Stolt and Lana Carol

Independence II – 07-02-2007 – Stolt Dagali and Lana Carol

I got to join a group of 12 divers from the Diversion Dive Club on a trip today. I arrived at the Independence late Saturday evening and between the wind blowing at a pretty good clip and the group of drunken fishermen on the dock discussing alternate plans for the next day, I have to say my hopes were not too high for getting out in the morning. The group wanted to dive the Stolt (130 fsw) so off we went in about 4 foot seas. Capt Jay gave the group the option of bailing but this hardy bunch wanted to press on. On site Dave O got us tied into the top of the wreck at about 60 feet. Some mussels and a few lobsters came up and it was decided to head inshore for the second dive. I bounced down to pull the hook and it was nice to see about 25 feet of vis and warm water on top of the wreck.

For the second dive we headed in to the Lana Carol. This was my first time on this wreck which is a scallop boat that foundered in 1976, now sitting in 85 fsw. The visibility was 15-20’ and there was a sharp thermocline at about 50’. I did a tour around the perimeter of the wreck looking for lobsters and only spotted a few smaller bugs in harder to reach spots. There were quite a few nice sized seabass hiding in the washout under the stern. I came back up on the deck of the wreck in the stern and I peaked in a hatch in the deck and inside was a huge lobster. It must have been pushing 10 lbs if not bigger. I don’t usually try too hard for bugs but because it’s a small wreck and I still had plenty of time I decided to give it shot. I got up to my waist in the hatch and it was quickly apparent why this lobster is as big as it is. After a tour out in the sand looking for fluke or my favorite, monkfish, I headed up the line empty handed. In all the other divers did much better than I and about 7 lobsters, some seabass, some tog, and a bag of mussels were boated for the day.