Date: 2-28-09
Location: Wreck Alley, Yukon
Time: 9:30 am
Dive Length: 40 mins
Viz: 12-15 ft.
Surface: calm
Temp: 52 F
Mix: 32%
Dive Buddies: NOAA Jim, Scott M. and Mike H.
Max Depth: 92 ft
Strange Voices: None [whew!]
Marine Life Seen: Huge schools of juvenile and adult Blacksmith, Surf perch, Giant Spined Sea Stars, CA and Worty Sea Cucumbers, Macrocystis.
Photos: Pending upload by Scott and Mike
Remarks:
After going down to the boat last night to make sure there were no final glitches in the engine [the 'water in the fuel issue' we had last week had been fixed by our mechanic... Barb], the Do started like a charm this morning and we were soon off to Wreck Alley under calm seas and warm, sunny skies.
I took some well-deserved ribbing for insisting on doing some ‘on the dock’ Facebook updates from my Blackberry, which has become a rather sick addiction, I’ll admit—but, hey: it came with the FB application, I never asked for it, OK? 
Arriving over the Yukon, it was slightly confusing because there were 3 mooring lines, in addition to, the submerged Stern buoy, so I wasn’t exactly sure where we would end up on the ship by tying up
to the furthest South white buoy [on the Rear Guns, it turned out—a line which, as far as I know, was not there a couple weeks ago].
Anyway, it was decided that I would roll in with Mike and Scott and NOAA Jim, being basically a solo act anyway, with his scooter, would roll in last, to go wherever he goes on that damn thing.
Scott asked to descend first, so he could capture some masterful wide-angle shots of me and Mike coming down the line, which needless to say, got no objections from us!
Arriving on the Yukon, I was a bit disconcerted to discover that the line we had dropped down was tied up the superstructure near the Rear Guns and in front of the Mortar Bay: I don’t know why I was expecting to end up near the Stern, but we got our bearings and began heading towards amidships.
The seal we had seen cavorting around on the surface was nowhere to be seen, but huge schools of baby Blacksmith could be seen flitting about all around us—almost blotting out the sun, at one point—they were so dense.
I led our little group past the Radio Tower, towards the center of the ship.
I ducked into to my favorite opening—the one I never what to call—with the flanges bent outward on the deck itself. I think it’s a smokestack of some kind, but it’s hard to tell.
You go in, make a sharp right and then go down about 2 meters and you run into a large fan structure and then, it’s time to turn around.
Right after making my U-Turn, I looked down and off to the side and noticed
a chamber below the one I was in: it had what appeared to a fairly new,white grating, almost like one you’d buy at Home Dept, placed over it and secured with not one, but four padlocks. I took the hint: Do Not Enter.
Emerging from my opening, I was greeted by the pleasant sight of Mike and Scott, strobes flashing away in my direction, just outside the ship. You can never have too many shots of yourself on the Yukon.
We continued making our way northward, past various structures, until we found ourselves at Donathan’s Plaque, where we found NOAA Jim busily
scrubbing the algae off his mentor’s image there with a wire brush.
He seemed unaware of our presence and was startled when, moving back to admire his handiwork, all but collided with me and 2 photographers, busily snapping his image.
Jim being the underwater curmudgeon that he is, obviously decided that things were getting decidedly too crowded down here for his taste, so he gunned his scooter and was off like a shot into the murky distance, leaving us all in a trail of cavitation.
Must have been something we said.
We continued our meandering along, Mike and Scott’s strobes flashing away, until we came to another opening…another one I don’t know the name for…..just past the ‘Crow’s Nest,’ it was just big, square and dark, so I ducked into it and found myself in a large chamber, which dropped about 20 ft down, like and elevator shaft, lined with Giant Spined Sea Stars and CA Sea Cucumbers, who quite rightly, shuddered at my approach, fearing an underwater ‘sea cucumber avalanche’ which I made a special effort to not unleash today. Hope they appreciated that.
Not wanting to play ‘underwater elevator’ today, I wisely decided to re-emerge from this opening and back into the sunlight.
Soon, we found ourselves near the Forward Guns.
Looking up, I saw the thing I fear most on the Yukon: a ‘raining’ of divers from a charter boat above.
Now, please understand: I have no objection to other divers being on the Yukon: it’s not after all, my personal vessel.
It’s only the ones who spin and tumble as they fall and ricochet off various structures, like the cow in Twister, in my direction.
Today, I had horrific visions of one of them heading my way, eyes abug behind his mask, air gauge on ‘empty,’ clutching for the nearest regulator, which in these visions, is always mine, for some reason.
Luckily, today, no such thing happened, and they let go our way unmolested, but not before I was almost brained by a flaying Twin Jet.
At about this point, I gave the turnaround signal and we all began making our way back towards the Stern.
We passed over Milt’s Tilt, once again, covered in a blanket of gorgeous, snow-white Senile Metridia and paid silent tribute to Milt as I glided silently over the plaque memorializing the work he and so many other have done to sink the Yukon.
Passing the Capt’s Bridge and I ducked in here, where I like to get behind the slates and pretend I’m a prisoner behind bars………Mike and Scott passed by, looking curiously in, as if to say: ‘How the hell did he get in there?’
We then continued on until we passed the Radio Tower, where I could no longer seen the Pirate Flag and we found ourselves back where we had started.
I signaled to Scott and Mike that we could play around this area for a while and then begin heading up, which they agreed to.
After about 10 minutes of playing hide and seek with the local Surf Perch in the Macrocystis here, that’s exactly what we did.
Scott did a very nice, conservative ascent, minding his Ps and Qs all the way up, even doing a Deep Stop, as called for by his new Uwatec, which made me jealous later, when I heard that. My computer never does that. It’s so 90s!
While hanging on the line for our Safety Stop, this ‘thing’ appeared from below, in a cloud of bubbles, momentarily startling us.
From a distance, it looked like a small submarine approaching.
Actually, it was just Jim, his scooter and all his freakin’ deco bottles, draped around him like a hula skirt: his twin 72s, a white 21% bottle………a yellow 100% O2 bottle……all rattling around him, creating this huge tunnel of bubbles.
Decked out like this you’d have thought he was diving the damn Andrea Dorea!
Scared the crap out of us……until we figured out who it was.
He just peered out from his mask at us like: “What’re YOU all staring at?”
Then, of course, getting him back into the boat, after our Safety Stop, is always a production and half: gotta tie off the scooter, then all the bottles, then haul his ass up the ladder into the boat and hope to God he doesn’t trip and do a ‘face-plant’ on the deck, on top of you, like he almost did to me once.
But, we love him and wouldn’t dream of leaving the dock without him.
Tried it once, in fact, but the engine wouldn’t start………so, now you know: the boat won’t leave the dock without him.
Great day with a bunch of great guys……..
Dive safe, everyone………..
