The Roatan Express I
Built by Halter Marine in 1973 as an offshore supply boat for the
oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Originally named Halliburton 218,
this small 180' ship was sold to the Jackson Shipping Company
based in Roatan, Honduras and renamed. She ran a regular
route between Tampa and Roatan. On her final trip departing
on September 31, 1992, she left Tampa with some shipping
containers and trucks and cars tied to the deck. At 400 a.m.
on October 1st, the captain noticed she was listing and by
500 a.m. she has slipped beneath the surface. Carrying a crew
of 15, all were rescued except the captain and a passenger who
returned to retrieve her purse.
Dive #1 - June 19th, 2004 7:52 a.m.
Dive #2 - June 19th, 2004
11:48 a.m.
As you can see, we had excellent conditions on the trip there on June 19th, 2004. For these dives, we used 18/45 for bottom gas and EAN 50 and O2 for decompression. Runtimes were kept near or under an hour and each team staggered their entry so they would pass the team in front of them at their first deco stop. The boat was equipped with a compressor so I did a partial top-off ao I didn't dilute the helium as much. Dive teams were:

Kell C & Mark B
Marv G & Christos K
Jan S and myself
Above
Rest assured, we brought plenty of gas for this trip. This is just the deco gas for one dive.  Being that this wreck is 80 miles offshore, profiles were kept conservative with runtimes under an hour and staggered entry times by each of the three dive teams..
Left:
On the surface intervals, the Captain and the mate wet a line. After losing some of their catch, they figured out why. Shark..... That picture is not doctored except to resize it. The water was that blue. and that calm, 80 miles out.
On the lower left,
we have GUE Instructor
Jan Sitchin.
The above left is
Marv Gozum,
Philly's Diving Doctor,
Above right is
Christos Koutentis.
On the right is
Mark Bishop
and Kell Canty.
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