New Years Eve (day). What a way to end the year.

On December 31st, 2008, I was supposed to be on the Tuna Seazure, a dive boat docked in Brielle. The weather did not cooperate, so I was relegated to diving by backup plan; Dutch Springs. Not that there is anything wrong with it, its just that I have had a pretty dismal dive season, and was hoping to end the year on a high note.

On December 31st, Dutch is opened for three hours, from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm. I hooked up with a group on the Wreck Valley website; Frank, Nick, Shelly, and Eric. As we suited up, the skies darkened, the wind howled, and then the snow began. Being as nutty as we are, we kept trudging along, gearing up in the biting cold.

We began with a midwater nav to the trolley. The viz. was outstanding. At least 50' or more. The cold weather was not being nice to my gear. My drysuit inflator valve was being stubborn and my regs were acting up. My primary was giving me a little too much h20 on each inhalation, so I ended up switching to my backup reg. I also had a 40 cf sling bottle if it came to that, but it didn't. It's nice to have that insurance plan on my left side though. We got to the trolley, and then swam to the hole. I chose not to go down to the bottom, since I was diving a single 119, and thought it wise to conserve my gas supply. Eric and I hovered in the mid 70' range while Frank, Nick, and Shelly went to the 100' range. After swimming out of the hole, we swam east, to a virtual forest. I've never seen so many trees in Dutch before. I had no idea they were there. Then we passed by "the bleachers"; a small structure that actually looks like an old bleacher set. Then it was off to the tanker. Shelly took a few shots of the tanker with her camera, but she couldn't fit it all in one shot, so its in three pieces. After the tanker, I had 1000 lbs left, and decided it was time to break from the crowd. Eric and I had already planned for this, and gave the rest of the group the goodbye wave. We surfaced on the platform buoy near the tanker and began what looked like a marathon distance surface swim. As we were swimming back (in the snow), we realized we were near the helicopter, and decided to drop down for a quick swim-through. As I exited the front of the helicopter, I thought it would be nice to do a midwater swim. The viz. was so good that I could clearly see the road, and decided to take it to the bus. As my luck would have it, my gas supply was now at 500 pounds, so I decided to do the prudent thing and call it. We surfaced and began a long calm swim back in.

The water temp was a balmy 43 degrees, and we had about a 40 minute dive. The viz. was the best I've seen it in a couple of years; at least 50' and even more in some parts. I took a couple of topside pictures and posted them on wreck valley. Here is the link. Shelly took a couple of underwater shots. Here is that link.

Shark River Inlet Night Dive - Bioluminescence and Baitfish

Wednesday, October 15th:

Bioluminescence and Bait fish. These words describes the main characteristic of Wednesday nights Shark River inlet dive. Stephan and Yasuko organized a group to dive the Shark River Inlet, that included Joe (x2), Me, Rob Infante, and a couple doing a “Discover Local Diving”. While standing on Ocean Avenue, I saw the waves crashing onto the beach and noticed something I’ve never seen before. The caps of the crashing waves were a glowing greenish blue color, a produce of bioluminescence. When Stephan put his hand in the inlet and moved it back and forth, the bioluminescence created was amazing. In all my years of diving, I’ve never seen this in New Jersey to this extent. This is something that I think of when doing a night dive in the Caribbean. You could also see the baitfish breaking the surface all along the south side of the inlet.

With the incoming tide slowing down from the ripping current we saw when we first arrived, Rob and I got in the water. Not wanting a cluster of divers knocking into themselves, Rob and I began our dive. The current was westbound, and it was a moving at a solid pace. It was reminiscent of the drift dives in the St. Lawrence Seaway. We stayed against the south wall and let the current do the work for us. The bioluminescence was amazing. Any movement created a wash of moving colors. Rob’s fins created a greenish/blue vortex; the baitfish (millions of them), that were so abundant that they were literally bouncing off of our faces, would create a bioluminescent trail, which was amazing to watch with our lights out. The baitfish were so abundant that you had to tightly hold your regulator in your mouth or they would bounce their way in. I could actually hear them hitting my drysuit and mask. At times they were so thick that you literally could not see beyond them. At one point, I saw a crab reach our and grab a baitfish and pull it in for its dinner. It was quite amazing seeing this little claw snap out and grab this passing silver morsel and begin chowing down. In addition to the quadrillions of baitfish, I also saw several eels; one big one and at least four smaller ones. Other sealife included a flattie, dozens of crabs, a pair of horseshoe crabs in the process of making some puppies, and lots of small fish. Unfortunately, I missed the butterfly fish that Yasuko saw.

