The Felvers (Denny and Paula) traveled to Morehead City for a long weekend of diving.  We started our diving on June 9th with Olympus Dive Center.  We were leaving the protection of the barrier islands when the waves would push the boat to a stop while we climbed the wave.  It was decided that the wind wa
s just too strong to proceed.  ·

We went back to Morehead City.  It was suggested we go to the aquarium or go see the lighthouse and wild horses.  We decided as a group to see the lighthouse and wild horses.  That turned out to be a great idea.

Friday June 10th, 2011, we arrived early at Olympus Dive Center.  The wind was not quite as bad as on Thursday.  We were going to dive but not on the outer banks.  Soon we were told to gear up. The dive briefing told us about a wreck named the Indra. 

The Indra is a 328' Landing Craft Repair Ship, sunk in 1992 just off Morehead City as part of the artificial reef system. It sits in appox. 65-70' depth.  The wreck was intact with good marine growth.  

The second dive of the day was the W. E. Hutton.  It was sunk March 18, 1942 by the German U-boat, U-124.  Thirteen lives were lost during the sinking.  Further information about the W. E. Hutton can be found here. ·

 e the U -352 a few years ago.  Paula and I were excited to be diving a wreck of a submarine that stalked the coast during WWII. The wreck of the U-352 did not disappoint us.  We were in awe of this wreck.  We stuck the cameras in every nook and cranny attemping to get a look inside the submarine.

Select this link to view all the pictures from North Carolina.·

The last dive of the trip was on the USCG Spar that was sunk as an artifical reef June of 2004.  The wreck is at the 100 foot level.  The ship has plenty of marine life and is easy to penetrate.

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Paula and I traveled to Panama City Beach May of 2011. ·We call these trips "Drive, Drive, Drive - Dive, Dive, Dive. ·We did not drive straight through, but left in the evening and traveled down to Kentucky. ·We drove the remainder of the trip on Friday.

We dove with Panama City Divers on the dive boat Steel Stringer.· Paula and I got our gear ready.· I (Denny) threw my mask in the common mask·bucket with everyone else's mask.· I know better than that.· Stupid won again.·· While writing the article I am suffering from Bronchitis.· We had a similar problem in Cozumel one time and it took out our entire club.· I will never put my mask in the common bucket again.· It contains snot from every diver that has used it.· ·One of the diver's whose mask was in the basket said he had a terrible cold and couldn't do the second dive.

The first dive was on the Liberty Ship.· Two things stand out about the Liberty Ship.· First, its size was much larger that I expected.· Second was the lifeless turtle laying on the deck where the boat was tied off.·The divemaster had seen the turtle laying there when he tied the chain to the Liberty Ship.· Paula and I examined the turtle visually and she took many pictures.· I signalled her that the turtle was dead; she agreed.· I thought about rolling the turtle over to see if I could determine cause of death.· I have watched way too much CSI.· Look at the picture below and determine for yourself if the turtle is dead.

We were back on board the boat and the dive master went in to remove the chain from the Liberty Ship.· The turtle was gone.· Everyone thought it was dead.· Other divers said they touched it.· It never moved until we left.  Glad I didn't touch it. ·It was the deadest looking turtle I have ever seen.

The second dive was on the Red Sea.· The Red Sea is a 125 foot tug that was sunk June of 2009 as an artificial reef for divers and fisherman.· This is a great wreck to dive with easy penetrations and a maximum depth of around 75 feet.· The engine compartment was open and Paula got some great pictures.

There were spectacular silverside bait ball fish around the Red Sea with jacks zooming in and out of the bait balls.·There were several baracuda hanging around, just waiting for some unfortunate silverside to be stunned making it·easy prey for the baracuda.

Bridge Span 12

The bridge spans are always great dives.· The amount of sea life on each bridge span is amazing.· If I was a spear fisherman, the bridge span is where I would hunt.· The bait fish are plentiful.

On the second day we switched dive boats to the "Better Bottom Time".  Paula and I liked this boat the most.  The first dive was to a wreck site named "Twin Tugs".  Two tugs were placed side by side as an artificial reef.  A winter storm came up and placed the tugs one on top of the other making the site look like a true shipweck.  There was a huge Cobia on the wreck that no one could get close to.  I guess that is why he is a big Cobia.

