Return to the U-869

By Capt. David Caldwell

After a long awaited time we finally made our second trip out the notorious UWHO or better known as the U869.  Heather and I organized a trip last year and when the weather went sour we ended up at the Ayurouca off the Jersey shore.  This year we had better success with the weather and to top it all off we were going out on the newly built John Jack.  A 55' custom dive boat built for Capt. Joe Terzouli "ZERO" that has all the bells and whistles for Northeast wreck diving.  The boat cruises at a steady 20 knots and has a lot more power to go that gives a great advantage over a lot of other dive boats.  Fast means that you get out to the wrecks much quicker and if necessary can get you home in a hurry if the weather turns on you.  Heather and I had a full boat with ten of us in our group and the boat had Capt. ZERO and three crew.  The boat is very spacious and everyone was able to spread out and have comfortable accommodations.  We all arrived the night before at Staten Island and where able to sleep on the boat the night before.  Unfortunately Heather and I got a late start and got stuck in late night traffic and didn't arrive until about 3:00a.m. in the morning and that made an early morning wake up with about an hour of sleep.  This wasn't the best thing to happen starting out for a trip offshore and doing a deep dive to 225'.  

We left the dock around 6:30a.m. that put us on the wreck around 12:00p.m., with a stop here and there to run over some others numbers that Bill one of the crew members had brought along.  Once we got onsite the crew George and Larry prepared the tie in line and Bill was going to do the tie in.  Before Bill got ready I told him to make a good solid tie in with a hint, hint, and a giggle reminding him of another tie in that he did last year.  He asked where I wanted to see us tied in and I mentioned at the break in the center because it would allow people to see both ends of the wreck on a couple dives.  Capt. ZERO came right to the wreck on the first shot and picked it up on the fish finder, he yelled drop the line and away it went.  Minutes later Bill jumped in and headed down the line, within fifteen minutes the lift bag was on the surface, no time wasted.  Soon after that everyone was suited and getting ready for their first dives on the famous UWHO.  Until Bill surfaced we didn't know where we were tied in, but that didn't stop anyone from rushing in the water.  George and Larry started helping everyone getting into their gear and Heather and I helped out here and there to give the crew a hand.  The pace went fast as most people wanted to get in two dives on Saturday.  Everyone made it in the water and Heather wanted to wait until Bill surfaced because we had only one dive planned and we wanted to know where we were on the wreck.

Before we knew it Bill surfaced and told us that he tied into the break talk about being good and lucky.  He was happy with it but he would like us to double check it to make sure the line wasn't chaffing.  We told him no problem and proceeded to get suited up for our first dive.  The weather was beautiful and the air temperature was hot.  So we suited up quickly and jumped in the water to cool off then we got into out set ups.  After missing a night sleep it was a little rough getting things going, even having a catnap on the way out it didn't help catching up on sleep.  Heather jumped in first and I followed close behind, swimming down the line we passed Jack and Donna, a long with Jim and Bob.  After waiting until everyone got in first, everyone was up on the line decompressing and Heather and I where going to have the whole wreck to ourselves.  As we passed everyone on the way down the smiles went from ear to ear from the excitement of their first dive.  As we passed down through a thermo cline that cut the visibility down to about 10', once you got to about 40' the bottom opened up and the visibility was a strong 40' plus and it was clear.  It was awesome and we continued down, down, down, one really long line.  At about 100' it started getting dark with a minimal amount of ambient light from the surface.  At about 175' we noticed that the wreck was coming into sight clearer and clearer, but it was getting darker and darker.  The visibility was crystal clear and as we got to about 200' the wreck was in sight plain as day.  We could see the break and the conning tower off the port side as we came down over the deck gun.  What a dive and we are only three minutes into it.

