Nothing Like Dive Gear Under the Tree

Santa doesn't always bring me dive toys, but this year I must have been good because I feel like I hit the goldmine!  I got a new Aqualung Legend Supreme regulator, a Dive Rite Nitek Duo computer and a second regulator is in the works (either an Apex or Scubapro).  I feel like I was fully outfitted with all new dive gear.  I am really excited about the regulator and I hope it breathes as nice as it looks.  Now I can't wait to go diving and try it out.  Too bad Santa didn't bring me a dive vacation to somewhere warm too.

Perhaps this is a sign that my health will remain well and I will be able to do a lot of diving in 2010!

Merry Christmas & Peace in the New Year

I wanted to wish all of those whom share this love of  wreck diving with me a Merry Christmas!  I know I am wishing for a few dive toys under my Christmas Tree this year.  We'll see what Santa brings!  I also wanted to wish everyone Peace and Happiness in the New Year.  

I have been working diligently on converting my old dive slides to digital and will be posting them throughout the winter.  The hardest part is trying to remember when they were taken and what wreck they were on. In reviewing these slides, it makes me sad to see those old divers that used to be a regular part of my diving adventures whom are no longer in my life.  I miss them and wish I could dive with them again.  They made me happy. If I could only figure out how to freeze time....Here are a few sample pictures:

Me hugging a morey eel!

NJ lobster

Something Warm to get you through the Winter-Ultimate Getaway 2006

Now that we have the long winter ahead of us, I'd thought I'd post a slide show from a trip I took in the Florida on the Ultimate Getaway liveaboard. We dove the Oil Wreck (140') and the Baja California (120') in the Gulf of Mexico. The diving was awesome, full of marine life and we all enjoyed some great artifacts. I am not fond of liveaboards so it took some convincing to get me to go and luckily we were blessed with calm seas the entire trip.

So if your looking for something to do over the winter that is within the United States then, check out the Ultimate Getaway. It was fun!

Press play below and turn up your speakers and listen to the music!!

End of Season Premature, 1 more dive coming up!

Looks like I wrote my end of the season report (see previous post) a little prematurely, one of my new dive friends, Mark Hennessey asked if I wanted to join them on a trip to the Northern Pacific next Sunday aboard the Atlantus. I am still trying to clear my schedule to make it happen but this is one dive I've been wanting to do for a long time. Time will tell whether or not the weather will cooperate and if I am able to go. So stayed tuned there may be one more trip report for the year.

On a side note, last night I was at my favorite Pub, Doyles Poor House and they had this awesome 2 man band called The Skeggs. They are very simple, one acoustic guitar and a set of bongos and boy is the bongo player great. They play lots of Sublime, Bob Marley and also play more recent music like Coldplay with a reggae-bongo twist. I love listening to live music and I really enjoyed their show. Check them out sometime! When I am not diving, hiking or kayaking I like to just hang at the pub for a few and believe it or not, you would be surprised at how many other divers I've run into there. They have good food too!

May the weather Gods do their magic and make the seas in the North Atlantic calm this weekend....

11/20/09....Update...that NE wind is coming again, it isn't looking good for the N. Pacific... Just spoke with Andrew Larsen of the Atlantus and we are going to decide tomorrow...Keeping my fingers crossed.

11/21/09...Dive Blown out! I am disappointed that my last attempt for the year to go to the N. Pacific was blown out but, I don't want to be out there in NE winds either. Now, the season is over for sure.

End of the Season 2009

I've come to admit that the 2009 dive season is over for me. It was a fantastic dive season full of adventure! I accomplished almost everything I set out to do: I am now a certified NAUI Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Techniques diver, although I have dove in this manner for years, I did in fact learn a few things that I did not know before, therefore it was worthwhile; I dove, the Offshore Paddlewheeler which is a wreck I always wanted to dive and that dive was the highlight of my year; I ended up making a total of 14 dives to other wrecks such as the Pauline Marie, Varanger, Catamount, Southern Lilian, Inshore Paddlewheeler, Gloria and Double East.

