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.