Mike's Dive Log

Last dive of 2011

2012-01-03T02:34:00.005-05:00

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!

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

2011-09-25T19:47:00.005-05:00

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

2011-08-23T19:37:00.005-05:00

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

2011-08-07T09:22:00.006-05:00

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

2011-07-10T16:46:00.007-05:00

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.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
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

2011-07-09T14:09:00.003-05:00

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

2011-01-02T14:52:00.005-05:00

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.

Scuba Santa Links

2010-12-16T03:49:00.003-05:00

Here are a few links from the Scuba Santa diving I'm doing at the Adventure Aquarium.

This one is from the Philadelphia 10's show. I'm the elf in the water for this one:

Philadelphia NBC 10's Show

This is me as Santa. I make my appearance at the 5:53 mark. Make sure you change the settings to watch it in 720p HD:

Scuba Santa on Youtube

Scuba Santa

2010-11-25T07:50:00.005-05:00

For the past several years, I've wanted to dive at the Adventure Aquarium, but never got the chance for whatever reason. Recently, I began training as a "biologist assistant", which is a fancy term coined up for a seasonal part-time diver in the Scuba Santa show. That's right, I'm in their holiday show that runs from Black Friday through January 2nd. When I'm not at my regular full-time job, I'm at the aquarium, diving in the Ocean Realm exhibit or the Shark Realm exhibit as Scuba Santa or (more likely), #2, also known as Santa's Helper Elf!

To top it off, they are actually PAYING me to do this. Granted it does include other stuff, like feeding the animals, cleaning, and other real job stuff, but they are still paying me to dive!

If anyone wants to attend the "Breakfast with Santa" event, here is the link: http://www.adventureaquarium.com/breakfastwithsanta.cfm

If anyone wants to work for the aquarium, they have job listings posted here: http://www.adventureaquarium.com/currentopenings.cfm

Well, I'm off to help Santa!

Wreck Diving off of Barnegat's secret spots 10/20/10

2010-10-20T16:49:00.006-05:00

Jeremiah, Anthony, and I went a few miles offshore today on Anthony's boat, which is a 22' dual console, from his house in Waretown. His friend & neighbor, Rob, came along to bubble watch and keep an eye on the boat as we went under. We motored out of the lagoon and into the bay, which was flat as a pancake. We then his the open ocean and were happily surprised by the conditions. I'd call this "Lake Atlantic". Not a wave or ripple to be seen.

We went to a spot so secret that Rob actually deleted the numbers from Anthony's GPS once we were on the wreck. He calls it "El Buggo" since it usually delivers high numbers of lobsters. It is an unknown & unnamed wooden wreck with a few feet of relief from the sides and not much else. The ribbing makes for ideal conditions for lobsters to hide, sort of a lobster condo. The three of us hit the water and found zero current, zero surge, and about 25' visibility. The bottom temp was comfortable 63 degrees. We spent a good amount of time hunting and found a bunch of lobsters, but most were eggers and didn't make it back with us. The "Bender" tickle stick proved successful and once again, Jeremiah was the bravest of us when it came to reaching into the unknown to see what he could see. I was lucky enough to spear a Trigger fish, which I've never seen here before but heard they taste great. It turns out that Anthony hit this fish a few minutes earlier, but he wasn't able to get him to his bag. He was hunkered down under some wooden ribbing and I hit him with a front shot with the paralyzer tip. Our total runtime on this dive was 50 minutes and then it was time to move on to another wreck.

We moved to a railroad barge in 60' of water that was intact and upright. After a totally flat surface interval, we heard what we thought was thunder, but it was most likely the Air Force doing bombing training missions about 15 miles away. Before we hit the water, Rob said that this wreck is known for lost anchors, and if we come across one, it would be nice to bring one up. We hit the water and found about 10' visibility. A huge tog was swimming in one of the holes but he was too smart and too fast for me. I did manage to spear one decent sized black fish, and so did Anthony. No bugs were brought up. Jeremiah found a large danforth 43 pound anchor and about 25' of chain. Using my lift bag and reel, we managed to bring it to the surface as a gift to Rob. We had a 43 minute dive, 63 degrees bottom temp and about 10' visibility.

Tolten 8/29/10

2010-08-30T04:35:00.004-05:00

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

2010-08-15T17:21:00.003-05:00

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

2010-08-01T01:50:00.012-05:00

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.

Sea Lion Diving - July 22nd

2010-07-28T00:46:00.004-05:00

It's been a very long time since I've done any updating to this site, and its about time I posted a dive report and video or two. 2010 has been an off year for diving for me, but so far I've managed a few ocean dives. My most recent was a dive from the Sea Lion out of Brielle, NJ on 7/22/10. Here is the dive report:

Thursday July 22nd, 2010 with video!

The Sea Lion went out on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 for some shallow diving on some inshore sites. Capt. Al had an unknown named wooded wreck in mind for dive number one. Clearing the inlet, we were met by flat seas and a sunny sky. A bunch of dolphin greeted us on the way out. I estimated at least twenty. We arrived on site and were tied in. What was pea soup on the way down opened up to about 15' viz. on the bottom and water temps were nice, probably near 60 degrees. I'd know if I actually checked my computer. This was a good wreck for natural navigation, but Jeremiah and I ran a reel almost out of habit. Old wooded ribs were laying in the sand, boxed in by a few feet of relief on both sides from what was the hull. Not a bad hunting wreck. I saw a few lobsters, but only one came up with us. Not too many good sized black sea bass or black fish to speak of, but I brought my pole spear just in case. After about 45 minutes at 75', it was time to come up.

We moved to a site that the Capt. "ran over" before and he wanted to check it out. Mates Sal and Dan went in and spent about 20 minutes diving what turned out to be loads and loads of cement pipes that just went on and on. Not much in the way of food, so we moved on.

We planned on hitting the Delaware, but the Tuna Seazure was already on site with divers in the water. Capt. Bill was kind enough to offer a spot next to his boat, but we chose to motor over to the Brunette, not far away.

We arrived on the Brunette to find a private fishing boat just leaving. Jeremiah and I hit the water and descended right to the shaft where we were tied in. I ran the reel and also brought the pole spear. The shaft led us to the nice sized prop at one end and the big engine at the other end. Isn't it funny that shafts do that? Makes it too easy to navigate. Past the engine were other odds and ends, and we had relief at least 15' in this area. I shot a sea bass in the engine which I later gave to Jeremiah, since he deserved it anyway. I hit it with the spear and Jeremiah had the catch bag. The bass managed to squirm off my tip (gotta change to a paralyzer tip) and Jeremiah was able to snatch it up with the bag before it swam off. Props to him for the catch. I also need to give him props for helping me get untangled in some heavy rope that I got caught in that was attached to a derelict lobster pot.

We spent about 45 minutes at depth and then called it a day. I wore my Liquid Image video mask and recorded both dives from end to end. I also took some topside shots that I will link to my photobucket account.

Here is the photobucket link

Here is the link to Youtube with the video from the dive on the Brunette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnak8hqHCdk

Cranford Ferry 5/22/10

2010-07-28T00:43:00.000-05:00

May 22nd, 2010

The Scuba Connection chartered the Independence II on Saturday, May 22nd. The original destination was going to be the Gulf Trade, but it was decided to stay inshore. We chose to hit the Cranford Ferry. A short ride out and we arrived....to find the Gypsy Blood already hooked in and diving. Capt. Jim let Capt. Dan join them and we hit the water shortly after. Sea's were flat and the sun was shining. Surface viz was about 15', but viz on the bottom was about four feet. Bottom temp. was 46 degrees or so depending on which computer I checked. I had a 41 minute runtime with a shallow max. depth of 54 feet. My partner was Alex, who lost me due to the terrible viz. He almost shot a bag to surface, but found (the other) Mike still down on the wreck with a reel, and he was able to find the anchor line. During my tour of this wreck, I was surprised to see a free swimming eel that I was able to get on video using my Liquid Image HD mask (video to be posted later after I edit it). There was very little in the way of sealife, with the exception of a few black sea bass hunkered down along the wreckage.

The second dive was on the JoAnn, which is part of the Axel Carlson Reef. Viz was much better, with at least 20'. The sealife on this dive was amazing. HUGE Tog (Blackfish) and lots and lots of Black Sea Bass. Alex and I did a few swim through's and spent about half an hour just poking around the intact Tug. I cut the dive short since the 50 degree water was pouring in my right arm and it was not very comfortable. I guess I need to check out my drysuit again.

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

2009-01-01T15:25:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-19T08:04:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-13T19:35:00.001-05:00

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

2008-07-01T08:23:00.006-05:00

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

2008-06-13T16:09:00.008-05:00

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

2007-12-09T21:09:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-09T21:02:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-26T17:33:00.000-05:00

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!

Three wreck dives blown out in a row...

2007-10-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

...equals going to Dutch Springs just to get wet.

My planned wreck dive was blown out for Saturday, making it three in a row that got cancelled due to weather. Out of despair, Stephan and I agreed that if this trip got blown out, we'd meet at Dutch just to get wet. A steady rain was coming down, but it wasn't cold or windy. It was actually a nice day except for the rain. For some odd reason, the student side was JAMMED, but the peninsula side was not. We did two dives with a total runtime of 1:40. The coolest part was when we did a midwater nav. from the helicopter to the bus, we decided to stop at the unmarked cruiser sitting on the road. We were poking around when suddenly two freedivers appeared out of nowhere. Stephan was in the cruiser and came face to face with a freediver at 45'. I had my camera out and tried getting a shot of a rebreather diver and a freediver on the same site. I didn't get the exact shot I wanted, but I did get a few. Check them out, I posted them on the Wreckvalley photo gallery. There are a few other shots included too.

