Gulftrade Stern 8-25-13

Early this morning after arriving at the Independence II we took a vote and the majority sent us heading to the Gulftrade Stern. My first logged dive on the Stern of the Gulftrade was on May 30,1988 and I was still diving in a wetsuit!  In my logbook I noted that the wreck was covered in mussels and was a good sightseeing wreck.  Wow, hard to believe that I have been diving on this wreck for 25 years. Although, I am not sure exactly how many dives I have on this wreck over that time period.  I was last on this wreck on Sept, 25, 2011 and I posted a trip report located in my blog archive which you can refer to for a little history on the wreck, plus there were some old photos of the wreck in that post too.

Today it was a little bouncy on the ride out and it felt cool like the fall but, as usual I was thankful for another day out diving. This wreck sits at about 70-90' and I was planning on doing a longer dive to take advantage of that oxygen enriched air. I splashed to brownish green water filled with the typically summer luminescence and salps that yielded 30-40' of visibility on the bottom.  You could see the wreck from the carolina rig which always tells me the dive is going to be awesome.  The visibility was great yet it seemed a little more cloudy on the bottom since the water was so full of life.  We were anchored into a high piece right next to the boiler and I swam to the edge of the wreck and followed it down to the extreme stern to a large debris field.  This wreck has changed a lot of over the years and is slowly breaking down but it is still an interesting wreck with lots to see and do.  The wreck is great for photographing sea anemones.

  After checking out the stern debris field I headed to a few pieces off the starboard side of the wreck about 40' out in the sand.  This area was loaded with sea robins and I tried to coax them to come closer to my camera for a good macro shot but they were skittish.

 

 I went back towards the wreck and went inside the wreck to photograph some of the sea anemones since the water was a little clearer inside.  I had a great time looking at this wreck and didn't want to leave the bottom but that deco was mounting..During my hang all alone, I looked out and saw a large sting ray that spanned bigger than me.  It swam around me and then took off.  Sometimes when you see things like this all alone you realize that it was a gift for you and you were meant to be in this exact spot in time:))  For me it was the icing on the cake for an already fantastic dive.

During the surface interval lots of lobster and fluke were boated.  Some of the lobsters were quite nice.  The sun was shining and felt so good and the seas started to lay down.  A few divers on board were only doing 1 dive today, mostly rebreathers since they spend like 3 hours on the bottom but, me still on the old fashioned open circuit was definitely going in for dive #2.

The sun was sitting higher in the sky so it provided that extra light on the bottom that helped you to see even further on my second dive.  I went out into the sand near those sea robins I saw earlier and realized that the sea robins were collecting sand dollars in their garbage piles.  I collected about 15 sand dollars to bring home.  I then saw a dead crab and this blackfish was eating it.  He let me practically get my lens right on top of him and posed for a few photos when out of the corner of my eye I saw an ocean pout swimming in the sand.  He appeared to be yellow with some blue in it.  He was not scared of me so I took a few shots of him.  Kind of ironic because we were just talking during the surface interval about "some" divers fear of eel pouts and lobsters. I won't name any names...

 

 This dive too went by way too fast.  On my hang it was just Sue and I with out cameras and we took photos of each other.

 

 I ended the day with a nice cold beer at the dock laughing with the crew:)

I am taking Labor Day weekend off from diving but, look to get out to the Lilian and 56 Mile wreck in the following weeks.  Be Safe!

Sam Berman 8-17-13

 
After sitting on the beach a few days this week and enjoying the flat calm aqua green water, I decided that I needed to go diving this weekend and not allow a weekend of 2' seas to pass me by.  I signed onto dive the Sam Berman with the Independence II.  The Sam Berman was sunk as part of the Shark River artificial reef in 1987.  It is a 160' long navy tanker that sits in 125' of water.  This wreck is not dove very often and is within 1/2 mile of the Stolt Dagali.  It is known for good visibility and today would not be an exception.

