Tolten 8/29/10

NOAA was way off. What they said should be 2-3 Feet were actually 2-3 INCHES. I was expecting the worst with Hurricane Danielle out in the ocean. It was Lake Atlantic today as we hit the Tolten on the Ol'Salty II. Flat as can be. Although the boat was a bit crowded for my taste, the diving was good. The viz was EXCELLENT all the way to the top of the boilers, but then it went down to 5'. We could see divers 60' from the surface, and from the boat we could see divers 25' down! The descent was like the Carolina's. You could see all the bubbles and divers well below you.

Jeremiah and I had two dives on the Tolten. He was diving his Revo rebreather and I was on doubles. We brought up one lobster on dive #1 that was about 3 1/2 pounds and quite tasty. Jeremiah also got some mussels. I didn't see too many fish worth shooting, but others said they were there. I guess they knew I had a new paralyzer trident tip on the pole spear and stayed away from me.

There appeared to be lots of newer divers who need to learn etiquette for how to deal with divers on their way up or on their stops. Stop above them> Move off the line> swim below them> get back on the line to continue descent. Do not barrel through and kick them please. I know you are new, but please have some common courtesy (sorry for that, it was bothering me).

Great job by the crew, who were awesome.

I will post some video in the future from this dive, as I was wearing my Liquid Image HD Video mask. Give me a few days.

NJScuba has a very good write up about this wreck here

Here is a VERY poor quality (cell phone) video I took from the boat while heading in. Nice and smooth!

A few YouTube video's

I just figured out how to make my YouTube video's true "HD", so I made a few from last months dives. Both of the video's here are on an unknown wooden wreck while diving from the Sea Lion. The first is just the dive, edited down from 45 minutes to about 10. The second is the same dive, but is just a 6 minute video that has me getting tangled in a rope from a derelict lobster pot. Thanks to Jeremiah for untangling me.

YouTube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_raN__SlXvo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh6a7nNlZ70

Make sure you change the settings on the YouTube page to watch them in 720DP for true High Def.

Farewell Fi

I have to admit it....I love diving. Not much would make me stop diving. I've been diving in New Jersey for a good ten years now. I hear of divers not making it back safely once in a while; any number is too many, but I don't usually know them personally, so it doesn't really hit home. I read about them on the scuba forums, and occassionally I actually know them by name. When I first met my wife, I had the pleasure of meeting her step-father, Jim Ryan. This is back 8 years ago or so. He was a diver, so of course I liked him right away. I met him only twice when he asked me if I wanted to join him on the "Seeker" to a dive to the Algol. I didn't have the right gas in my tanks for that deep dive and had to pass. He went and had a medical emergency as he entered the water. Unfortunately he didn't make it back. Since then, I've read of several divers who didn't make it back, but I keep on diving. Why not...it won't happen to me. Right? I got some of the best training out there. I've got well maintained equipment. I train regularly at Dutch. I carry a bailout bottle. I carry two computers, two knives, a wreck reel and three regulators. In my mind, I'm ready for any emergency that comes my way. I dive with some of the best divers out there; divers who I wish I had even half of their knowledge.

My dive buddies have the same love of diving. They have the best equipment, they train regularly, they carry more gear than some shops sell, they dive all year, diving hundreds of times a year. They are very accomplished divers. Wreck divers, cave divers, ice divers, and all of the above combined. One of these divers was my good friend Yasuko Fiasco Okada, aka Fiasco, aka Fi. She had all the right gear, the right training, and the right attitude. She may have been only 5' tall (on a good day), but she filled a room with her cheer. It was more than her bright white smile, her glowing face, cheerful and playful attitude. She just had "it". Everything was right with her...until July 31st, 2010, when I got a call from the owner of my local dive shop. Fi was diving on the Arundo; a wreck I've been to. The Arundo is a WWII Freighter sunk off the Jersey shore due to enemy action April 28, 1942, with max. depths up to about 140' or so. Unfortunately, this was to be Fi's last dive. What happened? I can speculate, but I won't. Let the Coast Guard do their investigation, let the people post on the dive forums, let rumors fly. The fact is that nobody will ever really know for sure what went wrong.

We'll never really know what happened at the bottom, but what we do know is that I lost a friend. This one hits home. She's been to my home...many times. She's celebrated birthdays and promotions at my home. She's delivered beer to my home (a case of beer for each time my PBA card got her a break...she filled my fridge many times). We've been on trips to Canada to dive the St. Lawrence Seaway and Lake Ontario, and to Block Island to dive the U-853. We've chartered boats together to dive rock piles and wrecks in New Jersey. We've had dinner, drinks, laughs, and good times together. Really good times. She was always smiling, laughing, telling funny stories, making faces.

This one hit close to home.

Fi, I'm really going to miss you.