Das Boot - The U-853 off Block Island 9/29/07

2007-10-01T12:46:00.000-05:00

"May 5, 1945 : Toward the end of the war, the U-853 had taken up station patrolling the waters of the Atlantic off the east shore of New England. Just off Point Judith, Rhode Island, she spotted the S.S. Blackpoint and torpedoed the freighter, sending her to the bottom. This was a mistake, because the sub was in shallow water, with a depth of 130' and there was nowhere to hide. Ironically, Admiral Dz had ordered his U-Boats to cease their attacks on shipping a day earlier, May 4. U-853 probably did not have this information. A Yugoslav freighter witnessed the explosions of the Blackpoint and radioed the information to the U.S.C.G. The Coast Guard and Navy quickly converged on the area with four warships - the USCG Frigate Moberly, the Destroyer Ericsson, and the Destroyer Escorts Atherton and Amick. Using sonar they quickly located the submerged U-853 some six miles east of Block Island. Depth charging was commenced, and continued into the night. At one point, the white hat of a German U-Boat Captain floated to the surface. At daylight, the navy sent a hard-hat diver down and confirmed the destruction of the U-853. All 55 hands were lost, entombed in the boat. "

September 29, 2007: My best friend from college was getting married, and he asked me to be in the wedding party. Rehearsal dinner was Friday night with the wedding taking place Sunday afternoon. Did I mention that the wedding was in Rhode Island? What to do all day Saturday? Visit my alma mater? Go to Newport? Relax? No. The U-853, a piece of history I’ve been dreaming about diving for years, was just a few miles off Block Island, at a depth of 130’. It was decided that my Saturday would be spent trying for a second time to reach out and touch this sub. Last year we were cancelled as we waited for the boat Captain to arrive at the dock. This year I would try again. With what was supposed to be a joint New Jersey / Rhode Island dive contingent, we chartered the Explo rer dive boat out of Snug Harbor in Narragansett, RI. This was an excellent choice. The Explorer is a 42 foot fiberglass Grand Banks expedition trawler built for comfort. Although it can hold up to ten divers, Capt. Sutton chooses to keep the number down to six to keep it manageable.

Like I said, this was supposed to be a joint NJ/RI diving adventure, mainly RI plus me. Two spots still needed to be filled and the Capt. Recommended posting for them on Scubaboard. I had a better idea. I ran the dive past a few of my NJ diving buddies and the spots were taken. As the date got closer and closer, the RI divers numbers dwindled as the NJ divers numbers increased. In the end, it was supposed to be five from NJ and one from RI. That too would change by the time the Explorer left Snug Harbor.

The weather report was calling for clear sunny skies with winds to 15 knots. It was looking like we were going to make it out to the sub. We met at the marina at 4:30 am and began loading the gear onto the Explorer. The sixth diver, Bill D from RI, didn’t make it to the dock. He mentioned to me the night before that he was still on the fence. If he showed, he showed. If not, it would be five instead of six. Capt. Sutton was as hospitable and friendly as they come. He gave us an update on the predicted weather; 15 knot winds with 2-4’ seas, expecting to lie down as the day progressed. He told us that last week there was 25’ viz. on the sub. Things were looking up, and it would appear that the angst I’ve been feeling the past few days when thinking about the dive being scrubbed was all for naught.

The ride out was beautiful. The sun was rising from the east, Block Island was on to our west, and the weather was looking good. We arrived at the site to find one of the three moorings gone. The Capt. maneuvered us over the sub and we hooked into one of the moorings and began setting up. Rob would be the first in, as he would be spending the most time on the sub. He was diving a Meg rebreather and knows this sub well. Scott and I would buddy up, as we were both diving open circuit doubles with 40 cf. bailout bottles. Stephan was diving his KISS rebreather and he would partner up with Yasuko, who was diving single steel 100 with a 40 cf. bailout bottle.

Scott and I splashed in at 8:41 and began our descent. My heart was racing as I was realizing that I was finally going down to the U-853. The conning tower starts at 90’, and I thought we were tied onto it. I was watching my depth gauge anticipating the sub coming into view. 70’… only 20’ to go. 80’…only 10’ to go. 90’… I should see it…I should see….100’. Huh? It wasn’t until my depth gauge read 112’ did I see the sub. We were tied into the bow, which is still intact and is one of the most recognizable parts of the sub since it was made with thick steel to bust through ice. The visibility was a disappointing five feet and there was a moderate current running from the bow to stern. It took just over two minutes for me to make it down to the sub. Before I touched the sub I stopped, took in a breath, and reached out as if I was patting the head of my 4-year old. I laid my hand onto the side of the sub as I felt a wave of satisfaction run through me. Finally. It took me a minute or two to get situated, since I was pretty narced and needed to shake it off. We settled at 122’ on the starboard side of the bow. Scott was motioning something about running a reel, but it didn’t register yet. After a minute or two of settling down I motioned to Scott that I wanted to go to the sand, but then I took a look at my NDL and saw it was already in the single digits. I didn’t even attempt to descend past my max. depth of 123’. I could see the round shape of the torpedo at the bow and saw all the deterioration around the sub. The pressure hull was gone and anemones covered the exposed areas. I took a few pictures using my camera, but there was too many particles floating by to make anything of them. We never ventured too far from the line, maybe 25’, but never made it to the conning tower or first blast hole. I was keeping an eye on my NDL and watched as it ticked town to one minute. Up a few feet to give me a few more minutes of NDL until it ticked down to one minute again, and up a few more feet. After the seventeen-minute mark, Scott and I began our ascent. We made a slow and steady ascent, making several stops along the way. Breaking through the thermocline where the visibility opened up twenty feet or so, we were met with a thick layer of jellyfish. I guess I was too excited to notice them on the way down, but they were everywhere. I’ve seen jellyfish before, but this was like no other I’ve seen. It was a forty foot thick layer of jelly blob.

Breaking the ten-foot mark I had a little incident that Scott helped me with. The ascent line had a small loop hanging off underneath the mooring. This loop was made of black rope, so it blended in with my hoses. It got caught under my chin and behind my tank. I tried ascending but all that happened was my regulator was pulled from my mouth. I was able to bite down and catch the edge of one piece, but my mouth was now filled with salt water and my regulator was dangling on my lip. Before I reached for my backup, Scott pulled the line off and I was back in business. It seemed that the top ten feet were a lot rougher now than they were forty minutes earlier. Sure enough, the 2’-4’ seas didn’t lie down as predicted. We were greeted by at least 8’ seas with wind gusts of 25 knots or more. The mate was waiting on the bow with a hook for me to hold onto as he pulled me to the stern of the Explorer. The waves were making the ladder a little difficult to handle, but with the help of the crew, I was safely on board just as the mooring broke. Scott came on board quickly and the crew went into action. Lucky for us, the Capt. covered this exact scenario during the briefing, and he did exactly what he said he would do. We started the engines and circled the bobbing buoys until all the divers came up and were recovered. Not an easy task with 8’-10’ seas and whipping winds. White capped waves were crashing over the bow as the mates were keeping a sharp eye on the buoy for divers breaking the surface. Credit due to the Capt. and his crew for doing a professional job.

In the end, I had a 41-minute runtime that included just over two minutes to descend, 15 minutes at depth, and the remaining time on the ascent line. I had 54 degrees on the bottom.

Due to the weather, we did not do a second dive on the sub, which was both disappointing and a relief. We hit a crane barge near the inlet just to spend a little more time in the water. Sorry, I didn’t write a report for this.

I want to extend my thanks to Capt. Sutton of the dive boat Explorer, along with his crew. I would recommend them to anyone who wants a truly professional experience and a comfortable dive platform.Stephan, Mike, Yasuko, Scott, and Rob.

Pictures from Dutch Springs

2007-09-16T19:02:00.000-05:00

I usually don't write-up dives from Dutch Springs, but I did take some pictures from todays dive. Scott, Yasuko, and I got a 75 minute dive in the cove, after a midwater swim from the helicopter. Here are a few shots.

Trees in the fog

Scott in the steel structure

Yasuko over the trees

Rotor blades (minus the blades) from the helicotper

Mike in the steel structure

Fog in the trees

The Dykes - Aug 4, 2007

2007-08-05T07:56:00.000-05:00

The Scuba Connection chartered the Stingray dive boat for Sunday, August 4, 2007. The initial idea was to go to the Alex Mac, a scallop boat which went down a few years ago. After a little trouble hooking the remains of the wreck, we decided to hit the Dykes, which was sunk as an artificial reef in 1983. As usual, there is an excellent write-up on this site on NJScuba.net.

While enroute, we were visited by a bunch of dolphin, who were jumping out of the water fairly close to the boat. We were also visited by a leatherback turtle, which I haven't seen in NJ. While we were finishing up our second dive, we were met by something else I've never seen before in NJ. A sharks fin broke the surface and was cruising on the surface about twenty feet off the stern for a short time. Stephan saw it and decided not to say anything, thinking nobody would believe him. Then I saw it and pointed it out. We had a few bags of mussels hanging overboard, so I wonder if that's what peaked its interest. It was most likely a dogfish shark, but we didn't see more than the fin.

I did two dives for a total runtime of 96 minutes. Viz. ranged from 10'-20'. On the first dive I shot my very first fluke and Scott got a couple of lobsters. On my second dive, I left my spear on the boat and brough down my camera for a few pics. They are posted here on wreckvalley. I love taking pictures of the starfish, anemones, shells, and fish. I just wish I had a better camera.

The tickle stick that Scott used is the soon-to-be world famous "Bender lobster tickle stick". Its simply a 2 1/2 foot piece of thick coated copper wire from Home Depot. It can be folded up, bent, straightened out, or whatever, as needed. Its not called the "Bender lobster tickle stick" because my last name just happens to be Bender, but because it bends...get it? What a play on words. As ridiculous as it sounds, this thing actually works. He caught two lobsters using it on this dive, and it was as versatile as they come. Just watch...next year everyone will be using one. Home Depot won't be able to keep this stuff on the shelves, there will be a worldwide shortage of the materials needed to make it, it will cause mass panic.....you'll see. In the mean time, while you're waiting for this to happen, check out my pics from the dive.

Rockland County - NJ night dive 8/2/07

2007-08-03T05:41:00.000-05:00

The Rockland County is a tugboat measuring 105' x 24' and built in 1960. On Valentines day, February 14, 1986, she was intentionally sunk as part of the New Jersey artificial reef program, and sits in about 80' of water in the "Sea Girt reef". This reef is located on an underwater ridge known as the "Klondike", which is known for having a sandy bottom and relatively good visibility.

On August 2, 2007, The Scuba Connection chartered the Stingray dive boat for a single-tank night dive on the Rockland County. The wife and some of the kids dropped me off at the dock, with the intention of visiting some friends and family at the shore while I was off diving. Making the dive with me was Scott, Stephan, Yasuko, Sean, Michelle, Paula, Alex and Alec. My wife gave me very specific instructions; come back with sea shells and star fish for our 4-year old daughters upcoming luau themed birthday party. Seafood was secondary. I made sure to tell Scott what my priorities were so they were quite clear; hit the bottom, scoop up what we can, and then enjoy the rest of the dive. I came prepared, with a homemade tickle stick, which consisted of a 2-1/2' long piece of heavy coated copper wire from Home Depot that could be bent in any direction, but strong enough to hold its shape. This tug sits in no more than 80', so I was diving double 98's filled with 36% nitrox, giving me a bottom time of 55 minutes (assuming I was to spend the whole time on the bottom), plenty of time to gather the needed materials and still have time to explore.

