Scuba Seafood Party

NOAA was pretty much on target with today's forecast, 10-15 kt winds and 3-4 ft seas. We decided to stay closer to shore so we'd reach a site quicker and get into the water quicker in case conditions worsened.

First stop was the Northeast Sailor, an old unknown wooden wreck in 75 ft of water. 

Everyone wanted to stay for a second dive on the Sailor because the viz was so good and there was so much life on the wreck. I put viz at 15 ft, but it was very light, not dark from particulate like we've been seeing the past few weeks. I got a bottom temp of 59. Also, a bit of bottom current. The NE Sailor has a sandy bottom, so you could really get down on your belly and shove your arm into those holes trying to grab the lobsters without stirring up a lot of muck.

Tons of sea bass, a few nice fluke (although no door mats) and more than a few lobsters. There's still quite a few bugs in that chain pile. 

3rd stop was a low lying rock pile that we tied in to a couple of miles off-shore. Lots of fish and lobsters were taken, including a 3-1/2 pounder that yours truly brought home. Nothing makes your wife support your diving addiction more than fresh lobster and a bottle of Pouilly Fuisse.

Diving After Hurricanes

Hurricane Cristobal stayed well out to sea on its trip up the Atlantic coastline, but the storm surge did a great job of stirring up the water column, as we were to find out on our dive trip out from Belmar last Friday. In Central Jersey, small craft warnings were announced two days before we went out, and 6 foot seas with swells 12 seconds apart pretty much insured the bottom would be dark and murky.

Hurricane Cristobal August 2014

Our first stop was a small wreck in 90 feet of water that some of our divers were hoping to do some digging on, looking for artifacts. Unfortunately, the bottom was pretty churned up, making it difficult to see too much. It was close to what we call a "braille dive." When I reached the bottom, I tied in my wreck reel and went the opposite direction of all the other lines I saw. I never saw anything besides sand, an occasional rock, and a few little fish. Visibility was less than a foot, and I had to use a flashlight to see the sand from 6 inches away. After ten minutes, I gave up and went up. Nobody spent more than 10 minutes down there.

Our dive boat was clearly visible from 40 feet, so the upper water column was clear.

Our second stop was a site known locally as "The Photography Wreck." Nobody would be taking photos today. I followed the line down to the sand and couldn't even see the strobe light flashing on the line. Dark and cloudy. Another braille dive. I aborted the dive and decided the gas in my tank could be better spent somewhere else. Most of the other divers did likewise.

Our third stop was the "Northeast Sailor." The NE Sailor has a sandy bottom and we hoped that we might at least have some some viz. Luck was with us, and we had what could only be called "NJ okay," which means 3-4 feet of viz. Most of us had been on the site before and since it is a well defined shipwreck, navigation was possible even with the visibility as bad as it was. I found a nice 3 pound lobster, and a few other lobsters and sea bass were caught as well.

Captain Paul said we weren't likely to find better viz anywhere else, and we decided to stay on site for a second dive. 

Not the best day diving, but I don't think any of the divers on the boat regretted missing work.

Dive Trip Report - May 21, 2014 Belmar NJ

Just thought I'd share the local conditions, since this has been a colder than normal winter and the ocean hasn't warmed up as much as you'd normally expect.

NOAA had predicted 15 - 20 kt winds and 2-3 foot seas. The air was calm and the ocean was like glass. Maybe a 1 foot swell rolling through every 20 seconds. The winds never picked up, which NOAA has also forecasted for the afternoon.

A group of us chartered the Venture 3 in Belmar, NJ. We did 3 dives and 3 different sites. 
Depending who you talked to, bottom temp at 80 ft was either 42 or 44. During safety hang at 15 feet, water temp was 54 degrees. Because of the cold, most of us kept our bottom times between 20 - 30 minutes.

Visibility was about 7 feet on all dives. Our first stop was the remnants of an old wooden wreck in 70 feet, not one of the well known wrecks. Bottom was very dark and there was a bit of current.

Second stop was a man-made reef. Same conditions.

