City of Athens - Cape May 9/25/2011 - with video

The "City of Athens" is one of those wrecks I've been wanting to dive for some time. The fact that it is in South Jersey, and 20 miles off-shore, makes it a bit tough, especially since there are few (if any) charters from Cape May. I got lucky recently when a group of divers "met" on a New Jersey dive website, and a diver with a boat in Cape May offered up to host us.


A little history on this wreck. The "City of Athens" was a passenger liner built in 1911, and was 330 feet long. She was a steaming along on May 1st, 1918, when she was rammed by the French warship "La Glorie". This collision resulted in 65 deaths. Today, she sits in about 100-105' of water, 20 miles east of Hereford Inlet.


The weather report called for rain, but we decided to forge ahead anyway. We got lucky and found the day begin with clouds, and not a drop of rain. The ocean was calm, with 1-2 foot waves along with rolling swells that were pretty far apart (for now). We arrived on-site and the hook was quickly set for dive one by Sean and Kevin. Jeremiah and Tony followed on their rEvo rebreathers. Anthony and I stayed on the boat until Sean and Kevin came back up. Once they surfaced, Anthony and I splashed and made our way down the line. The vizability was fairly mucky on the way down, but did open up to about 10 feet at depth (100'). There was not much to see on our first dive, since the anchor was off the wreck and there was only one piece of wreckage to see. We poked around, passing Jeremiah and Tony, and had a pretty uneventful dive. I would have to say that this dive was on the disappointing side, but not to worry, since dive two would make up for that.


We chose to move the anchor for dive two. Since it was calm with little or no surface current, Sean and Kevin went down for dive #2 and moved the anchor to the real wreck. This area is where the HUGE engine is along with four massive boilers. They came up to give us a report of 50 feet of viz, and the wreck was visible from the 70' mark on the anchor line. Anthony and I splashed and began the descent. Sure enough, at about 70', I could clearly see the engine and four boilers. Jeremiah and Tony were also seen swimming around these parts, as they were catching (many) lobster.


As I approached the top of the engine, at about 80', I saw a monster Blackfish (Tog). I loaded my JBL 38 special speargun and began hunting him. As I was, I saw an Atlantic Spade swimming at the top of the wreck. I picked him off with a well placed shot and put him in my bag. I've never had one, but it sure looked delicious. I tried finding that tog, but he didn't get that big by being dumb. There were some nice sized black seabass all around the wreck, but they were out of season by a few days, so I had to pass on them. On the bottom were some doormat sized flatties (fluke/flounder), but I left them alone while I was hunting for bugs. After about 40 minutes, my NDL was down to 4 minutes and I called it a day. I got Anthony's attention, and he also was close to his NDL limit. We both ascended, ending what would be one of the better dives of the season.


When it was all said and done, we ended up with fifteen lobster, all between two and five pounds, a black fish, and the Atlantic spade fish (which I sauteed the next day for lunch with a lemon butter caper sauce).


On the way in, while resting in the v-berth, I was awakened by a small bird landing on my leg. We had a stow-away! A green (or yellow) finch made the trip with us. It was friendly to the point that Jeremiah caught it and it fell asleep on his chest. Later, I would pick it up from the floor and it fell asleep in my hands as I was gently holding it. I held onto it until we arrived back in port, where I was able to safely place it on solid ground.


Here is the Youtube video from this dive.

Various wrecks - Barnegat area

Today we hit two wrecks and a range buoy with Rob, Anthony, Jeremiah, and me. We went out of Barnegat on Rob's 24' Grady White. The marine forecast was for 3-5' waves with winds at 8-10kts. It started a bit rough, but the seas calmed down nicely to a pleasant 2' waves and a pleasant breeze.