After a longer than expected wait to tie into the wreck, the pool was open. Scott and I splashed-in almost last. Upon hitting the tug, we did just as planned. This was a true night dive. There was no bright moon, no ambient light, and viz. was no more than 10'. There was also a decent current. We hit the sand and began bagging up shells and starfish. I made sure to bring a separate bag for them, since I didn't want any "dinner" to damage these valuable goods. In addition to the shells and star fish, I also loaded up on sand dollars. I've never seen so many, they were all over the place. I was able to scoop up a half a dozen at a time. As silly as this sounds, I love sand dollars. I think they're cool. I found a nice sized vacant moonsnail shell, as well as a small "occupied" one too. I also picked up half a dozen star fish of various sizes. After this, it was time to explore the wreck.

Almost immediately, Scott found a decent sized fluke under the stern. I gave him my pole spear and he nailed it with a nice shot behind the head. We began exploring the tug from top to bottom and all around. Swimming by the portholes, I was surprised to be blown away from the tug each time. The current coming through the tug was pushed through these small round holes, creating quite alot of force. This tug was covered with beautiful Sea Anemones, mussels, hydroids, star fish, and lots of other colorful growth. Knowing my lack of lobster catching abilities, I made sure to bag up several pounds of those ferocious fighting, fear inspiring mussels. Wow, did they put of a fight, but don't worry, I came out of it ok. Scott wasn't so lucky, I think one of them gave him a bloody nose.

After exploring the tug for a while, and not seeing anything worth spearing, I dropped my pole spear and bags by the hook, leaving my free to explore further. Swimming along without my spear, I found a nice sized tog just waiting to be taken to the surface. He was about four feet inside, and the opening was about a foot and a half wide. I returned to the hook to retrieve my spear, lined up a shot, and missed. Before I could reload, the tog shot out of the hole upside down, swam around wildly for a few seconds, and then ran directly into Scott's catch bag. If only it had been opened, he would have swam right in. Oh well. I returned my spear to the hook and continued exploring. About twenty-feet from the hook, about three feet in a two-foot hole, sat what I was looking for...a nice two to three pound lobster staring me in the face. I tried, but he was just out of my reach, so I had to return to my catch bag for my homemade tickle stick. I turned around to head back to the hook for the tickle stick and noticed that Scott was still by the hook. When I went to retrieve the stick, Scott made it clear that he was ready to ascend, since that bloody nose the mussels gave him was getting the best of him. Lobster: 1, Mike: 0.

We were the last divers on the boat and we managed to have a 59 minute runtime. Several nice sized lobsters came up, along with one fluke and pounds and pounds of mussels. The mate went in to pull the hook and we were off, heading back to the Belmar Boat Basin. We got back to the dock a little later than expected, but my wife and kids were wide awake and waiting for us at the marina. The kids were so excited to see the starfish, the wife was excited to see me, and I was excited to dive again on Saturday.

A wreck and a pile of rocks - July 29th, 2007

2007-07-29T18:32:00.000-05:00

One of the problems with signing up with a scheduled charter is that you are limited to where you are diving. One way to solve this is to charter your own boat and fill it with good friends and skilled divers, which is just what I did on Sunday, July 29th. I chartered the Outlaw Dive Boat out of Balmar, NJ, which is a six-pack boat. I wish it could have taken a few more divers, since unfortunately, I left out a few divers that should have come along. In the end, the boat was filled by me, Scott Previte, Rob Infante, Stephan Francke, Craig Billings, and Yasuko (aka Fiasco). Our goal was to dive relatively shallow, somewhere in the 75'-90' range, and look for lobsters and other tasty creatures of the deep. Ideally, it would be a three-tank day, but that was up in the air.

I checked the weather report regularly, and was not optimistic that the trip would go out. They were calling for scattered thunderstorms and showers Saturday and Sunday, but the seas were only forecast for 3'-4', which are quite acceptable. The night before the dive, I was so sure that the dive would be called that I kept my cell phone on my nightstand. Except for a few hours of scattered sleep, I was up most of the night. Up and out by 5:00 am for the hour drive to Belmar, with the required stop at Quickcheck for breakfast and lunch, I should arrive at the boat no later than 6:00. Enroute, I was met with heavy clouds, lightning in the distance, and as I approached the shore area, fog so thick it could only be described as pea soup. Scott called to say that he was in the middle of an electrical storm, and at this point I thought it was only a matter of time before we ended up heading to Dutch. As Interstate 195 changed to Rt. 138, there was a break in the fog, and low and behold what did I see above? Blue sky...outstanding!

I arrived at the Belmar Boat Basin to find a packed house. All the party and charter fishing boats were loading up, as well as the dive boats. Across from the Outlaw, the Stingray was loading divers for their "Princess Dive" for a ladies only day under the sea. All six divers arrived and we loaded up and headed out to find flat seas. The 3'-5' seas were still 3-5, but they were inches, not feet. The fog was moderate while heading out, but there was no breeze and no current. The ocean was as flat as I've ever seen....aka....Lake Atlantic. Keeping with our goal, we decided to dive on the Sea Girt wreck, not to be confused with the Sea Girt tug. This was a schooner barge believed to be sunk around 1900, and is about eight miles off the coast. It takes its name only because it is eight miles off the town of Sea Girt. The loss of this barge was never recorded, and it is unlikely its true name will ever be known.

The wreck consists of two parallel wooden walls 3'-4' tall, and the ship's keel in the center. There is a large amount of machinery and other items from the barge, including a winch, big anchor, and a massive chain pile rising at least 10 feet off the sand. The wreck itself is really big, estimated to be about 250 feet long. There is a very good write-up and pictures on the NJScuba.net website at http:/njscuba.net/sites/site_sea_girt_wreck.html.

Descending along the anchor line, there was no current, and the viz above the thermocline was a good forty feet. Hitting the 50' mark, the temp took a nose dive along with the viz, which was now between 10' and 15'. Scott and I hit one of the low walls, which contained compartments each about a foot wide. I was amazed to see that just about each compartment held at least one crab, some two, and occasionally, three. Every few compartments contained what we came for...lobsters. The only problem was that these compartments narrowed quickly and went far beyond the reach of any of our arms. Using my pole spear proved fruitless. There were skates all around in the sand, and a large number of black sea bass among the wreckage, and I was able to nail one mature fish before we turned around. I went to the chain pile, which was massive. So big that I thought it was a part of the wreckage, not a chain. I missed the large anchor said to be nearby. This chain pile was a magnet for black sea bass. I found another mature one with a spear hole already in its side, and decided to make the same choice the previous underwater hunter made, which is "nice fish, I want you". I nailed this one and bagged him, putting him in with the other one I got before, along with a lobster that Scott picked up on the low wall. After 40 minutes, it was time to ascend. I ended with a 46 minute run time, a bottom temp. of 54 degrees, and viz. of 10'-15'.

The surface interval was something to remember. We were visited by dolphin...lots and lots of them. They were all around us while waiting to pull the anchor, and they swam with us for a majority of the trip to our second dive site, which was to be a natural rock formation about two miles to our east. This was Fiasco's first time seeing dolphin in NJ, and she saw more on this one day than I've seen in all my years of diving here.

The second dive was on a natural rock formation, which was hopefully loaded with lobster. Scott and I descended to find this place reminiscent of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Loaded with life, colorful, and true to Capt. Nash's word, filled with lobsters. There were almost no large fish to shoot, with the exception of two large fluke that I didn't take, and again, skates all over the place. Scott grabbed one legal sized bug which I bagged up, but we weren't able to grab more even though we could see them. To be quite honest, we both readily admit that we suck at catching lobsters. After 35 minutes it was time to go up. I ended up with a 40 minute run time, a bottom temp. of 56 degrees, and a viz. of no more than 10'. On the hang, we were met by Craig and Fiasco, who showed us the three bugs that she caught. She ended up with a bruise on her hand from one of them clamping down on her, but she won and should have a nice dinner as a reward. On the surface, the dolphin continued giving us a show. While waiting for the diver to release the hook, Rob floated out about 200' on a ball and line while using snorkeling gear in order to get close to them, and was able to hear them "talk" to each other. Rob ended his dive with three nice sized lobsters as well. Again, NJScuba.net has a nice write-up and photos at http://njscuba.net/sites/site_rocks.html

As the second dive was ending, the weather was deteriorating fast. The storm clouds could be seen to our west, thunder and lightning were approaching, and then the rain started. The ride back in was a wet and windy one, but I didn't care...I was asleep.

Here are links from mine, Fiasco's, and Stephan's pics on Wreckvalley>>>
http://www.wreckvalley.com/gallery/v/local/wrecks/july29/
http://www.wreckvalley.com/gallery/v/local/wrecks/Sea+Girt+Wreck+7-29-07/
http://www.wreckvalley.com/gallery/v/local/wrecks/Pile+of+Rocks+July+29th+2007/

Brunette Wreck Night Dive 7/25/07

2007-07-25T22:17:00.000-05:00

The Brunette was a 274 ton screw propeller freighter, built in 1867 by Pusey & Jones Yards, Wilmington, Delaware. On February 1, 1870, the Brunette was enroute from New York to Philadelphia with a assorted cargo. At 10:00 PM she collided with the Santiago de Cuba. Eleven crew members survived the collision, but sadly, two souls were lost. She lies in a relatively shallow depth of 76 feet a few miles off the New Jersey coast.

When this wreck was discovered by Captain George Hoffman a few years back, divers found crates of brown and white marble door knobs, pocket knives and bottles. All that is left of her now is her propeller shaft, her steam engine and boilers. She was unofficially named the "Door Knob Wreck", until she was positively identified. She rests a close 200 feet away from the Cadet in 70 feet of water. There is an outstanding write up with photos of the brunette, and a great video by Capt. Dan Crowell, on NJScuba.net's website.

On July 25, 2007, I was able to dive this wreck with a group of divers on the Blue Fathoms dive boat out of Clarks Marina in Point Pleasant, NJ. This was to be a single tank night dive, and we left the marina at 6:15, fifteen minutes earlier than planned. The weather was perfect. All that was missing was my camera.

My usual dive buddy was not able to make this trip. I buddied up with Jeffrey McCool, an active-duty career U.S. Army vet who's seen more action than anyone his age should ever have seen during his two tours of Iraq and one of Afghanistan. Now he is "lucky" enough to be stationed at Ft. Dix training the reservists who are about to be sent over, while his wife and kid are relaxing in upstate NY by Lake Ontario. I think I'll need to pay him a visit for some lake diving!

