New Years Eve (day). What a way to end the year.
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.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Shark River Inlet Night Dive - Bioluminescence and Baitfish
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.
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.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Arundo - July 13th, 2008
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
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
June 30th...I should have stayed home
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!
Friday, June 13, 2008
May 24th on the Atlantus
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.
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.
The Dykes - Aug 4, 2007
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.
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.
