Captain's Blog

Chesapeake Bay Diving

Once again, I had the privilege of being the co-captain/divemaster for the Chesapeake Bay Dive Shop group organized by Bob Minnick and Malena Sharkey for the weekend of July 9-11.  As usual, Malena and Bob brought along a well trained group who were a total enjoyment to work with.  We even got to celebrate some diving related achievements with some of the younger participants on the trip.  One of many achievements was a milestone dive, number 100, on the Schurz by Heather Miceli.  Heather and her proud papa, Steve, have been on the Mutiny before and you can’t help but admire their relationship.  With a constant smile and amazingly pleasant disposition, Heather is an absolute joy to be around and her passion for diving is exceeded only by her well refined skills.  She was treated to some face decorating pre-dive and a card, balloons, achievement certificate, and of course, a cake after she successfully completed her century dive.  Not to be overshadowed by his sister,  brother Steven III completed his advanced open water certification dives and friend Zach completed his specialty diver training dive as well.  Pictures of the entire event(s) were captured by Sandy Smith and can be seen on the Mutiny website.

Friday dawned with a favorable forecast so the Papoose was plugged in for our first dive and we motored in practically flat calm seas to our 1^st dive site.  Tommy ably tied us in on the bow break and the fun began. Numerous lionfish were spotted as well as sandtigers, amberjacks, queen angels, and the normal cast of characters on the upside down tanker.  Capt Al speared a very respectable grouper in the 30 inch range and provided many of our guests with an up close and personal look at a dozen or more sandbar sharks who followed him the whole way to the boat.  Normally, we see a resident sandbar on the Papoose and rarely we see them as a pair.  This is the first time in the 12 yrs. I have been diving in NC that I have personally seen this many sandbars in one place. Capt Al also saw a group of African pompano on his way up, but being closely followed by a dozen sharks is not a good way to shoot at something.  The captain of Atlantis IV, Bobby Edwards, confirmed the big groupings when he saw similar numbers on the “sailboat” dive site located about a mile from the Papoose.  Needless to say, with that type of shark activity present, I had no real intentions of shooting anything on my unhook dive but took the gun along just in case I got a stupid streak in me and decided to test fate.  With a constant entourage of the sandbars, I toured the bow section of the wreck and had numerous 30 inch plus grouper well within range of the JBL Mag but my dive buddy/wife kept pointing out all the sharks every time I pulled the bands back on the gun.  I reluctantly unhooked and returned to the Mutiny, fishless but intact.  For our second dive, we chose the artificial reef Aeolus.  Tommy tied us in on the stern break and the fun began once again.  A few sandtiger sharks wee seen albeit not as many as normal.  The groupers were darting in and out of the wreckage, and huge swarms of baitfish were chased by the constantly swirling amberjacks in this kill or be killed world around the wreckage.  A few flounder were taken from the wreck to round out the crew’s supper of grouper and flounder that evening.  Both wrecks had excellent visibility in the 60 ft. plus range and warm water top to bottom in the 78-80 degree range.

Saturday, at least according to the wave forecast, would have been a day to sit at the docks but we awoke to moderate winds and only a slight chop in the inlet.  Capt Al decided to “stick his nose out” and see if the predicted 6 foot wave heights were present or just a prediction.  Fortunately for the passengers on the Mutiny that wanted to dive, we found the seas to be quite manageable with constant waves in the 2-3 foot range with an occasional “big one.”  Not trying to push our luck too much, and with a forecasted increase in the waves heights, we opted for the Indra.  Visibility was excellent (50+) and our divers were treated to two nice long dives on the artificial reef.  Some juvenile high hats were spotted on the adjoining ledge, a whole bunch of octopus were sighted (the group especially had fun with the little one they found exposed on the decking of the wreck), and many, many flounder found their way into various catch bags.  A large school of big barracudas greeted the divers on the hang line as they blew off any residual nitrogen before surfacing.  The ride back in was quite pleasant with the seas actually subsiding, but some real ominous “anvil clouds” hung over our destination at the Olympus docks.  We managed to completely escape any bad weather and were back at the dock by 1PM to start the cleaning of the many flounder that we would enjoy in the weeks to come on the dinner table.

