Hey Guys,

Sorry I haven't been on the forums lately. My girl friend Kelly and I have been in the Outer Banks, NC doing some wreck and shore diving the past week. We dove a wreck on Tuesday called the Zane Gray, a 400 foot long, 60 foot wide Liberty Ship that was sunk in the 70's as an artificial reef. The wreck sits in 65 feet of water at the deck and down to over 100 feet of water at the sand.

We saw tons of sea life. Notably schools of Atlantic Spade fish, (some were pretty large). A school of tile fish and some Amber Jacks. On the wreck we saw more Spadefish and tons of Queen Triggerfish. The triggers were huge and would swim right up and look you in the mask which was pretty wild. Lots of smaller sea bass and other smaller fish which I wasn't sure of the species.

In one of the portholes on the ship's deck we saw a baby Sand Tiger Shark cruising around and two girls who were diving off the boat that day spotted a large Sand Tiger Shark but Kelly and I didn't see it. Plenty of little gobies and blennies as well. All in all "tons of fish" describes the wreck pretty well.

On the invert side we saw a white coral that at first glance appeared to be a bleached Favia Brain. Upon closer inspection I noticed clear white tentacles coming out of it. There were lots and lots of sea fans growing in, on and around the wreck. There were all sorts of crabs and other inverts of that nature and even some small shrimp.

During shore dives I didn't see any large fish but spotted some horseshoe crabs, starfish, smaller fish (even some little colorful butterfly fish) and some sting rays.

I didn't get any pictures. Viz on the Zane Gray wasn't bad, maybe 20 feet though shore dives the viz dropped below 10 in spots. The water was warm though 81 at the surface 77 at depth. The head dive master from the boat is supposed to send me some pics, when he does Ill post them.  

--Last edited by macman7010 on 2007-07-17 13:29:51 --

Sounds like a great time. Can't wait to see pics.

Awesome!  Have you ever tried a can of CheezeWiz?  You get swamped!

Yeah cheese whiz is a blast underwater with the fish. I am still waiting on those pics from the divemaster, big suprise!