Our third stop was a natural rock pile, and it was much brighter, although the same 7 or 8 feet of vis.

Being my first dive of the year, I didn't bring my pole spear, figuring I just wanted to relax and get acclimated (I haven't been in the ocean since November). There was a ton of sea bass all over the wrecks, and some nice sized ones as well. It would have been easy to fill up a game bag with them. Fortunately, there were also a ton of lobsters, which we did fill our game bags with.

If anyone out there is in the area and is familiar with the Venture 3, we may have a few spots open for next Friday, May 30th.

Now here's a shipwreck I'd love to dive on

Can anyone remember Christopher Columbus's 3 ships? The Nina, the Pinta and the ............?

The Santa Maria sank after running onto a reef in Haiti in 1492. Now, archeologists are pretty sure they've found it. For the full article, click here.

Wreck of the Santa Maria

Thanks for sharing this page with your friends - and DSAO!

Don't dive in the dark, illuminate your next dive with our Ikelite flashlights

MyScubaStuff is now an authorized Ikelite dealer.  We're offering the Ikelite PCm flashlights in both Halogen and LED at discount prices.

The PCm flashlights are designed as a primary light for clear water diving, such as on your next trip to the Caribbean or Mexico.  It provides pointed illumination for looking in holes and under ledges, as well as providing extra illumination to bring out the beautiful colors on reefs once you start getting below 30 feet and the sunlight is filtering out the natural light.

Many divers (myself included) always carry a backup flashlight, and the PCm is the perfect size for a backup.  It fits in a BC pocket, where it is always accessible if your primary light fails.

The PCm comes in 2 different light source choices.  The Halogen bulb (MSRP $30.00, but discounted on our web site) uses 4 AA batteries to provide an hour and a half of light.  The LED version (MSRP $66.00 but also discounted on our web site) gets about 5 hours on the same 4 batteries.

Available in Yellow, Black or Blue, there is a different color PCm underwater flashlight for every diver. Check them out at our website by clicking here.

Ikelite is one of the oldest brands, it's made in the USA and it comes with a lifetime limited warranty.  It's worth checking out an Ikelite flashlight before buying your next dive flashlight.

Thanks for sharing this with your friends - and DSAO!

Changes to US Navy Guidelines regarding diving on Military Shipwrecks

Do you dive on shipwrecks that are sunken military ships?  Here is a posting from the Federal Register covering some new guidelines being issued by the US Navy regarding diving on shipwrecks.  It's quite a long article with quite a bit of legalese, and some in the diving industry are grumbling about how vague some of the language is.

I'll leave it up to you to decide for yourselves.  The article is here:

US Navy regualations on Shipwreck diving

Aside from disturbing human remains, which I think is totally wrong and should both be prohibited by law and respected by divers, my opinion is that a ship that's been laying on the bottom of the ocean for 100 years is going to continue to disintegrate until it's no more.  A diver visiting it and even (gasp) grabbing a souvenir like a porthole or a piece of pottery no way harms the wreck, nor would leaving those "treasures" in place cause the ship to be preserved any longer.  Divers taking artifacts makes those artifacts available to the public to see, which is of far greater value then having them rot away on the ocean floor.

What's your opinion?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Thanks for sharing, and DSAO!

Lightning over Long Branch

Here's a video I shot in Long Branch a few years ago.  It was shot using a point-n-shoot digital camera, a Canon SD1100.

The half minute clip shows the lightening strike 4 times.  First, as the camera recorded it (which would be 30 frames per second).  Then, I slowed it down to half speed.  Then I slowed it down to 1/4 speed.  Finally, I froze the image on the frame where the lightning hits the ground.

For any New Jersey divers out there, the video is looking over Saint Alfonso's retreat in Long Branch, which is where the "Dual Wrecks" are in 30 feet of water, about 150 feet from the beach.  I don't know if the iron in the wrecks has anything to do with the lightning strike, perhaps someone more knowledgeable about the wrecks or lightning will post an opinion:

As always, thanks for sharing, and DSAO!