I was planning on diving the Northern Lilian tomorrow but a quick change of plans landed me on The Resor today and it ended up being an epic dive for me!! As I left my house at 4am, I noticed that the sky was loaded with bright stars and it was so clear it felt like you could touch them, it was a sign that good things were in store for today. While we loaded the boat Stephan whom just returned from a trip of diving Lake Superior wrecks was playing the song..The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, on his cell phone. He thought the song was appropriate music as we left the the dock and headed out the inlet. This song brought back good memories of another trip I was on in the Gulf of Mexico. A guitar player was playing that song as we ate our dinner in an outdoor bar prior to leaving on the live aboard "The Ultimate Getaway" and at the time the song too seemed fitting as we headed out into the Gulf. That trip ended up being a great one and I hoped the song would again bring us good luck today.
It was flat clam out in the ocean today and we had a full boat of enthused divers, the last trip out to the Resor brought loads of scallops and today everyone was hoping for a repeat. The surface visibility looked amazing and once I splashed you could see forever. The wreck quickly came into view and I just could not believe the visibility, easy 60' or more. I hung on the anchor line for a minute or two to take in the layout of the wreck, I was so excited because you could see so far and it was also very bright on the bottom. We were tied into the extreme bow of the wreck which is sinking into the sand, it does not sit up as high as it had in the past. There was a little current on the wreck so I quickly tucked behind the starboard side of the wreck to be sheltered from the current. I saw a few cod, they were small but nice to see and the wreck seemed to have a lot of sea ravens in the sand as well as on the wreck. I swam towards the stern and came across a washed out area loaded with ocean clams, scallops and razor clams. In the corner of this area I spotted a lobster, you know me, I am a chicken when it comes to grabbing lobsters but this one was out in the open and not in a hole. I saw John Haws and I got his attention and showed him the lobster then I remembered, he doesn't like to grab lobsters either. Here we are two of us on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean yet too afraid to grab a little lobster. Well John got brave enough to go for it and got the lobster and put it in my bag for me..I then started to collect scallops along with John, He brought me over to the port side of the wreck and pointed out the bow anchor. I tried to photograph it but my wide angle was not large enough to capture the whole anchor. The wreck was teaming with marine life, there was tons of cunners, large ling cod and tautog. I was loving every minute of this dive and did not want to leave the bottom but my time was up..It is not often that you have such great visibility off of NJ but when it happens it just makes the dive that much nicer.
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| Part of the Anchor |
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| The Bow |
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| The Bow |
Once on the surface, the bags of scallops, lobsters and cod came up. Everyone was happy and excited for the second dive. This day was also beautiful on the surface, it was just the right temperature with a brilliant sun shining.
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| Flounder |
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| The Bow |
As I descended for my second dive I noted that the current really picked up on the surface but on the bottom the current seemed to let up. I decided to try and video the bow section of the wreck and the anchor with my Sealife video, I did not have my Gopro with me. I knew the video would come out green but, with this much ambient light at this depth, it should at least be worth a try. Before long, I realized I was not feeling my best, I could tell I was not breathing properly and started to get a head ache and to feel lightheaded. I consciously told myself to try and breath steady breaths but still felt like I was not getting enough air. Therefore, I just sat in the sand off the extreme bow and tried to calm myself down by resting and taking photos. My head hurt even more so I went up, I still managed 20 minutes on the bottom but I was upset that I was not feeling on top of my game. During the hang Capt. Dan, Stephan and I were strung out like neatly stacked flags and the current was flowing. My arms kept tiring and I had to keep switching hands to hang onto the anchor line. I did manage to video tape several divers ascending and descending while on the hang. I hung and extra 15-20 minutes on O2 as a precaution since I was not feeling my best. The old saying, hang until your head stops hurting.
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| Ling Cod among clams, scallops and razor clams |
While the viz was outstanding today, the water was full of comb jellies, salps etc. which does not work the best for photography, it creates a lot of back scatter so my pics are not too hot but, I am sharing them anyways. More scallops and lobster came up after dive #2. We checked out some numbers on our way in and by the time we were nearing the inlet it was getting pretty rough in the Atlantic. It was a beautiful day to be out diving so I am glad to say that the song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was good to me again. I am hoping that next week brings another great weekend for diving!!!
The video came out ok and I'll post it later in the week. Be Safe!!!