Although I did not get to the Cayru, Freighter or N. Pacific as planned due to blow-outs, I did get to the Varanger and to the Southern Lilian twice. Brian & Andrew Larsen and Jeff Graham have included me in all of their offshore trips and I am so grateful to have found them and other divers that are interested in diving the same wrecks as I am. It has been very hard for me to start over with a new dive shop and new boats etc. but in the end, I think I have been rewarded with meeting such great people whom believe in me and my diving capabilities.

I just purchased new used tanks from another very accomplished diver whom can no longer dive due to cancer. It is hard to buy gear from someone whom can no longer dive. I will definitely think of him out there diving so he can be there in spirit. I will finally be rid of my double aluminum 80's, now I have two sets of double steel 100's. This winter I will also upgrade my regulators and get another computer and I'll be set of the the next season. Oh yeah...that dry suit, what to do??? Buy new or fix this one? I was wet all season and it has to be fixed!

I want to thank my friends in Diversion Group for a fun time on the Gypsy Blood this year and like I told Helen Bilinski, I wish I was able to dive with all of you more often. Helen said she is trying to plan the North Carolina trip for August next year and maybe we can make it fit into our schedule. Believe it or not I have never been diving in North Carolina.

As I have said many times before, I fully believe things in life always happen for a reason. Although I still do not know why events surrounding my diving happened, I can only assume that they happened to set me free to explore and expand my diving capabilities and experiences. I am still grieving the huge loss resulting from this, and somedays the pain is unbearable, but this season I continued to heal and grow. I accomplished a lot this year and it was not easy. Life is never easy, the harder you work to accomplish something, the greater the reward once you've accomplished it. I am proud of myself and I hope others are too.

I am really excited for what next year will bring in terms of diving. I will try again to get to the Cayru, Freighter, N. Pacific, Arundo and Moonstone. I already put a bid in with Diversion Group for an Arundo dive next season. The others...I'll just have to be patient and hope they show up on someone's schedule.

Check back throughout the winter, I am putting together some slide shows of old dives and old slide pictures Bill & I took years ago. I have one just about done and will be posting it soon. Till next year....

Double East

Wow, its been a long time. I've been blown out of 6 dives include 3 trips that were to be once in a life time events that were to wrecks I have yet to dive. Maybe someday I'll get there. Anyways, since there was a lull between fronts, I took the day off which is a huge feat in itself, to go diving! For those whom don't know, I own my own business, Kim Dixon Environmental Consultant LLC, I also work a second job during the winter preparing corporate taxes for a CPA and I take graduate courses at Stockton College. My business is very busy now and my second job just started up so between those two things and the kids schedule, it is like orchestrating a perfect concert in order to escape for a few hours on the open sea.

Well, it was another beautiful day to be out. I was worried that the visibility would not be so wonderful due to the recent double noreasters, but I didn't care, I needed to get out and dive. As we broke out of the inlet we stopped at the bell buoy to decide what wreck to go to. We decided on the Double East aka the Rock Pile, because we also had some numbers for other wrecks nearby that we wanted to check out. When we arrived at the wreck, there was a fishing boat right on the wreck, they were gracious enough to allow us to anchor up and dive. They had already caught their tautog limit and didn't mind giving up their spot.

I was the first one in and had the duty to tie in the anchor. As soon as I splashed the water felt bone chilling cold. I thought, this will be a short dive if I don't warm up. The surface visibility was good but once I approached the bottom the water column was full of particulate matter. The vis wasn't so hot, it was about 10'. Bill again hooked us into a small piece adjacent to the wreck, memories of my previous dive on the Gloria began to flow through my mind. What to do... there was nothing substantial to tie into yet the anchor seemed to not be going anywhere. So I let it be and hoped it wouldn't pull out. I tied off my wreck reel and off I went in search of the wreck, it wasn't too far away only about 30'.

I swam around on the top of the wreck because the visibility was better and that is also where all the fish were. I saw quite a few tautog and lots of porgies around the edges of the wreck. This wreck is covered in mussels and I thought of grabbing some but, I figured I'd leave that duty to Bill. I then found an artifact...it was a bar bell weight that someone used for a drop line. I grabbed it because we are always losing our drop line weights and thought we could use it. I thought, here I am garbage picking on the bottom of the ocean. Speaking of weights, the recent storms uncovered lots of areas on this wreck and there were sinkers uncovered everywhere, more garbage to pick.

