For as many years as I can remember, I've tried to do a dive on New
Years Eve Day. This year I went to Dutch Springs with John S. and Lenny
C. Air temp was 31 degrees, and the water temp 45 degrees. We hit the
cove and dropped to the pump house, hitting a max. depth of about 70 feet or so. We worked our way up by the stairs
and along the wall. We had a nice dive, but I cut my drygloves on a
zebra mussel and it caused a small leak by my right thumb. Its an easy
fix, but I'm just pissed at myself for grabbing something with these
gloves on. Anyway, this was John's first cold water dive, and only his
third dive with his new drysuit. It went pretty well for him. Lenny was
diving double 120's, which is too much for this old back. I was diving
a steel 100, along with John. We had about a 30 minute or so dive.
Viz. was probably 30 feet. It was a nice time, and a great way to end
the year. I'm hoping for much more diving in 2013.
Anthony C. and I hit three wreck sites today (7/3/12) since we both have some time off. His friend Rob Captained the boat for us so we could dive as he fished. Too bad Jeremiah Hupka had to work! Surface conditions couldn't have been better. The weather report was calling for 1' seas every 10 seconds. It was a clear sunny day which began pleasant enough, since we left the dock in Barnegat before 7:00 am.
Once we got out of the bay, the seas sat down to 0' waves. It was Lake Atlantic!
Anthony and me on the surface
Dive #1 was on the Yellow Flag, which is an unidentified wooden schooner, sitting in 82' of water. Anthony and I each brought our JBL pole spears with paralyzer tips. The fish-finder/depth finder showed a load of fish over the wreck...or so we thought. We entered the water with no current and 10+ feet of viz on the surface. At about 25', it dropped to 5' viz. and the temp dropped from 70 degrees at the surface to 54 degrees on the bottom. What the fish finder thought was fish was actually a dense thermocline, which lasted for about 20'. Once we dropped through it, at about 50' depth, the wreck and the sand, which was still a good 30' below us, was clearly visible. Thirty feet of viz on an in-shore wreck! Amazing. We had no current, no surge, great visibility, and full tanks. We set off hunting, but didn't find too much. Clearly this wreck was hit recently and someone cleaned it out. I didn't see a single flatty. Anthony and I bagged one bug as a team near the end of the dive, and I hit one black sea bass. Anthony hit four keeper sea bass. He also played with a few other lobster, but only one came to visit us on the surface. After a 38 minute runtime, the dive was over. Stats: 82' max. depth, 38 minutes, 54 degrees bottom temp, 70 degrees surface temp. At the surface, I realized I lost my spear tip. Luckily I had a spear gun as a backup on the boat for dive #2.
Dive #2 was on the Brick Barge. This is an old broken-up barge in 71' of water. Our intention was to go down the anchor line to the hook and turn right to the main section. We entered the water to find the same conditions as dive #1, and where we hooked was a great spot. We spend our entire dive in this one area. I brought only one sea bass to the surface, but Anthony cleaned up with six. Stats: 71' max. depth, 36 minutes runtime, 54 degrees on the bottom, and 70 on the surface.
Anthony on the bottom of the Brick Barge
Dive #3 was on a clammer that sunk many years ago. Actually, this dive was on the dragger that came off the boat as it sank. It is nearby, but not with the clamming boat. I brought my spear gun down, and once I got to the hook, I noticed that the tip on my speargun was gone! I lost two tips! I left the speargun at the hook and became Anthony's light & bag man. This was one of the best fishing spots I've ever seen, and we cleaned up! I lit up where he wanted to hunt, he shot, and I bagged. We had to keep this one short since Captain Rob had afternoon plans. Viz. on this dragger was only 20', which is still great for an in-shore wreck. Stats: 71' max. depth, 55 degrees on the bottom, 71 degrees on the top, 20-20' viz, a slight current, no surge, and lots of black sea bass!
We ended up with sixteen black sea bass and one lobster. Not bad for a few hours of fun.
Logged dives #426, 427, & 428.
Here is the YouTube link to the edited video from the dive:
The Manny-Yunk II with four divers hit the Cape May Reef today. Sean, Kevin, Jeremiah Hupka, and me. We had room for other divers, but none came through since it was a last minute thing. Weather was perfect and seas were pretty flat. We saw dolphin on the way out and back.
Dive #1 was on the Hooters Reef: 49 minutes runtime, 63 degrees, 79' max. depth, viz 10'-12'. She is not as intact as the link shows, and was in many pieces with a few areas of 10' relief. Fish and lobsters came to visit us on the surface.
Dive #2 was on the subway cars. 47 minutes runtime, 63 degrees, 61' max. depth, viz. 15'. Most were collapsed on themselves, but there were a few that still had some portions still standing. There were also a few reef balls mixed in with the subway cars. There were loads of fish, and many were brought to the surface.
Jeremiah Hupka getting psyched to shoot things.