Anyway, after a quick run out to the wreck site and a speedy tie-in, Jeff and I were the first team in. On the way down, I noticed it was dark. Not night-time dark, but murky dark. Viz. on the bottom was about ten feet. I met Jeff on the bottom by the anchor, and before I knew it, he bagged his very first lobster. This was only his second NJ wreck dive, and he caught a lobster before I could even get myself untangled from my wreck reel line that was wrapped around my fins. Congratulation! This 2-pounder was only about 20 feet from the anchor chain underneath a hull plate. I gave him my bag and in this lobster went. I ran the reel to the bow of the wreck, looking for a "mate" for the lobster in the bag, but had absolutely no luck. There were lots of black sea bass and a few fluke. I took a jab at one doormat sized fluke (flounder?), but didn't hit it well and off it went. I also jabbed a few black sea bass, but none made it into the bag. We went back towards the anchor line and it was time for Jeff to go. He was diving a single 120 while I was diving double 98's with 36% nitrox, giving me a 75 minute bottom time if needed. I met up with another buddy team and we followed the shaft to the stern and the 6' propeller. There on the bottom was another doormat sized fluke (flounder?), but I had no bag. Jeff had his lobster in the bag and I didn't want to carry it, so I had him take it up with him....big mistake. This fish must have known that I had no bag. I gently prodded him along just to see him swim....bye bye tasty treat.....there is always a next time!

After seeing the remaining divers lingering around the anchor line, I figured it was time to go up. I had another 15 minutes remaining at this depth before going into deco, but decided not to be the one to make everyone wait. I finished with a 59 minute runtime, a max. depth of 76', and comfortable 56 degrees on the bottom.

Tolten - July 4th, 2007 on the Gypsy Blood

2007-07-05T06:45:00.000-05:00

Rob Infante and I decided to take advantage of the mid-week trip to the Tolten on the Gyspy Blood dive boat out of Brielle, NJ. The Tolten was a Chilean freighter sunk on March 13, 1942 after it was torpedoed by the U-404, resulting in 27 casualties. It rests in pieces at 95' after being wire dragged after the war in order to not be a hazard to shipping.

The weather report called for fairly rough seas in the afternoon, but the speed of the Gypsy Blood should have us on the wreck by 8:00 am and back at the dock by 1:00 pm. The ride out had 2'-3' seas, but at the dive site, we had to wait for a lobster boat to finish picking up and dropping his pots, which added an extra 30 minutes. After the boat left, we hooked in. Rob and I were the first in, since Rob was on his rebreather and was planning a 3-hour dive. Obviously, I wasn't going to stay that long since I was diving open circut double 98's. The weather was picking up and the Capt. said put us on notice that we were only doing one dive so we could beat the storm.

After splashing and descending, Rob found a lobster before I could even tie in my wreck reel. We found two more, but they were undersized and had to remain. Viz. was a very respectable 25', and there was no current or surge on the bottom. There were lots of keeper sized black seabass and Ling, but I was looking for lobster. My pole spear was being used for a 6' long tickle stick. After poking around for a while, it was time for me to leave Rob to his vices, and begin my ascent. I managed to have a 46 minute run-time, but that was nothing compared to Rob's 2 1/2 hour dive.

While waiting for Rob to finish, the seas picked up and made for a fairly rough wait. There were several large rollers with at least 10' from top to bottom. Seawater was splashing into the boat and my stomach was not happy. Rob finally came up and had 3 or 4 lobsters and 4 scallops. A quick trip back to the marina and I was able to make it home for my neighbors 4th of July bbq just as the rain started.

NJScuba.net has a really good write-up on the Tolten with lots of great pictures.

Beth Dee Bob Wreck - May 26

2007-05-28T20:14:00.000-05:00

The Scuba Connection chartered the Independence II for a trip to the Beth Dee Bob. The Beth Dee Bob is an 84' clam boat which was lost in a storm about 11 miles off New Jersey on Wednesday, January 6, 1999. All four souls were lost when this boat went to the bottom of the Atlantic, resting upright in 115' of water. The first time I'd been there this was a fairly new wreck, only four years old. My first trip to the Beth Dee Bob showed the wheelhouse in good shape and all of the interior basically intact. The Captains chair was still there, all the electronics were still there, nothing was collapsing, and not much covered the wreck. This time was to be drastically different.

We left Clarks Landing at 7:00 am sharp with nine divers. Sea's were as flat as you could want. Lake Atlantic here we come. The Outlaw dive boat looked like it was heading for the same destination, but the speed of the Independence II gave us a five minute advantage, and as a result, sole custody of this wreck. I assumed the Outlaw tied into the Stolt or Algol, but later learned they were destined for the Granite wreck.

Stephan, Craig, and I teamed up as a team, and were the third team in. Stephan was diving his KISS rebreather while Craig and I were diving double 98's. Craig carried a 40 cf stage bottle, and I was diving my brand new 7' hose. No current allowed us to use a stern line for an almost vertical descent to the top of the wreck at 76'. After getting acclimated, we began our first tour of the wreck. Lots has changed since my last visit. The wreck is now completely covered in anemones and mussels. The most shocking thing is the unbelievable difference in the wheelhouse. The only remains of the Captains chair is a short stump. The doors are collapsed, the walls are falling down, wires and pipes are dangling, debris littered the bottom 3 feet of the wheelhouse, the wheel is gone (a shocker), and every surface is covered with anemones. Stephan and I did a penetration on the first dive from the starboard side through to the port side. I didn't hit the sand on the first dive, but thats because I felt a slight narc at 104' and decided to keep this my max. depth for dive #1. Viz. was a respectable 20'-25' with a bottom temp. of 46 degrees. Lots and lots of sealife surrounded this wreck and I took a few pictures. No underwater hunting today. After a 40 minute runtime, which included a conservative deco schedule, and we were back up on the boat.

During the surface interval, Wes, the ten-year old son of the Captain, was fishing. He caught three Spiny dogfish shark. Too bad we didn't see any on the wreck.

The second dive seemed warmer...eventually. They say that a 1/4 inch doesn't make much of a difference in many aspects of life. Well, a 1/4 inch makes all the difference in the world when that is the amount that your drysuit is opened. As soon as I splashed for dive #2, I felt a chill throughout my midsection. I shot back onto the boat and had the mate check my zipper. Sure enough...it was almost closed, but not completely closed. A tug on the zipper and I was back in and meeting up with Stephan and Craig who were waiting patiently at 15'. The viz. cleared up to at least 30' and it was a degree or two warmer. This time I dropped to the sand and did another penetration of the wheelhouse. Stephan spent a few minutes in the wheelhouse and was tempted to do a little exploring into the crew quarters, but chose to pass on this until next time. My NDL was creeping up to me, so Craig and I decided to do a nice slow ascent, again keeping to Craig's deco schedule.

We were back at the dock at 2:30, giving me more than enough time to get home to the family for the 2-hour drive to Wildwood for the Memorial Day weekend.

I posted a few more pictures on the gallery for the Wreck Valley Dive Club. Here is the link

Mohawk - January 7, 2007. First dive of the year

2007-01-07T19:03:00.000-05:00

The Mohawk was a passenger Liner which was sunk by collision, January 25, 1935. She was leaving NY enroute to Havana Cuba with 54 passengers and a crew of 109. She was carrying general cargo when she was struck by the MV Talisman. As a result of the collision, 45 people from the Mohawk perished.

The remains of the Mohawk lie at a depth of about 75-80 feet about five miles off the NJ coast. Since being sunk by the collision, the Mohawk was blasted by depth-charges by the U.S. military, and wire dragged. She can now be described as a large debris field. There are a few points which rise about 15' off the bottom, but most is laying on the bottom with only a few feet of relief.

On January 7, 2007, Scott Previte, Rob Infante and I paid a visit to the Mohawk. This was far from our first visit here. I think this was my third or fourth time on this wreck. My first was at least five years ago when I did my very first NJ wreck dive on board the Seeker. This time we were privileged to be on the Ol'Salty out of Belmar. Normally this boat is not going out in January, but with the unseasonably warm weather we've been having, they posted charters for the weekend.

We left the Belmar boat basin with about 16 divers onboard promptly at 7:00 am to a wonderful sunrise. It looked like it was going to be a great day on Lake Atlantic. We had about a 40 minute ride out to the wreck. When we got out there we found the Sea Lion dive boat tying in on the Mohawk We had company. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that one of the mates on the Ol'Salty was someone I knew a lifetime ago. Greg, it was nice catching up with you after all these years. What a small world.

Rob was diving his Prism rebreather. I was diving my double 98's for their virgin tour of the Atlantic. Scott also had double 98's. I brought both my pole spear and my camera not knowing which I would use. I chose my pole spear for the first dive. Down we went. I had a bottom temp. of 46 degrees, which was exactly the same temp. I had last week at Dutch Springs. Only this time, I didn't have drygloves.

On the bottom, we moved along the wreck line that Scott was running. I found a tube or barrel of some type about half filled with sand. It was clearly part of the wreck. Inside, just waiting to be taken, was an edible, marine, dull-green, stalk-eyed decapod crustacean of the family Homaridae, esp. of the genus Homarus, having large, asymmetrical pincers on the first pair of legs, one used for crushing and the other for cutting and tearing: the shell turns bright red when cooked. Oh, sorry....it was a lobster. At the same time, about twenty feet away, I saw a nice sized Tog, aka Black Fish, swimming freely. I was not sure which was more tempting. I got Rob's attention and he swam over and quickly collected the lobster. Lets face it, he is a better lobsterman than I will ever be. Rob quickly found another keeper, but this one took some coaxing. It was hidden underneath a steel hull plate. Using my pole spear to push it from the back, it popped out right into Rob's hands, which quickly placed him into his catch bag. I did not get the Tog I saw earlier, in fact, I got nothing on this dive.

After a 40 minute runtime, we were back on the boat. Actually, Scott and I were back on the boat. Rob had at least double that with his rebreather. The Ol'Salty warmed us up with cream of chicken and mushroom soup during our surface interval.

On our second dive I chose to leave both my pole spear and camera onboard. All I brought was my catch bag with the hopes of finding a lobster. Scott found one in a tire, but this tire was completely covered and tangled in debris. The lobster was well shielded and we were not able to get him out. Scott found a keeper underneath a hull plate, and he used a piece of debris to try and force him out. This one was too smart for us and we left empty-handed. Then I saw a huge Tog....but I didn't have my pole spear. This guy must have known that I was powerless to get him as he taunted me by swimming within arms reach several times. At the end of the dive I realized that I had nothing.....again. Not wanting to go home emptyhanded, I picked up a few seashells for the kids at home. Wow..I am so good at hunting and gathering. I would have failed as a caveman.

Rob and Scott tried, unsuccessfully, to entice me into a post-dive cigar. I've had really bad luck with cigars. I would like to think that I am smart enough to learn from my past mistakes when it comes to smoking a stogie. I get sick. It was a nice day on the Atlantic. Two dives with a total of 79 minutes (40 and 39) with a max. depth of 77' and a bottom temp. of 46 degrees. What a way to start 2007.

