The Resor 10-23-11

Capt. Bill  of the Independence II called us to see if we wanted to go to the Resor and given the poor visibility everywhere, I knew if there was going to be good visibility anywhere it would be at the Resor.   I was originally thinking of diving the City of Athens but, given the conditions I thought the Resor would be a better choice and I believe I made the right decision.  Once its late October..early November days of diving start to thin out due to the increasing winds which goes hand in hand with rougher seas.  Yesterday, however, it was a beautiful day to be out diving, a little chill in the air, warm water (53 degrees on the bottom and 62 on the hang) and calm seas.

The Resor is one of those wrecks that has a large amount of relief and provides something for everyone from lobsters, scallops, fish to artifacts and photography.  I have many fond memories of diving this wreck and the abundance of cod everyone used to spear on it.

We had a full boat of some of the best divers in the Northeast aboard along with some of the next generation of divers that you can just sense what they will achieve in terms of going "out of the box" and finding new wrecks, achieving greater depths to areas never discovered before.  There was also 4 female divers on board which simply does not happen often.  In addition, of the 14 divers on board, I could not help to notice that almost the entire boat was rebreather divers, there was only 3 of us on open circuit...times are changing.

I ended up attempting to be buddies with Anne Dashevsky...We tried to be buddies a year or two ago on the Gypsy Blood and ended up passing each other on the anchor line, I was going up as she was finally heading down..that day she had problems with her rebreather.  This time, she splashed ahead of me and waited at 20' for me to do a bubble check for her and I saw bubbles so she went back up to the surface and I went down alone again..  As I descended there was a little current that was carrying that algae in the water column...I hoped that the water would clear up on the bottom.  Once on the bottom the current was pretty strong on top of the stern where we were anchored and the vis was only about 15' which in my opinion is not that great for the Resor.  It was darker but, it was also early in the morning and the sun was not fully up to give us that ambient light.  I brought my camera and tried to stay on top of the wreck where there was the best natural light and shot some photos.  I could not help to notice the enormous taugue that were on top of  the wreck and they were not afraid to swim right up to me.  After being down for about 10 minutes, my buddy Anne showed up and she was going to head down to the sand to look for scallops, I headed down into the wreck a bit but continued to shoot photos.  I swam along the wreck and found the gun and I also noticed lots of spots where portholes once were.  I also noticed a backing plate still there hidden amongst the marine growth,  Bill later told me that there are quite a few backing plates left on the Resor because they are really hard to get off.  It did not appear that any of the divers today were artifact hunting, everyone was looking for scallops and lobsters.  I ended my dive after about 30 minutes because I was cold.  The water is warm but, the surface air was cooler today so I was cold before I even splashed thus, I didn't last long before I was shivering...

Yellow Boring Sponge

The sea anemone is wrapped around the mussel.

Since the boat was full of rebreathers that also means that they spend a lot more time on the bottom so when they came up there was bag after bag after bag filled with scallops and lobsters.  Some of the lobsters were really NICE in terms of size.  Then the shucking began..It was definitely a productive day in terms of scallops.

I splashed ahead of Anne for dive #2 and she found me half way into my dive.  The visibility improved quite a bit and I'd say it was now about 30', it seems the current helped to move out some of the algae, plus now the sun was out.  We went down to the sand and I was going to take more pictures and she was going to gather scallops...I shot two photos and my low battery sign came on and my camera was done, I was not happy to say the least...oh well... I  helped Anne look for scallops but, just for a few minutes because I didn't want to end up with a long deco...I was too cold to handle a long hang.  I headed up ahead of Anne and still had a 20 minute hang which would have been shorter but my O2 regulator was free-flowing badly so I didn't get to hang on O2 deco gas.  I tried to turn the knob on my Diverite regulator to get the free flowing to slow down to no avail... At times like this I am glad that I am a conservative diver because you never know what piece of equipment may not work properly and luckily for me I had plenty of Nitrox to decompress on and the only compromise is I had to hang longer...I could have used my O2 regulator but I don't like breathing on a regulator that forces air down your throat..  During my hang I was thinking about the fact that this algae bloom is still in full swing and the fact that there were tons of cunners on this wreck and some large taugue but, they were mostly located on top of the wreck.  I wonder if this is a sign that the dissolved oxygen level is dropping on the bottom and as a result it drives the fish up higher??? I'll have to pay more attention to this on my next dive.

