BYE BYE 2015 Dive Season...

Lots of people have told me over the years that I am very intuitive, with that in mind, I knew as I dove on the Maurice Tracy back in October that it would be my last dive of 2015.  I have been trying to get out each week since then but, I have finally come to the realization that my chances of getting out diving for the remainder of 2015 is decreasing  rapidly.  Overall I ended up making about 20 dives to wrecks such as the Rockland County, Tolten, Chappara, Cornelius Hargraves, Resor, Immaculata, Texel, Varanger, Miralfores, Max's Wreck, Northwest Barges, Carfloat, Vizcaya, and Maurice Tracy.

 I am blessed to have been one of the few people to have visited some truly historic and amazing wrecks this past year.  There was a time a number of years ago that I thought I would never have the opportunity to dive wrecks such as the Texel and Miraflores.  I owe everyone on board the Independence II on those two dives a lot of gratitude for enabling me to dive wrecks that were at one time an impossible dream.  I am so proud of myself for safely diving these wrecks!  Both of these wrecks are not visited by divers often and so few have ever been on these wrecks.  I will quote Gary Gentile whom told me "Due to the depth and distance from shore, the Texel is not dived very often, so you are lucky to have seen it. The wreck deserves more exploration than it receives."  I would really like to dive this wreck again because I was so nervous that I truly did not get to explore much of the wreck.  I believe that the lesson to be learned is to never give up on your dreams!!  It may take years to get there but, it will happen if you believe in yourself and your capabilities as a diver.  I think I am finally confident enough to say that after diving these two wrecks that I am a good solid diver that comes from great teachers and role models over the years.

After a year like 2015, its hard to think of how next year could possibly be any better but, I know it will be.  I find so much joy even from the most mundane dive such as the Stolt or Delaware to the intense complicated dives such as the Oil Wreck.  I have learned over the years that if you try to fill your days doing the things that give you joy, it will spill over into all areas of your life and bring abundance to all that you touch from your family and friends, to your career.

I  intend to put together a slide show of photos from this year over the winter and I also hope to finally share my story of my dive accident that happened 2 years ago.  I have had several divers asking me to share the story so that I can perhaps help another diver save their life from the lessons that I have learned as a result of it.

 I wish all my dive friends a Merry Christmas!! Also, don't forget to shop and support your local dive shops through the holidays and upcoming 2016 dive season!

Maurice Tracy 10-24-15

What a dry spell, over a month of no diving..., I actually went out diving 2 weeks ago and we ended up on the Oil Wreck with terrible visibility and I decided not to even go in the water.  The Oil Wreck is not a wreck I would have fun diving with no viz so I had a much better time enjoying the sunshine and conversations topside. Today I finally got back out and had a really nice Fall Dive.

I went out on the Independence II and we were originally destined for the Immaculata but, the sea conditions required a modification to our dive destination.  We eventually ended up on the Maurice Tracy after  going to the Tolten and Granite Wreck and finding boats on them.  Since the Stripers are not quite in yet, there are lots of boats out wreck fishing and it has been making it difficult to get on a wreck.  The sky was really cool in the morning with rays of sun shining through the clouds to the ocean.

The Maurice Tracy is  a collier that sunk on June 17, 1944 when it collided with the Jesse Billingsly.  I do like this wreck and have never had a bad dive on it.  It is easy to navigate, shallow giving divers lots of bottom time and I typically have good visibility on it and today would not be an exception.  It was a chilly raw day and the seas were a little choppy forewarning of the fall and winter to come, it was winter coat weather today!.  Once we were tied into the wreck I geared up and splashed to clearest water that I have seen in quite some time.  There was a lot of particulate matter floating in the water column but I would say the visibility was at least 35'.  The water temperature from top to bottom was 59 degrees.  I had a little trouble clearing my ears on the way down and when I was almost on the wreck I actually had to go back up to try to clear my right ear.  Once that was out of the way I was off on my dive.  I luckily had my camera with me and started taking pictures right away.  I knew the particulate matter was going to interfere with taking photos since the flash really reflects it back but, I feel that it adds to the character of photos taken of wrecks in the North Atlantic.  I have been complimented numerous times that my photos show what it really is like on the wrecks of NJ. Therefore, I shot away and did my best to shoot down at the wreck to avoid too much back-scatter.  I was not down very long when another diver gently tugged on my fin and wanted me to follow him.  We swam around the boiler and he showed me a big conger eel in the back of the boiler.  I took a few shots of it but it was a tad too far for my camera..

