Today we were designed to the famed Stolt Dagali on the Independence II! Once we broke the inlet we could see large seas along the horizon as a result of the gale winds blowing most of the night. We took a quick vote and decided to dive the Delaware instead of simply turning around and heading in. It had been a long time for all of us since we got wet so, "better to dive than not" was the motto for the day.
I have not dove the Delaware since George Hoffman ran the Sea Lion so it has been quite some time. The Delaware is a 250' long steamer that sunk on July 9, 1898 as a result of a fire in her hold. The wreck now sites in 75' of water not far from the beach. This wreck is a great choice for days that you need to stay close to shore and today would not be an exception. It is dove a lot and is frowned upon by most divers for its typical low visibility and the fact that it is picked over in terms of artifacts.
I was so desperate to dive one more time this year that I decided I was going to dive not matter what the conditions were. It was only 32 degrees out on my drive up to the boat and now that we were anchored the wind was starting to pick up making for very cold conditions up top. I suited up and jumped in (boy I am brave,..lol)! The initial shock of cold water on my face made me think, what am I crazy to be out here diving today? It was a full moon so I was also worried about the current but, to my surprise, there was no current at all. The water was a deep pea soup green and it looked like this would be one of those typical no viz dives but, once I got on the bottom I was pleasantly surprised that the viz was about 20' and was not completely dark.
I headed towards the bow initially and spent my dive looking for artifacts. I saw lots of brass spikes, copper sheeting and baby lobsters. The entire lobster was not any larger than my hand, they were so cute... There were also quite a few butterfly fish that did not make it back down south. Several areas of the wreck had wood exposed that was clean with no growth on it which was neat to see. It always amazes me to see so much structure still existing on wrecks as old as the Delaware. I ended up swimming most of the wreck and was happy to report that the bottom temp was 56 degrees which allowed me to stay on the bottom for longer than I anticipated. The engine block still stands about 10-20' off the bottom and is easily identifiable. This dive was so worth the wait, it was relaxing and I really enjoyed it. In fact, for all those divers that frown upon this wreck, you simply cannot find a better wreck so close to shore that has so much to offer and I would dive it again. Like I said earlier, going out and diving the Delaware is better than not diving at all.
Now for the tough part, once I was on the surface the wind was blowing and I thought that my hands and my head was going to fall off. It was so cold that I had the nastiest ice cream headache!!! BRRRR... this reminded me that it is November and time to most likely hang up my regulators for the winter.
However, I may still try to get out diving again in the next week or two if the weather allows,..so stay tuned!
