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.
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