August 25 brought my long awaited departure for one of my favorite
frequent dive destinations, Morehead City or more specifically,
Beaufort, NC.  As in the past, I went with Discovery Diving having never
been disappointed by their service.

Discovery Diving and the Outrageous V were featured in September 2006
issue of Sport Diver magazine, article on page 18.

Before arriving, I was travelling through Clayton NC on 70E.  A car
pulled out from the opposite side of a 6 lane highway and impacted the
car right in front of me in the next lane.  I stopped, checked for
injuries, spoke with the investigating officer and told him what I had
seen, and continued towards Beaufort.  The officer thankfully, got my
statement first so as to allow me to continue on to my destination.

I have to admit, I was a bit uneasy about going out, not because of the
dive operation, but the last time I went out with them, I got quite
seasick, even though I had taken Bonine the night before AND that morning.

This time I was taking no chances.  I took the Bonine as in the past,
got some of the sea bands that go around your wrist plus went to the
doctor who gave me a prescription of phenegren (sp).  Woke up Saturday
morning after a not so good nights sleep and before even getting to the
boat, was feeling queasy.  The decision to go with all three was wise.
We experience 4-5 ft seas and while others were "chumming" the marine
life, while, still queasy, I stayed the course and even ate lunch.

Sunday was much better and I took only the Bonine and did not get sick
even with the 4-5 ft seas again.

Saturday brought us to the Atlas Tanker.  Water surface temperaturs were
in the upper 70's lower 80's with a slight thermocline around 40-50 ft
and then a very sharp well defined thermocline around 75ft.  Average
fishlife and nothing extraordinary.

Our next stop on Saturday was the CaribSea.  This wreck lies in about 85
ft of water and was teaming with fishlife.  Noted numerous quite
ferocious looking (but quite diver friendly), sand tiger sharks of
various sizes.  They totally ignored the divers present and continued
with their regular routine of swimming in circular patterns, presumably
in search of their next meal.

Sunday was a much better day, sickness wise.  I only went with the
Bonine and did OK, even though we again experienced 4-5 ft seas.  Our
first stop was the famous and popular U-352.  This German sub was sunk
by the Coast Guard Cutter "Icarus" in WWII and is the subject of an
entire chapter in Gary Gentile's book covering the NC shipwrecks.  The
sub, while of historical interest had very little fishlife other than
the garden variety.  The sub is sitting at about 117fsw listing at about
45 deg starboard in the sand where she came to rest after being sunk.

Our last stop was by far the best. Water temps in the 80's little or no
thermocline, no current, and 100ft viz.  We decided to dive the
"Aeolus", a skuttled 400+ft Navy cable layer/repair ship.  The "Aeolus"
skuttled in the 1990's was actually picked up, carried over 1/4 mile and
broken into 4 pieces by Hurricane Fran in the mid 90's.  Our diveboat,
the Outrageous V, captained by Captain Terry, tied off on the bow
section of the wreck.  This gave us some interior to do limited
penetration.  Capt Terry, in the dive briefing said these interior
areas, readily open to divers, also is home to a number of the sand
tiger sharks.  True to his word, we didn't have to look long to find
multiple 10-12ft sand tiger's circling the interior of the bow of the
ship.  Access to his area is almost like a 2 or 3 car garage and is wide
open and several holes directly to the surface.  After a few pictures of
the sharks, we went to the deck of the Aeolus that was teaming with all
manner of marine-life. Baitfish clouded the horizon in ever shifting
patterns as the amberjack went searching for their next meal.  At one
point, while on the deck, a large sting ray, I would guess 8ft in
diameter, cruised by us with his entourage of followers,as though we
were not there.  Back down below to visit with the sharks on last time
and it was time to surface and ultimately head home.