We finally arrived at the bottom to the chain that Bill nailed to the wreck and it was a great tie in that couldn't have been any better or in a better spot.  The last time Heather and I dove the wreck we dove it on scAIR and I didn't remember much of the small details but we did dive the aft port side towards the stern.  This time we were diving 17/45 mix on the port side at the break on the bow section. The wreck had an awesome debris field with stuff spilled out everywhere.  The marine life was abundant with ocean pout covering the wreck like worms, and huge lobzillas crawling all around just looking to scoop up a techdiver and put us into the lobsters catch bags.  Go figure I wait my entire diving career to see a 15 pounder on the bottom and not only do I see one but a dozen and to make it worse we are at 220'.  Heather and I stayed close not drifting to far away from each other staying in good communication but drifting far enough away that we got to check out the whole break area also called the explosion area.  It is really amazing how the small details stick in your mind when you have a clear head and not being blasted from narcosis.  A good example would be analog verses digital, digital is much more accurate.  I got myself right into the debris looking for some artifacts and not getting eaten by the lobos.  The time ticked by slowly minute by minute as we swam around trying to see as much as we could.  I was hoping to find a small souvenir that I could bring home but on this dive we were bringing Heather and myself back safe and sound.  I knew if we got to do our second dive that I had a few areas that I could get myself into with a little time but I was going to need more time that I was out of on this dive.  We started up the line and Larry and George passed us on the way down for their dive.  We started making our first deco stops at 140'.  From that point it was time to pay the fiddler for a short 20 minutes on the bottom with over 70-80 minutes of decompression to let us surface.  The deco went smoothly without any moments of terror, just extended moments of boredom.  This is one awesome dive that requires excellent conditions to enjoy it to the maximum and we had it.

Once again we waited for the right opportunity to get in on Sunday.  Everyone jumped in first and Heather and I waited a we discussed that we would go in right after ZERO and right before Larry and George that way they could untie the line.  On the way down we passed ZERO at about 190' as he was making his ascent, we gave him a wave and continued down to the wreck.  The conditions were the just as good as the day before if not better.  This dive Heather and I were well rested and we felt tight and in the groove.  It made all the difference in the world being well rested and wide eyed.  We got to the wreck and we swam towards the starboard side around the blast area but this was on the other side of the wreck away from the conning tower.  I saw an area that I wanted to squeeze into that would allow me to dig for some artifacts but as I dropped down inside I was startled by a huge goosefish also known as a monkfish.  This goosefish was about  2’1/2-3’ wide and about 3’1/2-4’ long on a 17/40 mix at 225’ having a Equivalent Air Depth about 100’, it was big.  Still taking a good look down and looking at the artifacts and looking at the goosefish I decided to settle down about 3’ away from this thing, the head was facing away from me so as long as it didn’t see me I felt like I would be in good shape.  So I started digging away very quickly, then I would peak over my shoulder and the goosefish stayed put, then I would dig a little more.  This went on for about 3 minutes then I lost my nerve and grabbed a few bits and pieces of crockery along with some electrical switches.  Heather thought I was nuts for sitting down next to that thing and afterwards I thought about it I realized that I was nuts, talk about getting the jitters.

We still had plenty of time left so I motioned to Heather to swim towards the conning tower and as I swam towards it I remembered a artifact from the previous dive that I knew that I could pick up but I would need to squeeze into another tight area.  I knew it wouldn’t be as bad as sitting next the goosefish but I would have to shoe away some ocean pout.  I stuck my body down into this area and with my long arms I could just reach a lens to a lamp, this was a cool find and in the wreck bag it went.  Well Heather and I finally got a few souvenirs from the UWHO.  It wasn’t much but when someone sees it on a shelf there is a story behind it.  We gave each other the thumbs up and we headed back to the line.  Noting our time we started up for a grueling 90 minutes of deco.  This was our third dive that we have completed on this wreck and on each occasion we were able to have the wreck to ourselves and have spectacular dives.  As we started swimming up the line I looked back down to the wreck and took one last look, said a mental goodbye until next time before we ascended out of sight.