Sunday was another banner weather day with light seas and clear skies.  As we motored out to the U-352, a pod of dolphins came to visit and play in our bow wake.  I have seen this on more numerous occasions than I’d like to admit, but the sight of the spotted dolphins playing in the bow wake never ceases to put a big smile on everyone’s face.  Tommy tied us into the bow section and our guests were treated to 60 ft. vis and warm water again top to bottom.  We then motored over to the Schurz where similar conditions greeted us.  Tommy tied us in just aft of the boilers where Sandy spotted an oscillated frog fish (the first sighting of the year) and a slipper lobster that was just loaded with eggs.  I saw the resident one sandtiger shark on the starboard side under the fallen plating about midway up.  On my trip up the rope after unhooking, three tuna darted past me obviously fleeing from the many barracuda that followed me up the line.  That was the first time I ever saw the elusive pelagic tuna on or near any of the wrecks in 12 years.  I returned to the boat to enjoy some of Heather’s century dive cake and the ride home was smooth and uneventful.

Many thanks to Bob and Malena for their continued support of the Mutiny and the crew of the Mutiny would like to extend an invite to any and all to come join us as we dive the warm clear waters of the Morehead City area.

Chesapeake Bay Diving and VA Marine Science Center

Over the past weekend, the crew of the Mutiny welcomed a group of divers from the Virginia Beach area led by Chesapeake Bay Diving’s Bob and Malena. It was good to see some old faces as well as some new ones in the group they had assembled for three days of diving the “Crystal Coast”.

On Friday June 11, with a forecast of hot and humid, 5-10 knot winds, and pleasant sea conditions, we plugged in the wrecks to the SE, namely the Hardees and the Box Wreck. The 2 hr trip to the Hardees was quite uneventful and as usual, Capt Al dropped me right where we had planned as I tied in to the starboard side of the site just aft of the bridge. Immediately, two slow and curious gag groupers found their way into my catch bag, and with a total lack of any shark activity and great visibility, I toured the wreck to find any other dumb ones before Capt Al splashed in. Our old friend, Polycera chiluna, or the “butterfinger nudibranch” was also quickly located and photographed by Sandy. As a bit of background, Polycera was first identified in the waters of NC after Sandy submitted pictures on various internet sites in an attempt to identify the sea slug. After several weeks, the photo was finally viewed by a Dr. Rudman in Australia and positively identified after several more photos were submitted to him for review. As the world’s leading expert on sea slugs, Dr Rudman informed us that Polycera is native to the Spanish coast in the Mediterranean Sea and had not been thought to have established itself in the coastal waters of the US. Several more sightings were recorded and more photographs were provided to the sea slug expert including pictures of egg casings and juveniles. Sandy was permitted to establish the common name for the seas slug and it was forever forth known as Butterfinger nudibranch. On my way up the ascent line, I marveled at witnessing yet another “jack attack”. For anyone who has never seen this activity before, it is a sight to behold. Massive schools of amberjack and other jack species travel in giant wolfpacks surrounding the massive schools of bait fish and the synchronous slaughter begins. The cloud of bait fish rhythmically turn to flee only to be intercepted by an arm of the wolfpack. Bait fish number diminish rapidly as the ballet of hunter and hunted plays on with fish parts and scales raining down through the water column. Often times, the cloud will envelope a diver, and it is a miracle that neither prey nor predator ever contact the diver. The entire attack is over in minutes as the jacks quickly get their fill and the remaining bait fish school up again in an attempt to avoid another attack. As a synopsis of the dive: vis 60+, warm water in mid 70’s, no thermocline, and a slight but noticeable surface current with no current on bottom (and Capt Al got no fish J ).