"Mussels everywhere"


Then that god awful noise came. It got louder and louder until I felt like the wreck was shaking under me and it was going to explode. So much for my peaceful swim with the fish. I knew it was a ship of some sort passing by but it was much louder than I had ever experienced and it kind of spooked me. I decided to head lower and to go down to the sand. I spent the rest of my dive taking photos of some sponges and coral. I found a lonely juvenile sea bass just as I was about to head up at the anchor. He sat there so still, I was able to take about 10 photos of him before he got annoyed with my flash.




My friend the sea bass!!

I ended up with a 40 minute dive and the bottom temperature was 65 degrees. I froze the whole dive but with the warm water temp., it must just be me, I am always cold these days. When I surfaced Bill told me a tug went by about 50 yards away...real real close, that explains the noise. Bill also informed me that I just missed a whale swimming by. I said no I didn't, I was swimming right next to it?? Didn't you see me? (haha)

Bill got a rather large lobster and a bag full of mussels. His spear band is shot so it didn't have enough power to kill any fish. During my surface interval I couldn't believe how many jellyfish carpeted the ocean, there were tons of them everywhere. When it came time for dive #2, I was achy and freezing, I am definitely not feeling right, so I opted to skip it. At this point I was dreaming of soaking in my Hot tub at home. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out some numbers and were able to locate 3 of the 4 wrecks so next time out we will have some more variety.





Our dinner!!







On another note, does anyone have any idea how to figure out what the name of the wreck is when all you have is a few Silver Spanish coins dated 1776-1779? If you do contact me, I've been researching this all year and am getting no where.




Lake Atlantic




I hope to get out a few more times this season but, I am going away camping in the Great Smokey Mountains for a week and that cuts into dive time. Who knows, maybe there will be a few more nice days left this fall.

Gloria

I got out to the Gloria yesterday after a traumatic few days. My dog, Kenai died on Friday and for any of you whom have dogs, it was devastating to me. He was a Golden Retriever and he came everywhere with me, driving around town, hiking, crabbing and fishing. I miss him so much. Anyway, I decided I needed to get away for at least part of a day to relax and reflect. Bill and I played hookey from work so that we could get out on this pristine day. After mixed reports on visibility, I figured since Capt. Dave Pfeifer dove the Flour on Monday and the vis was good that we should be ok with going to the Gloria. We only had enough time to do one dive today so we wanted to go somewhere close and the Gloria is just about an hour ride from our dock.

The Gloria is a steel wreck in about 70' of water and it is thought to be the remains of the Kennebec or Lake Frampton. No one has positively identified it as of yet. Once the anchor was dropped, I took the plunge to tie in the anchor. The visibility on the surface was good but not as good as I expected, lots of particulate matter was in the water column and lots of jellyfish. Once I got on the bottom the visibility cleared up to about 35'-40' and there were schools of tropical fish. However, the anchor was not in the wreck, it was hooked on a small piece about 40' from the wreck. I sat for a moment debating what to do and observed these schools of fish, they were swimming all around me. I decided to tie in the anchor on this small piece and to swim to the wreck instead of going up and trying again to anchor into the wreck. I ran a line from the anchor to the boilers of the Gloria.



I swam around the boilers and took some photos and was in awe with all of the fish. There seemed to be sooo many on them. I saw quite a few triggerfish and a lone butterfly fish. I swam towards the stern and found the prop shaft and eventually made it to the end where the giant rudder and prop was. I saw a picture of the Lake Frampton somewhere and it shows a rudder just like the one I saw on the Gloria today.

I was planning on doing one long dive, so I really swam slowly and took in the sights and took lots of photos. I saw a few lobsters and noted their location so Bill could get them on his dive and I saw a monk fish, I left him alone and took his picture. Monk fish are creepy looking and they always manage to spook me.





Once I got home and looked at my pictures, I concluded that the camera I have is ideal for shallower dives. There is a lot more available light and the pictures come out better. I need to invest in a better camera for deeper dives. Also, that monkfish, well when I showed Bill the picture he said it wasn't a monkfish it was part of the wreck out in the sand (silly me, what was I thinking?), the photo is below.

Monkfish???