As we anchored up the visibility looked at least 50-60' on the surface but when I splashed the great surface visibility lowered to about 30' on the bottom.  There was lots of silt that easily stirred.  I swam around the bow and noticed that this wreck was covered with lobster traps.  They were strung across the wreck and out in the sand too.  The wreck seemed to move with the abundance of summer flounder, they were everywhere along the edge of the wreck.  This wreck sites upright and is easy to penetrate although I did not venture into the decks below.  There were also lots of lobsters on this wreck that were not even in the traps.  There was basically no scallops and the few token scallops found appeared to be very old with growth on them.

On the surface a lot of lobsters and fluke were brought up.

During my second dive the visibility improved to about 40' and  I found a Sea Raven on the deck and I was determined to get a close up picture of it.  This little guy played a nice game of chase with me.  Every time I got close he'd take off before I could take a photo.  This went on for a while and eventually he turned around and came at me!  I got a few pictures but not the shot I was looking for.  The rest of this dive I swam towards the stern and looked in the huge holds that were full of marine life.  This artificial reef wreck was not bad, better than the popular Algol.

More, fluke, lobsters, a monkfish and a cod were brought up on the second dive.  Most of the divers on board today were heading offshore to the Carolina tomorrow.  I sure wish I had planned to go along, I never dove that wreck and would like to someday.  I hope they all have a safe and prosperous dive!  I am looking at trying to dive the Oil Wreck next weekend.  Sean is promising to take me to get some floor tiles, time will tell if I am up to the challenge..

Photo of me coming up from my dive by Brandon McWilliams

The R.P. Resor 8-10-13

Even though it has only been a few weeks, it seemed like much longer since I went diving in NJ.  Today we were destined for the R.P. Resor, one of those wrecks that has something for everyone and you never get bored diving.  I have dove this wreck lots of times over the years and each time I return, I am not let down by what it has to offer.  As we set the hook I noticed the deep blue water I left last week in North Carolina has arrived here in NJ for the summer and I knew that meant great visibility.  The surface vis was at least 60' and the bottom was about 40' or greater.  Today was a day filled with tons of scallops, lobster, and a plethora of fish.  On my first dive, I explored the extreme stern of the wreck and took photos while other divers spent their time hunting the abundance of monkfish on the wreck.  There were lots of "projects" underway by other divers that yielded one nice porthole and other artifacts that needed some more work on future dives.  It is amazing to see a wreck dove so often still yields portholes, cage lights and other engine machinery.  The stern is still so impressive with its 30' of relief with lots of areas that allow for penetration into the wreck.  I had a great dive and knew today I would definitely be making two dives.

On the surface the seafood came up, quite a few lobster including some real nice larger ones, fluke, ling cod and the monkfish.  One thing about monkfish is they are great to eat but, there is always a battle story that comes with every one taken.  Today it was the stabbing of one with a dive knife that just would not die and then having it try to bite divers while decompressing.  Nothing like a huge mouth open and closing close to the legs of innocent divers trying to hang...

Just before my second dive the gold mine of scallops was discovered by another diver and it got everyone excited.  With scallops being one the the best delicacies on the ocean floor and the price nearing $22 a pound, we all were anxious to get our own personal load of scallops.  I spent this dive looking for scallops and taking more photos.  With so many hunters on the bottom the large tautog were staying away from those with spears, yet they were not afraid to come and hang near me the diver with only a harmless camera.  I had fun trying to get close to these large fish to take their photo.  

 

 

 

 

 Once on the surface, bag after bag came up loaded with scallops.  I personally have never seen so many on a dive boat before.  In addition, even more lobster and a smaller monkfish were boated.  Today was truly a great day to be out diving for food.

A few of the many bags of scallops and the porthole tucked away in the rear.

I cannot end this report without saying that  I was deeply saddened to hear about the local dive accident last weekend.  My heart goes out to the family of the diver and also to the crew and other divers on board the dive boat.  You are all in my thoughts and I hope that the bond of  wreck diving helps to ease the pain of your loss.  Be Safe!!

Trip to North Carolina

Self Portrait of me, I was actually trying to make sure my strobes were both firing!

