Shedding light on the PINTA

Cargo of lumber spilling out of the PINTA broken holds


Stern of the PINTA

Sunday the NOAA guys were way off and we headed out to the PINTA on the Independence II in seas that were quite nice, proving once again that sometimes you just have to stick your nose out and sea. The PINTA was chosen as the first New Jersey dive for a group of wreck diving students who had traveled all the way from Kentucky and Louisiana to see what diving in the North Atlantic is all about. We were tied in quickly and divers were quick to splash in the off chance that the deteriorating weather forecast for the afternoon was correct. After everyone else was taken care of I hit the water with camera gear in hand to work on some new techniques. My goal is to get some wide angle shots of some deep shipwrecks using long exposures and this was my first time trying out a tripod. Descending down the line and expecting to find the bow I scratched my head as I landed in the sand next to the rudder (I guess NOAA aren't the only ones handing out bad reports). The visibility was a bright 20 feet or more. There was a decent surge on the bottom that made getting crisp focus a little tricky with longer exposures. The pictures aren't that great but I accomplished what I needed to. I was able to barely make out the lights from Richie's class doing drills in the distance and got a decent shot without them ever seeing me by using a 2 second exposure. In the image of the stern above I was out in the sand and could just make out a shadow of the wreck and had no idea the 2 divers you see had just come down so using a tripod definitely gets results that are not otherwise possible.

At the end of the day most people were able to sneak in 2 dives and we were hitting the inlet by the time the forecast caught up with reality. A great day of diving and some out of towners were wondering what was up with all the hype of deep, dark, and dangerous that is usually associated with New Jersey diving.

The now exposed engine room area


Close up of engine


Cargo