Chepanoc (Starfish Complex)

[Admin]

County Decription: M/V Chepanoc and concrete towers
Deployed: 21 Jun 05 - 1 Dec 05
Depth: 107'
Relief: 35'

[Bayesj]

Dove the Chepanoc on 10 Jun 07. It is fairly deep and we had a lot of current that day. It sits almost completely upright and is a great dive with multiple levels to explore and is still completely intact. It was moved by one of the hurricanes and I'm not sure the county has published the new numbers. It is a good habitat for multiple types of fish.

[Mikey]

We went out to the Chepanoc on Saturday, 14 Jul 07. It’s the first time I’ve been on that wreck and it was an awesome dive. According to the Okaloosa County artificial reefs database, the M/V Chepanoc is 129’ long and was sunk 1 Dec 05. Another website says it’s a tugboat and one of my dive buddies who had been on it said it looked just like the Mohawk Chief. Well, they are wrong. The Chepanoc appears to be an old supply boat similar to the ones used to ferry personnel and equipment out to the oil fields. It’s about 85-90’ long (we could see from end to end in the great vis), sitting upright, with a 20 degree list to port, with the bow pointing towards the southwest, on a flat sandy bottom in 110’ of water 15.3 nautical miles southwest of the Destin Pass. It’s surrounded by the Starfish Reef complex (concrete modules) and looks like it’s been down a lot longer than 1.5 years due to the amount of growth and sea life on it. It has about a 35’ rise off the bottom and is a big show on the bottom machine. The engine compartment is cutaway allowing easy penetration down to the inside of the ship where it’s very roomy and easy to move forward and aft. Above and forward of the cutout is a large cabin area which lies behind and slightly below the wheel house. This is another easy penetration although there is some monofilament and a few bits and pieces hanging around that you need to be careful of. The wheelhouse is the highest portion of the wreck, is clear of silt and debris and easy to penetrate, although it is small. There is a mast rising about 15’ above the wheelhouse. There is another mast or crane arm back towards the stern on the port side, although it is a bit shorter than the forward one. The bow is narrow with several hatches that allow you to look into the anchor locker/forward cabin area, but they are too narrow to penetrate with gear on.

When we arrived at the wreck site on Saturday, there was a fishing boat on it. We were about to head off to the Debra when they hailed us and asked us to recover their anchor, which was supposedly stuck in the wreck. This worked out well since they had a buoy marking the wreck. Three of us suited up and splashed down. There was an approximate 1 knot surface current which immediately swept us down current from the buoy. I was the last one in and the furthest up current, so I made a rapid decent in the direction of the wreck. Vis above the thermocline was only 15’ or so. Once I hit the main thermocline at 75’, the temperature dropped down to 73 degrees but the visibility opened up to over 100’. I could see the entire wreck stretched out below me. I swam over and freed the mark, which was tangled up in the wreck. I didn’t see the anchor so I swam a circle around the wreck and spotted a new nylon line stretching out to the northwest. I followed it about 50’ off the wreck and decided the anchor was probably another 200’ or more away so I swam back to the wreck, tied a bowline loop in the line, attached my liftbag, and sent it to the surface. (The fishermen subsequently recovered their anchor and returned my liftbag.) We continued around the wreck, inside and out, for another 20 minutes. The other divers, who were on air, headed up at this time. I stayed on the wreck, hanging onto the aft mast in the approximate quarter to half knot current, for a bit longer since I was on nitrox and had plenty of bottom time remaining. I also had a pony bottle if anything went wrong with my main tank/regulator. Within a couple of minutes, Mr. Bull came swimming in from the north and made a slow pass by the north side of the wreck, staying near the bottom the whole time. I know he knew I was there, but he certainly paid no attention to me. He was looking for an easy catch (the other guys were spearfishing, but hadn’t shot anything) and probably figured my air tank would give him gas. In any case, he leisurely swam on by and headed off to the east. I always enjoy seeing sharks in the water because they are so majestic and at home underwater. Shortly after Mr. Bull departed, I headed up to the surface making a 2 minute deep stop at 60’, another 2 minute stop at 30’, and then a 5 minute safety stop at 15’. When I surfaced, we were about a third of a mile from the wreck due to the current. Luckily, the boat was right there and I didn’t need to deploy my surface marker buoy (SMB).