Rob and I let the current take us for about fifteen minutes and then it just stopped dead. Ahhh….slack tide. After about three of four minutes of slack, the tide turned to the east, and it was time to ride it back to our entry point. Along the way, we passed by another dive who was looking for specimens, and had bottles, jars, and nets hooked to his drysuit. We also managed to find the rest of our group. When Rob and I were near the bridge, we could hear the siren sounding to advise that the bridge was being raised. We also heard the motor of a large boat motoring underneath the drawbridge. Lucky for us we weren’t in the middle of the channel. Uh…maybe I spoke too soon. Rob and I were now at 30’ and had a sandy bottom, surrounded by fish carcasses. We weren’t exactly in the middle of the inlet, but we sure weren’t by the wall. We ended up about 30 feet off the wall, but were able to work our way in to our entry/exit point even with the current where we were met by a bubble watcher (Mike Galvin).

The viz. was lousy; Five feet on the top end, less if you’re a pessimist. I can’t give you a temp, because I didn’t even notice any coldness in my Oceanic drysuit. We got a late start, and as a result, ended the dive late. Having to get up at 4:30 am, I cut out as soon as possible and made it home by 11:00. Just in time to catch the last few innings of the Philly’s beating the Dodgers to capture the top spot in the National League for the first time since 1993.

Arundo - July 13th, 2008

Elite and Blue Water Divers chartered the Gypsy Blood for Sunday, July 13th, and went to the Arundo, which lies about 17 miles offshore at the edge of the mudhole. Rob called my wife and got her permission for me to go. He also called Fiasco (Scubafi) and Stephan (Stfr). I had no drysuit since mine was out for repair, so Rob loaned me his (old) one. I also had the wrong gas, so Rob gave me a set of double 98's with air.

Sea's were 2-3 feet with a few larger swells, but it flattened out as the day went on. I went in and began descending. At about 75 feet, my primary HID canister light went out. At 90 feet or so, my reg. began acting up, breathing like crap and causing me concern. At 100 feet, the nitrogen narcosis kicked in. All three combined caused me (correctly) to turn the dive. I left ScubaFi and Stfr at the top of the wreck and went back up.

My canister light was filled with seawater and my reg. may need some adjusting. Rob loaned me a Dive-Rite 10w LED light to use for dive #2. I played with my regs and tried to get in for the second dive, but I didn't feel 100% confident, so I chose to sit out dive #2.

Rob was able to catch a few bugs and a bunch of scallops. He was nice enough to give me one of his bugs in exchange for the Bender tickle stick.

At home, I flushed my light with fresh water and then placed them in front of a dehumidifier. After an hour, I checked it and it worked perfectly, even the battery that was wet. Now all I need to do is find out where the leak came from. Wish me luck.

Rich Galiano's site, NJScuba.net, has a great write-up on the Arundo: http://njscuba.net/sites/site_mud_hole.html#Arundo

June 30th...I should have stayed home

I was really hoping to get out on the Tolten this season. I've been there once before, but bad weather kept it to one dive. The Independence II had a charter to the Tolten on Monday, June 30th. Richie Kohler was hosting a four day advance wreck diving class on the Independence II dive boat out of Point Pleasant, NJ, and there were a few vacancies on the boat. In addition to Richie Kohler, the dive boat also had well known underwater videographer and photographer Becky Kagan, and NJScuba.net's Rich Galiano.

Divers came from far and wide to take this course under the direction of Richie Kohler. Two divers drove up from Kentucky, and a third came from New Orleans, LA. And I thought my one-hour drive sucked.

As soon as we left the inlet, the seas made me as sick as I have ever been. I don't usually get seasick, but today was just one of those days. It was a miserable 75 minute ride to the dive site. After arriving at the site, I let everyone else get into he water before I slowly began suiting up. When you're seasick, the best place to be is in the water. As soon as I splashed, I felt the seasickness go away, but the water pour in my drysuit. I got no farther than 15 feet down the line when I realized that my neck seal blew. I was not happy, and exited in disappointment.

