Granite & Sea Girt Wrecks 10-23-12

I have not had good luck lately in terms of diving, I have been blown out of dives every week since my last dive on the Baleana.  I saw a window of good weather this week so, I jumped at an invite to go diving on "The Rage" boat.  We were originally thinking of going to the Bonanza but, we voted on going to the Granite wreck instead.  Today there were just  few divers, Gerard, Al, Gene, Tina and I which made for a laid back day off of work for diving.  The seas were flat calm and the sun warmed the cool morning air as we motored out of Manasquan Inlet.

The Granite Wreck is an old wooden sailing ship that was carrying a cargo of granite blocks.  It sits in 115' of water and has lots of wholes for lobster.  I have dove this wreck before under good visibility and it is an impressive wreck.

Gerard and Al whom both recently upgraded to new Revo rebreathers, splashed first to secure the anchor and do their dive.  The surface viz looked good but, when they came up they reported horrible viz on the bottom.  However, they both noted that as they were heading back up the silt was clearing and the viz was opening up so, they told us all to jump in and should give it a shot.  Tina and I splashed next and we were going to hunt for lobsters.  I did not take my camera in but, I took the Gopro along (Not a big fan of GoPro but its better than nothing).  The water column on the way down was loaded with large particulate matter and when we reached the bottom we had only about 10' of viz at best.  So I tied off my wreck reel and we headed off in search of lobsters.  It seemed like no time at all and Tina was signaling that it was time for her to head up. Of course we did not find a single lobster..I went with her back to the anchor line and I planned to stay down a bit longer but when we got back, Gene had already started to pull the anchor, so I too went up.

Granite Wreck Video

During the surface interval and for the remainder of the day we experienced a strange event .  There were these small birds of all different species that were barely flying (I suppose they were heading south for the winter).  Eventually would land in the water and since their wings would get wet they would drown.  It was unnerving to see so many of them die so Tina decided we should try to net them out of the water and save them.  I was of the belief that this is mother nature's way of weeding out the weak and frail thus, we should just let them be...  The two birds that Tina did rescue eventually flew away and committed suicide.  Ironic,  here we are taking lobsters but, rescuing small birds from a watery grave???

We moved inshore for the the second dive and went to the Sea Girt Wreck.  The last time I dove this wreck was last summer on a night dive aboard "The Rage" and we had a good time and here I am again on "The Rage" diving the Sea Girt (see my Sea Girt Night Dive post from August 2011).  Tina and I splashed first to tie in the anchor line and I was happy to see that the visibility was much better here, about 15'.  I was the first one down and while I secured the anchor and waited for Tina, I noticed an abundance of sea bass on this wreck.  Tina and I followed one of the walls of the hull out to the massive chain pile.  Tina was on one side of the wall and I was on the other and the two of us looked in every hole for a lobster, Tina got one real nice lobster and we had quite a few that were too small which were left on the bottom.  Once we got to the chain pile I was in awe with how many large sea bass were on the wreck,  it was covered and I wished I had taken my camera along because they seemed to be such a deep blue color that would look nice in a picture.  Before, long it was time again for Tina to go up and this time I followed her because I was freezing cold.  Even though the water was 59 degrees from top to bottom, I felt cold along with the other divers.  We were all so chilled that Gerard cranked up the heat in the cabin so it felt like a nice sauna...it was one of those nice luxuries. 

Today was a nice day out diving especially since none of us had to be at work.  The surface conditions were excellent and although the viz was not the best at the Granite wreck, it was still a good dive and most important, we all came back safe.  Gerard made a point in saying that I bring Good Luck to "The Rage" so I hope that means I'll be invited to dive with them again.!!

It looks like mother nature will not be permitting us to dive again this weekend so, I am planning on Diving the Arundo the first weekend in November...