Dive #163 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

Dog Rocks has great swimthrus with nearly vertical walls
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Bahamas 2003

Dive Journal: The morning brings higher winds and definitely rougher seas. We’ve been blessed so far with glass smoothness, so this is probably more the norm. We settle in to breakfast as the AquaCat continues to motor a little bit north, finally slowing to moor at the next site. In the process, a couple bigger waves rock us pretty good, and we hear the pots and dishes go flying in the galley.

We’re diving this morning on Dog Rocks, and in the briefing we learn this is one of the favorite dives of the crew. The “dog rocks” are actually three rocky exposures above water, roughly colinear. A couple hundred yards to the east of that line is an excellent wall with lots of features. 42090001 Dog Rocks Wall 24 52.83 76 47.47

As is usual for our first dive of the day, this one will be deep, and this one will count as John’s deep dive toward his advanced cert. Lars will be his instructor for the dive. As we’re preparing our gear, Captain Mark breezes through the dive deck and offers that anyone who wants to follow him on this dive is welcome to, so Linda, Janel and I offer to do just that.

The current is moving fairly well this morning so a rope is tied from the bow that trails under the boat between the hulls as an assist. We jump in and immediately feel the strong tug. Linda grabs the rope and begins a surface swim against the current, while first Janel and then I decide not to fight it and submerge instead. She and I find the boundary layer along the bottom and swim slowly along toward the wall, and we finally meet up with the group at the mooring ring.

Captain Mark is in powerful physical shape, and he fins pretty fast out to the wall, in the face of the east-to-west current, which is stronger on the surface than at depth. Linda keeps up with him while Janel and I linger a little bit slower and pace ourselves. Mark leads us to a fabulous deep wall with extremely cool swimthroughs.

There are great formations, many locations of black coral, and huge elephant ear sponges. Mark heads south to the “Church,” a room-like confluence of several swimthrough channels. As we explore a bit, Linda gives Mark the ½ air sign – she has sucked her tank mightily, which is one of the smaller 63 ft3 ones!

We begin a return path to the boat through one of the great channel swimthroughs. The one we take is twisty and long, and it is remarkable how the walls are practically vertical and the floor is sand. Feels like we are in a maze.

We finally make it back to the mooring rope, and as we rise to our safety stop depth, the current is again quite pronounced. We grab onto the rope and cling there like flags fluttering in the wind. Linda, Janel, and Mark then continue at 15 foot depth swimming to the stern, while I decide to surface and drift between the hulls there. I find the ride through the “hull tunnel” is kind of fun.

Great site – 3-1/2 stars only because of the dive brevity. The exit is fun as the boat heaves and pitches on the surface. Linda apologizes for using her air so rapidly, but I think that mostly occurred in the first five minutes of the dive fighting the current.