New Years Eve Dive 2006

2007-01-01T18:49:00.000-05:00

Dutch Springs opens their doors for a whopping three hours on December 31st so people like me can get in that last dive of the year. The weather held, and we had sunny skies with temps in the low 50's. This was my first time diving my new double 98's. They've been teasing and taunting me for two months now, so I was getting psyched knowing that I was going to actually get to use them. After configuring my regulators and hoses for this setup, I was ready to go. I met my usual dive buddy and was very pleasantly surprised to find three other good friends at Dutch Springs so we made it a group dive. Five divers really means one team of two and one team of three, which was fine with everyone, since we all stayed together for the majority of the dive.

After a quick bouyancy check with the new doubles, I tried reaching the valves for shutoff drills. No luck. I'm simply not limber enough to reach over my shoulders and turn the knobs. I tried everything, but to no avail. Enough trying, time to dive.

I usually dive the peninsula side, but this time we went off the student side and into the cove where the pipes, structures, stairs, and other quarry related items are located. Visability was a respectable 25'-40' and the bottom temp. was 46 degrees. We did a relaxing 48 minute dive. I brought my camera and took a plethora of pictures, many of which I did a little work on using Photoshop. I loaded a bunch up onto Wreckvalley for my dive buddies to see. I hope you enjoy the few I chose for this blog. I love these bubble pictures, so here is a parting shot...

Dutch Springs 9/8 & 9/9/06

2006-09-11T20:44:00.000-05:00

I don't normally post my dives from Dutch Springs, but its been slow lately, so here it is. It was my weekend to be a Dive Master for The Scuba Connection this past weekend. I found out from George that I was going to be working with him with a Search & Recovery class for both days. I was very happy to find out that the three students consisted of one instructor and two other dive masters. This keeps the "oh shit" factor way way down. No kids to babysit, no need to be in your face...just dive and let dive.

There was nothing spectacular to report other than I had my wrist seal on my drysuit rip from end to end on the first day. Lucky for me, the shop gave me a loaner for day #2 while my Oceanic Biodry went in for repair. I chose to have both seals replaced with the heavy-duty seals.

We did a total of four dives with a bottom time of 3 hours and 44 minutes. Now lets hope my suit is done soon so I can get in some real water.

Lake Ontario - Canada - August 2006

2006-08-28T09:01:00.000-05:00

The Scuba Connection set up a trip to Lake Ontario for the end of August. Eight divers made this trip, and we had the time of our lives. On the way to Canada, Scott, Rob, and I stopped in Alexandria Bay, NY, for a shore dive on the Islander, which sank by the dock and sits in about 40' of water. We were the only divers there, which made for super viz.

After leaving NY, we headed to Kingston, Ontario, and met the other divers for another shore dive, but this time from the Canadian side and in the lake. I called this one the "waste of time" dive in my log, because it was just that. In reality, its called "two anchors and stacked hulls". You follow a line out to two large anchors, pass a stop sign in 20' of water with a scuba warning, the remnents of an old lounge chair, and eventually to the two hulls. I ventured out for 13 minutes and turned around. Other divers made it out there, but it was the longest underwater swim to nowhere I've ever done.

August 25. Now the real diving begins. The Munson was a two story wooden dredge which sank in 1890. There are tools of the trade lined up to see, a pile of china in the center, and a large shovel/bucket for dredging hanging over one end. The condition of the wood is good due to the cold fresh water. Zebra mussels cover most of the structure. I hit a max. depth of 105' and had a bottom time of 33 minutes.

Next was the Wolf Islander II, which was the first artifical reef put down in Lake Ontario. They say it was put down for scuba diving, and it shows. It looks like a small freighter, or an ice breaker. On the deck was a bicycle, a motorcycle, and a bowling ball. My dive buddy Scott and I went down a shaft into the engine room, and did many swim-throughs and penetrations on this dive. Depth for me on this one was 72' with a 44 minute bottom time.

August 26. We hit the George A. Marsh, which was a wooden schooner that went down in 1917 with 12 fatalities. This is a fully intact wooden wreck, but oddly enough, you can't go inside. The inside of this one is completely filled with silt. There are deadeyes, blocks, pottery, and the ships wheel on the wreck, as well as an assortment of odds and ends. I hit a max. depth of 80' on this one with a bottom time of 48 minutes.

Next stop was the Comet, which was a side wheel steamer sunk in 1861 with three fatalities. The majority of the structure has collapsed, but strangely enough, the two large wheels are intact and upright. This makes for some outstanding photo oportunities. We were able to penetrate underneath the decking with only about two feet of space above and below. Max. depth for me on this one was 80' with a 47 minute bottom time.

Night dive time!!!! We opted for the Wolf Islander again, and motored out there for an 8:30 splash-in. We waited for it to be nice and dark before entering. Scott an I were the first in, and we were accompanied by Joe. This was what night diving is all about. Watching the lights of other divers, penetrating into room which were completely dark, hearing the thumping sounds made by the exhaled air hitting the ceilings in the rooms, watching rust falling like rain...it was outstanding. Rob took my camera and anchored himself on one of the railings which overlooked the main deck. He put the camera on an eight second shutter, and made the dive lights into art with the camera. Thanks Rob. Max. depth tonight was 76' with a 46 minute bottom time.

August 27. Bad weather prevented us from making the trip to the "City of Sheboigen". The Captain wanted to call the dive entirely, but our trip leader convinced him to take us to the sheltered Wolf Islander II for a third time. We weren't the only ones to think of this, because when we arrvied, we found two other boats moored to the site. Scott, Joe, and I were the first down, and we went straight for the engine room. We dropped down the shaft and did a full exploration of the engine room. I found there was a door which exited out to a side walkway. I also found a small door which went to a lounge area with a bunch of wooden benches. I squeezed through and motioned for Joe to join me. He tried a few times, and eventually made it in after I told him to twist sideways. His wings on his BC were catching on the sides. The doubles made it though with an inch on each side, but with the air in his bladder, he couldn't make it through without a little adjustment. Scott joined us as I went down a set of stairs to a smaller room. Once there, I was give three options. Left into a smaller room, straight to an exit to the walkway, or right through a narrow hallway which leads to another exit. Scott and Joe took this narrow hallway and I was about to follow. I felt something on my fins and noticed another dive team right on me. By the time I turned back to the hallway, Scott and Joe were gone. I noticed two spikes, about two inches long, protruding from the walls into the hallway. I then took the easy way out and exited this area through the door in front of me instead of taking the hallway. Upon exiting, there was Scott and Joe waiting for me. We discussed this exact scenario before entering, and they knew where to find me if I didn't follow. Perfect. I then found the smoke stack and went in fins first. All that was showing was from my chest up. Joe got a chuckle. Then I took the bicycle for a "ride" by hopping around the deck while really making a mess of the viz. Max. depth today was 69' with a 51 minute bottom time.

On the way home, we stopped in Alexandria Bay, NY, for a second dive on the Islander. This was to be a "bottle" and artifact dive. We arrived to find 21 divers on the surface (in and out of the water), and bubbles coming from the wreck. There were a few classes going on, but we decided to dive anyway. By the time we got in, most had cleared out. We went to work and really did a good job at completely destroying any viz. there was. We each found a place to dig, and went nuts looking for anything. I found a semi-old bottle which was not worth keeping. Justin went about 200 feet downstream and found a nice soft spot in the silt. He plunged his arm in as far is it would go until his head was buried. Sure enough he came up with gold. Well, not really gold, but he found a really nice very old clear bottle with designs all over it. He also found a thermometer which was about two feet long. The glass was intact and still contained the mercury. There was an advertisement on the front which was still very readable. He found two nice old pieces. My max. depth was only 40', but I logged a full hour on the bottom.

I got a total of ten dives in four days, with just over 7.5 hours of bottom time. I got a few decent pictures, but now realize that my camera lacks one basic thing.....like a competent operator. Thankfully, Rob had his real underwater camera and took a few for me.

Stolt Dagali...revisited...again. Aug. 5, 2006.

2006-08-06T19:53:00.000-05:00

I had a boatload of work to do at my house, as we were in the middle of redoing our kitchen. I was on vacation from work and was in shock when I got the approval from the boss...aka...my beautiful wife, to go diving. She was the one who actually suggested it, and I wonder if she was just a little shocked when I said I would go, when there was more than enough work to be done at the house. I wonder if she expected me to say something like "no honey, we have too much work to do here." In reality, I was like....yea baby....and was checking with my local dive shop for a charter before she knew it. Unfortunately, my shop had no charter for the one and only day I was able to dive, so I had to resort to other means. I checked the local dive forum for an open boat, and called my old reliable dive buddy. I ended up on the Independence II out of Mantoloking, NJ, just south of Seaside Heights. They had a charter to the Stolt Dagali, which is a wreck I've done two or three times. There's something to be said about diving a wreck that I've never been to before, and I was really hoping for something new. The Stolt is a great dive, so the Stolt it was going to be.

I met my dive buddy, Scott, at the boat at the very early hour of 6:30. I've never been down Rt. 35 past Seaside Heights, and was impressed at the homes along the beach in Bayhead. I may have to look into that town when it comes time to retire. The first thing Scott and I noticed was that we were the only two on the boat that didn't know everybody else. There were a total of nine paying divers and a crew of four (not including the 9 year old son of a crew member) on this boat, which was the second nicest dive boat I've been on. The first is the Seeker, which was out of Brielle, NJ, before Dan Crowell sold the boat to an outfit out of Newport, RI. This boat was made for diving, and the people on it were the real deal. I've been diving off NJ seriously now for about six years, and really felt like an amateur around this group. Scott and I had the only set up with single tanks. Everyone else had doubles with stage bottles, or rebreathers. Many were wearing t-shirts commemorating the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Andria Doria, and the trip the Independence II made to this site. Scott and I commented to each other that we felt slightly out of place, but we agreed that by the time we got to the Stolt, we'd be chatting it up with these guys like old pals, and we were right on the money. Each guy was a class act; no slouches in the group.

The Stolt Dagali was an M-class tanker that was sunk on Thanksgiving day in 1964 as a result of a collision with the luxury liner Shalom. Nineteen people lost their lives that day. The ship was cut in half, and only the stern sunk. The bow was towed into port, and actually attached to the stern of another ship. NJScuba.com has a super write-up on this wreck with some great pictures.

Now I knew that Stolt had a max depth of 130' to the sand, and the wreck starts at 60'. The proper nitrox fill for this depth is 28% EAN. Anything higher would keep me off the bottom, and away from where the lobsters would be waiting. I filled my tanks Thursday night and did a crappy job. I gave myself 30.5% EAN. I dive with a P02 of 1.4, which is the way I like it. If I chose to change it to 1.5, than the 30.5% mix would get me to the sand, but I chose to keep my P02 in my comfort zone. I'm not into deco diving yet, and didn't want to start just on the off chance that I would pull a lobster out. My max. depth would be 116', so if I wanted to bring home dinner, it would be fish or mussels. And lets face it...I suck at catching lobsters.

