Today was a crew day out on the Independence II and we decided to go to the Oregon since we all had a nice dive there last year. The sea conditions were conducive to allow for the long ride out to this passenger liner. My trip report from 7-16-13 provides some perspective on the wreck along with some photos.
After a long nap on the ride out, a leather-back turtle sighting, and waiting for the first group of divers to surface, it was finally my turn to splash. Initial reports were advising that the visibility was about 25' with lots of particulate matter in the water column. As a result, I opted to leave my camera on-board. We were anchored into the engines which are massive to say the least. They rise about 40' off the bottom. There are a total of 9 boilers! Once I reached the bottom there was an evident current that made it that much harder to move about. I tried to find an area with some relief from the current and found this along the sand of the starboard side. The visibility ranged from about 25' to further at times as the particulate matter rolled in and out in waves with the current. I saw rows of where portholes once were and I am sure there are plenty still to be had. The Blackfish were huge on this wreck and I even saw some Triggerfish. The water temperature on the bottom was a balmy 55 degrees while on the hang it was 71 degrees. I swam around the entire engine block more than once and it is so large that you can actually swim through it. I have to say that I enjoyed last years dive to the bow more because there was a bigger debris field which made it a little more interesting. The engines are relatively intact and did not have as large of a debris field, if it were not for the current, I would have tried to swim towards the stern to check out that area. Next time. I ended up with about 27 minutes on the bottom, sticking to my conservative diving profiles so that I can continue to dive..so far, it is at least giving me the opportunity to still dive....
In hindsight, we were all saying that today would have been the day to go to the 56 Mile wreck...I've yet to dive the 56 mile wreck and hope to get there this season. Here are a few surface pics of John and Sean.
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| John, a man with a mission! |
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| Will he fit out the exit to the water?? |
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| Sean displacing some water |
Well I hope to be out diving again soon, this season is slow and steady and I am pleased with my accomplishments thus far. We did spend some time talking about warmer dive destinations, Capt. Dan spoke of his epic trip to Thailand diving deep wrecks and Sean of his upcoming trips to Cozumel and Cocos. I would love to go to Thailand someday, I have heard so much about their wreck diving but, at the same time, I would love to dive with whale sharks and large schools of hammerheads too. Once I retire, perhaps these more grandious trips will be a yearly event but for now, wreck diving in NJ is just fine with me!
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