This was a really nice day to be out diving and I feel better emotionally after going. I hope to get back out over the weekend if the weather permits otherwise, I know I'll be out the following week. Make sure you click on the pictures to enlarge them!! Safe Diving!

Southern Lilian

I left early this morning under a beautiful moonlit sky for the Southern Lilian on Atlantus Charters. We had such an awesome dive on this wreck a few weeks ago that Geoff Graham, whom chartered the boat decided to head back for a second time. The forecast was for rough seas but when we broke into the Atlantic it was suprisingly calm and there was little or no wind. We were off for our 2 hour ride to the Southern Lilian. Once we arrived on the wreck the wind and the seas started to pick up but not enough to deter us. My dive buddy for today was John Priestly. I told him I was going to take photos and he wanted to look for artifacts. He offered to be my model for my pictures but at the last minute I opted to leave the camera on board (turned out to be a wise decision).

Once I hit the water I was awestruck by the great vis and deep blue water. I saw the first jellies of the season and they were so graceful and pretty to look at. Once we hit the bottom the vis wasn't as grand until you got away from the anchor a bit. I'd say the vis was about 20-25'. We were hooked into the debris field and I spent the dive lobster hunting and poking around. There was noticeably less ling cod on this dive. I saw a sea bass and the ever present conger eels. There was some large gear mechanism that was cool to check out. I was trying to locate the boilers but was unsuccessful. I ended my dive a little short (25 min.) in order to keep down my decompression time. I knew it would be rough hanging on the anchor line and I didn't have my John Line with me. Boy was I right, the hang was brutal and I couldn't even hang longer than a few minutes shallower than 20'. The anchor line would just rip out of your hands and you'd be swimming trying to reconnect with it. All during my hang I was thinking how am I going to get on the boat, the ladder was doing a big dance on the back of the boat.

When I surfaced I tried and tried and couldn't get onto the ladder. I was getting very discouraged and banged up (I was already banged up from a recent fall rock climbing on Mount Washington but that is another entertaining story). Finally I got on with my knees and the guys held on to me while I went for a ride until a lul came and I was able to climb up a step or two. I was so exhausted when I got to the top I didn't have the strength to swing my leg over the transom. Somehow I did it and it was not pretty. Geoff said I did a great job and I didn't panic. I was really embarrassed but not for long. Now it was time for the rest of the men to try and get on the ladder. They had a much harder time than I did so I no longer felt bad. The seas at this point was a full 6-8' and no wonder why I had a hard time climbing on board. We all made a decision to abort the 2nd dive and to head in.

On the way home we all had a few cold ones and told lots of dive stories of which kept us all entertained. Today was an adventure that I will not forget. It kind of reminded me of another trip like this years ago aboard the Down Deep and when we returned to the dock Lynn Delcorio got on his knees and kissed the dock, "we made it home alive", he said. Thanks to Geoff Graham, Jeff Heim, Jenn Washco, Dann, John Thomas, John Priestly, Steve, Brian Laresen and Shaner for sharing the adventure with me. In the end, I was proud of myself today and like I said in my earlier Diving Safely post, my training and experience helped me to stay calm during adversity and be safe today. I know I will feel the pain tomorrow, my arms and legs are already sore, but I'm ready to do it all over again!

I hope to be out diving on my own boat over the next few weeks, there have been reports that there is lots of fish on the Gloria, so I'll have to try and get out there. I also hope to be diving with Atlantus Charters in a few weeks to an awesome wreck, you'll have to wait to find out where we go!

Blown OUT!!!

I was supposed to dive on August 22, 2009 on the Dina Dee and I just found out that it was blown out due to the swells from Hurricane Bill. This was supposed to be a dive for one of my courses with my Instructor Geoff Grahamn, I'm sure it will be rescheduled. I have had good luck this year with only 1 other blow out early in the season. I tend to be really disappointed when a dive gets blown out, there is so little time to dive and I feel a loss of what could have been. I have not been on the Dina Dee in years and was looking forward to seeing George and Roger and catching up.

Well I guess I'll be spending the day on my favorite island (sand bar) in Great Bay having a few cocktails and barbqueing. At least the wind will keep the green heads away. Maybe I'll do some snorkelling if the water is clear. There will be no more dives for me for a while, I am going on vacation! I'll be backpacking and enjoying the cool mountain air. Hiking is my other love and there is nothing better than spending time in the woods. Til my next dive....