I swam all around the boilers and the debris field noticing that there were a ton of juvenile sea bass, they were so cute, they look the same as their mature version but, are only about an inch or two long and that is with a mask on.  They kept swimming up to my mask and were quite fast, it took a while to get them in my viewfinder for a picture.

The other thing that I noticed was the bottom was covered with mermaid purses..

I spent the entire dive looking for tropical fish and it was not until the end of my dive that I spotted a butterfly fish.  I chased him all over trying to get a good shot.  I never swam to the bow but, other divers said there were more butterfly fish there.

As I was chasing the butterfly fish I found another conger eel in a pipe and he was sitting there smiling at me begging for a photo opt..

I started to feel a chill after about 45 minutes on the bottom so I headed back towards the anchor and thought to myself, boy I had a great dive, if this ends up being my last dive of the year, it was a good end to a great safe dive season.

Once I was reviewing my photos at home, I noticed that the gun mount was in the sand and used to be on the superstructure, next time I'll have to look at it again and see if I was truly seeing the gun mount or another piece of wreckage.  The last time I was on this wreck was June of 2011 and I did capture a photo of the gun mount right in the area that I was diving again today..

The Independence II will continue to head out as weather permits, I hope to be out at least one more time with them.  We had a lot of laughs on board which is good for the soul!!!

Safe Diving!!

Vizcaya 9-19-15

It has been over a month since I have posted a dive report..I have had some blow out dives. However, I did go out and dive the Carfloat on the Atlantus one early evening.  I did not have time to write a report for that dive but, lets just say a lot of very large flounder came up and we had a decent 20' of visibility.  It was a fun after work dive and hope to get out again for a repeat before the flounder season closes.

I was planning on diving offshore this Sunday but mid-week I saw that the winds were going to pick up on Sunday so I was scrambling to find a boat to go out on Saturday which was going to be a very calm 1' or less seas.  The Independence II was chartered so I was fortunate enough to get out with Divers Two on the Dina Dee.  We were originally destined for the Tolten but thick fog kept us closer to the inlet and we ended up on the Vizcaya.  I was quite happy with this decision since earlier this summer I dove the Cornelius Hargraves.  The Hargraves, a schooner, collided with the Vizcaya on October 30, 1890 and resulted in the sinking of both vessels. The Vizcaya was a passenger freighter in which most of the passengers perished, a handful survived.  Today the wreck sits in 80' of water and the engine and boilers are still sitting high off the sandy bottom.  There has been a lot of china, silver dinnerware and portholes brought up from this wreck over the years.  I think it is pretty cool that I was able to dive both the Cornelius Hargraves and the Vizcaya in the same year.  I am sure that lots of divers do that quite often but, I do not always have the opportunity to dive often out of Barnegat Inlet.

On the way out to the Vizcaya, Gary the mate was telling me how he dove the Sea Hag the day before and had only 5' of viz.  I was hoping that today would be different because I spent a few days up at the beach this past week and the water at the shore was crystal clear and very warm.  Once we anchored up and Gary did not come back up right away, I knew this was a sign that the conditions were going to be much improved.  I waited for the entire boat to empty into the sea prior to splashing.  As soon as I splashed I see that the surface viz was still not the best but much better than in the past, a good 15'-20'.  At about 47' the engine of the wreck came into view.  Not bad, I'd say on the bottom we had a decent 25'-30' of viz and it was not too dark either.  I started taking photos around the engine and headed off towards the stern since it appeared that most of the divers were in and around the boilers.  The ribbing is still quite visible as they stand up out of the bottom and I spent sometime trying to photograph them.

Did not even notice this lobster until I was viewing my photos..haha!

