Nova Tech: Northern Virginia's Technical Diving Community

Dive Reports > 612-13/2002. Marine Electric & Monroe. Dave Dalton, Sr.

Friday July 11th and Saturday July 12th found a group of Nova Tech divers on a 6-pack diving off the coast of Virginia.

The intent of Nova Tech is to develop divers who subscribe to the DIR methodology of diving and employ a true team approach during their dives. To this end we selected a 6-pack as opposed to a larger dive boat so that the group, by nature of chartering the entire boat and selecting the divers on board, could insure that agreed upon protocols would be followed. This allowed us to discuss with the captain before hand, dive procedures we intended to follow, gas to be
utilized, decompression procedures and emergency procedures.

We selected the Marine Electric for two dives on Friday when we would have fresh mix and a shallower wreck, the Monroe on Saturday when we would be "air topping" our backgas.

Dive Team 1 was made up of of Todd Clagett, Allyson Clagett & Tim James.

Dive Team 2 consisted of David Dalton, SR & David Dalton, Jr. (on home leave from the USN).

Equipment, in addition to personal gear, included 10 sets of doubles, and 3 scooters (2 Gavins & 1 Apollo). Team 1 utilized one Gavin and 1 Apollo while Team 2 utilized the other Gavin. Divers without scooters (Tim & David Jr.) were towed, when necessary to cover distance expeditiously.

Friday found beautiful weather, sunny, but not too hot and calm seas, and the ride out to the ME took about 2 1/2 hours.

We hooked the wreck and the two teams descended. Team 2 descended first and found the hook had pulled off
the main portion of the wreck lodging itself securely in a small section of debris out of sight of the wreck. A compass course was selected and run for approximately 1 minute out and back in an unsuccessful attempt to to find the wreck. Team 1 then arrived at the anchor and ran a course approximately 90 degrees off the course run by team 2 and located the port side of the aft edge of the bow, approximately 100 ft from the anchor. A line was run from the hook to the wreck and the teams separated and ran their planned BTs of 30 min. We found viz to be approximately 40 ft, temp
to be 57 degrees and max depth of 131 ft.

Team 2 completed it's dive first and proceeded to the surface making required deco stops on the way.

Team 1 followed shortly behind.

After a 2 & 1/2 hour SI, both teams were back in the water and completed a second dive also with a BT of 30 minutes. Team 2 completed it's dive first followed by Team 1 who pulled the anchor as they ascended.

The Marine Electric is an impressive wreck due to the recency of it's sinking, it's size, how intact it is, and how easily it can be penetrated. Todd Clagett participated with other VB Tech team members last year in the penetration of the wreck into the engine room.

Our 2 teams agreed in planning this dive, that no penetration of the wreck would be made on this trip. Still, it was impressive to look into gaping holes & see far into the bow of the wreck. Definitely this is a wreck to which we want to return in the very near future!

On day 2 we opted to limit activities to one dive so that we would finish early and complete the drive back to DC at a reasonable hour. We selected the Monroe as the dive site from the Captains repertoire. The trip to the Monroe took slightly longer than an hour and again we were blessed with beautiful weather and flat seas. There was a slight surface current, but it was not strong enough to pose a challenge. The composition of the two teams were the same as on Friday, Team 1 - Clagett, Clagett & James; Team 2 - Dalton & Dalton.

After hooking the wreck the two teams geared up and entered the water. Team 2 descended first and tied in the anchor. We found bottom temps of 66 degrees with visibility of 25-30 ft. Maximum depth encountered was 87 fsw. After 35 minutes BT, Team 2 finished the dive first and ascended making required deco stops. Team 1 followed shortly thereafter pulling the hook on the way up.

The Monroe is a very pretty wreck and sea life was abundant on her. Team 2 spotted a couple of bugs but were without bags, so no attempt to catch them was made.

The pleasant conditions on both days, and beauty of these two wrecks ALMOST made up for the many dives that have been blown out this year.

Dave Dalton, SR.