Tristan's Blog: June 2009

I used to live 26 miles from South Padre Island, TX for 7 years (1992 to 1999) and I never took advantage of some good warm water diving. However, I didn't know how much fun it was nor did I have the money. I was certified Open Water December of 2005 and I have dived in the Sea of Cortes, Mexican Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Eastern US fresh water lakes, and the Mexican Riviera, but never the Gulf of Mexico and I also didn't have an excuse because I come here almost every year. This time I got in contact with American Diving (South Padre Island) and they took me out to dive the USTS {en:Texas Clipper}, a 473 foot ship.

TexasClipper Location

The Texas Clipper was sunk on November 17, 2007, approximately 17 nautical miles (31 km) Northeast of South Padre Island, TX. It was placed in 132 feet (40m) of water. The top of the ship has reached depths as shallow as 50 feet (15 m).

On the day of the dive, we met around 6:30am on Sunday June 7th to be briefed on the dive and then got on Diver 1 to take us to the wreck. The ride was a bit bumpy that a couple got sea sick and had to vomit before we started our dive. Getting off the boat was a bit tough with the boat rocking back and forth with the waves, but getting back on was even more difficult. You had to time the waves correctly when you got on or else the boat will ramp into you. I was climbing up the ladder on my second dive when the boat rocked, the ladder hit my shins, and I was thrown back into the water.   I don't mind, at least the dives did not get canceled :)

Under the surface, the water was much more calm. There was a current, but not very strong. I did get to see amberjacks, tons of snappers, queen angels, tons of lookdowns, some beautiful trigger fish. I also saw a school of sharks swimming during my 3 minute safety stop. I could not see them very well since they looked like they were 70 to 80 feet below me. I saw at least 5, but only their tails. I tried googling around for pictures of sharks found in the Gulf of Mexico, but I could not find any that matched the tails that I saw.   From what I remember, the shark had a long caudal (tail) fin (similar to a nurse shark) and also a bit longer than normal (for most sharks) pelvic fin. From a bird eye view (or diver above view) the tail fins did have some white stains on them. The body was slender and with my best best guess could not be longer than 5 or 6 feet. I have seen the tail before in pictures, but I just cannot recall which kind of sharks they were. On my second dive I went to the area I last saw them, but they were gone :(

Overall the dives were fun, but since my buddy was relatively new I did not push more than 97 feet (29 m) with an average of 60 feet (18 m) because I did not know how experienced he was, which was wise because he was more of a novice than I expected and it could have been dangerous if anything happen. When we ended the dive he was very low on air and I still had 1700 psi (117 bar) after 20 or so minutes. During the safety stop it's when I saw the school of sharks swim below me. Oh how I wanted to go back down and take a picture.   On the second dive, my new Nitek Trio computer resetted the dive after an hour and the Oxygen mix was set to the default of 99%, which really makes an effort to remind you to set the plan when you get in the water. However, with the high waves it was hard to set the dive plan because the minute I got to the right point the wave would submerge the computer and it thought the dive started.   Also, since my buddy was not really looking out for me (he went down to 70 - 80 feet and didn't look up) I decided to go after him with my computer beeping as hell because I would be too far away if he got into trouble.   I was ok with it because I did my repetative dive plan before the dive and I knew how deep and how long I could stay down there with 32% Oxygen.   The only bad thing is that with a reading of about 3.12 partial pressure of oxygen (PPO) on my computer, well above the limit of 1.6, I was supposed to have a hyperoxic event and go into convulsions after passing 20 feet (6m). However, I knew I was safe when I decided to go after my buddy, but I was irritated.

Anyhow, here are some pictures and a video. The video was taken by American Diving the day before because they took a better video than I did and it shows more of the Texas Clipper. I really liked the Clipper and I also like the professional service from American Diving. Oh by the way, the water was very warm (to my standards) because I only needed a 3mm suit and could probably do with less.