 I then circled back towards the engine and over the large boilers towards the bow and followed along the debris field on the starboard side of the wreckage.  The wreck has a lot of cold water coral so I spent some time taking macro shots of it.

 I swam back to the bottom of the engine block where I found some rope that when photographed has some neat coloration to it.

Finally before surfacing I found a fish carcass inside a pipe with a bunch of fish eating it and as I was trying to photograph it I noticed a lobster hiding on the top inside of the pipe sort of smashed up on the ceiling of the pipe.  I took pictures of him by shoving my camera lens inside the pipe and hoping the lobster didn't latch onto my camera.   Capt. Dennis and Tricia were just descending onto the wreck came and I showed him where the lobster was.  Turns out the lobster was too small to keep.

Fish carcass in the pipe.

 I ended up on the bottom for about 42 minutes, it was 61 degrees on the bottom and 74 degrees down to about 50'.

During my hang there were waves of  Leidy's Comb jellyfish coming through so I tried to photograph them as they passed by.  It is hard to get them centered in the bracket of your camera.  It helped to pass the time and was fun!  My jellyfish photos are not very good, I sure could use some pointers from Herb Seagars..

There were flounders, some pretty large ones and lobsters boated.  We decided to stay at the Vizcaya for two dives because now that the fog lifted, there were a ton of fishing boats out.  In fact it was an all day adventure of trying to keep the fishing boats away from the divers in the water.

On my way down the anchor line for my second dive I saw fishing line that was wrapped around the anchor line so I took a minute to cut the line so that other divers did not get caught in it on their way to the surface.  Once on the bottom I went towards the bow again and just checked out the wreck and shot some more photos.  There seemed to be fishing line all over the wreck on this dive plus it was very noisy with all the fishing boat engines on the surface.  I still enjoyed my dive and was thankful that I was able to find a boat to go diving on today.  My dive on Sunday was blown out so my instinct to get out today was correct!  I checked my dive log and my first dive on the Vizcaya was on June 14, 1992, over 23 years ago, I am so lucky to be still able to dive after all these years!!

Next week I am headed to the Virginia which is an awesome dive, looking forward to it!

Northwest Barges 8-14-15

Today was the first time that I got to dive with both Rebecca and Matt at the same time.  We have been trying to get out diving together for quite some time but, busy schedules and blown out days got us all the way to August.

It was a cool morning and flat calm seas.  Rebecca tends to get real sea sick and today she made it all day without getting sick so, that was Awesome!  It also is her first dive after major surgery and sickness last year so it is such a blessing to be out diving with her today.  Today was also  Matt's first ocean dive.  We chose the northwest barges hoping that they would be covered with flounder and that we would fill our coolers.  Rebecca wanted to take some fish back to college with her to cook since she loves it so much.

The Northwest Barges are several barges that were anchored north of Barnegat Inlet and sunk during a storm.  They provide great structure for fish and lobsters.  Gary tied us in and came up and said that the viz was terrible 1-2' at best and thought it may not be good for the newby diver, Matt.  We contemplated on what to do and in the end we all splashed.  The viz was absolutely horrible.  I did my best to tie off and run a reel and swam around the end of the barge and then headed off down one of the ribbings.  At one point I asked Rebecca do you want to go up because it was just so bad and she said no, stay down so we did.  There was lots of sea bass and conger eels on the wreck to keep us busy, I saw some crabs and lots of cold water coral.  We did a 20 minute dive and went up.  You know it is bad when even up top I could barely see Rebecca.  Oh well, better than being home at work.  The good news is the temp on the bottom was 58 degrees and on the hang it was 78 degrees.

There was chatter about moving to another wreck with better viz but reports from other boats on nearby wrecks had similar conditions.  So we stayed and did another dive.  Rebecca opted to sit dive #2 out so I went in just before Matt.  The sun was higher in the sky for this dive so it was a tad brighter and therefore it felt like the viz improved a little but in reality it didn't.  I followed a different rib out on this dive and observed the marine life.  This wreck does have a lot of fishing lures on the wreck and fishing line.  There was a boat fishing it while we were diving and they were catching fish so I guess they were down there but, I just could not see a lot.  I did about 30 minutes on the bottom for this dive and called it a day.  Matt really liked it and can't wait to get back out.  Now imagine how much he will really like it when he can see the wreck!!