The first spot was only known as "295" because that is the number of this wreck on his list. It is a broken up wooden wreck with about 3' (or less) of relief along two beams, with lots of ribs. I got a decent sized fluke with my JBL 38 special spear gun. As usual, Jeremiah got lobsters. The viz. was pea soup for the first 50', where I literally could not see my fins. Once we got past 50', the viz. opened up to about 15'. I had a crappy fill, and had to keep the dive short, and did a 35 minute dive in the 70'+ range.

The second wreck is nicknamed "El Buggo" due to the number of lobsters that are found there. Today it did not live up to its name. We did nail some fish, and a few incrustations did manage to find their way to the boat. Jeremiah got two nice sized lobsters in the 2+ pound range, as well as a few 1 1/2 pounders. I got one nice sized black sea bass, and Anthony was the winner with a really nice fluke. The viz. was the same as the first dive. Pea soup until you get to the 50' or so range, and then it opens up to about 20'.

The third dive was done on the range buoy. Jeremiah took my spear gun down to what we thought was the bow of a wreck, but the only thing he dove on was an underwater buoy, exactly the same as the one on the surface. He shot two nice blackfish, but did manage to lose my speargun shaft. On a positive note, he came up with a danforth anchor on a chain and rope. While Jeremiah was diving, there was some fishing going on topside. Every time the line went out; sometimes before it hit bottom, a fish was hooked. Most were small black sea bass that were released, but Anthony did bring in a nice 3 pound one that was the biggest of the day.

Props go out to Rob for being such a awesome Captain and host. We'll have to do this again very soon. This sure was a nice way to spend a Tuesday. When we came back in to the dock, an earthquake hit the area just before we tied in. The people on the dock felt it shake, but unfortunately, we missed the excitement.

I was wearing my Liquid Image HD wide angle video mask. Video below...

July 31, 2011 - Arundo - Memorial Dive

A few posts down, you will see a write-up regarding the passing of a close friend and dive buddy, Yasuko Okada. She had an accident while diving on the wreck of the Arundo on July 31, 2010. Exactly one year to the date, several friends, as well as her family, returned to the Arundo. Our mission was to place a granite memorial on the site, as close as possible, if not right on, the site where this happened. With the incredible help of many friends, this went off without a hitch.

At about 3 pm on Sunday, July 31, 2011, the Okada family boarded the Gypsy Blood dive boat from Brielle, NJ, along with eleven divers, with some of their family. The 173 pound memorial was loaded onto the boat, as well as a large bin of loose flowers. After the 15 mile ride out to the Arundo, we set in motion a plan that seemed to work. The memorial was rigged with a 150 pound lift bag and a 40cf bottle, and lowered to 15 feet with a heavy rope. Three divers, Joe, Sunny, and myself, entered the water and began the task of inflating the lift bag and lowering the memorial to the bottom. With the assistance of the belaying team on the boat, we placed the memorial at about 108' on the wreck. The next team had the task of moving it from his spot to the anchor line. While they were doing this, another team was searching for the final resting spot for the memorial, and marked it with a line from the anchor line. Once the memorial was moved to the anchor line, another team moved it from the anchor line and followed the reel line to its final resting spot. The divers included Stephan, Dan, Shelly, David, Sherwood, Elliot, Sunny, Joe, myself, and Rob. We also had supurb surface support from Jim, Bart, Craig, and Kera, as well as Carl.

After all divers returned safely, there was a flower ceremony where not a word was spoken for what seemed like an eternity. All we could hear the spash against the hull of the boat. It was golden silence while we reflected on the loss of Yasuko and what she meant to each of us.

Chaparra wreck 7/10/2011

On Sunday, July 10, Jeremiah and I went to Barnegat to dive with our friend, Anthony, on his private boat "Tranquility". We planned on three dives, but settled for two. I actually settled for one, since I wasn't feeling 100%. We hit the Chaparra, which is in 80 feet of water. The Chaparra lays on a sandy bottom, making for decent viz. She was sunk by a mine laid by the U-117 (from WWI), with 6 casualties. She lies on her port side and is generally flattened out. There is relief from her engine and boilers, as well as other other areas, and she is a good lobster/fish wreck. Today was no different.