This is my third year of making the trek to North Carolina to dive wrecks and this year was a Very Special one.  As you all know my daughter, Rebecca became a certified diver last summer and I had promised her that I would take her to North Carolina this year if she was ready.  The wrecks here tend to be a bit deeper and I wanted to make sure she was up to the challenge.  Geoff Graham offered to teach her NAUI Advanced and Nitrox during this trip which was a deciding factor.  The dive season in NJ had been a little rough in the spring and early summer so the two days we had scheduled to take Rebecca diving in NJ to re-familiarize her with her skills did not happen so, a trip to the quarry was in order.  She did great at the quarry and learned about Nitrox and how to analyze your mix. Therefore, I decided to take her along with me to North Carolina for a little mom and daughter diving getaway.

Rebecca on her hang.

Shurz 7-29-13

Our first wreck this week was going to be the Shurz. which is one of my favorites so I was excited to bring Rebecca here.  The ride out was not as forecasted and was a solid 3-5' seas which resulted in Rebecca getting very, very seasick.  The poor girl was sick from the minute we left the inlet until we returned.  Geoff was going to take her in and do a Nitrox dive with her, and since this wreck is about 110-115' deep I was a nervous mom especially given how sick she was.  I splashed with Jill Graham and wanted to do some photography including some video and photos of Rebecca.  She is a trooper and once she hit the water she was awesome.  Everyone on board could not stop saying what a great diver she is which made me so proud of her.  She is excellent in the water no matter how bad she feels on a boat.

I only saw Rebecca for a few minutes at the end of my dive but she ended up seeing a sting ray and lots of tropical fish.  I later explained to her that the anchor was tied into a cannon and how cool it is to dive a wreck with cannons on it.  The visibility on the wreck was about 40' and I've had much better during other trips to this wreck but the water was a toasty 77 degrees which suited me just fine.  I didn't cover much of the wreck during my dive, I guess I was just to nervous about Rebecca to fully enjoy myself but after this dive, I knew I had nothing to worry about.  Geoff took great care of her and she would be fine.

Indra 7-29-13

Given the rough seas that just kept on building we opted to relocate closer inshore to a wreck called the Indra.  The Indra is a 300' ship repair freighter that sits in 65' of water.  It was sunk as an artificial reef on 8/4/92 off of Emerald Isle.  Rebecca had said during the surface interval that she could not make another dive but, some how she gathered up the strength to head back in with Geoff.  On this wreck we had about 40' of visibility and had a couple of sharks.  Since it was quite a bit shallower I had a nice and long dive and got to explore the entire wreck.  This wreck is easy to penetrate because when they sunk it they cut large holes in the hull making for lots areas to get into and out of the wreck.  This wreck is known for octopus and I found one small one on the deck that I could not convince to come fully out of its hiding place.

 As I enjoyed this wreck, Geoff had other plans with Rebecca, he took her inside the wreck and toured the decks.  She said she had to turn on her light to see on the inside and thought it was cool....First a deeper dive and now wreck penetration and this is only her second time in the Atlantic...what next?  This wreck rose up to about 40' so during your hang you could see the entire wreck and watch other divers exploring.  I am not fond of artificial reefs but sometimes they are fun and I really liked this dive.  After this dive, Rebecca continued to feed the fish on the way in and I was thinking how in the world am I going to convince her to get back on the boat tomorrow.  There was no convincing, she wanted to head back out and thought positive thoughts..as quoted from Rebecca, "it can't get any worse than today".  I think the encouragement of Divemaster's Budd and Gavin helped too..

Caribsea 7-30-13

Today we had beautiful calm 1-2' seas and we were destined for the Caribsea (see my August 2012 post for details on the wreck).  This wreck is known to have hundreds of sharks and here I am again, the nervous mom about to allow her daughter to dive with all these sharks.  Today, we switched seasick medications and what a difference, Rebecca made it all day without feeding the fish!!  On the first dive I splashed after Rebecca and Geoff to find sharks right there along the hang line.  They were huge and of course just sitting there watching you.  We were anchored into a piece right next to the two giant boilers and I descended into a debris field next to the boilers.  I found a spotted eel and spent some time photographing it and then started to swim towards the stern.

There was a bit of current which made it hard to swim too far.  I ran into Rebecca and Geoff and followed them out into the sand to watch some of the sharks.  There were quite a few flounder on the wreck that were not scared off  by divers.  If I only had a bag I could have easily grabbed them with my hands.  I have to say that it is unnerving to watch your daughter with a 12' shark right next to her but, she was not as scared as I and, really liked watching them.  Geoff had mounted his Gopro onto an extendable pole and was putting the video camera right up to the sharks so I can't wait to see how it came out.