I was so proud of both the kids for doing so well in these conditions!!  I will definitely get Matt out a few more times this year but, Rebecca is heading back to school this week so she only had one dive this year.  Rebecca was disappointed that we did not get some fresh fish for her but, I can always bring some up to her from future dives.

Lots of dives still to come, the Oil Wreck, Lilian, Bidevind, San Diego...the best time of year is coming however,  we do need a good storm to clean up the water column.

Max's Wreck/ Montgomery 7-31-15

What a great week I had wreck diving, here we are at day 4 of diving on the Independence II out of Atlantic City.  I did not think we would make it out today and it was a little rough on the ride out but, it laid down and was quite nice out.

We ended up at Max's wreck which sits in about 150' of water although I know one area of the wreck can reach depths of 160'-165'.  Brandon and Sean tied us in and there was no current but it was quite choppy up top.  I splashed next and noticed right away that the anchor line was doing quite a dance, note to myself...remember, the hang will not be fun.  At about 106' the wreck came into view.  We were tied in next to the engine which comes up about 20'-25' from the bottom.  The visibility was only about 15'-20' and was quite silty.

I saw this the other day on the Miraflores, not sure what it is..

I followed the edge of the wreck along the sand and spotted what appeared to be the largest starfish I had ever seen.  I tried to take a photo of it but, Jon had reached the bottom and was creating a giant silt cloud as he looked for brass.  This is a wooden wreck and the wood edges of the wreck are extremely thick.  There are lots of nets on the wreck and also piles of coal.  There is a prop shaft and large props at the stern of the wreck.  This wreck is really old (1877) yet the wood is still so prominent.  My old blog dive report for this wreck on 8/20/10 shows that the conditions I found on this wreck 5 years ago remain the same..After a while I retraced my route back to the anchor line and swam up to the top of the engine.  There were square vents/holes in the engine block and each one had a giant lobster in it.  I tried to take photos of them and they would back deep in the hole as I approached.

 I then noticed brittle stars that were hanging on pink-hearted hydroids, this looked so cool.  I spent the rest of my dive trying to tease the lobsters out so I could get a better photo of it.

My hang was miserable, I actually pulled the John line out of my bin and for some reason put it away before I splashed...big mistake.  Up on the surface, Brandon had found a silver spoon and chards of china with patterns and writing on them.  Perhaps these finds will help to identify this wreck.  Jon brought up a rock (which he took much abuse for), piece of wood (supposedly a spoon holder), and chards of china too.

Brandon and his spoon and his nice smile!

The seas laid down beautifully and we had a nice and fast ride in.

This has been a great week of diving for me!!! How often can you dive the Texel, Varanger, Miraflores and Max's Wreck all in the same week???  Thanks to the Independence II and the great crew for a fun and very safe week of diving!

I will be taking my kids out diving next week, a day I am really looking forward to!

Mirafores (Unknown Freighter) 7-28-15

Wow what a wreck!!!  I have waited a long time to be able to dive this wreck and it was worth the wait to say the least.  After diving the Varanger the day before, we looked at the forecast and decided to head offshore again and dive the Miraflores.

The Miraflores was an unknown freighter that was torpedoed by the U-432 on February 19, 1942.  In recent years this wreck was identified by Gene Peterson.  It tells a really interesting and empathetic story that is best reflected by his own words of the discovery...

S.S. Miraflores  Click the link for the full story.

This wreck sits in 165' of water although my maximum depth was only 150' and it was one of the better dives that I have done in my lifetime!

We left under calm seas and humid hot weather and headed offshore with a group that has been diving together for quite some time and it provided for a fun and exciting day.

