Tolten 6-6-15

Well I have been kept at the dock the past two weekends while the wind blew and blew.  However, it gave me some free time to go fishing and enjoy the sandbar with my friends..

My favorite sandbar, many great days here.

I thought for sure that today was going to be an addition to the string of blow-out weekends but, was happy that Capt. Dan  of the Independence II decided to persevere and try to at least dive something inshore.  My son Matt, whom is an avid semi-pro surfer has been telling me all week how crystal clear the water is and I was hoping that the clear water was around today for my dive.  As everyone knows...I am the optimist so I brought my camera along for good luck...

We were all pleasantly surprised that NOAA was wrong again with their forecast, instead of the predicted NE 3'-5' going to 4'-6' seas we had some 1'-2' rollers that eventually laid down as the day went on.  After following the SailFlow App for the past two years, it seems to be a much better predictor of wind and seas and was accurate for today's weather .  Captain Dan headed to the planned destination of the Tolten.  I always liked this Chilean freighter that sits in 95' of water and today I would not be disappointed.  The Tolten was a World War II casualty and was torpedoed by a German  U-boat on March 13, 1942.

The catch from the Tolten!

The surface visibility looked great and I almost did not take in my camera but, Sue said...its the days you leave it on the boat that you are blessed with good viz for photos.  So, I quickly put it together and brought it with me which was a great decision because we had a good 20-30' of viz.  The ocean is starting to warm up too, we had 54 degrees on the bottom and 59 degrees on my hang.

I did not travel far from the tie-in, I just swam around and shot a ton of photos.  I believe we were in the bow section since there was a lot of relief to the structure.  The wreck was covered in fish and lobster pots from last year..they were strung all over the wreck along with the ropes stinging them together.  There were some sea bass and cunners but, I did not see any larger fish.  A diver spotted a cod in one of the fish traps and there was a lot of lobsters brought up now that the lobster season is open!!
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed today's dive and has us all excited for the upcoming dives of the summer.

One of the many fish pots abandoned on the wreck.

Not sure if many of you know this but, I paint watercolors for a hobby.   I enjoy diving on the Independence II so much, that I added the dive boat to the view outside of the window in my painting that I did last year.  I am working on some underwater paintings now of some ocean pouts and lobsters, boy are they difficult to paint!

The "guys" are trying to convince me to go and dive the 56 mile wreck next weekend, I am hesitating because of the cold water temps, I find it difficult to safely off gas when the water in the top 40' is still so cold.  I have never dove that wreck and really want to dive it so we will see in a few days what I decide to do...I am leaning towards going for it!