Texel Dive Report 7-25-15

I have been looking forward to diving out of Atlantic City all summer and what a great start we had!. I typically go to North Carolina this week and had initially planned to take both my kids down for a week of diving the wrecks in NC but, work schedules and Equestrian training got in the way.  This left me open to go diving on the Independence II to some wrecks that I have never been to.  The wrecks included the Texel, Varanger, Offshore Paddlewheeler, Carolina, and Winnecone.

First up was the Texel..we left under Lake Atlantic conditions, in the dark highlighted by the lights of Atlantic City  and a million stars in the sky for the 60 mile run out to Texel which is one of the Black Sunday Wrecks.  The Texel was a 330' long tanker that was sunk by the U-151 on June 2, 1918.  The wreck now sits in 220' of water on a sandy bottom.

Beautiful Sunrise on our way offshore!

We had a really full boat today, 14 divers.  Everyone was excited on the ride out as we all chatted, joked and slept to occupy the 3.5 hour run.  The tie into the wreck was effortless and in no time the pool was open.  I hung back and was diving in the next to last group of divers to splash.  It was not long before out tie-in crew, Brandon and Joe sent up of a lift bag.  They each found a port hole which is pretty exciting!  Once they surfaced it was reported that the viz was forever and that there was absolutely no current.

Joe & Brandon with their portholes.

  It was time for me to gear up and go in and I was quite nervous.  I am always nervous at these depths.  The guys were great at reminding me that diving in the deep mudhole is very challenging and since I dive the mudhole a lot, this dive would be no problem at all for me.  It helped hearing that but, I still was nervous.

Thanks Brandon for capturing me jumping in to dive the Texel!!!

 Capt. Dan splashed before me and in I went  to the beautiful blue water and unlimited viz.  As I descended, around 70' the water turned very cold and got colder and colder..I think it was 40 degrees on the bottom and felt even colder than that.  I remember looking at my depth gauge at 148' and then seeing Capt. Dan on the bottom.  Boy this viz was great!!  I believe we were tied into the bow because we were at the very end of the wreck and you could swim to the boilers but I did not see a prop shaft so therefore, assume we were in the bow.  The wreck is low lying other than the piece we were tied into.  There were not many fish on the wreck other than large ling cod but, there were nice lobsters.  I also noticed that there was garbage on the wreck, plastic bottles,  a YoHoo can etc. which I typically do not see.  I stayed within sight of the strobe and did not travel too far.   This wreck is pretty broken up but the boilers of course were still standing tall and recognizable.  I more or less just poked around on this wreck and tried to get a feel of the layout in case I should return someday.  It was not long before I was shaking  like a leaf from being so cold..I planned on a 20 minute dive but, headed up after 16 minutes, I could not take the cold and knowing my deco stops started at 130' and it would not be until 70' before I hit the warmer water.  The deco was long but, since there was 0 current it was relaxing.  We saw some really cool tropicals that I never saw before which kept me entertained.,they were swimming in mini schools around the back of Capt. Dan's unit.  I also saw a very immature file fish that looked to be only about 2" in size even with my mask magnification.  He swam up to my mask and I help out my finger and it would poke at it...sooo cool!

After I surfaced I was so proud of myself, this was a deeper dive for me and it went smoothly.  On top of that I got to dive a wreck that few have been too!!

Day 2 of our week of diving was blown out, it was too rough to head to the Varanger so, we took a few of the crew fishing for a few hours and then went to the Oyster Creek Inn via boat for some sushi.  It was a nice way to spend a windy day!