We spent the past two weekends diving out of Port Canaveral, making the most of the calm late-summer sea conditions.  Our first weekend we were blessed with a general absence of current on the CITIES SERVICE EMPIRE, though the water column over the wreck blocked out a lot of ambient light and the 52-degree water temperature on the bottom made things a tad chilly.  The following weekend we had a 2+ knot current and clear, warm water down to 160 feet.  Below that we also had warm water, but it was extremely turbid with less than 5 foot of visibility. 

Other observations:  the dredge MARYLAND had tons of flounder all over the wreck; clear water on the MOHICAN, aside from right along the bottom and over the heavily encrusted wreckage; beautiful visibility on the CITY OF VERA CRUZ; abundant marine life of the barge MADAKET, with tons of baitfish, spadefish, snapper, goliath grouper, spotted eagle rays, and yellowfin tuna; murky visibility on the freighter LESLIE, but still a pleasant dive with numerous kingfish swimming over the wreck at the thermocline.

(l) open engine room skylight on the CSE; (r) CSE port side running light.

(l) the remains of the compass binnacle on the CSE; (r) binnacle after initial cleaning.  The hood was torn back by an anchor line.

(l) winch on the stern of the MARYLAND; (r) Lake Atlantic.

(l) colorful sponges decorating the shaft on the CITY OF VERA CRUZ; (r) towering engine on the VERA CRUZ.

(l) goliath grouper; (r) Dean over a boiler on the CITY OF VERA CRUZ.

 Two brass valves under the VERA CRUZ's engine.

 
(l) hatch on the MADAKET; (r) turtle on the MADAKET.

(l) dead turtle entangled in monofilament on the LESLIE; (r) one of the LESLIE's boilers.