Enroute to the Stolt, one diver pulled out the deck plans for this ship. I've never seen a diver actually pull out deck plans for a wreck. This guy was planning his exact entry point, and knew where he wanted to go. I don't remember his name, but he said he has 30 dives on this wreck. He talked about going in here, through there, up this hallway, through some other room.....and so on. Way too much penetration for my comfort zone.

We arrived on the site to find the Jeanne II out of NY, already there. This boat was filled with ladies! It was chartered by a women’s only diving club. The only males I saw were the Captain and crew. From what I saw, these ladies were real divers. I saw drysuits, doubles, stage bottles, and solo diving. Good for them.

We tied in behind the Jeanne II, which gave us a long, almost horizontal, trip down to the wreck. We were at least 200 feet off the wreck. Scott and I decided to splash in last, since the runtimes of everyone else on our boat was at least 20 minutes longer than our planned 35 minute dive. It was the right thing to do. Let these guys in, stay out of their way, and then do our thing. The diver who set the hook said there was not much in the way of big and/or mature fish on the relief, so we left our pole spears on deck. We decided to make this a sight seeing tour.

We splashed in and began our descent. The water on the surface was clear and warm. I got a reading of 79 degrees on the surface, and 55 degrees on the bottom. Viz. was a good 50 feet until I got the thermocline, which was at about 45 feet. The particles increased, and a slight current was felt. The viz really cleared up once we got on the wreck. I was ahead of Scott and landed on the wreck first. As a matter of habit, I set up the wreck reel on the first appendage I saw. The viz. was at least 40', and maybe as much as 60'. In hindsight, I wish I never ran my reel. Now I was forced to go back the exact way I came, but the viz. was so good that my reel was just a waste of time and energy.

I hit a max. depth of 102', and had a run time of 34 minutes, one minute less than our plan. There were lots of little cunners around the wreck, in fact they were all over the place. I even saw a cod, and a few other odd looking fish. This was a dive where I wish I had my camera. Looking up from the 90' mark, the ambient light was incredible. The viz. was outstanding, and the fish were all around. This was a picture if I ever saw one...but it doesn't do a bit of good without a camera. Oh well. I didn't do any penetrations on this dive beyond sticking the top half of my torso into a hole or door. My HID light was out of action, and I was using a plain old 8-cell Princeton Tec handheld light. This kind of light used to be good enough for me, but once you go HID, you don't go back. Plus, Scott had his Dive Rite 10 watt HID canister light with him. I could piggyback his light. What could go wrong? Uh...do I hear Murphy's law knocking? Scott's light crapped out on him almost as soon as we hit the water. It flickered on once or twice, but that’s it. Scott went to his backup, but in reality, no lights were needed unless we did a penetration dive, which we didn't.

So I'm down on the hull after coming up from depth. I'm at about 65' and I'm near the anchor chain of the Jeanne II, and what do I see but a diver from the Jeanne II in trouble. Not the kind of trouble which required any lifesaving, but just that "oh shit, I'm in over my head" kind of trouble. She was diving solo, and if she had a buddy, she was nowhere to be seen. She was holding a goodie bag which was loaded with some artifact, or maybe some weights, because it was heavy as shit. She was also holding both of her stage and/or deco bottles. None of these three items were attached to her rig, and she was struggling to hold onto them. I gave her an "ok" sign as I approached and she gave me one back, but with that "holy shit, please stay and help" look on her face. I grabbed her goodie bag, and it was heavy... really heavy. I clipped it to her rig and then clipped on each stage bottle, front and back. She was good to go. I can't imagine why she ever had these bottles unclipped at depth. Maybe she left them at the anchor with the intention of clipping them on for her ascent. I don't remember seeing them earlier. Hmmmm..... Anyway, she gave me the head bow and rolling hand motion, which I know as "you are the man...and if you were single I'd take you to lunch" sign. Off we went, like two passing ships in the night. Yea right.

Time to go up. One minute at 50 feet for the halfway point, and 4 minutes at 15 feet. Our total run time of 34 minutes, just one minute under our plan. Time to get out of the water. I swam underneath the boats to the one what had the Christmas tree ladder. I know the Jeanne II had a regular ladder, but when I came up on the ladder, I had to look at the name of the boat to make sure I was on the Independence II. Bikini's. I saw bikini's on our boat. We had only male divers...how can there be bikini's on ours? Did I mistakenly sign on to a "special" trip? Apparently a few of the divers from the Jeanne II knew the crew from the Independence II and swam over to say hello. To make matters even more interesting, the Jeanne II had a crew member (maybe the Capt?) who was dancing. Not only was he dancing, but he was wearing leopard skin underpants and leather chaps. Really. I'm not kidding. He also wore a cowboy hat and some type of tribal garb on his chest with beads or bones. The salsa music was blaring and he was dancing. The ladies were putting dollar bills in his pants. I kid you not. We were yelling "Y.M.C.A" as he was raking in the dough. Again, I wish I had my camera. It was about this time that a few of the ladies swam over a ziplock bag of margarita's, a bag of meat from the grill, and some cob salad. To the ladies of the Aquanauts...thanks! The surface interval was interesting to say the least.

With the surface interval done, it was time to go back. Before going in, one of the divers told me about a fairly safe penetration that I might be comfortable with. He described going to the anchor, up the hull to the cut, and finding what was a partially covered walkway. He said there is lots of light and many ways out. Scott and I agreed we would give this a look. We were descending the line to find another diver from our boat coming up. He waved us over and he opened his hand. He had a little seahorse. I've never seen one in New Jersey before, and I was intrigued. It had its tail curled around his version of a twig. I'd say it was three or four inches high, all brown, and cute as can be. I've heard of seahorses being seen in NJ, but this was a first for me. We played with him for a few seconds and then he was set free, bobbing around with the current.

Scott and I hit the anchor and began our planned dive. Up the hull, down to the cut, and sure enough, right to the (what used to be an inside) walkway. This was just the right kind of penetration for me. It began at about 65 or 70' and I followed it down to the mid 90's. The wall, or what was at one time the floor, was terracotta colored tile. I cleaned off a few and saw they were perfectly intact. I tried removing a few tiles, but no such luck. Next time I'll bring a hammer and chisel. After swimming through this walkway, I found a hole about twice the size of a manhole leading into a cavernous area inside the ship. I peeked in to see ambient light coming from an even larger hole about thirty feet away. I'm not usually the one to suggest such a penetration, but I did. I motioned to Scott that we should go in and swim to the other exit. Without hesitation, Scott entered the hole with me right behind him. This area was big, really big. Just like expected, we swam towards the exit that I saw from the entry point. I couldn't swim through this hole without having to turn sideways. This was an exhilarating experience. With the exception of a dive I did in the St. Lawrence Seaway, where I penetrated an upside down coal carrying wreck end to end, this was my most extensive wreck penetration (ok, so the one in the St. Lawrence was only 40' long), and it wasn't over yet. There was a large entry point into what appeared to be an engine room. Scott went in about 30' while I kept it a little closer to say....20', maybe 25' if I stretch it. I think that if either of us had a real light we would have ventured farther, but it was not to be. I think Scott knew he went far enough when he looked back and saw my fins going the other way. He's a little more adventurous than I am at this point, but give me time...lots of time. Anyway, we exited this room and continued back up the walkway, exiting near the cut. We went to the hull just underneath where we tied in and began pulling mussels. Man, these little guys sure put up a fight. I filled my bag about halfway while Scott filled his about a third. We clipped them to the anchor chain in anticipation of continuing our dive, but after only a minute, we decided it was time to call it a day. I hit a max. depth of 96 feet, and a run time of 41 minutes.

One point of interest was when the Jeanne II pulled their anchor and began heading home. I pulled up my t-shirt to show off my manly chest to the ladies on their charter. I was pleasantly surprised when one lady, who was sitting high atop the boat, gave me a "back at ya" reply. Although it was in the distance, it is nice to know that I got a little reciprocation. Thanks.

As for dinner, several lobsters came up, probably four or five. Most were in the four to six pound range, with the smallest being at least two pounds. One guy got a few dozen scallops for his girlfriend in Philly. Gotta keep the ladies happy so we can keep diving!

On the way in, we were dragging Scott’s bags and mine behind the boat to clean the mussels. About five minutes into it, something went tragically wrong, and my bag went to the bottom of the sea along with about twenty servings of mussel’s marinara. Scott got lucky. He was also kind enough to give me about half of his catch so I didn't go home empty handed.

All in all, it was a great time with the crew and divers on the Independence II. I wish I had some pictures to post from this dive, but I didn't bring the camera. Check back later for pictures from my next trip to the Stolt.

Charleston, South Carolina, July 2006.

2006-07-31T21:47:00.000-05:00

After diving in the OBX for the first time, I went to Charleston for a few days. I spend one day on the water with Charleston Scuba for a day of diving. One thing about diving here is that you have to go out far to get to a decent dive site. We went 19 miles offshore to dive a "ledge" for out first dive.

"THE INDIGO LEDGES are 70 to 80ft deep and is a great site for Open Water divers. This natural reef line supports a variety of soft corals, sponges and crustaceans. Tropical fish such as the angel are frequent visitors and large pelagics may be seen in the area. The Ledges provide the unique opportunity to drift dive in this area when conditions allow."

Think of the ledge as a place where its 70 feet on the high side, and 80 feet on the deep side. In between there is what looks just like a coral reef you would expect to find in the carribbean. Nooks and crannies, lots of fish to see, corals, shells, etc... The Indigo ledges got their name because it was found by Charleston Scuba 's owner after salvaging a boat called "Indigo". They passed over the ledge either on the way in or out, and must have taken note of the numbers for a later look. I'm glad they did, because this is a nice dive site.

I was really hoping to see a sand tiger shark, but wasn't that lucky. I brought my camera and took a few pics of the sealife. I was diving solo and was the first diver down the line. I looked back to find four divers behind me, all wanting someone else to be the first on the site just in case there was a shark. Viz was carribbean-like, at 60'+, and it was warm....really warm. First in and last out...just the way I like it.

The second dive was supposed to be an artifical reef which had a bunch of piles of rubble, including some old military vehicles and a few larger ships. There were six sport fishing boats on them and they didn't seem too happy to see a dive boat approach. After 30 minutes of trying to find a decent place to hook in, we gave up and went to the wreck of the Frederick W. Day.

