Immaculata 10-5-13

We have all been fortunate to have such Great Fall Diving weather and today would be no exception.  I was initially not happy when I walked out of my house this morning to find it pouring rain but, it seemed that it was only raining in the south and there was no rain at all when I arrived at the Independence II.  We were heading to the Stolt Dagali today but we were aware of other dive boats destined for the same wreck so we took a quick vote and agreed to go dive the Immaculata.  The Immaculata is not one of my favorite dives mainly because of it being a dump site, kind of grosses me out but, a lot of divers enjoy the dive since it is known for lobsters, fish and bottles.  I will admit there is something for everyone on this wreck.

Once we arrived at the dive site, the sun was still hidden behind the clouds making it a little dreary so I opted not to take my camera and instead to try and find some bottles.  The surface visibility was about 40' until we were at the wreck.  On top of the wreck the visibility was about 20-25' but down on the bottom in that elusive silt, it was 5' or less.  I immediately grabbed my wreck reel since I could not see where I was anchored in and headed off along the ribs of the wreck.  After I got away from the anchor line, you could actually see about 20'.  I swam to the end of one of the ribs looking for a spot to start digging and didn't find a "good spot".  I turned around and reeled in my reel back to the anchorline and headed across the wreck to another set of ribs.  This part of the wreck looked more promising because I found lots of broken glass and china.  There are lots of holes on this wreck and each one either had a crab or lobster in them.  If you enjoyed eating the crabs you could have filled you bug bag with them.  I saw one fluke and a lot of larger sea bass.  I found a spot to dig and of course I pick the one spot that gave me nothing but broken pieces.    It is neat to find old bottles but, I prefer one from a wreck that has some history other than a garbage barge sunk on top of a garbage dump.  On my way back to the anchor line my trusty OMS reel became the usual mess, so much so that I left it on the bottom because I was too aggravated to deal with it on dive #1.  Terry came along and saw my mess with the reel and was nice enough to reel it in and bring it on up for me saving me the aggravation on dive #2.  That Terry is such a nice guy!!

On the surface everyone (except me) came up with either lobsters or bottles.  Capt. Dan even found a statue and an espresso cup.  There were all different sizes and colors of bottles including a real nice seltzer bottle. It is fun to read all of the bottles and figure out what they were used for and how old they were.  Now a days everything is packaged in plastic so there are not many bottles anymore.  Future generations may never know what it is like to dive for bottles...

I opted to sit out dive #2, I just didn't feel up to it.  The other divers did another dive and came up with even more lobsters and bottles.  Hence it was Bottlemania today on the Immaculata!  The water temp was 64 degrees on the bottom and 67 degrees on the hang.  The past few weeks there seems to be a lower number of divers on all of the dive boats and I do not know why, the conditions have been great!  What are you all waiting for get out there and enjoy the fantastic Fall Diving that makes diving Wrecks in NJ so much better than anywhere else!!