Dive #3 was on the Salt Barge. 31 minute runtime, 64 degrees, 62' max. depth, viz. 10-15'. This was a fun dive since the current was so strong. It felt like the drift dives I've done in the St. Lawrence Seaway. I'd kick up-current to one end of the barge and enjoy the drift down-current to the other end, and then do it all over again. There were loads of fish, and again, some made it topside. There were also very cool coral type fans growing on the top of the reef. I had an ear issue trying to get down, and after four tries, I finally cleared my ear so I could descend. I decided to forgo the speargun and bag, and concentrate on taking some video. I wish I brought the spear gun down, since there was much to shoot.
Logged dives 423, 424, & 425.
Here is the YouTube video from this dive. Make sure to change the settings to watch it in HD!
On Sunday, May 27th, I was able to get a much desired spot on the private Manni-Yunk II sport fishing & Diving boat out of Cape May, NJ. I was diving with Sean, Kevin, Jeremiah, and Andy. We left the dock at about 8 am, after Kevin did a shallow no-vis dive to tighten the right prop. at the gas dock. On the way out, we decided to hit the City of Athens. The "City of Athens" was a liner that was built in 1911, and sank in 1918 with 67 casualties after a collision with the French Navy cruiser "La Gloria". It sits on the bottom at about 110' about 24 miles off the New Jersey coast. I dove this wreck last year with these same guys, and we had 50' viz. I was hoping for the same today, but was not that lucky. It was 15' at best. We left under clear sunny skies and flat seas. We hit a patch of moderate fog for a little while, but that burned off.
After the hour + ride out, and a quick tie-in, it go time. I descended with Jeremiah, but spent the majority of my time around the boilers taking video. I left my spear and bag on the boat, and hoped I didn't come upon any keepers. There wasn't too much in the way of sea life for me to bring up, but I did see a monster eel stuck down in one of boilers. You can see him on the video that I will post here soon. I kept my two dives relatively short and conservative, with a total dive time of 1 hour exactly, and a maximum depth of 97'. Bottom temperature was 54 degrees, and viz. was 10-20 feet. There was a distinct thermocline at 55' which separated the warm blue water with the colder and murkier green water.
Logged dives #419 & #420. As always, diving with the guys on the Manni-Yunk is a great time.
Sunday's planned dive to hit some shallow wrecks in-shore was blown out with 20+kt winds and 4-7' seas. I ended up hitting Dutch Springs to test out the new neck seal I installed on my drysuit. I met up with Nick, Frank, and a new dive buddy, John. We did two dives for a total of about 90 minutes under water. The bottom temp. was 46 degrees, and the viz. was 30+, unless Frank was there first. I took some video using my Liquid Image HD wide angle camera mask.
My first dive of the season was on Saturday, May 5th, with Anthony C. We signed up with Jim Wilson on his 50 foot Evans dive boat, The Gypsy Blood, from Brielle, NJ. This boat can easily hold over a dozen divers comfortably, and probably more. I don't think there were more than three paid divers, plus crew, for this dive. We pretty much had the boat to ourselves. We left under fairly flat seas with moderate fog to the artificial reef "Cranford Ferry", which was sunk as part of the Sea Girt reef in the 1980's.
We hit the water for a 45 minute tour of the reef remains. Not much to see in the way of fish, except for the largest blackfish I've ever seen, probably over 10 pounds. Too bad they were out of season, as well as black sea bass. The only things we could bring up were flatties or cod, which I saw none of on this dive. We hit a max. depth of about 67', and had viz. of only 10' or so. Water temps were in the mid 40's with no thermocline. Conditions deteriorated during this dive, and we headed in after only one dive. We were back at the dock by 10:00'ish
Almost as tradition, I try to dive on December 31st at Dutch Springs, a quarry in Bethelham, PA. I remember diving there many years ago on December 31st, and having a dozen or so divers at "the lake" in freezing temperature's and sometimes blowing snow or freezing rain. As the years progressed, more and more divers were diving at Dutch Springs on December 31st. This year, the weather was beautiful, with clear sunny skies. It was in the mid-40's, and there was no ice on the lake. Not surprising...but there were well over one-hundred people at Dutch this time (probably more like 150).
I arranged to meet a group of friends up there, including Wendy, Frank, and Nick. We met on the student side and ended up with a group of ten of us, incuding a Dutch newbee and "Bob" the oldie-but-goodie. We decided to enter the cove and swim to the staircase and structures in the corner where the koi tend to hang out. From there we would follow the road, over the unmarked boat, and to the helicoptor. The plan worked out well for some of us, but as the dive progressed, dive teams broke off from the main group and we ended up at the helicopter with only four divers. Since I was diving a single steel 98cf tank with only 2500psi, my dive had to end here, and Bob and I surfaced at the helicopter bouy, leaving one buddy team to continue on to the Helldiver plane. All througout the dive, my mask leaked from the right side, causing me to constantly clear my mask. To make matters worse, my drysuit was leaking at the exhaust valve, making for a cold left arm for the last half of the dive. I should not complain, since Wendy's new drysuit leaked like a siv due to her fleece vest collar reaching up into her neck seal, leaving a nice open route for cold water to flow into her suit. She must have dumped a gallon of water from her suit whens he was done. Kudos to her for being a trooper and even completing the dive with 45 degree water flowing into her drysuit. It was a fun day on the lake, and a nice way to end the year. After I drove the hour home, I got ready for my New Years Eve party and tipped a few! Can't wait for diving in 2012!