After successfully retrieving all our divers, we plugged in the Box Wreck on our second dive. Due to the nature of the wreck, there are very few reliable places to tie in, but Al dropped me on the bow anchor of the wreck and with a little difficulty and team effort, we got tied in securely. Immediately, I spotted a pair of African pompano, the first sighting this year. Unable to get off a shot due to no-deco time constraints I passed the throng of excited divers descending the line. Various sightings included jacks, eels, flounder etc., but still no lionfish. Visibility was in excess of 60 feet with warm water and slight surface current. Just after Scott splashed in to untie, several of us saw quite a commotion on the surface and as the splashing and occasional fin break got closer, we realized we were witnessing the feeding of possibly one of the ocean’s strangest creatures, the mola mola or ocean sunfish. Feeding mainly on jellyfish, the waters around the Box Wreck were a smorgasbord for the gentle ocean wanderer. If you have never seen one, you owe yourself to google mola mola. On the way in, although not personally seen by me, several passengers saw a breaching of a whale in roughly the same area where we got reports from Atlantis IV that they had seen one on the way out. Quite a day!

Day two of our planned three day trip was perhaps the best weather-wise. The seas had no chop to speak of and only an occasional swell to remind us that we were indeed 25+miles offshore. After some morning chatter on the VHF radio with other local dive operators, we determined the best plan for our dives today would put us on the Spar and the Papoose. The Mutiny crew strives to put our divers on the best available wrecks and we try to cater our itinerary to that end. For that reason, we chose the Spar as our first dive since it was vacant. I splashed in and tied us into the port bollard on the stern and immediately began to see sharks everywhere. The sandtigers were back and in great numbers. This artificial reef is becoming more and more encrusted with growth every year and is becoming a favorite dive of many of our guests owing to easy navigation and frequent shark sightings. I did not get to harvest any fish on the dive which was probably a good thing since a guest onboard had a picture of 6 (that’s right……SIX) sandbar sharks cruising the wreck in midwater. Although sandtigers can be a bit of a nuisance to spearfisherman, the sandbars with their erratic movements and purposeful antagonism of spear-wielders has earned them a reputation not to be taken lightly. I have been personally robbed by them of my catch on three different occasions in the past two years.
As a synopsis of the dive conditions…..60+ ft of vis, warm water, manageable current, and no thermocline to speak of. As we motored out to the Papoose, the water became even bluer and we new that our second dive would be a good one. After tying in to the rudder post, I waited for my favorite dive buddy Sandy to join me. Although the wait was short, I did manage to harvest a yellowmouth grouper at a cleaning station. Totally still and seemingly unafraid in it’s trance during the cleaning, I actually had to wait for it to swim off a bit in order to not penetrate the hull of the wreck with my shot. Sandy and I swam forward and found a large southern stingray in the sand with a wingspan of about 8 ft. that was content to just lay in the sand and watch the dives go by. Having stashed my catch bag with the grouper in it under the wreck close to the anchor point in order to avoid a catch stealing act by the resident sandbar shark, I had no real intentions of shooting anything else until I hit the first break and saw literally 25 or 30 groupers of all species gathered just under the hull. Some were in excess of 3 feet long and my fear of the sandbar was quickly overtaken by the desire to harvest such a big fish. Long story short, I landed not a single fish. A lionfish was spotted near the debris field and several of our guests got some nice groupers. Again, Scott plunked in to untie and shortly thereafter, an entire school of 25-30 spotted dolphins swam by the boat surfacing and playing as they passed by us.

Day three called for less than ideal sea conditions, but our timing and a little luck had us tied into the U-352 by 9AM. There was a very noticeable surface current but down at 115 ft. the current was very easily managed. With vis in the 50+ ft. range, our guests were treated to a dive on one of the few German submarines in clear warm waters. Several flounder were harvested and the normal cast of characters were seen on the sub. Many guests were treated to the sighting of a huge purple hued pufferfish which is now calling the sub its home. Dive number two had me tying the Mutiny to the stern section of the Aeolus near the break. Several large groupers as well as a few stray flounders were seen and harvested. Visibility was 70 ft and the water was warm with a slight surface current.

The Mutiny family would like to invite you to come join us this summer while we explore the wrecks and dive sites along the NC coast. Charter dates are still available and the best is yet to come.

Monday's charter, May 31.