Inshore Paddlewheeler

Got out again today, 2nd time in a week! I almost didn't go out today because I am really busy with work and have lots going on with the kids, but my daughter told me I should go so, off I went. You only live once right?

I went on the Atlantus to the Inshore Paddlewheeler and we lucked out and hooked the wreck and not the subway cars. It was a small group today, myself, Randy Moore, RichVenuti from East Coast Diving and Ken along with Brian and Andrew Larsen. On my fist dive I headed out in the sand to the remnants of the paddlewheel and looked around for some scallops. There was none to be found. So I then spent time taking photos and touring the wreck. There was a lot of plankton in the water so I knew photos wouldn't be perfect today (vis was about 30') but, since it was a shallower (about 107') wreck and it was bright on the bottom, the pictures came out much better than I expected. I took some pictures of the multiple lobster traps that had lots of bergols swimming around them and some sea anenomes too. I looked under some ribbings for lobster but did not sea any. There were a few sea bass and a few flounder. It was warmer on this wreck, I got 50 degrees on the bottom and as a result, I managed 30 minutes on the bottom before the chill set in.

Once I was on the surface the smorgasborg of fish came up with the other divers. We had sea bass, flounder, ling cod, trigger fish and even an eel pout. There was one large taug that no one could spear so they set up a plan to try and corner him and spear him on the second dive. Needless to say this did not work.

On my second dive I toured the debris field and found some areas that appear as if someone has been "digging" in. The hole was quite deep in a linear fashion and definitely was not natural. I shot some photos of this area and I also poked around looking for some artifacts. This took up the better part of my dive. I got some pictures of a toad fish that I almost missed, he was perfectly camouflaged (see the picture of him, he's hard to pick out). He didn't like the flash so he did not stick around long. I ventured out in the sand in search of scallops again but I guess someone else bagged them or they moved out to cooler water. I spent some time taking photos of the other set of paddlewheels and before I knew it I was down 28 minutes, time to head up.

I am glad my daughter gave me the push to go diving today. It was a great day and also nice to be out in the ocean away from the heat on land! Next dive is on the 22nd unless I scoot out sooner!

Southern Lilian

On Saturday, August 8th we went with Atlantus Charters to the Southern Lilian. I knew it would be a great day when we ran into an old friend on the dock. His name is Paxton Holden. He used to dive a lot with us and shared some great adventures with us in the past (including the infamous trip to Nova Scotia). Paxton was heading out on the high roller fishing boat docked next to the Atlantus. He shared a few memories with us and of course one of his "clean" jokes. As we pulled away from the dock he said "have a safe dive".

It was a long ride from Atlantic City to the Southern Lilian but the conditions were great 1'-2' seas. Today we had a great bunch of divers, Geoff Grahamn, John Priestly, Jeff Heim, Katie Ondrasik, Matt, Bill and myself, Captain Brian Larsen and first mate Shaner. Once we arrived, it was no time at all and the pool was open. I was performing some objectives for my class first and then I was free to do my own dive. I dove the Southern Lilian a few times before and as soon as I descended I vividly remembered it because of the prominent boilers and engines. The boilers stand tall on the bottom and are not in any kind of debris field so that look like someone just dropped them in the sand. I did my first dive around the boilers and engines and some of the pipes. The visibility was a good 30'-40'. The wreck was loaded with fish (even one lonely cod fish) and other bottom dwelling creatures.

On my second dive we headed off in a different direction to the debris field that has lots of metal plates and pipes. This section was really interesting to look at. It appears that these steel sheets of metal were stacked upright and now are covered in soft coral and sponges. This is a great section of the wreck for hunting for fish and lobsters. I don't like to brag but we had a banner day for lobsters!

I took some photos on these dives, there were some monster starfish and the pictures don't do them justice. I also got a picture of a flounder on the bottom. This was hard to do since they are hard to spot and always scurry away so quickly.

