Arundo 7-2-11 for the Second Time this summer!

Arundo

 Yesterday I dove the Arundo on the Independence II as a last minute decision and it turned out to be well worthwhile.  I was originally planning on diving the Oil Wreck today (7/3/11) but, the Independence II had to cancel the trip which in the end was a good thing for me.  I have wanted to dive the Oil Wreck for a long time but, it is one of those wreck that for some reason I was always nervous about trying to dive.  I finally made the decision to dive it a few years ago when my diving mentor agreed to be my buddy and basically hold my hand and help me overcome my fear and achieve my goal of diving the Oil Wreck.  That day never came so here I am several years later but, this time I was feeling much more confident in my own capabilities and was going to accomplish the dive on my own.  Since the dive was cancelled, I realized some wrecks are just not meant to be and I am ok with that.  So as an alternative, Capt. Dan invited me to go dive Arundo.

The flat calm Atlantic Ocean

The ocean couldn't get any calmer, flat like a lake. On the way out I was contemplating whether I should take photos during my dive or just dig for artifacts.  I was leaning towards digging for artifacts and/or swimming out in the sand looking for scallops. As I was suiting up, Capt. Dan said I should take my camera in because the surface vis looks fantastic and I may regret leaving it on the boat.  I took his advise and took in my camera.  Since it was so calm, not even a ripple, we had a stern tie-in, simple straight line to the bottom.  As soon as I splashed and looked underwater, the vis was so beautiful, I was so pumped for this dive.  The Arundo has always been one of my favorite dives out of Manasquan Inlet.  The vis held most of the way to the bottom, I only wish the water temperature did.  There was a slight thermocline and the bottom temp was warmer than my last dive to the Arundo at 49 degrees.  We had a full boat today with some students whom typically dive Lake Erie.  Since they all splashed before me, the area around the anchor was a little silted up.  I therefore, swam away from the anchor in search of clearer waters in which I succeeded.  The vis was about 30' on the bottom.  I proceeded to take a few photos but they were not coming out well, they seemed real dark. (I later figured out that my lens was fogging, time for new moisture munchers).  So, I stopped and just swam around looking at the wreck.  At the end on my dive I ran into Alek Petersen whom wanted me to model for his pictures but he too was having issues with lighting.  It is hard to adjust the lighting on these deeper wrecks and I never seem to want to spend the time wasting a dive trying different techniques.  Time is too short on the bottom and I'd rather check out the wreck than waste time fussing with the camera.  I did a 25 minute dive and did not want to go up, these are the times that I again wish I had that rebreather because I would have stayed down longer.  I am still saving my pennies for the rebreather, maybe next year!!! The hang was filled with lots of salps, illuminesence and jellyfish.  There was litterally 0 current which made for a comfortable hang.

Bubbles on the hang

On the surface, everyone started to bring up the bags of lobster, scallops and flounder.  We had a fish jumping off the boat that appeared to be a tuna and that brought some excitement to the surface interval.


On my second dive, I left the camera on board and was going to look for scallops.  I ran my wreck reel out into the sand and did not have any luck finding scallops.  The current started to pick up on this dive but that also helped to improve the vis to about 35'-40'.  Toward the end on my dive I spotted something that looked like a soda can, I picked it up and it was one of those large Canadian Beer bottles, fully intact with no cracks in it.  I then started to dig around there to search for more but did not find any.  The current picked up quite a bit while I was on the bottom so I had one of those long flag pole hanging type of hangs.  Boy my arms tire when there is current.  I was excited about my find. Perfect end to a perfect day out diving.  It is so rare to have such good conditions on this wreck and this year I have had two great days of diving on this wreck.  I knew my 25th year of diving would be the best but, so far it has far exceeded my wildest expectations.  Looking forward to diving again next weekend out on the Indy II.