[Bayesj]

14 Nov 07,
Went to the Chepanoc. Bottom finder showed fish from top to bottom. With 40' vis it was easy to spot the fish activity. Chepanoc hasn't been down for many years but has a good layer of barnacles on most of its surfaces. Quite a few barracuda in the water column looking for a free lunch from the R&R folks. Lots of black snapper, some big and a lot of undersize; also lots of red snapper but they seemed to be down low with many away from the structure; AJs were mostly undersized but we took home one that was well over 30", two divers had to gang up on it to calm it down; also saw scamp and red grouper but didn't see any gags.

Was told by one of my dive buddy of an interesting fish that he saw but I missed. It was a Hogfish somewhere between 9 and 12". They only saw one but It's nice to know that they continue to move their range to the north.

[Mikey]

Our second dive of the day was a buoy dive on the Chepanoc, which is listed as a 129' tugboat sunk on 1 Dec 05. It’s sitting upright, with a 20 degree list to port, with the bow pointing towards the southwest, on a flat sandy bottom in 110' of water 15.3 nautical miles southwest of the Destin Pass. It's surrounded by the Starfish Reef complex (concrete modules). It has about a 35' rise off the bottom and is a big show on the bottom machine. The engine compartment is cutaway allowing easy penetration down to the inside of the ship where it's very roomy and easy to move forward and aft, although there is now some monofilament hanging around inside the wreck which can snag a diver. As you move forward from the engine room, there is another cutout forward that allows easy entrance and exit from inside the wreck. Above and forward of the second cutout is a large cabin area which lies behind and slightly below the wheel house. This is another easy penetration although there is some monofilament and a few bits and pieces hanging around that you need to be careful of. The wheelhouse is the highest portion of the wreck, is clear of silt and debris and easy to penetrate. There is a mast rising about 15' above the wheelhouse. There is another mast or crane arm back towards the stern, although it is a bit shorter than the forward one. The bow is narrow with several hatches that allow you to look into the anchor locker/forward cabin area, but they are too narrow to penetrate with gear on. I previously reported that the Chepanoc was only an 85' supply vessel that looked nothing like the Mohawk Chief. Well, I was wrong. After diving both wrecks on the same day, I now realize they look almost identical, with the Chepanoc being slightly larger than the Mohawk.

We dropped a buoy on the wreck and all splashed in at the same time. I was the first down the line. There was a fair amount of surface current which slackened as depth increased. The visibility above the first thermocline, at 30 feet, was only 15-20 feet with the water temperature at 84 degrees. Below 30 feet, the temperature decreased to 72 degrees at 60 feet as visibility gradually increased to about 30 feet. Below 60 feet, the temperature dropped to 69 degrees at the bottom but visibility increased to about 60 feet on the wreck. The buoy line weight was lying about 50 feet off the port side, so I swam it over to the wreck and secured it to the top of the wheelhouse. I then joined up with my buddy and swam around the wreck. We entered the engine compartment and moved forward. He spotted a couple of shovelnose lobster hiding under a bench and tried to work them out with his poke pole. There was some monofilament line that I moved out of the way to keep from tangling him. He couldn't get the lobsters so we moved forward to the next compartment and then up on top of the wreck. He spotted the resident Goliath Grouper swimming along the starboard side. It was a small one, only about 4 feet long and not over 250 pounds, but it did not appear to be afraid of us. We followed it, slowly, around the bow and then we swam up on top of the wreck again where I waited until everyone finished their dive and headed up the line. There were a fair number of small Amberjack, small Triggerfish, and small Red Snapper on or around the wreck. I also saw some Blackspot Butterflyfish, Soapfish, Mother-In-Law Fish, Bristleworms, Blue Surgeonfish, and White Grunts. I only saw two Snapper of legal size and they were inside the cabin aft of the wheelhouse. After everyone else left the wreck, I picked up the weight and moved it off onto the sand and then headed up myself. An extremely friendly Barracuda joined me at the deep stop and stayed with me until I finished my 15 minute deco commitment. It would swim to within 6-12 inches from me, hang around for a minute or so, go off to join his buddies (there were another 12 Barracuda circling further out), then come back and hang with me for awhile, then go back to his buddies. This kept up until I left the water.