Wateree Dive Center's WatereE-Notes

803-731-9344

Celebrating 30Years of

Diving into History

Archives

WatereE-Notes

June 2007

vol. 30 Issue 6

Diving into History Since 1977

Wing-Nite

Our last Wing-Nite was a huge success. We had divers all over the place – in the classroom going over final tips for the Blackbeard’s trip and in the bar area enjoying lots of pictures from Truk. For our June Wing-Nite, we are headed to D’s Wings at Harbison. We have reserved the private dining room and George Bell will be our guest speaker. His program will be on the Bonhomme Richard.

If you are interested in American Revolutionary wrecks don’t miss this program. Please plan on joining us on Thursday, June 14^th at the (NEW LOCATION) Carolina Wings in Irmo at 6:30pm. PLEASE CALL and RSVP, so the can set up plenty of tables for our get together.

Location: ATTENTION: CHANGE OF VENUE

Carolina Wings
7587 St. Andrews Road
Irmo , SC
803-781-0084

6:30pm, June 14th

Shop Closing

The dive center will be closed on Wednesday, July 4^th.

If you need rentals for diving during this time please make arrangements to pick up a couple of days beforehand.

SALES TAX

Just a note to remind everyone that we will be paying an extra 1% in sales tax starting June 1^st the new rate

will be 6% plus the 1% per Richland County for a total of 7%.

Take the Master Diver Challenge!!!

Step 1 - Get with your Dive Leader or one of our Staff today and register for the Master

Diver Challenge and get started on the path to obtain the HIGHEST Certification Rating available.

Step 2 - Go Diving, Continue your Diver Education, and Have Fun!

Step 3 – For each milestone you reach, you will be eligible for prizes and recognition from

Wateree Dive Center and SSI.

Be sure to sign up if you haven't yet!

(See Specialty Classes Below)

Upcoming Classes

Date	Dive Program	Time	Location
Wednesday, June 6^th	SSI River Diving Specialty Class	6:00 pm – 10:00pm	at Dive Center
Saturday, June 9^th	SSI LV/Night Diving Specialty Class & Diving	8:00am	at Dive Center & Quarry
Sunday, June 10^th	SSI Search & Recovery Specialty Class & Diving	8:00am	at Dive Center & Quarry
Tuesday, June 12^th	TDI Basic Nitrox Course	6:00 pm – 10:00pm	at Dive Center
Friday, June 15^th	SSI Open Water Course Begins	6:00pm	at Dive Center
Saturday, June 16^th	SSI River Diving Specialty Class	TBA	Cooper River
Sunday, June 17^th	SSI River Diving Specialty Class	TBA	Cooper River
Friday, July 6^th	SSI Open Water Course Begins	6:00pm	at Dive Center
Monday, July 9^th	SSI Wreck Diving Specialty Class	6:00 pm – 9:00pm	at Dive Center
Saturday, July 14^th	SSI Wreck Diving Specialty Class	TBA	Lake Jocassee
Friday, July 20^th	SSI Open Water Course Begins	6:00pm	at Dive Center
Friday, August 3rd	SSI Open Water Course Begins	6:00pm	at Dive Center
Saturday, August 11^th	SSI LV/Night Diving Specialty Class & Diving	8:00am	at Dive Center & Quarry
Sunday, August 12^th	SSI Search & Recovery Specialty Class & Diving	8:00am	at Dive Center & Quarry
Friday, August 17^th	SSI Open Water Course Begins	6:00pm	at Dive Center

Travel

Truk Memories

Wow what a trip. Never did I imagine that I would get to do a second trip to Chuuk and it was just as awesome as the first trip even with missed connections coming and going, I’d get on a plane tomorrow and return. We left Columbia on Saturday, April 21^st in the early morning; we missed the connection in Houston and were rerouted through Los Angeles and Honolulu arriving two days late after stopping on four islands. Even with delayed luggage, the crew on the Odyssey got the group in the water on Wednesday morning about 8:15am. We made two dives before lunch on the Fumitzuki Maru and moved to a new site at lunch and made 2 more dives that afternoon. Some of the wrecks we explored were the Shinkoku Maru, the Hoki Maru, the Fujikawa Maru, the Nippo and the Sankisan. We dove on 9 different wrecks during the week and Saturday being our last dive day they extended it to include 2 afternoon dives before heading back to Blue Lagoon as we missed diving Monday and Tuesday. We saw airplanes, tanks, coral encrusted guns, engine rooms, operating rooms, telegraphs, propellers, passageways framed with beautiful soft coral whips and sponges and clams. The fish life was incredible with Moorish Idols, butterfly fish of all types, anemone of all shapes and sizes filled with clown fish and all colors. We could do 19 dives in the four dive days that we were there. The crew was helpful and eager to accompany you and show you the engine rooms, holes full of medicine bottles, trucks, plane parts, Saki bottles, china, and ammunition. We even had a fantastic shark dive at Pizion Reef with white tips, gray reefs, all types of fish clamoring for a piece of mackerel. I’m glad we were able to offer this trip during our 30 year anniversary as it was so special!

Ms. Merriweather

Bonaire

Green Turtle Cay, Abacos

Join Philip and Judy Urso for a fun filled week at the Green Turtle Club and Resort. Your diving will be done with Brendal’s Dive Shop. Brendal’s does a wonderful job showing you the nooks and crannies of the underwater world around Green Turtle Cay. Trip departs from Ft. Lauderdale. We have several openings for this trip which departs on Saturday, July 14 and returns on July 21. If you like quiet, friendly Bahamian style island life then Green Turtle is your answer!

Little Cayman Beach Resort

We are going back to Little Cayman next July 21 – 28th. We will leave Charlotte and fly to Grand Cayman and catch the commuter flights over to Little Cayman and have 8 days/7 nights in pool -side accommodations, 3 dives per day, and breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bloody Bay offers some of the most spectacular dives over and over again. I have been diving there many times and never get tired of location or marine life. We have a couple of rooms available. This is one dive destination that you will return too!

New Years Bonaire

Celebrate the New Year Island style with us...

Offshore & more

Speaking of diving into history for 30 years, our June trip with Express Water Sports does bring back memories. The City of Richmond was one of the first wrecks we dove on our offshore trips. We would take our boat down to Georgetown and head out to the City of Richmond for a fun filled day. I remember my first time diving this wreck, Larry was my buddy and we were digging around in some old bottles. Well these bottles happened to be old oil paints and Oh My! what a mess. Larry’s beard was covered in the stuff. What an underwater masterpiece he was. I still chuckle when I think of that dive. We have some openings on our Offshore SC trip, June 9 & 10 with Express Water Sports in Murrells Inlet. We will dive the BP-25 on Saturday and the City of Richmond on Sunday. The BP-25 lies in about 90 feet of water and features a 280 foot Panamanian tanker that sunk and the second dive NYC subway cars and requires advanced certification while the City of Richmond is in 65 feet of water and features a five deck passenger ship that sank during a storm while being towed to the Virgin Islands and is open to all certification levels. The charters run $95.00 for BP-25 and $90 for the City of Richmond. Call or stop by for more details.

We have space on the Mighty “O” the first weekend in August. This carrier was sunk last May 25 miles off the Gulf coast. Please note that this trip is for experienced offshore divers. The guidelines for getting on the charter are outlined in the guidelines set by gulf area operators. We have a handout specifying their requirements. Package price is $500. per diver based on double occupancy. This includes 3 night’s accommodations, two 2-dive charters with Down Under Dive Shop and air/nitrox refills and/or rentals. There maybe a fuel surcharge due in July if prices continue to rise.