Maybe next year. Like I said, I should have stayed home, but who knew. But hey, the company was good!

May 24th on the Atlantus

Its mid June, and by this time I had expected at least five offshore trips, equaling ten ocean dives. That would be just enough to count one on each finger and max out the fingers on each hand. Unfortunately, when I count my ocean dives so far this year, I still have eight uncounted fingers. Thats right; I've only been out on the ocean once this year. Both were off the Atlantus dive boat out of Atlantic City on the John Marvin and the Glory wreck, back on May 24th. I have a few Dutch dives tossed in for good measure, but they don't really count. I have a day of diving planned for June 30th to the Tolten on the Independence II dive boat, that was chartered by Deepsea Detective Richie Kohler. I can't wait for that one.

Here is the report I posted on NJdive.com:

I was on a mini-vacation with the family this past weekend in Wildwood Crest. I got permission from the wife to spend a day on the water, or in this case, under the water. I teamed up with East Coast Diving Supply out of Northfield, which is near Atlantic City. They were going out on the Atlantus Dive Boat out of Atlantic City for a shallow dive to the John Marvin, which is a clamming boat that sank in 1993.

I made the boat with plenty of time to spare. This boat is roomy and comfortable. They have brand new benches, which were just installed prior to this dive. Before this, they had a center table, but according to the regulars, this is a more roomy and more comfortable way to get ready. I agree.

There were eight divers, not including the crew. This included two father-son teams (Mike & Joe, and John & John Jr.). John Jr. was diving a drysuit at the tender young age of 12. I saw him two weeks earlier at Dutch, and recognized him only when he put his drysuit on. There was only one other person I recognized, Stephen M, who I dove with once before on the Independence II dive boat. This was to be my first ocean dive of the season, so I was happy to have it be a shallow one. The weather cooperated, with clear sunny skies, and flat seas.

The John Marvin has a max. depth of about 70'. I hit the water at 9:02 am to temps in the high 40's. One of my computers gave me a temp. of 49 on the bottom, while the other said it was a balmy 50 degrees! I got down to find a nice intact wreck. Viz. was at least 30', and there was little or no current. I was able to easily penetrate the wheelhouse from the port side, and I spent a few minutes taking some pictures. I got a shot of my air escaping from a hole in the top of the wheelhouse. I swam around for a bit, and then realized (incorrectly, I might add) that I was the only diver left down on the wreck. I went back up to find that Stephan was still down there taking pictures. I had a short dive of only 32 minutes, but it was a good dive.

Dive number two was on the Gloria wreck, which sits about 2 miles from the John Marvin, and also sits at 70'. I hit the water at about 11:30 and found a broken up wreck with good viz, about 25-35'. I tied my wreck reel to the debris and went for a tour. I found a piece about 20' high with some nice easy penetrations, so in I went. I took my crappy point and shoot camera and took some 30 second mpeg video clips (that I'll try and load somewhere), and also took a few crappy fuzzy pictures. I stayed down for another short dive, ending at only 36 minutes.

I have to say that I was very happy with the Atlantus Dive boat, and would dive them again if I were to venture down their way. They were a knowledgeable, helpful, and pleasant crew. Nice job!

I had posted some short mpeg video's on youtube and linked them here, but for some reason, when I went to play them, they were each only one second long. Thats odd, since they are each 30 seconds long. When I figure it out, I'll reload them here. In the mean time, enjoy the three pictures posted above.

2007 Year End Summary

My diving season has come to an end. It began in January, diving the Mohawk off of the Ol'Salty, and ended in December, oddly enough, also diving the Mohawk off of the Independence II. I didn't get in nearly as many dives as I intended for 2007, since I had four day trips to dive wrecks off the coast get called either at the dock or the night before. I'm not thrilled with the low number of dives I logged this year; its my lowest number in five years, by far.

