Diver Services Done Right--Preparing to Move Home Ports

By Jim Field

This winter, to recap, the Sea Ya Bea was homeported at Pirate's Cove Marina in Manteo, NC, just South of Nags Head. Our theory-of-the-case was to move the boat North and fish off of Oregon Inlet so as to capitalize on the winter tuna fishing which always seemed to center on these waters, as opposed to further South off of Hatteras Village, where we have been based for the last two years. For the past three to four years--we've been told by the Hatteras locals--the yellowfins had not ventured South, although the bluefins were still very much around. Being men of action, therefore, if the yellowfins would not come to us, we would take the boat to them, and thus we shifted our home to Pirate's and civilization up the road.

How did things turn out with our experiment? Well, I'll capture our experiences and thoughts about Oregon Inlet in a later posting. For today, I want to share some commentary and photos about the diving service I used, three times, while at Pirates to clean the hull and running gear on the Sea Ya Bea.

The name of the service is Sound Diving Service, a local outfit. The sole owner and sole diver is a young man named Billy Cox. Turned out to be a great guy: responsive, polite, on time, thorough, helpful, and inexpensive. He makes his full-time living as a professional diver, apparently doing a lot of work for the state inspecting bridges, piers, breakwaters, etc.

A week before we were expecting to move the boat back South to Hatteras Village, I went to Pirates for a day of maintenance (April 13) and scheduled Billy to stop by. He showed up for our 4:00 pm appointment on the minute, and I watched him set up and do his thing. Being a former Navy SCUBA and salvage diver, I was very interested in observing him--his gear, tools, methods, and so forth. It was nice to watch him go about his business, suiting up and entering and exiting the water. He set up a communication system that would allow us to discuss in real time what he was finding and doing.

The photos below share a moment of Billy's professional life servicing the Sea Ya Bea. The most interesting (and unexpected) aspect of the job was watching him enter the water, fully geared up and stepping rung-by-rung down a latter, to wind up only waist-deep, standing erect by the transom. From there, he had to lie on his back and inspect and clean the hull/gear with very little clearance between himself and the hull. Turned out that the props, at low tide, had about 6 inches of clearance with the bottom, with the water getting deeper only at the boat's midway line fore to aft. He suggested we push the boat out of the slip 10 feet before we engaged the props.

All in, Billy spent about 90 minutes with me: 30 minutes setting up, 30 minutes in the water, 30 minutes to break down. After it was over, he charged me $100 (cash only), which is a bargain basement rate. I gave him a $20 tip, which he flatly refused. "That isn't necessary, sir." I forced it on him.

We shook hands, he hopped in his truck and drove away, we exchanged hand waves. To bad he's North and we're South. Doubtful if he'd come to Hatteras Village on the cheap.


The diving van with air compressor at front right


All suited up, reporting for duty


Descending the ladder into the brown, brackish water


Standing on the bottom, donning flippers


Tools and artifacts of the diving trade


Organized on the wall: knives, scrappers, hammers, etc