Both pictures show the tugs on top of each other.  Nature is still the best at placing artificial reefs.

The last dive of the trip was back at Bridgespan 12.  We would have rather done a different dive but thought it would be nice for the othere divers to see the life on the bridge span.  Oh the way back in to the dock we were met by friendly dolphins.  One mother dolphin brought her baby to the boat for us to see.  A second big male came up to the boat and  came out of water just feet from me.  It was the closest wild dolphin encounter I have ever had.

View Pictures of Panama City Beach

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Denny and I traveled to Cozumel on Delta airlines leaving from Ft. Wayne and connecting through Atlanta.· The flights were uneventful.· The best kind.· We booked our trip with Al from Bay Adventures.· We stayed at Hotel Cozumel and did our diving with Dive Paradise.· The dive operation is top notch and the hotel is very clean with many activities offered every day.· We enjoyed sitting by the pool and drinking the local drinks, which for us was coconut rum/diet coke.·We did an all inclusive and the food at the Hotel·was fine but not exceptional.· We enjoyed the made to order omletes and breakfast the most.· We did walk downtown and had dinner out on two of the nights.· We enjoyed the atmosphere at Jimmy Buffet's Margariteville.· The other night we went to Poncho's Garden.· We ate there back in 2005 with Bart & Jaki.· We had a rental car and drove all the way around the island stopping at Mayan Ruins, the Tequila·factory and the beautiful·beach along the ocean coastline.· I negotiated some good prices on·Black coral jewelry and·we brought several bottles of 100% Agave Tequila home with us.·

We arrived in Cozumel on Saturday, January 22, 2011.· We did our first dive at 0830 on Sunday morning.· We did 5 days of 2-tank morning dives and four afternoon dives.· We enjoyed several dive sites, Tormentos, Columbia (deep & shallow), Villa Blanca Wall, Palancar Gardens and the C-53 wreck.· We saw seahorses, turtles, stingrays, an electric ray, juvenile drum fish, green &·gray spotted moray eels, queen, gray and french angelfish, grouper, lionfish, cozumel toadfish, and octopus, eagle rays, crabs, nurse sharks, juvenile lionfish, arrowcrabs, scrawled triggerfish, cowfish and a pie fish (seahorse family).· I especialy enjoyed the swim throughs and the C-53 wreck.· We also saw the Atlantis submarine·while we were diving.·

Cozumel is on our list of diving places that we would like to go back to.

Dry Tortugas

Paula and I arrived at Key West on October 30th in the afternoon. ·We were transported to the SV Juliet by taxi. ·To our surprise the taxi driver was from Waterloo about 10 miles south of us. ·He told us about going to dances at Cold Springs and we told him that the dances still go on during the summer.

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When we boarded the Juliet we were greeted by familiar faces of John and Johnny. ·We were introduced to a new crew member, Alisha. · We introduced ourselves to several other passengers that were already there. ·Later Scott and Kathy returned to the boat from rent a car agency. ·Since the rest of the crew was several hours away, ·Scott, Kathy, Paula, and I decided to walk down Duvall Street during Fantasy Fest. ·I looked at Paula while we were walking down the street and said, "We're not in Indiana anymore!" ·We found the body painting and costumes very interesting.

We returned to the boat and soon the remainder of the crew arrived. ·Rudy, who we knew from a previous trip had been promoted to captain, and Emily, who served as divemaster.

We headed for the Dry Tortugas during the night. ·We woke to the smell of breakfast and hot coffee. ·We were barely done with breakfast when "dive briefing" was announced.

We were at a wreck called "The Windjammer". ·It was a great first dive. ·There was a lot of surge and a Goliath Grouper at the bow of the wreck named Fred. Video ·The visibility was around 50 feet.

Dive 2: Davis Rock

Soon after entering the water, we saw a small Goliath Grouper under a ledge.· Trying to lead us away from the small grouper was a huge Goliath Grouper.· By huge, I actually mean HUGE.

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We did·two dives on the Vandenburg Wreck.· We went to Fort Jefferson while we were in the Dry Tortugas and toured the Fort.· The history behind this fort is very interesting and made it one of the highlights of this trip.· One of my favorite dive sites was "Texas Rocks".· It reminded me of the walls in the Cayman's.· The special fish to me were the Golith Grouper, the Common Comet Star, the jackknife and·the pod of around 20 dolphins.