Memorial Day brought us, with the exception of returning favorite Kent Winquist, a group of divers brand new to the Mutiny.  I love it when this happens!  Anxious to show our new friends (some of them volunteer divers with the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, www.virginiaaquarium.com) a great day, we headed south to the Schurz.  The day looked to be a good one, the seas cooperative, and we looked forward to seeing one of our favorite wrecks.  I dropped Captain Al amidships, and after a bit of maneuvering, we were tied in.  The conditions were a bit confused on site.  A cool layer of murky water (71 degrees) approximately 10’ in depth covered the surface, limiting visibility at the hang line.  Descending to the wreck, the clarity opened up and temps warmed to 75 degrees in the water column.  On the bottom, it cooled to 71 degrees with vis 50 or so feet horizontally and a mild current running the length of the wreck.  As usual, the bait fish were thick and made it difficult at times to see.  Amberjack worked them back and forth and I wondered at one point if I was going to be rammed by some fast moving predator in the buffet line.  One very large ray covered itself in the sand on the starboard side and I giggled to myself because he obviously thought he was invisible…or perhaps he was just avoiding his own taxing social situation.  The grouper continued to taunt the spear fishermen, and only Nick Pinnock managed to snare a catch…a good sized wahoo.

Everyone was happy to stay for two dives, having just gotten acquainted with the wreck.  The current had picked up a notch, and we were visited by an Atlantic spotted dolphin at depth, something I’ve never seen before (it was a weekend of firsts for me, having seen the manta ray on the hang line earlier in the weekend)!  Several crabs were out and about, and only one small sandtiger was seen.  Nick’s brother, Duncan, snagged a red snapper, giving the Pinnock brothers the only conquests of the holiday.

Thanks to Sonny Alejo for rounding up a great group of divers!  It was a rockin’ Memorial Day, and our gratitude and appreciation go out to all our military folks past and present who have sacrificed in service to our country.  God bless them.

Submitted by Captain Amy Broughman

What a great weekend of diving we had!  ABD welcomed back some friends from the northern VA area, and as usual, they brought capable divers to enjoy all that Morehead City has to offer.  Mother Nature continues to toy with us, pushing the warm water north one day and taking it back the next.  Regardless, we had a great time and saw some unusual sights.  The newest addition to our crew, Scott Eckes (pronounced ECKIS), exceeded our lofty expectations by leagues.  In addition, his wit and sarcasm were duly noted, and I hope one day he will prove to be my worthy adversary.

On Saturday, we headed south to the Schurz in bumpy seas and southeast winds blowing 10-15 knots.  Scott tied us in at the davits near the bow, and we could see him clearly for most of his ride to the bottom.  The water temperature was an agreeable 73 degrees from top to bottom and we were treated to 60-70’ of visibility at depth with very little current.  The wreck was teeming with the marine life routinely found there, including the biggest toadfish I have ever seen.  That critter was 8” across the head.  The grouper were also there in large numbers, amberjack chased the baitfish back and forth, a small sandtiger shark made an appearance, and two very large stingrays engaged in a fly by as well.  An awesome dive!

The Aeolus was our second stop of the day, and we managed to snag a good place on the bow while keeping our distance from the additional four vessels that were diving the Spar and other sections of the Aeolus.  The water was a bit green and visibility on the bottom was limited to approximately 30’.   We were surprised by a reverse thermocline at 66’, giving us a nice bottom temp of 74 degrees.  While my own dive was truncated by equipment problems, I did see one of Sandy Smith’s colorful sluggy things (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31189407&id=1425747561#!/photo.php?pid=31189408&id=1425747561&fbid=1452193911263), and a couple of sandtigers were spotted patrolling the area.  On the trip back to Beaufort, the Mutiny was chariot to two divers utilizing the “any anchor line is a good anchor line” policy that we encourage all our guests to embrace.  They were released on their own recognizance back at the dock.

