USS Nada (Point Loma, 170 fsw)

Many people probably think that finding new dive spots is easy and cool.

I’m here to tell you that it isn’t easy and you sometimes find nothing but sand and rocks, but it can still be fun!

Tyler Stalter and I dedicated a day on the Marissa this week to looking at new targets. We were down at Point Loma and Tyler had some targets to investigate and had a tip from a friend. We scanned 4-5 targets and ended up diving two of them.

This is the story of a day spent with friends having a good time but not finding what we wanted. As they say “any day diving is better than a day at work” but it is also about adventure and spending time with people who have similar goals.

Target 1 – 170 fsw

This was a target that Tyler got from a fellow wreck diver. We can’t mention names, because, well, you know… 🙂

We scanned it using Lora’s new equipment and it looked promising. Diving a unknown target at 170+ feet deep is just one of those dives you conduct in the hope of finding something new and interesting — but knowing that you might not.

I put my rEvo on with a HeliAir mix of 10/50 and got bailout bottles of 21/35 and 50 strapped on and we splashed in. Conditions on the surface were great. Very little swell and no current. There was a layer of “crap” from the surface down to about 70 feet but clear after that — but very dark.

We got to the anchor, tied in a line and started looking around. We noticed a lot of debris but it was very widespread. After about 15 minutes we had covered a fairly wide area and had run into various piles of “stuff” including a spent 40mm anti aircraft round, a 50 cal, and some kind of “cap” that looks like it went on the business end of ammunition. There was also a lot of pipes, some wire and cable, and other miscellaneous “stuff” but no airplane or ship.

Target 2 – 135′

After looking at a few other targets, we decided to go investigate an anomaly that Tyler had been looking at for a while. It measured out to about 150 feet long and we couldn’t tell if it was a manmade structure or just a pile of rocks that happened to be in a straight line. You can see the “structure” in the middle of the photograph below.

We suited up and splashed in. There was a layer of murky water between the surface and about 70 feet deep. The visibility cleared up after that but it was literally pitch black. It could have been a night dive.

We tied off a line again and started to search around. We finally found what we were looking for and it was … a pile of rocks.

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Tyler, always the optimist, was able to find a very cool pre-prohibition Paul Jones whiskey bottle:

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Next up

Back to the drawing board to find some additional targets to dive. We think we have a promising lead on something that would be very, very cool if it pans out…..