Dive Trip Report to: Stuart - The Rankin
Purpose: To Dive in Florida

Dive Reports:

Dive #1: Wednesday, 05-July-2000, Morning Dive. My Dive #311
A. Dive Boat / Location: "Just-U-And-I"/ The Rankin
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 40 ft
Seas: FLAT
Water Temp: 78 deg on at depth
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies)
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 114 ft for 42 min, PO2 was 1.42, Analog - 130 (Don't know what happened to it), Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - 107 ft for 42 min and went Tilt (it was not programmed for NITROX).
Air consumption: Me: 3500 to 700 lb (80 cu ft, 32% NITROX)
Current: Mild - a few tenths of a knot as measured!
Description: Well, this trip to the Rankin was AWSOME. There was nill current, it was warm (relatively speaking for this area) at depth, good vis (again for the area). This is a 495 ft long ship, on it's side in 120 ft of water. You first reach the ship's side at a depth of 70 ft. We grapled onto the stern section this trip. Going down, there was a big gun turret on the stern section. We swam towards the bow and reached a point about midship before turning around. My dive partner was busy collection tropicals. There was only one Barracuda that I could see - rare for a wreck! There were again (for this wreck) lot's of Snook - most in the 3 ft range with two in the 5 - 6 ft size!! I spend a lot of time looking at the snook, thinking about seeing them on my grill! There was a lot to see of the ship's superstructure on this dive! Great Dive, Big Ship, Great Conditions!! While getting out of the water on the dive boat, I accidently pulled off my face mask and it fell into the water. Well, my dive partner states I threw it in the water, dive partner jumped in, and rescued my mask! I was still half suited up and could not get back into the water - dive partner to the rescue!!!

Dive #2: Wednesday, 05-July-2000, Morning / Afternoon Dive. My Dive #312
A. Dive Boat / Location: "Just-U-And-I"/ The Rankin
B. Conditions:
Visibility: Vis went down to about 30 ft half way into the dive.
Seas: STILL FLAT - but there were about 6 to 10 inch swells!
Water Temp: 78 deg on at depth
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 101 ft for 52 min (This was a DECO dive) Analog - 101 ft Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - Not useful, in GAUGE mode from previous dive.
Air consumption: Me: 3500 lb to 1200 lb (120 cu ft Air)
Current: Mild - a few tenths of a knot as measured!
Description: Well, with the great conditions, we decided to do a second dive on the Rankin! We already were there, the conditions were great, so why not dive it again! I had two 120's of air, my dive partner two 80's of 38% NITROX. The 38% was too high in O2 to use at any depth below 80 ft, so we both used my air 120's! We discussed the dive and decided this was going to be a DECO dive. We had plenty of air - each with 120's and each with 13 cu ft poney's! So, same as previous dive, went down, lot's of fish, lots to see - super structure, we crawled around the ships side (remember the ship is on it's side, so the side is really the top). We saw lot's of superstructure and again we went from the stern to about mid ships. I stayed about 20 ft above my experienced dive partner, figuring I would have less DECO time. Well, I was about 8 min into DECO and spent 12 min at 10 ft! My dive partner needed about 20 min at 10 ft! We still had plenty of air and could see the bottom of the boat above us! These were really great dives - great conditions!!

Dive #3: Wednesday, 05-July-2000, Morning Dive. My Dive #313
A. Dive Boat / Location: "Just-U-And-I"/ The David T
B. Conditions:
Visibility: 5 to 10 ft (real bad vis, lots of white snot in the water)
Seas: 1 ft seas!
Water Temp: low 70's at depth
Skies: SCBS (Sunny Clear Blue Skies
Air Temp: 80 - 90's
C. Dive Information:
Depth & Time: Me: Genesis Nitrox Dive Computer - 83 ft for 39 min Analog - 79 ft Cochran Captain (Very Unreliable Dive Computer) - in GAUGE MODE, not useable.
Air consumption: Me: 3500 - 1700 lb (120 cu ft), we cut the dive short!
Current: Medium - the current was stronger
Description: This is suppose to be a military landing craft. It is next to the Drega / Mercedes which was dove a few weeks previous. Well, down we went, vis sucked. It was cold! There were a lot of fish going all over the place! It was fish feeding time - not a good time to be on a wreck. While my dive partner went for fish, I decided to go around the wreck at deck level. I went up one side, you could not see the bottom due to the poor vis. The ship has lots of holes, not much left on deck. At the bow, I followed the other side back to the stern. About half way back, while crossing a 4 ft square opening, a million 4 inch fish came out and engulfed me! It was a shock. Well, these fish kept on going and then several hundred 1 ft Jacks came out and again engulfed me as they passed. Well, then I asked my self - who was chasing these fish! A second later, several very large (4 ft - 5 ft) Jacks came out chomping on the fish! I was hoping they would not chomp on me! It was a thrill I could have lived without. Or - it would have been better if it had happened before I was over the hatch. I continued to the stern deck, we swam around a while. We went down to the sand, very poor vis and it was not a very good feeling! So, up we cam, swam around some more than canceled the dive with plenty of air remaining! An interesting dive, real poor vis, Fish Feeding kind of gets you nervous!!