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
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