Dive buddies first NJ ocean dive - Algol from the Indy II

On Sunday, June 22, I finally got to take my dive buddy John out on a boat and dive an offshore wreck (actually an artificial reef).  We dove the Algol from the Independence II.  Since it was in the middle of the Mako Mania shark tournament, the Captain decided to leave the dock at 6:00 am instead of the usual 7:00 am, which turned out to be a very smart move as we later found out.  The Algol (http://njscuba.net/reefs/site_nj03sr_uss_algol.html) is a 459' Victory ship freighter that was intentionally sunk in 1991 as part of the NJ artificial reef program.  The superstructure starts at 70', the main deck is at 110', and it bottoms out at about 140'.  Since John was on his virgin tour of NJ ocean diving, we kept it shallow, never going deeper than 92'.  The hour trip out to the site was smooth. We tied into the Algol at the high spot of 70'.  Shortly after we arrived, we saw other boats arriving.  They were there to fish, or chum for sharks since this was the Mako tournament.  Within a short time, there were at least five other boats in the general vicinity, and we were a good 15 miles offshore.  After splashing, John and and I descended to find 30' visibility and a slight current on on the superstructure of the Algol.  Since it was his very first time diving in these conditions, I decided to forgo the speargun, and concentrate on John.  For his first dive in these conditions, he did great.  We stayed relative close to the superstructure, but I made sure to do a few swim throughs and penetrations.  John generally stayed on the outside, relatively close to me.  He did surprise me once by swimming through one large room from end to end, very similar to the picture below.

We stayed down for about 30 minutes or so before calling it.  As was expected, John burned through more gas than he expected, but I told him this was perfectly normal for a first timer.

The second dive was much nicer.  Although the viz dropped to about 20', the current was gone.  While descending the line, I let go at about the 50' mark and finished the descent with a free descent to the superstructure.  I looked up behind me to see John doing the exact same thing.  It was a picture perfect descent, and I wish I had my camera.  On the ship, it was pretty much the same as the first dive, except this time I bagged some mussels, which were covering the superstructure deck.  I could't wait to ascend to the 30' mark where the thermocline was waiting with warmer water.  Once we reached this mark, the viz improved drastically, and the water temperature was much more comfortable.

Two dives gave us a run time of about 65 minutes.  Two nice dives for two nice guys!

Traditional New Years Eve day dive at Dutch Springs

Lenny C., Mike B. and John S.

For several years, I've done a single tank year end dive at Dutch Springs.  It has become a tradition that I hope continues for years to come.  The dive buddies may change over time, but the tradition continues.  This year I made the trek with John S. and Lenny C., both very competent divers.  We were all in drysuits, but I was the only one with dry gloves, and what a difference it made.  I did a last minute repair on a small slice in the right glove that made all the difference in the world.  Add hand and feet warmers, and I was toasty.

We hit the peninsula side and made our way to the platform at 25' to get acclimated.  Lenny lead the way with a mid-water swim to the crane by the island.  From there we made a right turn and went until we hit the edge of the hole and followed it a short distance until I could see the trolley come in to view.  This trolley was built in 1946 and ran in Kansas City until 1955 when it was sold to the Philadelphia Transit Company (which eventually became SEPTA).  This specific car was named SEPTA 2255 but its name was changed to "New Jersey" for the nations bicentennial. We spent a few minutes in and around the trolley and then turned back to the crane.  From there we followed the island until we saw the wooden crusier.  We followed the line from this boat to the Silver  Comet, which sits in about 50' of water.  The Silver Comet is a 50' metal pilot boat and was sunk at Dutch in 1994.  It was originally built and used for the Worlds Fair in New York City and subsequently ferried crews to their ships on the Delaware river near Philly. After a few minutes playing in and around the Silver Comet, we made our way up the line and back to the platform.  From there we went to the wall for our safety stop.

Total dive time was 35 minutes and we hit a max depth of about 60 feet.  Visibility was 30'-40', and the water temperature was a balmy 43 degrees. The peninsula side was fairly empty, and we only saw a couple other divers during our time in the water. The student side seemed to have more divers, but that was to be expected on such a pleasant day.  Nice way to end 2013.