Here is a summary of my 2007 dive year:

1/7/07: 2 dives on the Mohawk from the Stingray.
4/14/07: Dutch 5/19/07: Dutch (wreck dive cancelled, needed to get wet)
5/26/07: 2 dives on the Beth Dee Bob from the Stingray
7/4/07: 1 dive on the Tolten. Got pissy, so 2nd dive called.
7/25/07: Night dive on the Brunette wreck
7/29/07: Seagirt wreck and then the Pile of Rocks dive (super) from the Outlaw.
8/2/07: 1 dive on the Rockland County from the Stingray dive boat
8/4/07: 2 dives on The Dykes on the Stingray
9/11/07: Dutch 9/29/07: U-853 off Block Island from the Explorer dive boat
10/28/07: Dutch (another offshore trip cancelled - at the dock)
11/18/07: Dutch (training dive)
11/25/07: 2 dives diving with Richie Kohler and John Yurga on the Delaware wreck from the Independence II 12/8/07: 2 dives on the Mohawk from the Independence II
12/8/2007: Mohawk Wreck with the Independence II dive boat.

For the 2008 dive season, which begins soon, I hope to get at least 10 more dives in than I did in 2007.

12/8/07: Mohawk wreck from the Independence II

The Scuba Connection chartered the Independence II for Saturday, 12/8/7. I was to be a Divemaster's choice. It was decided we would hit the Mohawk. This was probably my last wreck dive of the year, and I just realized that I hit the Mohawk in January for my first wreck dive of the year too. What comes around goes around.

Jim from the Gypsy Blood was one of the mates. I think he lost a bet or something, cuz he has to work for Dan. Or maybe Dan has something over him...I don't know.

The day started dreary and rainy, with 2-3' seas. It ended with sunny skies and a flat ocean. I got two dives in with a total run time of 78 minutes. I'd have stayed longer, but it was cold as shit. Anyway, it was 46 degrees on the bottom, and 44 degrees on the hang. Actually warmer at depth. Viz. was a very good 25+ feet. 3 lobsters came up, but no fish. There was a monster eel lurking around in the wreck as Sean was stalking a black fish.

Sunday was the last dive of the year for the Independence II. I wish I could have made it out, but obligations prevented it.

Diving with Richie Kohler and John Yurga 11/25/07

The Independence II posted a trip that most NJ wreck divers would give their left (you know what) to go on. Me being one of those, I couldn't pass this one up. Capt. Dan was going to a wreck with two diving legends, Richie Kohler from the Discovery Channel's Deepsea Detectives, and John Yurga, a very well respected diver who has been involved in more discoveries than I can list. To top it off, they would be using an "air-lift", in other words, a tube with a vacuum from an air compressor sucking sand and other stuff off a wreck in the hopes of exposing artifacts.

The trip posting didn't say which wreck we would be diving, but it would be in a shallow depth, no more than 80'. The day of this trip turned out to be a perfect day to dive. Clear, sunny, no wind, and flat seas. My dive buddy, Scott, and I made it to the dock by 6:15 and we were loaded by 6:30. The Independence II is docked at Clarks Landing Marina in Point Pleasant, NJ. The roster was filled to capacity, with an extra diver thrown in for good measure.

The wreck was to be the Delaware, which was a steamer built in Philadelphia in 1880. She was 250' long x 37' wide. On July 8th, 1898 she was carrying 66 passengers and crew, when a fire began below deck. She burned to the waterline, but all of her passengers or crew made it to shore safely. The NJ coastline was clearly visible, making for a fast and efficient rescue. She now rests in a shallow 75' of water.

We left the dock under beautiful skies and flat seas. The boat had seven rebreathers and nine sets of open circuit doubles. The wreck is close, so we were there quickly. Crew member mcjangles went in to set the hook. After a little bit (I am being kind), the pool was opened and divers began gearing up. The report was that the viz. was about 10'. The airlift was assembled and lowered into the water. It was tied to the wreck by the anchor line, waiting for Richie Kohler to move it to a place that we all hoped would be fruitful.