Back up on the boat, another load of scallops was bought up by those divers that did two dives.  Anne said we did two partial dives together this time and perhaps next time we will do at least one complete dive together.. On the way home Terry shared some great stories of equipment lost and found and his great find of a bunch of $20 bills while diving.  He had us all laughing and having a good time. Capt. Jim of the Gypsy Blood was at the dock when we arrived and we all hung out for a while having a few beers and sharing stories of dive adventures.  I hope to get out a few more times this season...thinking of that Arundo trip in 2 weeks!

Almirante (Flour Wreck) & Gloria 10-10-11

Tina & I between dives

We decided to take advantage of the lake Atlantic conditions and head out diving today.  We had an old dive friend, Tina Held, join us today.  After much debate over which wreck to go to we decided on the Almirante (Flour Wreck).  Since it was so calm, it was  a quick ride out and I was told to get suited up for the tie-in.  There has been chatter that the vis down south has not been too good so the plan was to tie us in if it was good otherwise we would move to another wreck.

Doesn't get much flatter than this

As soon as I splashed I yelled up to Tina, it looks really dark.  I went down to see if it would open up on the bottom.  The water column was filled with brown phytoplankton and it just got darker and darker till I hit the wreck.  I sat for  a few minutes to let my eyes adjust and decided, no way lets go to another wreck.  I tried to unsnarl the anchor but needed some slack.  So I went up and told them the vis was horrible and I needed some slack to get the anchor out of the wreck.  Back down into the darkness I went...it actually is spooky down there when its that dark.  They gave me slack for about a minute but not long enough for me to get the anchor and chain out of the hole and off the wreck.  The biggest problem was the vis was so bad that I could not see how to get the anchor out and where to actually drag it to.  Well like I said the slack was for a only a minute and they started pulling the anchor up.. I pulled back on the line trying to signal to them that I need more slack but they were oblivious.  I went up again and this time I was not happy and started yelling at Bill only to find it was Tina that was pulling the anchor up, not Bill...oops!  Back down for a third time...this really is not fun...This time they gave me lots of slack and I was able to get the anchor out drag it across the wreck and into the sand and anti-fowl it.  By now I blew 30 minutes underwater just fighting with the anchor.  Boy was I tired but I got the job done.

2011 was a great year for diving!!!

 We decided to head north to the Gloria wreck.  Upon arrival, the viz looked much better on the surface.  We sent Bill in this time to tie in and told him to send a bottle up if the vis is good.  Tina and I waited and waited and finally up came the bottle.  Tina suited up and went in.  Once Bill was back on the boat I splashed.  Turns out the surface vis was good but, it was only about 5' on the bottom.  We all did our dives anyway and good thing because Tina found a great artifact.  It was piece of a door with a brass keyhole lock on it.  She said she spotted the green in the wreck and grabbed it and it came loose.

Bill opted out of the second dive, so I went in for my dive #3 with Tina.  We were going to head back to where she found her artifact and look for the key to it.  Lots of times people left the keys in those types of locks and maybe we could find it.  We looked and looked but did not find it.  I however, found some sort of large wheel with spokes and could not budge it.  I will need to go back with a scooter and tools to try and break it free.  It was rather large and  it is partially buried.  Hmmm what could it be?  I was again given the duty of pulling the anchor.  I unsnarled the anchor and tried to fill the lift bag to lift up the anchor.  As fast as I filled the lift bag it was emptying and sinking.  AGGHHH!!  Bill gave me a lift bag with a hole in it.  Tina attached her sausage to it and it was enough to get the anchor off the wreck. 

We had a beautiful day out there topped off with a few beers back at the house.  As I am typing this I cannot begin to tell you how sore my shoulders and back are from dragging that anchor around.  What a workout!!

Tina and her door with keyhole lock.

I have been privileged to be dive buddies or underwater diving with lots of divers whom have recovered great artifacts from portholes, bells, china, binacles, binacle balls, running and cage lights, and now a piece of a door.  I do not have a good knack for finding artifacts.  I have found a few in my time but, they are not in abundance.  I do however, always seem to be with others when they find their prized artifact and often I do have my camera either underwater or on the surface to memorialize their finds.  For this, I am grateful.  I was not the one who found these great artifacts but, I was there to share in the whole experience.  Pictures mean a lot to me and they bring great memories of special dives and divers.  This is why I love to dive so much!!!

