Last weekend DWF finally made his way down to Wilmington, NC to end the summer with a weekend of wreck and megalodon shark tooth diving off the coast. This has been a disappointing summer with non-cooperative weather scrubbing both my May and July trips 🙁
It is so disappointing when the weather doesn’t cooperate, but it just makes it all the sweeter when things work out like they did this weekend.
So we ended the summer with a bang, bringing together my biggest group (so far) with our gaggle of 12 divers making our way down for a great weekend!
Normally, we do a day of wreck diving and then a day of Megalodon Shark Tooth diving, so on Saturday:
We did one each on the
— Gill Wreck (75′-90′)
— Hyde Wreck (55′-85′)
The waters were very warm, in the low 80s…warm enough that some of us were wearing swimsuits. And for those of us (like me) who get seasick, the relatively calm 3 foot swells were as perfect as it gets. The ride out was comfortable and beautiful.
The first dive on the Gill, unfortunately had relatively crummy viz. Relaxing to be in the water, but difficult to navigate or make out the structure.
Barracuda Stalker
A barracuda wants to hang out with me during my safety stop after diving the Hyde wreck off Wilmington, North Carolina last weekend.
At the end of the Gill dive, this barracuda was a little friendlier than I would have liked.
The Hyde Wreck
Scuba diving on the Hyde wreck off WIlmington, NC during my latest wreck and meg tooth diving weekend. Not one, but two sharks in this video.
But the second dive on the Hyde was fantastic! Viz was MUCH better and there was a lot of interesting aquatic life to see. Our resident shark fan was quite happy!
We all agreed that perhaps on another trip we might do two back-to-back dives on the Hyde as there was just so much to see! I could have spent a couple of hours down there just looking around and enjoying all of the sights.
After the dive on Saturday we were able to get most of our group (10/12 ain’t bad) together for dinner at the Copper Penny in old town Wilmington. We followed up with some ice cream at Kilwin’s.
Next time I’ll check with the group and perhaps make a reservation at an escape room!
On Sunday, it was time for our dives on the Fossil Ledge. I had a couple of students who even wanted to take the Megalodon Tooth Fossil Diver specialty while we were down there.
Meg Tooth dives take us to two sites. The first being the Fossil Ledge which is about 44 miles off the coast of Wilmington. This first site has historically been pretty productive in the Meg Tooth department, and that Sunday was no exception.
The second Meg Tooth site is called Shark Tooth Ledge. This site seems a lot sandier, less rubble, and not nearly as productive. A few more teeth were found at this site.
But the excitement and bustle on board the Aquatic Safari boat could be heard after both dives as folks got back on board and compared their bounty!
What a great couple of days and a great couple of dives!
I’m already making arrangements with Aquatic Safaris and Columbia Scuba for next year’s trip down to Wilmington, NC with DWF!
Come join us!
