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 look
s 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.
