In early May, Gary, my dive buddy and myself made a trip to Morehead
City NC for a weekend of diving.  MC is one of our favorite
desitinations and we have always used Discovery Diving to book our
trips.  Unfortunately, on the May trip, sea conditions were not very
favorable so about %50 of those booked on the trip cancelled the second
day.  Gary mentioned the possibility of booking a June trip and not
going with any particular group.  Being in favor of that arrangement, he
booked slots for us for June 14 & 15 on the Seaquest II with Captain
Jerry.

The 6+ hour drive for us we uneventful, stopping to eat in Greensboro,
NC.  There was a noticeable haze in the air in Virginia from the forest
fires on the east part of North Carolina and the haze was so thick in
Greensboro, there was probably only 2-3 miles visibility.  We passed in
and out of the haze which was completely gone when we arrived in
Morehead City.  We had a room booked at the Econo Lodge on Bridge St
which seems to be a fairly "diver friendly" establishment.  Our first
stop was at Discovery Diving to complete the liability waivers and drop
off tanks.  I had already downloaded my waiver form, filled it out
before leaving so as I was waiting on Gary to complete his, I met a
fellow that looked familiar.  He said, "Aren't you Andy from Virginia?".
 He is a retired Air Force Lt Colonel who flew C-5's and was on the
same manatee trip with me a few years ago.  It turned out, his group,
Delaware Diehard Divers, had booked the Seaquest II that weekend and my
buddy and myself were able to get  two extra slots.  I was forwarned
their group was "rowdy and obnoxious" but I would better describe them
as perhaps just happy to be out on the ocean and there to have a good
time.  It was obvious that group had two goals in mind for this trip.
(1) dive and (2) eat.  The brought several large coolers on the Seaquest
that were packed with all sorts of beverages, sandwich material, etc.
The generously offered to share with us, but we had brought our own food
and snacks.  Being the "Deleware Diehard Divers" and I don't know if
they specialize in diving for Sears Brand automobile batteries (Diehard
batteries), but some of them were there for the "hunt" with their
spearguns.

Saturday morning bode calm, almost flat seas as we made our way to our
first dive, the "Atlas Tanker".  This was a casualty of WWII German
submarine action.  The "AT" lies at about 110fsw and is reasonably
intact.  We were diving 30% nitrox and stay down for 34 minutes.
Noticed lots of baitfish but not much else. Visibility was about
30-40ft.  We then moved to the "Carribsea", another WWII casualty, and
after about a 2hr surface interval, entered the water again.  The
Carribsea sits in about 85-90 ft of water and was teaming with marine
life.  There were more sand tiger sharks than I could count.  The
Carribsea is somewhat broken up, but there is still recognizeable as a
shipwreck. Visibility was 30-40ft. After a 49 minute dive we surfaced
and headed back to port.

Sunday morning, the seas were a bit more stirred up with an occasional
2-3 ft swell, but that didn't slow down the Seaquest II.  Our first stop
was the oft visited "U352".  The U352 has an interesting history and was
sunk by the US Coast Guard Cutter "Icarus" after the 352 launched
torpedoes at her (Icarus).  The Icarus, not taking kindly to that,
responded with depth charges and forced the U-boat to the surface, where
the crew was captured and the U-boat was then sunk. Captain Jerry
quipped the U352 underwent a Coast Guard inspection that went horribly
wrong.  The "352" sits in about 107ft of water and the dive lasted about
34 minutes.While it is possible to penetrate the U352, it was
recommended we not because of the condition of the wreck. Marine life on
the U352 was not remarkable but I did notice quite a few Lionfish around
the bow and a very large Lionfish about the stern.

After surfacing and weighing anchor, we took a liesurly trip about 10
miles away to the USS Spar.  The Spar is a former Coast Guard vessel
sunk as an artificial reef and sits about 400-500 ft from the "Aeolus".
 After a 2+hr surface interval Gary and I dove on the Spar.  It was
literally teaming with marine life, especially  in the aft section.
Baitfish everywhere and more sand tiger sharks than I could possibly
count.  I would have been quite content to spend the entire dive around
the aft section of the wreck, but we did make a trip around it.  While
the Spar sits in about 110 ft of water, we stayed on the upper deck,
which offered the most to see.  The Spar is completely intact and offers
easy penetration for anyone who wants to look around inside.

Water temperatures ranged from the upper 70's and low 80's on the
surface and dropped to 72-73 deg F on the bottom on all ouir dives.  I
was quite comfortable in a 3mm wetsuit.

I have to say I saw more sand tiger sharks this one weekend, than I have
the entire time I have been diving.

I made earlier mention of our accomodations.  The Econo Lodge, while not
a Five Star facility, itwas certainly clean and in good shape and suited
our needs quite nicely.  The reason I mentioned "diver friendly", if you
mention you are there as a diver, you will get a discount on the room
rate.  Additionally, the clerk said there was a continental breakfast
set out at 6am.  I told the clerk that we normally got an earlier start
than that.  The clerk said if they had divers staying, they would set
the breakfast out at 4am.

On our return, we stopped at a steakhouse along the way and celebrated a
great dive weekend with a fantastic steak.

Andy