Durley Chine (Bacardi) 7-28-12

This wreck was known for a long time as the Barcardi Wreck and it sunk in a collision with the steamer Harlem on April 30, 1917.   It is a tanker that sits in 185' of water on a sandy bottom.  The tanker was only 4 years old when it met its demise.  The wreck was originally found by a charter captain whom marked the wreck with a weighted line and a corked bottle of Bacardi Run hence the name, the Bacardi wreck.  In 1987 the wreck was positively identified by Rick Jaszyn when he recovered the ships bell with S.S. Durlely Chine inscribed in it.

I have been very sick for the past 3 weeks and was not sure if I would make it out today and up until I actually splashed I was truly hesitating.  I was sure glad I went for it because this the best dive I ever did in my life...  We left the dock on the Independence II at 3am for the long 60 mile ride out to the wreck.  We were fortunate to be greeted to 2'-3' seas the entire trip.  The boat was covered from bow to stern with bodies sleeping wherever there was room for the ride out until the boat finally slowed and we were at the wreck site.

The tie-in was quick and we were anchored in right next to the boilers.  I splashed into the balmy 75 degree water and soon was at about 100' where I could already see divers on the bottom.  At first I thought we must be at the wrong wreck, because there is no way I could see from 100' to the bottom which is about 182'.  I was wrong and quickly realized that the visibility was so outstanding that it took you a few minutes to realize that this is really NJ.  Upon descent you could see the entire wreck and of course see the prominently placed boilers that rose out of the sandy bottom.  I was already regretting not taking my camera in.  This was the last of my trimix certification dives and I wanted to dive and relax with no camera.  The next thing I noticed was that given the depth there was still plenty of ambient light and all you need your light for was to spot a lobster or artifact inside the wreckage.  I initially started out following the prop shaft out into the sand and realized at first that there was not a lot of wreckage in this direction (which I later realized if I had followed it further I would have found more wreckage) so I turned around and went back to the area around the boilers.  I noticed that this wreck is covered with brass pipes, valves and flanges just laying about.  Even I could have brought up an artifact with little effort if I wanted another hunk of brass for my garden.  I saw a plate and flipped it over and there was a lobster under it.  I am not a good lobster hunter but this lobster had no where to escape to so I picked it up.  It started bucking its tail and I dropped it because it startled me.  I then tried to pick it up again but was not able to hold it and put it in my bag without some help so I was swimming around looking for my buddy, Geoff and found him excavating an artifact.  I looked closer and my lobster and thought you know what, I bet this looks bigger on the bottom than what it would look like on the surface and I bet it is too small to keep.  So I let it go and went to see if Geoff needed help with his artifact which was some sort of valve or flange.  Later on the boat I thought, I bet my judgement in terms of the size of the lobster was wrong because the tail was rather large.  Oh Well!  I swam around some more and saw a giant red sea raven fish and some of the largest ling cod I have ever seen.  The bottom temp was 48 degrees and boy was it cold.  Before long it was time to wrap things up and head up.  The thermocline was thankfully at 60' and felt so good especially since I had been shaking from the cold since 110'.

Once on the boat everyone talked about the parts of the wreck that they had seen and everyone was raving about the epic visibility, about 80'-100' horizontal.  The bow of the wreck has collapsed and the only areas with real relief was at the boilers and the stern.  There were lots of nice bugs harvested from the wreck as well a a bottle, ceramic vase and some other brass items (valves, flanges).

On dive #2 I swam out towards the bow and checked out some pieces of wreckage in the sand.  During this dive I shot some video with the Gopro and hoped it was bright enough for it to pick up the great viz and features of this wreck.   I will post the video once I have time to edit it.

On the way home we checked out two sets of numbers and one set looked real promising and I am sure we will be back to dive on those numbers some day in the future.  After the long trip in we had enough time to unload the boat before all of the strong thunderstorms blew through.  I will mark this down and the best dive I have ever been on but, it was definitely a long day with that include a lot of prep work. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to dive this wreck, a place I am sure few have gone.  The next morning I got up bright and early and made the trek down to North Carolina.  As I type this it is the eve of a week of Wreck Diving in North Carolina!  Be Safe!!!

Dutch Springs 7-21 & 7-22

I spent a beautiful weekend at Dutch Springs with my daughter Rebecca while she completed her check-out dives.  She is now a certified PADI diver and I am one proud mom!  The visibility in the quarry was only 20' at best, there were times when it would silt out to only about 5' of viz and all you could see was the fins of another diver in front of you.  Rebecca and the other divers handled the low visibility well and now they were able to see first hand what it is like to dive with little or no viz.  I more or less stayed far away from her because I did not want to interfere and wanted her to do this on her own.  My original plan was to video and photograph her dives.  I did get a few pictures and limited video but the conditions were limited. 

While up at the quarry I had several divers asking why I waited until Rebecca was 16 years old to get her certified?  There are several reasons for this but, the main reason was I wanted her to decide on her own to become certified and not just because Mom and Dad dive and would like her to learn.  In the end I think this was the right decision for all of us because it went very smoothly and she is confident in herself. 

We had a great time camping and sitting around the fire at night with all the other divers which was a great way to ease her into the diving world. 

I will be trying to get her out in the ocean over the next few weeks since she already has told me that the quarry was boring and not much to look at.  I promised her that wreck diving is far more exciting and interesting than diving the quarry!  Congratulations Rebecca!!!

Northern Lilian 7-7-12

On February 26, 1939, the Lilian collided with the freighter Weigand in the fog and sunk off of Barnegat, NJ.  Today, I was able to dive on the wreck where it is providing lots of habitat for a wide variety of species.

