See the photo album here!
Last weekend DWF and 5 of his diving buddies made yet another trek down to Wilmington, North Carolina for DWF’s second Wreck and Megalodon Tooth diving trip of 2017.
Wilmington is right on the edge of feasibility for a weekend trip from the MD area. At a 6 hour drive each way I usually leave around 10am on Friday, but some of our folks start out after work on Friday afternoon. I like to get there early to get my tanks filled with Aquatic Safaris, get checked into the hotel, and of course to get a good look at Downtown Wilmington.
As Aquatic Safaris moved the boat from the first dive site they came across several hundred feet of rope just floating in the water. They stopped to pick it up and DWF was there with his trusty camera…Nice work gentlemen!
If you look closely you can see a rusted metal link that has broken, so clearly this rope must have broken free from whatever it was hooked to underwater. If some hapless boat had run over this thing at full speed the potential for a very very bad day was there.
Aquatic Safaris pulls some serious rope
On our way out to dive the Gill wreck this morning, the crew of the Aquatic Safaris I found a pretty substantial amount of rope just floating in the ocean. It had a big rusted broken link at the end so it clearly broke loose from something.

Saturday’s diving (July 22nd) was simply amazing. We visited two different wrecks, the John D. Gill Wreck and the Hyde Wreck. There was negligible current and visibility was at least 60 feet!
The water temperature was somewhere between 78-80 degrees F. I went ahead and dived with my 3mm shorty. Not everybody did, but I’m rockin’ enough bioprene that I was totally comfortable! This was actually the first time I’ve done a shorty and I really enjoyed it. I think I may have gotten zapped by a jellyfish or two, but since I’m unsure it clearly wasn’t that bad.
We saw lots of fish, and I have to say that one of our divers was my lucky charm because on dive #2 with her I saw a shark, a ray, and a turtle…all within 30 feet of each other. By far the most amazing dive I’ve had down in North Carolina!
One of the things I enjoy the most about these trips is coming down here with my own students. A couple of the folks who came down on this trip have been my students since their very first Open Water class. I worked with them from Open Water, Enriched Air Nitrox, and even through Advanced Open Water. It is such a joy to watch divers continue to expand their skills envelopes and have a great time on their first “big boy dive” as I like to tease.
After day 1 of diving down in Wilmington, the whole crew was ready for some serious Megalodon Tooth Diving on day #2. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had some other plans for us. When we got in from our dive we were informed that the dives on day #2 might be scrubbed due to the forecast for Sunday. Well unfortunately, that might turned into a WILL 🙁
I got back to my hotel room and had this email waiting for me: I definitely think that AS made the right call since the idea of going out on a boat with 5 foot swells every 5 seconds makes me seasick just thinking about it.
Even though our dive was cancelled some of the crew got together and salvaged a good time checking out Downtown Wilmington, and as you can see, we even found some Meg Teeth!

We had a great time and if you come along on my next trip you will too! Thanks to everybody who came along this time.
DiveWithFrank runs a couple of trips down to Wilmington, NC a year. Contact me if you’re interested.