During the ride home we spoke about a variety of topics but, one in particular was ironic to me. We spoke about how lucky I was to have dove so many wrecks back before they were so popular, how I was able to obtain lots of artifacts and also to dive on newly found wrecks. The newer generation isn't always as fortunate and it is harder to find wrecks that aren't dove often. This newer generation was wishing they were around in the earlier days. Well the reason it was ironic that we had this conversation, is because when I was younger, I felt the same way. Seeing my old friend Paxton earlier in the day reminded me of that and also made me sad in another way because he is now retired and no longer dives. I know those retired from diving days aren't too far off for me too. It really tugs at your heart to pull away from the dock knowing that your old friend wishes he could come along and knowing what a great diver he was in his day. This is why I try to dive as much as I can now. In fact I am heading out again tomorrow to the inshore paddlewheeler.

Catamount???

Well, I had a bit of a hiatus from diving due to weather and my new addition to the family. I have wanted a new puppy for a while and now I am very busy taking care of Moose, my yellow lab pup.










I was able to scoot out yesterday for a well deserved day to myself and joined Diversion Group on the Gypsy Blood to the "Catamount". We had a full boat, 14 divers, plus 3 crew and Captain Jim. I met so many wonderful people that made me feel like part of the Diversion Group, especially Helen Bilinski.

No one really knows where the true Catamount is located but the wreck that divers typicaly call the Catamount is located at a water depth of approximately 125' with a huge engine and 50' of wreckage. One quart liquor bottles are typically found and some divers call it the Rum Runner.

The wreck we dove today sits in water depths of about 122' to 146'. Therefore, it is not the site typically known as the "Catamount". This wreck scatters along an area of a about 100' long and has parts of the hull that are still intact. The wreck is thickly covered in sea anenomes and you can make out some cargo hold areas. There were large fish in the hold areas. The visibility was not at its best yesterday, so typical for this area near the mud hole. We had about 5'-10' vis and it was dark. Actually, the surface vis was really bad then it cleared up for quite a distance and just before you hit the bottom it silted up. Therefore, it was difficult to get a full view of the wreck and for me to explore too far away from the anchor line. The bottom temp was extremely cold, it was 48 degrees. For some reason it felt even colder than that. I was diving with one of those wet/dry suits so that could have contributed to me being so cold. One of the divers I splashed with, Michael Young found two bottles, a Borden's Milk bottle and an Elixer bottle. No liquor bottles found during this trip. Since the visibility was so poor, no photos on this trip, only surface shots. However, I am entrigued as to what this wreck actually is? Artificial Reef wreck? Unknown New Wreck? Another Unknown Wreck frequented by divers? Or the missing Catamount? I'd like to go back someday with better visibility to explore further.

During the surface interval we were treated to Nathan's Hot Dogs, Kielbasa, fruit, home grown tomatoes an vegetables. It was feast, thanks to Helen. Due to the lack of visibility and a storm approaching we decided to relocate inshore to Jim's Secret Spot. A wooden barge that sits about 15' up from the sand in about 85' of water. A good lobster and hunting dive. I sat this dive out, was not feeling up to par. Other divers said the visibility was better on this dive. Everyone seemed to enjoy this dive. Just as divers were exiting the water, the storm blew in and we drove home in rain, wind and lightning. The good thing was the air conditioned cabin kept us dry and cool. When we got back to the dock the rain let up for us to unload.

I had a nice day out in the ocean and met some really nice people. Mark Hennessey, Jenn Wasko and I discussed so diving to be done in the future off of Cape May. Anne Dashevsky whom was supposed to be my dive buddy but, we ended up only passing on the anchor line (both of us had the queezy stomachs today), has a rebreather and told me all about how much she enjoys it. She trained with Dan Crowell whom my better half has been talking to also about rebreathers. I've been trying to save up money for one but with the kids the money always seems to go to them. Someday...





Helen Bilinski









Mark Henessey & JennWasko







Rich Langbein






I have a lot to do to prepare for my next dive on Saturday, Aug. 8th to the Southern Lilian. I have to dry out my wet/dry suit, fix my leaky next seal, fill my tanks and find time to play with Moose. I have 4 more dives scheduled this month if the weather cooperates. I can't wait!!

Safe Diving

I just heard about another diving fatality in the area. Although I don't personally know this diver, my heart goes out to her family and friends.