I have been trying to dive the Northern Lilian for the past two years and have been blown out of every trip that I was on so, I was glad that the weather was finally cooperating and, today I would finally get to dive this wreck.  I was under the impression that I have never dove this wreck before...  However, when I was thumbing through my old log book looking for the Astra trip reports, I came upon two logged dives to the Northern Lilian indicating that I did indeed dive this wreck on September 23, 1991 off of George Hoffman's Sea Lion.  It was my logged dive numbers 98 & 99.  My memory is generally pretty good but, this is proof that all these years of diving are affecting my memory to some extent, good ole nitrogen!  In my old log book I wrote that the wreck sat at depth of 152-155' and that particular day we had good visibility (20').  There were tons of bugs, winches attached to poles and the bottom moved with conga eels..Great dive.  I also wrote that Bill got a piece of a backing plate.  Ironic how today conditions remain the same, especially with the bottom having a large abundance of conga eels.  However, my log stated that  I did an 18 minute dive with a 20 minute total  hang time for the first dive and a 20 minute dive and 48 minute total hang for dive two..That was is in the days of diving with air and no O2 for deco...I am glad times have changed for the better in terms of the length of the hang time.


This was a special day for me because I was finally going to complete my NAUI Trimix dives.  I was supposed to take a Trimix course back in 2007 when the instructor that I was going to utilized died while  wreck diving in Florida.  This shook me up quite a bit and it has taken me this long to find another instructor that I felt comfortable with.  We went out on the Independence II on a charter chartered by The Scuba Connection and I was finally going to meet and dive with Wayne and Jason in person.  Wayne and Jason were patient with me last year in helping me to choose a new drysuit that had the perfect fit and we succeeded because I am very happy with my new suit.  The rest of the charter was filled with the usual suspects that made the day fun!

Geoff Graham was my dive buddy today and I planned to follow him around the wreck and to take photos along the way.  Once on the bottom we swam around some of the higher pieces of the wreck and I could spot the boilers in the distance.  The visibility was about 25'-30' and it was very, very cold...48 degrees on the bottom.  I kept stopping to take photos and I didn't want to hold up Geoff, so eventually he went about his dive and so did I.  I was in the middle of taking a photo when a monkfish came along and practically swam into me.  I then noticed that it was tangled in some sort of line.  I was trying to figure out what was up with this monkfish when I spotted Brandon above me (aka purple, pink and lime green guy).  He caught the monkfish and had his spool line weaved through a hole in its mouth and was pulling it around like it was his pet dog or something.  I continued on my way and Brandon took off with his fish.

Brandon's pet Monkfish

  I noticed that there were quite a few cod on this wreck which is promising.  In the "old" days there were always lots of cod to spear, these days its a treat to see them let along spear any.  This wreck is really a great wreck with lots of visible artifact, lots of fish and just plain ole interesting things to check out.  I was again trying to take a close up picture of an eel pout and was inching closer and closer to it when a flash went off and spooked me.  It was Brandon again this time without his monkfish, he came in to take a few pictures of me and to scare off the eel pout that I was trying to photograph.    A few minutes later Geoff signaled that it was time to wrap things up and I was glad because my fingers were so frozen that I could barely move them.  There was a pretty good current on the hang that left you having to hold on with two hands.  Back on the boat the monkfish, cod, lobsters and scallops started coming up. Brandon informed me that he dragged the monkfish into me in an attempt to scare me, little did he know that I am not scared of monkfish, just sharks.  I did tell him that he did succeed in scaring me later with his flash...

Photo of me taken by Brandon McWilliams

Dive number two was more or less a repeat of checking out the wreck and taking photos.  I was much warmer on this dive since it was absolutely baking on the surface, I was so overheated before I splashed that it helped to keep me warmer on the bottom.  Towards the end of this dive I was taking a last picture or two near the anchor line when I felt someone or something gently push me down as if something was on top of me.  I turned to see whom or what it was and I saw a diver scurrying up the anchor line with a green bag full of scallops. Hmmm who is that diver teasing me on the bottom.?. I will find out!!  On the hang there was only Geoff, myself, Capt. Dan and Joe so it left Capt. Dan or Joe to be the diver that was teasing me.  On the surface, they all denied pushing me but, Capt. Dan has a green bag of scallops...he is known to" poke me" under water so I believe it was him.  I guess it was pick on Kim day between Brandon's attempt to scare me with the Monkfish and the unidentified diver trying to scare me by pushing me..This is all part of the fun commaderae that you find out on the dive boat and it makes the day more fun.  Back on the boat there was a whole story of how Sean and Jason wrestled two monkfish and who's battle was grander.

In the end I completed two of my Trimix dives and had a great time out on the Atlantic.  Since I am always so cold diving, Jason is going to arrange for me to try out one of the Santi heated vests that most of the divers on board have been using...Looks like diving with the guys whom own The Scuba Connection will end up costing me in the end but, they probably know I will pay anything to be warmer...lol. Once the boat was cleaned we all went over to Capt. Dan's restaurant and had the cook prepare  Franchaise Monkfish and Blackened Monkfish and it was delicious.  It certainly was a long day, I got up at 3:30am for this dive and didn't get home until 9pm but it was so worth it!!!

I am hoping to get out on my own boat this week to dive the Gloria, Double East or Boiler wreck. Otherwise, I will be diving with my daughter at the quarry on July 21 & 22nd and my next offshore trip will be to the Bacardi.  Till then BE SAFE!!