bdub used a wrist compass. I tied off to a convenient piling and off we went. Lots of soft mud, scant tieoffs. We stayed on the trigger solid. After exactly 8mins on the trigger, bingo wreck of the Orca. I cut+tied off the line and then shot a small SMB to aid team2's approach.

We swam around the wreck twice peering into most holes. There were some blue and copper rockfish on it. No lings or cabezons. An occasional nudibranch and lots of plumose anenomes.

Just as we returned to the bag (which had slide a little along the line cause I had lazily clipped it in) Team2 arrived. The wreck is apparently about 150ft from the bouy so they had to follow the SMB. I pulled the SMB down and we then scootered the wreck while LLJ videoed.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=qeohNP1Fuew

We left the wreck around 48mins and scootered home. I managed to find a couple of sticks to tie off the line, but its still bopping around in the mud and then too high in places. PM me if you are interested in knowing more, as a charted wreck its no secret. Water temp 45-46F, total runtime 63 mins, max depth 64ft, average depth ~53ft.

We had lunch at a div-bar and caught an evening ferry home. A pretty cool day. The wreck is definately worth scootering (again) as a 2nd dive of the day.

Marijn · March 31st, 2008, 07:16 PM

nice movie!

Redscoots are new to me though

rjack · March 31st, 2008, 08:17 PM

You can actually get the X is just about any color you want by special order. Scott has the red one with his homemade acrylic housing on the nose.

DRE · March 31st, 2008, 08:31 PM

Quote: (Originally Posted by rjack)

You can actually get the X is just about any color you want by special order. Scott has the red one with his homemade acrylic housing on the nose.

They now also have a yellow Silent Diving rebadged one as well

March 31st, 2008, 05:51 PM	#1 (permalink)
rjack(Offline) wet behind the ears Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 861	Scootering the Wreck of the Orca I'm cross-posting my report from another list more local list. I figured it would still be of interest though. So a bunch of us did the Wreck of the Orca today on scooters. Its a 55ft tug up in Port Hadlock, WA which apparently sank in ~1999. We had coordinates for it from Noaa's AWOIS and hemmed and hawed on shore for a couple minutes with the GPS. SLundy, Bdub and myself splashed first. Our strategy was to follow the bearing given to us by the GPS underwater out to the wreck. LLJ and RR splashed a couple minutes behind us. Their strategy was to scooter out on the surface and descend on the mooring bouy which was very close to where the bearing pointed and where the wreck was likely tied up when it sank. I had my big reel along and my team decided to run line (well I mostly did). 1/2 for the practice, 1/2 to give us something to help search with if we missed the wreck, I figured we could circle and hopefully snag it then reel ourselves back to it. SLundy was our primary compass guy cause he had an X scooter mount. I had a compass on the hull of my Gavin and Bdub used a wrist compass. I tied off to a convenient piling and off we went. Lots of soft mud, scant tieoffs. We stayed on the trigger solid. After exactly 8mins on the trigger, bingo wreck of the Orca. I cut+tied off the line and then shot a small SMB to aid team2's approach. We swam around the wreck twice peering into most holes. There were some blue and copper rockfish on it. No lings or cabezons. An occasional nudibranch and lots of plumose anenomes. Just as we returned to the bag (which had slide a little along the line cause I had lazily clipped it in) Team2 arrived. The wreck is apparently about 150ft from the bouy so they had to follow the SMB. I pulled the SMB down and we then scootered the wreck while LLJ videoed. http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=qeohNP1Fuew We left the wreck around 48mins and scootered home. I managed to find a couple of sticks to tie off the line, but its still bopping around in the mud and then too high in places. PM me if you are interested in knowing more, as a charted wreck its no secret. Water temp 45-46F, total runtime 63 mins, max depth 64ft, average depth ~53ft. We had lunch at a div-bar and caught an evening ferry home. A pretty cool day. The wreck is definately worth scootering (again) as a 2nd dive of the day.

March 31st, 2008, 07:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
Marijn(Offline) Smurf #1 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Papendrecht, The Netherlands Posts: 380	nice movie! Redscoots are new to me though __________________ Its a fact that the humans can't go without water for more than 3 days

March 31st, 2008, 08:31 PM	#4 (permalink)
DRE(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Mineola, NY Posts: 162	Quote: (Originally Posted by rjack) You can actually get the X is just about any color you want by special order. Scott has the red one with his homemade acrylic housing on the nose. They now also have a yellow Silent Diving rebadged one as well __________________ www.dirtydiving.com - DIR is not a 4-letter word!

March 31st, 2008, 08:17 PM	#3 (permalink)
rjack(Offline) wet behind the ears Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 861	You can actually get the X is just about any color you want by special order. Scott has the red one with his homemade acrylic housing on the nose.