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.
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