Dive #150 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

An ocean triggerfish angling over the remains of the Mahoney."
Videograph by Rich Torkington in Bahamas 2003

Dive Journal: It’s lunchtime very soon and Jim prepares a huge meal, which we learn is the norm around here. The AquaCat moves a little further around Paradise Island, and moors on the wreck site of the Mahoney, almost due north of Nassau. 42010029 Mahoney 25 05.88 77 18.67

The Mahoney dates back to the 1800's and lies in only about 30 feet of water. This marks my 150th dive. The remains of the ship are largely disintegrated or sunken into the sand, although a number of the larger metal structures still retain their shape. Like the Sombre, the Mahoney is also covered with multiple schools of snappers and grunts. There are also lots of butterflyfish pairs dodging about, e.g. reef, fourspot, and banded.

There are also some nice patches of soft corals swaying in the surge here, which is pretty noticeable. Today there is also an overall mild current flowing from bow to stern.

The Mahoney makes a nice enough afternoon dive, but when the crew elects to schedule it for both the 4th dive of the day and as our 5th dive (at night), there is not a single diver onboard who elects to do the late afternoon dive. However, I imagine this schedule is chosen to allow for the Scotland luggage pickup. A couple crew members take off back to the marina in the SeaDog, a 24’ jet boat the AquaCat pulls around for side trips. To the relief of all, they are successful in finding the lost luggage.

We also learn that one of the crew named Scott has gotten bent on Triple Wrecks, the first dive this morning. Seems he followed the same profile as other divers around him, but perhaps other conditions and just bad luck have conspired against him. He was boated off without announcement to a hyperbaric chamber in Nassau. A result of this event is that Gerry will now serve as the co-captain for the week. We can’t tell if Gerry minds the duty or not – but he seems to find fun in whatever he is doing.