Post #1: Diving on the Yukon

Last month I received my Wreck Diving Certification after diving on the HCMS YUKON down off the coast of San Diego. This dive was really interesting because it was my first wreck dive. We sailed and dove off of the Blue Escape dive boat. The Blue Escape is one of my favorite dive boats that sails off of the San Diego coast. It specializes in sailing to wreckage sites just like the YUKON and Ruby E., another wreck that neighbors the YUKON.
Our dive started at 6 AM in the morning. We dove down to 90 ft. and we saw the wheel house of the YUKON. As we explored further, we even found an engraving on a plaque that honored the men who died on the YUKON. The visibility near the YUKON was amazing. The ocean conditions were great, except for the temperature of the water. The water temperature ranged between 40-45 degrees as we continued our dive.
As we continued our dive, my buddy was experiencing an extreme emergency. While we were diving through the wreck, the water was extremely cold and I noticed that my dive buddy was not feeling well when I signaled to her and she did not respond. She was experiencing symptoms of nitrogen narcosis, which is a very serious underwater illness that is likely to happen when a diver is diving in water 100ft. or deeper. At the time, we were diving a depth of 120ft. From my rescue class, I knew that bringing her to a shallower depth would help her overcome the feeling of nitrogen narcosis. As we ascended she began feeling better. Through my years of diving this has been one of the most dangerous diving experiences that I was able to overcome. My friend knew that if I had not have noticed something was wrong we both might have died because we were too deep into the wreck and I might have undergone nitrogen narcosis also. She was grateful that I was there to help her and we have grown to be inseparable dive buddies who are a little bit more cautious of our diving.