"THE FREDERICK W. DAY was a wooden schooner built in 1901 and sank off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina on September 17, 1914, loaded with bags of cement. The bags have formed a reef approximately 200ft long with the top of the reef at 40ft and the bottom at 54ft. There is an abundance of fish and other marine life around the wreck, creating one of the nicest dives off Charleston."

Since I was solo, I buddied up with a diver whose buddy was a little "green" and didn't dive. We were the first in and I immediately noticed a large remora swimming around beneath the boat. He was about 2 1/2 feet long, which I believe is on the large side. As I decended the line, this damn remora was all over me. I think he was trying to latch onto my mask and it was freaking me out. I know they are harmless, but this guy was a pain in my ass.

I got onto the wreck to find most of the actual ship gone. Remaining is a huge heap consisting of of cement, each piece the size and shape of the bag which once contained it. The cement forms the shape of the hull. There was a large anchor on the sand just in front of the bow. Someone obviously tried to raise it, as indicated by the canvas line wrapped around it. Luckily, this attempt was unsuccessful, allowing the anchor to be seen by divers for years to come instead of being in someone's shop or backyard. After 35 minutes, my dive buddy indicated he needed to ascend due to his air supply, so I escorted him to the anchor line and up he went...by himself. I stayed down and tagged along with the Captain and one of his mates. We just kept cruising around the wreck looking for turtles, sharks, or rays. Unfortunately, we saw none. There were thousands of little bait fish swimming all around me, sometimes enveloping me to where I saw almost no light. They swam in unison all around, above and below me. I know that the big fish feed on these litle guys and I was hoping to see some of the big guys dining on these little guys, but no such luck. After an hour dive time, I saw them begin their ascent, so I decided to join them. Ahhh....again the first in and last out.

Here is a link to about a dozen pictures from this trip, which includes the post directly below as well....WreckValley Photo Gallery

Outer Banks NC, July 2006.

2006-07-31T20:02:00.000-05:00

I finally got to dive in the Outerbanks. I went down to Kill Devil Hills with my family for a week on the beach. My plan was to dive the U85 but mother nature didn't cooperate and the dive was cancelled the night before. A tropical depression 160 miles offshore made a mess of the surf and caused 8-10' seas. Luckily it only lasted a few days and I got out on an artifical reef called the "advance". We planned on the Jackson, which is a Coast Guard cutter which went down in a hurricane, but the viz. was only 3' according to the DM who went in to set the hook. We moved on to the "Advance" as a backup. I went out with outerbanks dive center in Nags Head, SC, and was truely impressed with their professionalism. They use the boat "Go-Between", which is perfect for diving.

Spade fish and a barracuda (barely visible on the right side near the top, swim above the "Advance" - Formerly USS Worland, PCE-845, WWII patrol craft, 860 tons, 184 ft long, decommissioned in June 1, 1964, subsequently used as a research vessel by Cape Fear Technical Institute. Upper bridge is at 35 to 40 ft with sand at an approximate depth of 80 ft.

I went in first with two fairly new divers, with about 40 dives between them. Since I was diving alone, they teamed me up with these two. The viz on the surface was at least 50 feet, and the water was nice and warm. At about 45' there was a clear thermocline, which reduced the temp. to the mid 60's and viz went to 15'. There was also a moderate current on the wreck. After only15 minutes, this team decided to end their dive, either due to being cold or to sucking wind. I took them to the anchor line and up they went....without me. I stayed down with the hopes of seeing a sand tiger shark or maybe a stingray. As I waited, I played in the large schools of spade fish all around the wreck. I realized that the lense of my camera was fogged over due to the extreme temperture change between the surface and down below. As a result, my camera was useless underneath the thermocline. I played around for another 20 minutes or so, and ascended when the last dive team went to the anchor line. On my safety stop, I noticed a large barracuda hanging out near the bouy about 50 feet away. This was just the way I like it....first in and last out.

During the surface interval, a few of the crew and I snorkeled around the boat watching the large schools of spade, the lingering barracuda, and even a mahi mahi dolphin. I was able to take some nice pics and really enjoyed this break between the dives.

On the second dive, I teamed up with one of the crew and we spent most of the dive inside the Advance. There were lots of swim thoughs and even a few decent penetrations. We went out into the sand looking for sand dollars and nice shells. After 45 minutes, it was time to come up. Again, first in and last out....that's the way to do it!

Coming into the marina, there were many reminders of the havoc of a hurricane. Hurricane Isabel, which stuck the outerbanks in September of 2003 left behind some eerie remiders of the power of mother nature. Many boats which sunk at the docks remain where they went down, partially submerged.

The proper stages in the life of a lobster

2006-06-25T20:20:00.000-05:00

Stage 1:Caught

Stage 2: Cooked

Stage 3: Eaten

Wreck Dive for Friday June 23rd - Stolt Dagali

2006-06-25T15:47:00.000-05:00

Finally, after being blown out three times this season, I got off-shore for some real diving. Rob chartered the Stingray dive boat from Belmar NJ and we went to the Stolt Dagali. Here is some of the stats for this wreck, taken from njscuba.net:
Type: M-class tanker, Norway
Name: Stolt is the name of the line that owned the ship; it translates as "mountain" or "pride". Dagali is a city in Norway.
Built: 1955, Denmark, as Dagali
Specs: ( 582 x 70 ft ) 12723 gross tons, 43 crew
Sunk:Thursday November 26, 1964( Thanksgiving day )collision with liner Shalom ( 25,338 tons ) - 19 casualties
Depth: 130 ft, starts at 60 ft.
Approximately 15 miles offshore from Belmar NJ.

"By all accounts the brand-new liner Shalom was proceeding at a recklessly fast pace through a thick fog, while simultaneously misreading her radar set. The slow-moving Stolt Dagali was sliced clean through, losing almost half her crew when the heavy stern section plummeted to the bottom of the sea. Fortunately, the Stolt carried a cargo of non-flammable vegetable oil, otherwise both vessels might have been consumed in flames. The bow section of the Stolt was salvaged, while the stern section lies crookedly on its starboard side, 142 ft long in 130 ft of water."

Here is my dive report:
Henrick, the Capt. of Stingray dive charters out of Belmar NJ went out today with four divers plus Jim, the mate. Originally it was going to be just Rob and me (which would have cancelled the dive due to not enought divers), but Henrick posted the dive and found two more, Tim and Steveeye. We had a great time on the Stolt Dagali, which I believe is about 15 miles offshore and has a max dept of about 130 feet. The lake Atlantic was really cooperating, with flat and calm seas.

Rob and Jim splashed in to set the hook and it was time to dive. I was the next in and went in to the hook, which was set in right at the high point of the wreck, which I think was at 58'. I only hit a max. depth of 88' on the first dive, with a bottom temp of 59 degrees. I didn't see too many fish willing to get hammered with my pole spear, so I left it by the hook and made this a sight seeing tour. Fourty minutes later it was time to go. I didn't go to the sand, but did plenty of swim throughs and penetrations. It was nice. Viz. was at least 30-40 feet if not more.

On the second dive, Rob and I were the first to spash in. We went to a place where Rob had stashed a lobster from his first dive (he had no space left in the bag and was already holding one lobster in his other free hand). We put it in my bag and then went into the engine room. This kind of penetration is not really my kind of tea, but it was neat to be inside this area. I didn't bring my pole spear on this dive, and replaced this with my camera. I took a few pictures, and then went to a high area to pull some mussels off the wreck. I found the perfect size mussels by a porthole near the tie-in line and I went to town cutting them off and putting them in my bag. This dive I saw a max. depth of 101 feet, and did relatively short 30 minute dive.
Upon returning to the line, there was a massive monk fish left on a stringer by Jim, which he shot with his spear gun. Tim took the monk fish up, but man does this thing have teeth! When it was all said and done, Rob pulled the hook and a nice ride up to the boat during his deco.

On top, the total was: 33 scallops (all Rob), 4 lobsters (including a nice 4-pounder brought up by none other than Rob), a shitload of mussels, and one massive monk fish. It was slightly humorous watching Steveeye pose with the days catch and almost put his foot in the wide open mouth of the still-alive Monk fish. The guy was a bit of an ass, so I was kind of hoping he would have moved his foot just a few more inches to his right. It would have been great, but no such luck. He didn't catch a damn thing, but wanted to pose like he was the hunter and this was his prey. He dove like someone I would never want to be buddied up with, plus he was obnoxious.

We got in to the marina just in time for the thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. It was nice to eat the lobster and mussels for dinner.

Back in...Finally!!

2006-04-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

Last week I finally went diving. It was a long winter, and I couldn't wait to get back in the water. I met by "regular" dive buddy at Dutch Springs on Saturday, April 8th. The weather was crap...in the low 40's, with a constant rain and wind. That didn't hold us back, as we entered into a balmy 45 degrees almost empty quarry. Since it was the first dive of the season, and I hadn't had my gear serviced yet, Murphy's Law took effect. I was all geared up and ready to go, but when I turned on my air, I found that my primary first stage, had a "first stage creep", so I swapped all my gear onto my backup first stage. What do you know....same thing. Luckily my buddy had his daughters Sherwood regulator set, which I borrowed and swapped my second stage reg. onto the first stage. Off we went. Down to the platform at 25', and all was well. We began the descent to the Silver Comet, at 55', and a nice 41 degrees. A quick penetration from bow to stern, and we were off to the "un-named" cruiser. After coasting over this boat, we went to "the island" and over to the crane, which sits at about 55'. Still, 41 degrees on the bottom. Scott really messed up the viz. when he tried to go underneath the frame of the crane, and made us look bad when our other buddies saw how we left it. Around the island to the plane, back over the top to the Silver Comet to shoot bags. I love shooting bags for my hang, and its great practice for that open ocean ascent that none of us ever expect to have to do. Anyway, with the 40 minute dive in low 40's temp, and no warm or dry place to hang out, we nixed our second dive. Even with my Oceanic Biodry drysuit and my drygloves, it was just too damn cold to go back in for dive #2. I took my gear right in for its yearly service after this day.

Need to get in!

2005-11-30T22:08:00.000-05:00

I can't stand this. Its been at least a month since I've been underwater. I had to pass up a weekend as a DM, and at least two NJ wreck dives off the coast this weekend alone!

I just sit here and read other dive reports on wreckvalley.com and the NJ scubadivers message board. This is driving me nuts.

Crap!

Diving in Roatan, Honduras

2005-11-29T19:26:00.000-05:00

Trim and level on some colorful reef in Honduras.

Ice Diving in Vermont

2005-11-29T08:30:00.000-05:00

A bunch of brave souls from The Scuba Connection went to Lake Champlain in Vermont for a little cold water diving. Water temps were a steamy 33 degrees, and we were below 14" of solid Vermont ice. Brrrr.......

