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.