It is always in the back of my mind when I head out for another dive that something could happen that would result in an injury or even a fatality. However, I have been diving for a very long time and I contribute my diving safety to various things but one of them is they way I was taught to dive.

A majority of my training was taught by Gene Peterson whom is one of most experienced divers I know. He taught me to dive "clean" and not to carry too much unnecessary equipment that could get in the way in the event an emergency happened. He also taught me to stop, slow down and think before I act. I often stop on descent or as soon as I get to the bottom to regroup, calm myself and to rethink of my objectives for the dive. I am the first person that if I don't feel comfortable before a dive or on descent I will turn around and get back on the boat and try it again another day. You don't always feel 100% every day and there are always other days to revisit a wreck. Gene also taught me to take my time at reaching my goals, you should work up to a really deep dive and get lots of practice in on shallow dives. For these things that he taught me among many other things, I believe have kept me diving safely all of these years.

I therefore, dedicate my recent accomplishments to Gene for teaching me to dive safely. I will carry these lessons with me as my diving progresses into the future! I will also continue to look for new ways to dive safer so that I will have many many more dives. Please be safe!!

Offshore Paddlewheeler

I don't know where to begin but "Dreams Do Come True"! I have been trying to get to the Offshore Paddlewheeler for quite some time but was having a hard time trying to find a boat to take me there. In steps the Atlantus! They were more than willing to bring us to this amazing wreck.

As we headed out into the ocean at 6:30 am from Atlantic City we watched a beautiful sunrise and chatted about the upcoming dive. Once we were anchored on the wreck, I splashed to find the surface visibility to be only about 20' which was less than I expected, but once we got to about 95' down I could see the wreck come into view. The visibility cleared up to a good 30'-40' and it was bright. The water temp on the bottom was 48 degrees and the maximum depth I got was 146'. The Atlantus anchored us right between the two paddles which couldn't be more perfect. I quickly got busy taking photos as I toured the wreck and Bill spent his time gathering scallops and lobster. Just like a few weeks ago on the Varanger, this wreck was loaded with Ling cod and I took a picture to show how many there were. There were also lots of bergols and one large tautog circling the paddle (He knew he had 2 more days till open season). There are lots of artifacts on this wreck lying around and I'm sure great things could be found if you spent some time digging on this wreck. The hang was a little rough since the seas were churning, a john line was definitely called for.



Eel Pout and an artifact.









Lots of Ling Cod out in the sand








One of the spectacular Paddles





As I said earlier, I dreamed of diving this wreck for a long time and not only did my dream come true, but I was fortunate enough to be on the wreck with Stephan McAllister whom was videoing the wreck. Well he took some video of the entire wreck and also videoed me! Once we were on the surface he downloaded the video onto a CD for me to have. Now I have a video of myself living my dream. This was the nicest thing anyone has done for me and I don't even think he realized what a gift this was for me.

During the surface interval we were treated to some ballad's of Sam Magee, which are some old folklore stories from Alaska. Stephan kept us entertained with his stories.

During my second dive, I took some more photos of eel pouts and I also looked around under the decks. This is probably one of the most unique and pretty wrecks I have ever been on. The way the paddles so profoundly rise up off of the decks, and to think they have been there since the civil war era. There is also a scallop dredge sitting in the wreck that got hung up and abandoned.














On my way up the anchor line after my second dive I passed Stephan. Once we were back on the surface Stephan told me that I had the biggest smile on my face as I passed him. He said there are not many girls whom dive and it was nice to meet me whom loves it so much. If he only had any idea of what I have been through to get to the Offshore Paddlewheeler and to even still be diving he'd be amazed even more. He is right, there are not many girls that dive deep and love it to the extent that I do.




Brian Larsen








Stephan McAllister










On the ride out ...





All of the divers onboard went home with lobster, scallops and fish. There was some brass brought up too! It was the general consensus that this wreck is awesome and everyone wants to dive it again someday.

During the ride home we planned our next dive adventures with Brian Larsen. We are hoping to try and get to the Max's Wreck or the Cayru next. It appears that this summer will turn out to be one of my most accomplished summers in terms of diving in a long time. Take a peak at a portion of the video from the wreck below. Dive Safe!!! Kim