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

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

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

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

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

July 31, 2011 - Arundo - Memorial Dive

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.