Looking forward to diving again next weekend...

Immaculata 10-8-11

This weekend was like an Indian summer weekend with warms temps and calm seas predicted so I decided to dive as much as I can just in case the weather turns and I don't get out again this year (of course I hope to get out a few more times but you never know what mother nature will bring).  I signed on to go out on the Independence II to the Immaculata.  I have never been on this wreck but, I  heard about the abundance of bottles on this wreck from other divers so, I was going to go and get some bottles.  As we headed out the seas were not quite as calm as predicted but it was by no means rough and as the day went on it laid down nicely.  It was a chilly morning and I had to actually put on the winter coat to stay warm on the ride out.

The Immaculata sits in 95' of water.  They say that it consists of 3 old garbage barges that sunk in the 1920's.  This wreck sits in an area known as the Acid Grounds because it used to be a dumping ground for Industrial Waste.  The wreck is also known for having a large amount of silt on it that can easily be stirred up. I can attest to the fact that it is indeed very silty and since it was an old waste site, I wonder what is in that silt and if I should be diving in it..

Upon arrival at the wreck site, the surface visibility looked great..I decided to leave my camera behind for dive #1 so that I could look for bottles.  Capt. Bill told me that there are rows of ribbing but they all look the same and since this site silts up quickly I should run a wreck reel so I don't get lost.  Once I splashed I noticed the water was that nice n pretty fall blue color...which means the gulfstream is in!!  There was however a lot of particulate matter in the water and lots of jellyfish.  There was no thermocline and the visibility held all the way down to the wreck.  The vis on the wreck was a good 30' but, as soon as anyone dug for bottles it silted up fast.  Luckily there was the slightest current that took the stirred up silt away pretty quickly.  I initially headed down the edge of  the wreck towards the silted area assuming that they must be finding bottles in that area but, quickly I ended up with 0 vis so I turned around and actually swam across the wreck to the opposite side where the vis was back to 30'.  I saw quite a few lobsters, flounder, and tons of crabs but, given the fact that this was the acid dump site, I was not going to eat anything from this wreck.  Even though its has been a long time since they dumped on this site, I know since I am a chemist by trade, that these things still linger around for a long, long time.  So, I left the lobsters and crabs alone.  There also was not a lot of marine growth on this wreck which is another sign that the marine environment is not too healthy.  I picked a spot almost to the area they call the machinery pile and started digging.  All I found was broken bottles and sinkers.  I was down for about 30 minutes and finally realized that it was very warm down here, almost hot..a quick check to my gauge and it was 65 degrees on the bottom.  It felt great!!!

Up on the surface, one diver after the other brought up bags full of bottles.  All different shapes, sizes, colors and from all over the country.  It was really cool checking them out and trying to figure out what they were.  I will hopefully find some on my next dive.

Here we go, dive #2,  I was going to head back over towards the second row of  ribbing near the machinery and start digging.  Well I dug and dug and came up with nothing. All this digging did bring a ton of fish to my side to share in my digging.   I was running low on air so I headed back to dig more near the anchor line and I certainly found lots of broken bottles but nothing intact.  I sometimes don't have the patience or the "eye" to find artifacts or bottles so I naturally was upset that I couldn't find at least one bottle.  But then again, I found two awesome bottles earlier in the season on the Arundo!

Again, lots of bottles (too many to count)  and lobsters too were boated.  We had a nice crowd out today.  There were a few divers on board getting ready for Capt. Dan's expedition to find the third Black Sunday wreck he's been searching for offshore.  I yearned so much to go with them but, 250'-300' is a little deep without a rebreather.  I wish them lots of luck and with the great conditions for this weekend, I am confident that they will find it this time.

When I got home and told Bill how great the conditions were and  we decided to dive the next two days on our boat.  However, after my dive we were invited to a retirement party for a fellow diver, Joe Dobarro and had a few too many drinks so Sunday's dive was scratched.  The party had lots of old dive boat Captain's there such as John Slotnick (Robin II) and  Johnny Pratt (Ursula) and we enjoyed talking about the old diving adventures we shared.  The Ursula was the boat that brought us several times a week to the Varanger in the 1990's when we were working on a clam research project for Rutgers.  I was one lucky diver to get paid to dive the Varanger so often for that project..  It helped me gain valuable experience and confidence for deeper diving.  The Ursula was just sold this past April...another dive boat legacy gone...