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.

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!

When you see the ice, do you still slip into your dive gear?

As I sit in my warm house, looking out the window at the neighbors shoveling snow, two dive trips come to mind from my younger years.  The first was about ten years ago, on the "Dina Dee" out of Point Pleasant, NJ.  It was late December.  The air temperature was 29 degrees, the ocean in the low 40's.

As I arrived at the dive boat, the mate was there early, prepping the boat.  It had snowed the night before, and he was shoveling about 3 inches of snow off of the deck.  He greeted me:  "So, what kind of mental problems do you have that bring you out here today?"


You couldn't have blamed him, how many other people go swimming in the Atlantic in the winter?

We were vising the "Delaware," a frequently dove wreck very close to the NJ coast.  We enjoyed two very nice dives, the ocean was calm and the water clear.  Not a lot of sea life this time of year, but a wreck is always fun to visit.

Fast forward about a month.  Now it's late January.  The air temperature was in the mid twenties.  The ocean was a balmy 39 degrees.  I was on The Outlaw diveboat, from Belmar NJ, visiting a wreck called the IdaK.

Swimming along on the cold bottom, I thought I saw an antenna sticking out of a dugout hole under some wreckage. I quickly stuck my hand into the hole, hoping to grab a lobster.  I couldn't feel it though - was something pinching my fingers, or was I shoving my mittens under a piece of wreckage?  To be honest, it was so darn cold, I couldn't tell.

Because the water was so cold, I decided to do a 5 minute safety hang at 15 feet, just to give whatever nitrogen was dissolved in me a few more minutes to bleed out.  After only a minute, I was shivering.  Five minutes was pretty close to torture, but safety first, I don't want to get bent.

My safety degassing obligation met, I let go of the grapple line to surface.  Wait a second - my fingers were still holding onto the line.  I tried to move them, but they wouldn't listen to me.  I had to use my right hand to peel my left hand free of the rope.

Climbing up the ladder to the  boat was a bit challenging - my hands didn't want to bend around the ladder.  Removing my BC was difficult because my hands didn't want to listen to me when I told them to squeeze the clips.  A kind, much warmer dive buddy helped me.

This isn't a story that ends with frostbite, or any permanent damage.  But after I finally struggled out of my gear, I slipped into my parka and sat down next to the heater.  I turned to another diver and told him, "This is insane.  I'm not going in for a second dive."

And somehow this was supposed to be fun?

"M...M...MM...ee.ee    E..e...e...th..th..e...r" he muttered through chattering teeth.  As a matter of fact, none of the divers on the boat went in for that second dive.

I know there are lots of more hearty guys that don't think twice about going diving in the cold.  Since I'm now over 55, I've decided to avoid diving once the water gets below 50 degrees.  Okay, maybe 49.  Well, 48's doable.  Okay, I'll go in at 45, but only if the air temperature's warm.

Does anyone have any cold water diving stories they'd like to share?  It would be nice to know that I'm not the only one suffering from Nitrogen cravings in the winter.

Thanks for reading - DSAO!  (Dive safe and often)