Okracoke Island

The Dive Site Database, which includes description of the Dixie Arrow.

Gunsmoke dive shop.

From: Carolyn Sorensen <csoren@erols.com>

I dove out of Hatteras Village (where you catch the short ferry to Okrakoke) last July. Water temp was 78, I used my polypropylene skin and was very comfortable (beach temps are excellent!). It’s wreck diving, mostly deep (90+) so if you don’t have advanced cert. check with the dive shops. Great dives, current was no problem, the Gulf Stream is lovely. Bumpy (&long) boat ride though. We dove the JC, Keshena, and FW Abrams. I dove with the Gunsmoke (gunsmoke@interpath.com); their shop is the house with the dive flag that you’ll see on the right, in Frisco, as you drive south to the Ferry (unless you take the long ferry directly to Okrakoke). Cost was $100 for 2 dives including rental of BC reg tanks. Good operation, although our 2nd trip we had 16 people. You can probably find someone out of Okrakoke though, I found good resources on the web. But if not, Hatteras is just a hop & a short ferry up the road. There’s also deep diving & beach diving from Nags Head but it would probably take you 2 hrs to get there and I believe that the water is colder (have to go that much farther out in the Gulf Stream from there).

From: Alan H. Baydush

actually, there are several dive operations out of hatteras. several dive boats and at least one or two dive shops. the diving at certain times is very very good. of the two times i have gone: got blown out once and had 2 very nice 80 degree 80 ft vis dives the other. Mike Zimmerman has a very nice page about scuba in NC, however, it seems to be down at this exact moment. there is a review of 2 dives done on the dixie arrow (wreck) with the dive boat the Macc at the dive site database (http://deckard.mc.duke.edu/dsd). Most of the diving is wreck diving with a moderate boat ride to get out into the gulf stream. The water changes color and temp somewhere around 10 plus or minus miles out depending on time of year. I highly recommend diving out of Hatteras. The big fish and sea life are abundant.

version:1 date:2/28/02