Joe and Sean tied us in within minutes and I was going to be in the group that pulled the anchor so, I was restlessly sitting on the boat for a few hours while all the other divers did their dives.  Since it was so hot there were a few of us that went swimming to cool down during the wait.  Finally after what seemed like an eternity, it was my turn to get dressed and splash.  We had reports of bad visibility up top but great viz on the bottom and Sean said take my camera.  There was a current on the surface but it was nothing like the Resor a few weeks back.  I could see the wreck at 110' and we were anchored right adjacent to the boilers.  First thing I noticed was this wreck was loaded with fish unlike the past few dives.  The visibility was about 40' and it was cold like the Texel.  I swam around the boilers and out towards the sand.  I started to take photos but due to the extreme heat up top and the extreme cold on the bottom,  my camera lens fogged, the moisture munchies were not doing their job!  I shot a few photos anyway but knew the fogged lens would make the photos cloudy.  So I spent most of my dive checking out the wreck.  This wreck is really beautiful, it has the high boilers and the props sticking out of the sand which makes for great visual reference.  There were tons of ling cod and ocean pouts.  In fact one ling cod kept coming for my mask and I had to keep pushing it away.

This guy just would not leave my lens or my mask alone!

 I lasted a little over 15 minutes and I started to get real cold so I needed to head up.  Seems on these deeper dives, I struggle to make 20 minutes due to the cold.  The Helium really gets me chilled and I am having issues off-gassing as a result. The thermocline was high up on this  dive at 38'..above 38' I had 77 degrees and boy did that feel great.

Once we surfaced, I found that everyone had a great dive and there were possible artifacts found that would be left for another dive.  There were both lobsters and scallops boated on this dive too!!!

When Capt. Dan picked me up from the ball, I climbed on the boat and once I got on the platform I fell and got my fin caught and twisted my ankle..Thanks to Joe Rogers and Ben Roberts, the lifeguard whom helped to free my foot and get me on my feet again!  It is quite painful today so I will be off to the doctor to make sure I didn't break anything and that it is just a sprain.  If my ankle it ok, I will be back out diving on Friday...not sure of the destination as of yet but, this sure has been a great week of diving for all of us on the Independence II!

Here are a few pictures but you can clearly see the fogged spot in the middle of them all, some dives are mean to be remembered in your mind and cannot be captured in pictures or video.

Not sure what all the pink sponges are called..never saw them before.

I really enjoyed this wreck and hope I get the opportunity to go back and dive this wreck again someday...

Varanger 7-27-15

Well today the boat was destined for the Carolina but, the weather had different plans for us all. At departure time a storm rolled in with thunder and lightning so we stayed at the dock until the storm passed through.  It was about 7:30 am when the storm started to pass which was too late to head for the Carolina so we opted for the Varanger.  There were a few swells left over from the day before but as we go closer and closer to the Varanger it laid down to 1' seas and no current.

The Varanger is a tanker that was torpedoed 3 times by the U-130 and sunk on January 25, 1942.

Upon arrival at the wreck site it became apparent that the Varanger was not offshore far enough to get out of the green ocean water which provides for poor surface visibility and a darker bottom. When it was my turn to splash the viz on the bottom was about 25-30' and dark.  We were anchored high up in the stern of the wreck in about 110' of water.  The stern is still relatively intact and you can still penetrate inside of it.  I splashed just before Sean and Sabastian and saw them go inside the stern so, I opted to hang within site of the strobe and shoot some photos.  This wreck is very large and when there are other divers on the bottom below you lighting up the wreck it really shows how much relief there is..It is impressive!  The bottom temp on this dive was 45 degrees and even though that is cold, I felt like it was tropical compared to the Texel.

I noticed that this wreck is being taken over by mussels, they are actually choking out the sea anemones.  There is still a lot of brass on this wreck for those that enjoy recovering artifacts.

 I did a 20 minute dive and shot about 50 photos.  This was definitely a much better dive than they last time I attempted to dive this wreck in October 2010 when I had 6' seas and current.

Once I was up on the boat there were lobsters boated and a few scallops.  There were quite a few divers whom never dove this wreck and they all enjoyed it, some liked it even more than the Texel. I have dove this wreck more than most wrecks and it will always remain one of my favorites!