Suiting up, I was pleased to have been assisted by Richie Kohler. He's just "one of the crew" on the Independence II. Scott and I went in with a scheduled 60 minute runtime. We descended to find the reported 10' viz. was "generous" to say the least. The airlift was not being used yet, since Richie had not descended yet. We were tied in by the engine, with boilers to our left and the props to our right. Scott and I began to tour the wreck. We followed the shaft to the propellers and then turned back towards the anchor. I saw only one lobster, safely tucked away deep in a hole. I forgot that Scott had his tickle stick in his bag, so this one got to stay. We passed the airlift, still tied to the engine, and moved forward towards the bow. There are four boilers aft of the engine, one of which was opened on the top, so I dropped into it fins first. Nothing noteworthy, but it was still cool. We then continued towards the bow, poking at whatever was poke-worthy. With a dwindling NDL, we headed back to the engine just in time to see Richie coming down. We passed him on the line and went our separate ways. During our hang, bursts of air bubbles shot past us, letting us know that the airlift was in action. Unfortunately for us, we would have to wait until after our surface interval to get our hands dirty. We ended up with a 60 minute dive, a max. depth of 74', viz. on the bottom between 5' and 10', and a bottom temp of 52 degrees.

After an hour out, we were back in the water. We didn't descend the anchor line, choosing to follow the bright orange air line from the compressor down to the airlift. We couldn't use the air line as anything except a visual reference, since it was not meant to be yanked on. We descended to an area aft of the boilers to find Richie Kohler diligently working the business end of the airlift. He created a nice sized hole in the sand and gravel. Scott and I began poking around the same area, looking for whatever we could find. I brought a sand-scoop from my metal detecting kit down with me. It worked fantastic. I would scoop into the sand/gravel as deep as I could, shake it to let the silt and sand escape through the small holes, and then gently shake the contents out onto a level area for me to sift through. I found a really nice piece of decorative glass that looks like it came from a bowl or vase. This method kept reducing the viz. to zero for a minute, but it only took going up or down a few feet to get out of the silt.

Scott and I were head to head with Richie in the hole he was working. We would gently brush the ground by the business end of the airlift, watching it take away decades of sand, silt, stones and shells. We were in an area that was giving up alot of broken glass, so things were looking promising. This was old thick glass, so hopefully we would find some intact bottles. We exposed the wooden deck area and moved the airlift to expand the hole. When I looked up to an opening in the wreck, either a conger eel or American eel was watching over us, slipping closer and closer to me every minute. When I first saw him, he was only sticking out a few inches. Within five minutes, he was a good foot out, and within a few more minutes, he was clearly getting comfortable and had was out at least a foot and a half. I decided to put Scott in between the eel and me, so I shuffled over him and settled down between him and Rich. What do you know, Scott saw the eel too, and how close he was to us, and decided to do the same thing.

After about twenty minutes of us working the hole as a trio, Richie handed the airlift to me. I was shocked...little ol'me. I've never done anything even remotely close to this, but was more than happy to take on this task. What I wasn't so thrilled about was that Richie wanted me to bring the airlift to the surface when I was done by shooting lift bags. Who am I to complain, but I have to admit that I was a bit worried that my bag would not be sufficient to do the job. Anyway, Scott and I continued working the airlift, making the hole larger by the minute. We found a good amount of broken glass, and also three very unusual objects that we still haven't identified. Rust encrusted, about six inches long, thick on one end (about two inches) and tapering to a point on the other end. Pulling the tapered end resulted in the end coming off, revealing what looked like a shank or something. We found three of them. Richie's determination of what they were is a "P.O.S", which I am very familiar with. Time will tell, as I have it soaking.

With a dwindling NDL, and nobody else coming to take over the airlift, Scott and I began the task of rigging the lift to go to the surface. It was at this time that I realized that my bag was not sufficient. With my bag filled, the lift moved only a few feet. It was also pretty well tied into the wreck. As a result, I knew that the mate would have to finish the job. We began our ascent, using the bright orange airline as a visual reference. Luckily there was minimal current, so it was an easy hang. We ended up with a 50 minute dive.

The mate went in to pull the hook and also sent the airlift to the surface using the proper equipment. A fair amount of "stuff" was found, including painted china, a wooden winch/pulley, lots of broken glass, brass nails, a nice rectangle window about 6" x 4", brass "things", and other little odds and ends.

I need to tell you that Richie Kohler was as down-to-earth as they come. I can't wait to use the airlift next season!