I even wrote a short article about the experience. Check it out.

Just the thought of scuba diving underneath a sheet of ice gives me the chills. If you ever told me I would make four dives in water with a temperature just above freezing, I would have told you that you were talking to the wrong person. But when Wayne Fisch, one of the owners of The Scuba Connection in Hillsborough NJ asked me if I was interested in an ice dive trip his shop was planning to Vermont, I said yes. His shop planned the trip with the help of Pete Nawrocky, their local Dive-Rite rep and an ice-diving veteran. Pete suggested the trip to Wayne, and it was set up through Victory Sports in Colchester VT, one of Pete’s shops he represents for Dive-rite. Victory Sports would teach the class and issued PADI certification cards for us when we completed the class and required dives. If all went as planned, the dives were scheduled to take place in Lake Champlain’s Mallets Bay, just a short drive from Victory Sports.

Wayne posted the trip by the front counter in his shop. Even with the flyer up front for over a month, in the end only four divers, including Wayne, were able to make the trip. I wondered how many would have signed up if it were a weekend in Bermuda (which would have been a much quicker trip). Wayne was the shop representative for this trip, but this was still his first experience ice diving. Also along for the trip were dive masters Chris Lake, Rick Hanson and Mike Bender. Another dive master was eager to go, but a scheduling conflict prevented this.

Before traveling the 330 miles, we had to make sure we had the proper gear for the conditions. Dry suits are standard for diving in these extreme conditions, we all had them. Three of us had dry gloves as well, but Rick was going to dive with his wet gloves. We also had to make sure our regulator’s had been “environmentally protected” to avoid ice-up and free-flow (a condition Wayne would meet up with on his first dive).

With all the pre-trip planning taken care of, we met at the shop at 9:00 am on Friday for the ride up. Classes began at 6:00 pm at Victory Sports and we didn’t want to miss a thing. Wayne’s truck easily fit the four of us and all our gear, including about 10 tanks. By 9:30 we were on the road with Rick as Wayne’s co-pilot and navigator.

Hours into the trip, we were getting excited about actually ice diving. But while driving in upstate New York, we noticed Lake George was all wet; no ice to be seen. We decided at this point that we were going diving in Vermont, ice or no ice. A few times we saw some frozen spots on Lake George, raising our spirits along with a few yells. The farther north we went, the more ice we saw. We even saw some ice fishing going on, so we knew the ice was thick enough to support a person, but this can be as little as 3 inches. Ice diving requires an ice thickness of at least 6-8 inches of solid ice. With 12” or more, you can drive a truck in the ice. We didn’t care if it was that thick, we just wanted it thick enough for diving.

Driving along Lake George, we didn’t know that we had taken the “scenic” route. We could have saved quite a bit of time if we had known more about the area. No complaints though, it was quite beautiful. Large homes and quaint towns make you realize why people spend their time in the Adirondacks. We eventually crossed the “Bridge to Vermont”, and made our way to Colchester. As we neared the dive shop, we noticed Lake Champlain, all iced over. People ice-skating and fishing shacks were all over the ice, a very good sign.

Arriving at Victory Sports at about 3:30, we had plenty of time to kill. We met Chris Whipple, a staff instructor at the shop, and Pete Nawrocky, the Dive-rite rep. They told us we should take our gear out of the truck and set it up for the dives. Most of us had to do a little reconfiguring of our gear once they inspected it. No octopuses were to be used, so they had to be removed; our redundant air supplies were our backups. I had to take all of my gauges and hoses from my primary and put them on my “pony” regulator, since it was “environmentally protected”. This regulator then became my primary, and my primary became my pony regulator. While we were setting up our gear, the other divers in the class arrived. They were from Marantha Divers in Pennsylvania. We had a total of 9 students in the class, which was going to start soon.

Just before class, we met the Chuck Seleen, a Master Instructor. A Dentist by trade, he was our instructor for the weekend. We all went to the classroom in the rear of the shop for a couple hours of class instruction. Topics covered during the program include: Planning, organization, procedures, techniques, problems and hazards of ice diving, site selection, preparation and hole-cutting procedures, special equipment, safety lines, signals, communications, line tending and line-securing techniques. We also learned about the effects of cold, emergency procedures and safety-diver procedures. Each diver would be tethered with a 100’ polypropylene rope to a “tender” at the surface. After class, our group and Pete Nawrocky headed out for a quick dinner and then to our hotel. We had to be back at the shop at 7:00 am for the first day of diving. We couldn’t wait!!

7:00 a.m. on Saturday we met at the shop. After loading all of our gear and getting a briefing from Chuck Seleen, we suited up at the shop. We drove to Mallets Bay in Lake Champlain, which was just a five-minute drive from the shop. We were able to use a Girl Scout camp for access to the bay and a snowmobile with two sleds to shuttle our gear out to the dive site. Once on the ice, we saw the staff had set up a nice little camp just off Birch Island. A large tent with a propane heater was available for those who needed a break from the cold. We laid out all of our gear on large tarps on the ice. Once all our gear was ready, we went over to watch ‘BC” cut the hole in the ice using an auger and chain saw. After the hole was set up with all the safety lines, the ice chunk was tethered and pushed under the ice sheet so it wouldn’t float away. We would pull the chunk back at the end of the day to “close the pool”. It was a clear and sunny day, with temperatures expected in the low 40’s. We wouldn’t have asked for better conditions.

Wayne and Chris were chosen to be the first team of divers in the water for the day. They were to be called “team 1”. Rick and I were assigned as “team 3”, so we would be the line tenders for Wayne and Chris while "team 2" got ready to dive. Rick tendered the student team while I tendered their instructor, Chris Whipple, who would shadow Wayne and Chris during their dive. The divers sat by the hole and were suited up by another team of divers. Everything from hoses and buckles to masks and fins were put on by these teams, since the divers themselves had limited mobility due to their suits. It was the same when they came out. They had to be pulled out of the hole by a tender and then all the gear was removed. The last thing to be removed was the safety line, which was clipped to a harness or a D-ring on the divers BCD.

One thing we learned is that your tank is not turned on until you are in the water and your regulator is submerged, facing down. If you turn the air on earlier, it can freeze, causing a free flowing regulator, especially if there is any moisture in it from putting it in your mouth too early. Wayne was using a high performance Dacor regulator, which was “tweaked” for peak performance. This caused a short delay in him submerging, since the regulator began free flowing almost as soon as the air was turned on. Luckily, this situation was quickly fixed so Wayne and Chris began their dive. After each submerged, they had to “acclimate” to diving under the ice. They move only a few feet from the hole and get used to being underneath a solid sheet. Once they became “acclimated” they began their dive. Rick and I tendered their lines until they just about reached their 100’ limit. I gave my diver three tugs to tell them him there is no more line. Rick also had to give Wayne and Chris three tugs. Wayne was attached to the tender’s line and also had a 10’ line going to Chris. Whenever he received a tug signal from the tender, he had to send the same signal to Chris. Chris then had to return the signal to Wayne, who could then send the signal to his tender. The tugs were easy enough to remember, 1 for more line, 2 for OK, 3 for slack and 4 for “Trouble…pull us in FAST”. Luckily, we never had to use the four pulls signal.

After about 15-20 minutes, we got the 3 tugs to tell us to take up the slack and the divers were coming back to the hole. Wayne was pulled from the hole by another tender and I asked him about the dive. He yelled out “ice diving rocks”, a feeling I would agree with about 30 minutes later. Chris came out from the water with a huge smile on his face. “Fresh” was his description of the dive. We all knew that was a positive thing.

One more team in and out of the water and it was our time to go. When it was our time, Rick and I were tendered by “team 5” and then got in the hole. I was expecting to feel a little more apprehensive about diving underneath a 9” sheet of solid ice, but that feeling wore off quickly. My regulator worked fine in this water and it was time to dive. I went under first, leaving Rick at the surface. I pushed myself underneath the ice and vented the air from my BCD and dry suit. Our instructor was just below me, giving me the “ok” sign, which I gave back to him. Rick was the more experienced diver between the two of us and he took on the responsibility of working two lines. Rick was tethered directly to the tender on the surface, and to a 10’ line attached to me. I was the “A” diver since I was on the end, with only one line from Rick. I started my “acclimatization” underneath the ice surface and waited for Rick. My hands were surprisingly comfortable in the dry-gloves I was using for the first time. Rick on the other hand, was still diving with his old wetsuit gloves. From below the ice, I watched Rick enter the water and begin his descent. He only spent a few seconds getting acclimated and off we went on our dive.

Visibility was at least 15’ and as much as 20’. I could clearly see Rick at the end of the 10’ line. I have to admit that there wasn’t much to see at the bottom. The silt on the bottom was thick and easily disturbed. We swam towards the island, near the tarps and equipment. The ice was clear enough that I could see people and gear on the surface. I had a better time swimming inverted and backwards just underneath the ice surface while looking up at the ice. Rick and I swam along the ledge just off the island and then into deeper water, reaching a maximum depth of just 30’. There was no need to use our dive lights, since there was enough natural light penetrating the ice and through the hole to keep me in my comfort limits. When the sun was high in the sky, the view of the light coming through the hole made me stop and stare for a while. It was impressive!

With the three tugs on the line, we knew our dive was over. We swam back to the hole and were quickly pulled out by tenders. I agreed with Wayne….”Ice diving rocks”.

This was the first of our three training dives we did on Saturday. All of the divers from The Scuba Connection made the required training dives in one day. Some of the others from the class made two while one student made just one dive. We still had Sunday ahead of us for finishing the training or “fun” diving. When our time came, it was for fun, since the four of us were now PADI certified ice divers.

Sunday was just that…. fun. Wayne and Chris were able to dive together each with their own line and tender. They had a 30-minute limit and took it to the limit. Actually, I think Wayne pushed it to a whopping 31 minutes just to get one over on Chris. Even with this bottom time, they stayed within the “rule of thirds” for their air supply. During their dive, we were on the surface joking about how long they have been down and how many times they reached the 100’ limit on their safety lines. I joked that Wayne probably had a 50’ piece of rope in his drysuit pocket that he used to lengthen their reach. We almost had to drag them out when they reached the 30-minute limit. When they came out, they were all smiles. I on the other hand, had only a 15-minute dive. I had to cut short due to my head freezing. At about 20’ deep and 14 minutes, my head suddenly became unusually cold, unlike the previous dives. Knowing the physiological effects of cold on a diver, I decided to end the dive. I still came out of the hole with a smile on my face.

As Wayne said….”Ice diving rocks”!!!!

Diving in Key Largo, Florida

2005-11-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

Here is a nice picture of me swimming by the radar tower of the Duane, in Key Largo. Taken April 2005.