I was wearing my Liquid Image HD Wide Angle video mask (video to follow), and was using my JBL 38 spear gun for the first time. I've had this gun for 10 years, but it's never seen water. I lost my pole spear on a wreck the day before, so this was my backup gun. I guess the bands were a bit brittle, since one of the two bands broke at depth as I loaded it for my very first shot, which I must say was still a good shot that ended with a nice sized black sea bass ending up in my bag.

Jeremiah and I dove while Anthony stayed topside (with Jeremiah's fiance Kristen) We did a 45 minute dive, and viz. was about 25 feet. After my first sucessful shot, I was disappointed on the next two. I saw what is the biggest black sea bass I've ever seen (video to prove it), but I guess the single band didn't give my gun enough umph to go through the fish, letting him swim off and away after getting hit in the sweet spot (not sweet enough I guess). Another black sea bass had the same good luck but not after getting skewered by a well placed shot. I think I like this gun. It gives me a reach I don't usually get with the pole spear.
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The rest of the day, all I caught was a sunburn. Jeremiah and Anthony hit another "secret wreck" on the way back in that was in 55 feet. Viz. was about 10 feet since we were closer in shore.

A bad day of diving is better than a good day at work!

I originally posted a youtube video of this dive, but Youtube blocked it due to my choice of music to accompany the video....Pink Floyd "Sorrow". I guess it was a copyright violation. As a result, I loaded it onto Vimeo. Here is that working link...http://www.vimeo.com/26367903. Enjoy.

What can go wrong will go wrong

Today I did two wreck dives off NJ with the Tuna Seazure. I'll keep this brief.
Dive #1: Unknown wooden wreck, low lying, probably 100-120 years old, mostly buried in sand. Problem #1: Liquid Image HD camera mask had dead batteries. #2: Drysuit inflater valve was left inside out (by me) from when I pressure/leak tested it yesterday. This was an easy fix, but just one more thing... #3: got in water without bailout/stage bottle...realized this at 20' and came back for it. #4: got my foot tangled in the gear line (that hangs from the boat to 15') when I rolled in. #5: wreck reel got really screwed up/tangled at depth. Had to cut it and re-tie it on the bottom. #6: LOST POLE SPEAR on hang! Good news? Not much, but I did shoot two nice black sea bass, viz. was nice, and temp. was nice too.

Dive #2: Dove the Emerald wreck. Got on the wreck and it was as if the black sea bass knew I didn't have a spear. There were more mature seabass on this wreck than any I've seen in a while. The other divers cleaned up! Viz. sucked (10' max), and there was quite a surge.

Tomorrow is another day...

Adventure Aquaruim

I just spent the past six weeks working at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ, as "Scuba Santa". It was a rough six weeks, since it was done on ALL of my days off from my regular job, so it was a busy six weeks. I have to admit, I wasn't sure I'd make it through to the end, since it was eating up ALL of my free time. However, it wasn't that bad, and diving at the AA was quite fun. I was either "Scuba Santa", "Elf #2", or the stand-by safety diver on the surface. When it was all said and done, I did fifty-two (52) dives and logged 23 hours and 15 minutes of time under water. It was pretty awesome diving with M.C. (the hammerhead shark), Bob (one of the three huge turtles), tiger sharks, stingrays, bow-mouth guitar fish (shark rays), a silky shark, white tips, black tips, and dozens of other animals. During almost every dive, Bob the turtle, would dive bomb us, nibble on our communications wire, bite my butt, and just all around annoy us. She (yes, Bob is a she) is like a toddler, who just wants to see what is going on. Overall, it was an excellent experience. If anyone gets the chance to be a diver (paid or volunteer) at the Adventure Aquarium, I would recommend it. They are a class act.

The pictureabove is me with my daughter, Katharine, who came with the family on my last day.