Sunday brought us fair winds and cooperative seas, and the Papoose was the unanimous choice of wrecks.  As expected, the conditions were fantastic with warm water and visibility of 80’ or more.  My dive was one of the best I’ve ever had in Morehead, even though I didn’t stray anymore than 30’ from the anchor line.  The grouper were plentiful but plenty darned speedy.  I noted a good sized Danforth anchor in the sand but decided not to send it to the surface since there was so much else to see and do.  Sandtiger teeth littered the hull (along with a few sandbar teeth), and I collected 30 or so over the course of my dive.  While doing so, I spied two picture-worthy scorpion fish ready for their close up, and the usual sharks who were oblivious to my good time.  As I joined other divers on the hang line, a lone remora circled and I hoped I didn’t resemble a stingray as he passed within 10’ of me.  A small sandbar shark darted about without coming too close, something I’ve never seen before so close to the surface.  And then…a first for me:  a manta ray cruised into view and decided we were interesting enough for a few more passes before collecting his remora and heading off into the great beyond.  Luckily, one of our divers caught the manta on video (yay Simon!!) and I’ll post a link when it becomes available.  What. a. great. dive.

The U-352 was our second stop of the day, however the conditions were less spectacular compared to our first dive.  The water was murkier and much cooler, 70 degrees top to bottom.  One sandtiger swam in for a look, and again the grouper were plentiful (I kept picturing one big blackened hunk on my dinner plate…thank you Kent Winquist for dat fish).

It was a great weekend, thanks to Simon Poplawski and Piotrek Kulczakowicz for arranging the charter and introducing us to some new divers.  Good friends, good weekend.

Submitted by Captain Amy Broughman

TRIP REPORT MAY 15-16
On Friday, May 14th, we all gathered together to put the finishing touches on the MUTINY prior to our annual US Coast Guard inspection. Routine maintenance is the necessary, but not so much fun part of running a diving charter boat. Some fresh paint, some minor repair work, and a good cleaning from top to bottom was all finished up in time for the annual “shake-down”/crew training trip on Saturday.

Saturday, May 15th found us with blue skies, a moderate 10-15 knot SW wind and manageable sea conditions. The Mutiny was ably steered south by Capt Al to the wreck of the Papoose while I went over some boat procedures and safety training with the newest member of the MUTINY crew, Scott Eckes. Scott hails from the Norfolk/VA Beach area and will be an able and welcome addition to the MUTINY crew. Scott followed me and the hook to the first break aft of the bow where I tied in under the watchful eyes of Scott and then began my 2010 quest to harvest a few slow, dumb grouper. With vis in the 25 –30 foot range, I headed toward the bow to start my quest. Not two minutes into the debris field and the first candidate gave me a rare but welcome broadside shot on a still target. My aim was true and one “stoned” grouper was destined to the table…….or so I thought. While removing the grouper from the shaft, I felt an odd swoosh of water over my head which I fully expected to be another diver’s fin coming a little close to me but when I looked up, Scott was a good 25 feet away and no other divers were around. Scott was staring right at me and gave me the shark sign several times and pointed out into the murk. Over the ten plus years of diving the NC wrecks, I have been “buzzed” by countless sandtiger sharks as they come over to investigate what all the commotion is about. Typically, when their curiosity is satisfied, they slowly swim off and go about their normal business, but this time it was not a sandtiger shark. Within a minute, an 8 ft. sandbar shark swam quickly and deliberately right at me and turned about 5 feet way and started the infamous figure-eights. Suddenly it just swam off giving me the needed time to put some distance between me and the dead grouper. I quickly ran a stainless stringer through the hole the spear shaft made and with a little wishful thinking, I tied it to the wreck hoping the sandbar would leave it alone. My wishful thinking lasted all of about a minute when the shark reappeared and made haste right to the dead fish. With the first bite, the entire back half of the 3 foot grouper vanished and a return pass (with a little effort on the shark’s part) caused the stainless to snap and the other half of my grouper became lunch for the shark. As quickly as he appeared, he then vanished into the haze to digest what could have been a great beginning to a crew cookout. Every year it seems that early in the season, a shark teaches me a season long lesson about hunting in their presence. While sandtigers can generally be persuaded (by the butt end of the gun) to leave you alone, I would be remiss to admit that I don’t have the guts to teach any sandbar a lesson. Their demeanor is quick and deliberate and strike a bit of fear in me any time I see one. After the sandbar incident, I checked my supply of back gas and as I had figured, the anxiety and commotion had caused me to exhaust my supply significantly more than usual and I thought it best to make a slow ascent back to the boat in hopes of catching a passing rainbow runner or African pompano in the topwater where the sharks will generally leave you alone. Once onboard, the entire crew compared notes on the dive and the one overwhelming comment that was made related to the lack of lionfish sightings. Normally on a dive to the Papoose, and most other wrecks for that matter, dozens of lionfish are spotted but this trip was totally devoid of any sightings on all three sites we visited. During the long surface interval we were treated to a loggerhead turtle sighting and as the 3+ foot loggerhead sunned himself on the starboard, we saw a very large animal breach the surface on the port side of the MUTINY. The large dark dorsal fin appeared twice more on the surface and then the animal breached again on the starboard side and then just disappeared. No positive ID was made but whatever it was, it was huge!

