Kim Dixon's Wreck Diving Blog: 1st Dive of the Season- Pauline Marie 6/20/09

I arrived at the dock to sunny skies and no wind. I was really excited about finally get out for my first dive of the year. This dive was planned by Geoff Grahamn as part of our Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Techniques class and I did not know what wreck we were planning to dive. This was also my first time diving on the Atlantus out of Atlantic City Gardiners Basin. Once the boat was loaded and we headed out to flat calm seas, we decided to go to the Atlantic City Artificial Reef and dive the Pauline Marie.

Also along on the dive was Bill (my dive buddy), Jeff Heim, Kathy Ondrasik and her daughter from Dudas Diving completing some of their course objectives; Henry and Dave from East Coast Diving whom were in our class and also John? (the rebreather guy).

The Pauline Marie sits upright in about 80' of water. Since it is an artificial reef wreck it is fully intact. For the first dive we were to practice removing our swing bottles, securing them and then reattaching them to ourselves. We then were free to have fun and just dive. As I splashed I felt a sense of calm and relief as I always do (I am one of those whom would rather be in the water than on the boat), the surface visibility was great and the water felt warm. The visibility on the bottom was about 25' and bright and the bottom water temp was about 55 degrees. I completed my objectives with ease although I am not good at working clips with dive mits. Then I proceed to swim around the wheelhouse and then penetrated into the lower wheelhouse. Since the visibility was good I spent time looking around inside the wreck for some good areas to photograph on my next dive. There were some large tau tag and lots of small sea bass. There were some large mussels but not many, the wreck is covered with lots of baby mussels. After about 27 minutes on the bottom I headed up and was happy that my first dive of the year went really smooth and I felt great.

Once on the surface, I accidentally dropped my goody bag while clipping it to the line on the boat. So if anyone finds a yellow bag with "Dixon" on it along with a light and wreck reel, please contact me. Geoff told me that I looked really good in the water and that added to my confidence of the dive. Then the rain rolled in and did it pour but, you are wet when you dive so it didn't bother me and the seas remained calm.

On my second dive I took my camera along with my two new strobes from SeaLife. To make a long story short, my old SeaLife 960 strobes would never fire underwater, only on the surface. I sent them back and they sent me two brand new Digital Pro Flashes, kudos to SeaLife. On this dive, we lost the brightness and it was dark on the bottom due to the rain on the surface. There was also a little surge on the bottom this time which made it harder to stay still and shoot photos. These strobes are amazing, you can shoot pictures constantly with no waiting for the strobes to recharge. They are however, really bright and even on their lowest setting I was getting photos that were over exposed. I should have thought to turn one of the strobes off but now I know for the next time. I spent only about 20 minutes on the bottom for this dive because I got cold. I shot a few pictures during my hang and was soon back on the boat.

Me on my hang

The Atlantus is an old boat but it has a large cabin which was great to have especially with the rain. The ladder was easy to climb and the mate, Shane was very competent at helping everyone up the ladder and to get their fins off and tanks secure. The Captain of the boat, Brian Larsen was really friendly and made everyone feel at home on the boat. I would recommend diving this boat to other divers and they definitely go that extra mile to make divers comfortable.

Back at the dock we offloaded and headed to the "Back of the Bay Ale House" for a few cold beers. I was glad that I had such a good time diving and can't wait till next week. We are going to the Varanger!