The conditions were great,  50' of vis, warm water, flat seas...so we opted to stay for two.  During the surface interval the crew and the teenagers on board spent their time jumping off the boat and snorkeling with the baracuda.  They all had a blast.

On dive #2 we swam up to the bow to watch the sharks since they tend to hang in this area.  There seemed to be a little less current so we swam around most of the wreck collecting seashells.  There was a small brass artifact found by another diver whom in the end left if on the bottom so I took a picture of it only to find out later that another diver brought it up.  This was a fun day with a lot of laughs on board and I think after this day I have Rebecca hooked on wreck diving.

Brass!!

Pappose (W.E. Hutton) 7-31-13

Today was another day of 1-2' seas, so we headed out to the W.E. Hutton which is another dive that I could dive a bunch of times and not get bored.  Rebecca again was diving with Geoff so I was splashing with Jill.  As soon as I splashed my inflator jammed and I could not inflate my wings.  I decided to go down anyways. Once on the bottom, I could not get it to work so I was left to inflate my wings the old fashioned way, orally which is not fun at 120' but, I managed.  This wreck is turtled but, there is a break and debris field in the bow. At the break there is a tremendous opening into the wreck and this is where the sharks circle into and out of the wreck.  I love just sitting in the white sand and watching them.  The vis on this wreck was 80' and the water was still 77 degrees at 120', it was simply beautiful.  I noticed some really big lion fish, larger than I had ever seen and I again found some spotted eels.

This lionfish was HUGE!

 

 I never saw my daughter on this dive, but she told me that she too loved this wreck.  We saw some dolphins on this wreck prior to jumping in and I was sad to not see them while in the water.  There were schools of jacks that swam around this wreck and I tried my hardest to photograph them, they sure are fast.  This was a great dive and I would have been happy staying for two but, we moved inshore.

Aeolis 7-31-13

This wreck too is known for hundreds of sharks that hang inside the wreck.  Evidently these sharks are used to divers being inside the wreck with them and we were advised that its ok to be in a room with them just don't grab them.  I don't think that I want to be in closed quarters with a shark larger than I..Staying on the outside of the wreck looking in seemed like a better option to me. Geoff was shooting video and would shine his light on the sharks which make a cool effect.  The vis was not the best here, maybe 30'.  Prior to jumping in, Geoff had told Rebecca he was going to do something special with her and advised her to bring her light. I was curious but, went on to explore the wreck with Jill.  Well Geoff again took Rebecca inside the wreck (you know where the sharks are) and showed her how to get an artifact. He got a large sink faucet.  I think this now qualifies her as a true wreck diver and she is now trained in artifact removal.  Of course we all teased Geoff all afternoon for binging up such a fine artifact.  I wonder what he will make of this faucet when it is cleaned up???  Rebecca thought is was fun and had not problems going in the wreck with the sharks or learning how to get an artifact.  She certainly is learning  lot so quickly on this trip.  This brings me back to to the first dive of the week, she truly is a great diver and you would never know how few dives she has under her belt which is why I feel so confident in letting go and having her be Geoff's buddy.

The fine artifact in the goodie bag..

Look carefully and there is a shrimp

Mr. Crab hiding in the backround.

Rebecca and I took our fourth day off to go to Fort Macon and the North Carolina Maritime Museum since it was absolutely pouring out.  We had a great day and learned a lot about the Graveyard of the Atlantic and Blackbeard.   Our final day was blown out so in hind sight I guess we should not have taken a day off.  Rebecca is now a  NAUI certified Advanced Diver And Nitrox I Diver.  Thanks to Geoff for teaching her the courses and for teaching her much more about wreck diving!

All Smiles!!

Rebecca and Geoff coming up from the Shurz.

I have way too many photos to post so I will eventually make a slide show of the highlights but that will have to wait till winter when I have more time.  Well now its back to that colder N. Atlantic water and drysuits. The R.P. Resor is calling my name for this weekend..  As for Rebecca, she is anxious to get out diving again before school starts!