Entering the water for my second dive, with the sandbar incident still fresh in my mind, I had to wonder if the speargun in my hand was there out of habit or for a purpose. I surely had no intentions of shooting another grouper with that crazy sandbar shark in the vicinity. Of course with no real intentions of even cocking the gun, Sandy and I swam forward toward the bow section and saw literally hundreds of grouper of all species gathered in the sand. Three foot gags and two foot scamps and yellow mouth grouper didn’t even bother to swim away, seemingly safe with their newly found “bodyguard”. I did manage to snag a slipper lobster from the underside of a piece of plating and I felt safe in the fact that I have never had a shark incident while carrying a lobster in the bag. The trip back to Beaufort inlet was uneventful and with a promising forecast for Sunday, the entire crew retired early so we could start all over again in the morning.

On Sunday May 16th, we were fortunate enough to have two last minute passengers aboard the Mutiny. Two of America’s finest, Rich and Dan were in town with two purposes, to dive the U-boat and to see some sharks (as if being in the infantry and flying planes off an aircraft carrier were not enough excitement for these two). The seas had calmed down considerable since yesterday and the trip to the U-352 was uneventful. Tommy Meeks tied us in just forward of the conning tower while I ran Scott through the procedures topside to secure the boat and drop the assist lines. Capt Al entered the water shortly before the other divers returned and was not privy to the numerous reports of flounder all over the inner hull of the sub. The baitfish ball surrounding the sub reminded me of the best day on the Schurz and the wreckage seemed to pulsate with life. Visibility was in the 35 foot range but the thick cloud of baitfish often obscured visibility to almost zero at times. Upon retrieving everyone, Scott and I entered the water and began our descent. I had one thing in mind, a successful flounder harvest with not interventions by sharks. The reports were indeed correct regarding the numerous flounder, but they were very hard to see owing to the massive schools of baitfish. Seven keepers made it into the bag and the return trip to the boat was uneventful sharkwise. Again, this wreck usually harbors numerous lionfish, but their stark absence was evident. Our honored guests could not stop smiling or talking about the wonders and history they had just witnessed 110 feet below the surface of the Atlantic. As frequent visitors to the wrecks, we as crew sometimes take for granted the fact that we are of a select few people in the overall population who have ever witnessed first hand the amazing assortment of life and history off the coast of Morehead City, NC. Our second dive was spent on the Spar in hopes of seeing the numerous sharks that normally patrol the wreck. Although a few sharks were seen by our servicemen and crew, the normal population seemed to have diminished (very much to my liking as I put two gags in the bag with not so much as an investigatory passing by the resident sandtigers). Visibility was agin in the 35 foot range and the water temp was a constant 64 degrees on all the wrecks we visited.

The Mutiny will again be in service to the diving community over Memorial Day weekend as we host Piotr K and his able group of divers. Come join us and we will be sure to show you everything the Crystal Coast has to offer its divers. Thanks to Rich and Dan who made the trip all the more enjoyable and thanks to Al, Wade, and Amy for providing an able platform from which to refine our crew skills for the coming season.