The Dykes, July 26, 2014

I cannot believe that it is the end of July and I am finally making my first North Atlantic Dive of the 2014 season.  As some of my fellow divers know, I have had some health problems that precluded me from diving for quite some time and in the future I intend to share the story in an effort to help other divers know how important it is that you DO NOT dive unless your health is 100%.  That being said, I am so happy to finally be able to get out and dive again.  On board the Independence II we were destined for the Resor but, due to the weather forecast we opted to stay closer to shore and dive the Dykes for fish.  I personally was happy with this choice since it is a tad shallower than the Resor which made for an easy relaxing dive for my first ocean dive of the year.  I did dive 4 dives in the quarry last week to make sure everything was A okay and also to remind myself how lucky I am that I don't have to dive the quarry often.

I have actually only dove the Dykes one other time and it is not a bad dive.   The Dykes was a five masted steel schooner built in 1919 and sunk as part of the artificial reef program in 1983.  This wreck is rather large yet easy to navigate if you follow the keel through the center of the wreck.  On my first dive, after I splashed I was following the Carolina rig and realized the wreck was in view at about 20' down.  The wreck sits in 65' of water although I believe I didn't get any deeper than 63' in the sand, most of the dive was at 52'-54'.    I quickly explored the stern and then followed the edge of the keel and ribbing along the sand towards the bow.  The wreck is covered in mussels and there is a decent amount of sea bass, tautog, and flounder on it.  I did not see any lobsters and there were no lobsters brought up by other divers.  The visibility was great, about 30', although is still quite cold on the bottom.  I kept my bottom time short, at 30 minutes and headed up for the surface.

The Independence II attracts a lot of re-breather divers and as a result, most of the divers do one long dive. In fact Igor was down for 180 minutes.  I often wonder what you do down there for so long but, when they come up with lots and lots of fish or lobsters, I guess I see what they do with their time.  I did a short surface interval and went back in for dive #2.  On this dive I followed the opposite side of the ribbing and collected some sand dollars.  I enjoy painting and usually can't pass up nice sand dollars or sea shells that can be used for later projects. In fact, I spent most of the winter painting with watercolor and I am almost done with a painting that has the Indy II in the painting, I will share this on my blog once it is completed.

This trip ended with us back at the dock before noon.  There was a lot of fish to filet and we all had fish or mussels to bring home for dinner.

Sean Martini with his catch for the day, Looks like Igor is jealous in the backround!

Next week is the trip to Cape May for the week, time and weather will tell what wreck I may or may not end up diving..Be Safe!!

NOAA and the Robert Walker Wreck

I have held back for quite some time in writing about NOAA's recent report in which they have identified a wreck off of Atlantic City commonly known as the $25 wreck or Mason's Paddlewheeler.  Here is a link to the report:
Identification of the Wreck of the U.S.C.S.S. Robert J. Walker

Last July (2013) I was invited by the NJ Maritime Museum to attend a meeting with NOAA about the possible identification of the wreck.   I attended only because I was curious about their findings.  During this meeting NOAA advised that they have identified the $25 Wreck and/or Mason's Paddlewheeler and find it to be the Robert J. Walker Wreck.  They were interested in creating a bridge with the wreck diving community and ultimately setting up a display in the museum about the wreck.  They hoped that the wreck diving community could work together with NOAA to continue to further document the wreck and to have artifacts previously recovered by divers displayed in the museum.  Initially I thought that NOAA has finally changed its view about wreck divers and have found a way to work together towards common goals.

After the meeting I read through the report identifying the wreck and noticed immediately that my words were taken from my blog and used as a means to help NOAA identify this wreck without my permission.  I subsequently contacted Mr. James Delagado and expressed my copyright concerns and he agreed to remove reference to myself and my blog from the report.  Since our meeting, Mr. Delgado has been very proactive in trying to get the message out to divers that NOAA wants to form this bridge with them and that they are not here to confiscate any artifacts found on the wreck in prior years when the wreck was unidentified.  NOAA is currently working on a letter that would allow divers to display their artifacts in the NJ Maritime Museum without NOAA taking ownership of the artifacts.  I am cautiously optimistic that this letter will come from someone with authority given the existing laws in place claiming ownership to all Federally owned wrecks and their contents.  It is disturbing to know that while NOAA is trying to form this bridge with wreck divers, the Department of  Defense is trying to pass a rule revision that would further restrict diving to military wrecks or government connected wrecks..  Time will tell how this matter will be handled between the two Federal agencies

As you all know, I love to wreck dive and all of these events have deeply saddened me.  I have worked for and/or with government all my life and what I have observed is they do like to come in and propose radical regulations that restrict so many freedoms but, then in time they "relax" those regulations due to their impact on the economy or lack of means to enforce them.  I suspect this will be the case with these new regulations restricting our freedom to dive so many wrecks here in NJ that were tied to war times.  What NOAA or the Department of Defense cannot take away from me is my memories and adventures that I have lived diving these wrecks.  I have had great times out diving the $25 wreck in the 1980's and have participated in great conversations of what this wreck or other unidentified wrecks could possibly be.  NOAA came in and took credit for identifying this one wreck but, there were many years that divers found artifacts and saw the wreck before it settled into the muddy substrate.  During those times divers shared their findings and worked together to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together and identify a wreck.  I'm afraid I am still not convinced that there is enough evidence to accurately identity the $25 wreck and/or Mason's Paddlewheeler.  Those years where divers worked together and shared artifacts are now coming to an end as a result of the overzealous government agencies, and now this must be done in absolute secrecy.

I removed my post about the $25 wreck last year to protect my copyright rights.  Until the foreseeable future, I will no longer post in my blog photos of artifacts recovered, or even write about them unless I am absolutely positive that it is not a government wreck. I will however, continue to photograph divers obtaining artifacts underwater and up on the boat but, it will simply be shared in privacy among fellow divers and not on my blog.  Safe Diving!

Another Dixon becomes a Certified Diver

I have spent the last few weeks with my son, Matt learning the basics required to become a certified PADI Scuba Diver.  Matthew is an avid surfer whom surfs all winter long to catch the larger swells. He has developed quite the name for himself and respect of the Pro's that surf along with him.  As a result, he is a natural in the water and Scuba is like a walk in the park for someone adapt to 39 degree water and surfing heavy waves.  Scuba is the perfect sport to parlay with surfing...if its too rough to dive, you surf.

I went  to Dutch Springs with Matt on July 19th and 20th and watched as  he completed his 4 check-out dives and became a certified diver.  I am now a proud mom of two scuba divers!!!

I am planning on taking Matt out for his maiden voyage to a NJ Wreck within the next few weeks and hopefully he will be able to squeeze a few NJ wreck dives in this year!

Congratulation's Matt !  I hope you find passion for wreck diving as I have... (although I believe it will be VERY hard to sway him from his first passion, Surfing).