Fuzzy blocks

Got out to the "Granite wreck" today on the Independence II with the group from the Diversion dive club. This is one of the many nameless faces littering the sea bed off New Jersey. This particular wreck in 120 feet of water gets its name from the large stone blocks scattered about the site (that may or may not be granite), and is likely the remains of a wooden barge. It is known among the hunting crowd as a particularly good lobstering wreck due to the many nooks and crannies in between ribs available for these sea roaches to hide in.

The layout is pretty simple and consists of a continuous keel with ribs, a small donkey boiler, and a large chain pile at one end. Today we were tied into the donkey boiler and the visibility was good enough (about 25 feet) to spot the "granite" blocks in the distance from the anchor line which gave the feeling that you were descending into an underwater Stonehenge. The temperature was still a nippy 48F on the bottom, and sitting in place messing with the tripod made me feel it. A picture is worth a 1000 words so I am going to shut up and put up 4k. Gotta love Jersey diving.

Exposed tubes of broken down donkey boiler

Fuzzy block

Chain pile

EM CLARK

24-Aug-2008

Ever play tug of war with a 500 foot long, 9,647 ton oil tanker? I can now say I have. In fact, I was beginning to question my sanity (and the existence of a God) as I pulled myself against 1 knot of current down the anchor line that seemed to go forever. It was hard work but I took it slow, and as long as I was not winded I decided to power on knowing I would be rewarded at the other end with one of the most spectacular shipwrecks on the east coast.... the EM CLARK.

The CLARK was carrying a load of oil when she was torpedoed by the U-124 in March of 1942. The wreck now lies like a sleeping giant on its port side, perfectly intact in 240 feet of cobalt blue Gulf Stream waters. When my Jersey diving plans were canceled last minute, I managed to weasel my way onto Capt. JT Barker's Under Pressure. The weather was looking iffy and with Saturday already blown out I knew it would be a risk to drive down to Hatteras, but eagerly hopped in the car with Bedford for the opportunity to dive this world class wreck.

Saturday night I got the opportunity to meet the legendary Capt Artie Kirchner who's Margie II was docked along side the Under Pressure having just finished the 2008 MONITOR expedition. He was generous enough to offer up some tips on the CLARK as well as some other quality stories that I don't think are appropriate for this G-rated blog. Needless to say I was all ears and felt the effects of the late night Sunday morning. The wind had laid down as predicted and with confirmation that we were heading out my groggy head quickly cleared.

Which brings us back to the descent... The prayers echoing through my DSV were mercifully answered at around 150 feet when the current finally let up. That plus the realization that I was actually looking at hull stretching into the distance in all directions and not the sea floor, kicked my adrenaline into high gear and that last 50 feet went quick as I landed on the flat side of the wreck at 200 feet. I did a precautionary loop flush and picked up my camera for the first time to see how it had faired being dragged behind me like a sea anchor up to this point. I fired it up and with a setpoint change it was all systems go. I slowly crept over to the edge of the wreck on my knees and bent over to look down and was just awestruck. Words really can't describe it. It was like being perched on the ledge of a 5 story building, except this was an amazingly intact tanker from WWII towering nearly 50 feet above the seabed below. A big barracuda buzzed me as I took a "leap" off and free fell down to the sandy bottom.

I wanted to head aft and see the mighty props so off I went not knowing how far the stern might be. I soon came upon the dark gaping maw of what must have been the engine room skylight and could not resist the invitation to explore within. It didn't help that Capt Art telling me that a Jersey diver would go in and not be a Sea Pu... uh... kitty, was also fresh in my mind. I soon spotted the unmistakable white gleam of china poking through the silt but it was only a broken saucer with no markings so I left it behind. I worked my way through the engine room much to the chagrin of some large amberjacks who came blasting out from behind some machinery. I proceeded aft and popped back outside into open water right at the fantail. I rounded the stern expecting to come face to face with the prop and completely forgot the massive height of the ship and could just make out the shadow of it in the distance beyond the massive rudder.

Unfortunately it was time to head back. As I worked my way along the bottom to stay out of the current I was surprised how many lionfish were on the wreck. The bottom was literally crawling with these invasive critters. Eventually I arrived back at the grapnel and with a heavy heart pulled it free and began my long ascent. Deco was mostly relaxing since we were drifting with the current. The only excitement came when I heard the boat leaving and looked up to see my only worldly friend was an orange tuna ball. I was a little worried someone had a problem but later found out it was only "Drifting Bob" taking a tour of the mid Atlantic. Nearly a perfect day and I can't wait to get back!

My pictures don't nearly begin to do this wreck justice...

Amberjack in the engine room

The stern of the EM CLARK

A couple lionfish (they were all over)

Bidevind 17-Aug-2008

Sunday found the Independence II tied into the stern section of the Bidevind, over 60 miles from Manasquan Inlet. This large freighter was a victim of U-752 in the second World War. Really the only word that comes to mind to describe this dive is awesome. This huge wreck sits in 190 fsw on a white sandy bottom, and generally has (as we did today) the warm clear Gulf Stream waters lingering overhead making for a relaxing decompression. This was my first time on this wreck and did a nice long swim. The temperature was 48F at depth with the visibility 50 feet or better but with lots of "snot" in the water that pretty much killed my pictures. That, plus the fact that I was too busy taking it all in to mess much with the camera.

The wreck sits on it's side and is mostly collapsed but has sections that rise 30 feet of more off the bottom. With the good visibility it truly was an impressive sight. I started my dive swimming forward along the keel and noted several openings offering penetration opportunities. I rounded the wreck at a break and found myself overlooking a huge debris field that I'm guessing was the remains of the superstructure. I spent some time poking around and it didn't take long to locate a compete porthole with intact glass. It was covered by a couple beams and would require more work than I was interested on this dive so I gave it a quick shake test, snapped a picture, noted it's location for a future trip and moved on.

As I began my trip back aft I could spot Capt Dan a good ways in the distance and watched him disappear into the wreck. I still had some bottom time left as I passed the anchor line and proceeded all the way aft to the prop which is partially buried in the sand but still a pretty sight. There was a lonely bollard sitting upright in the sand off the wreck and for some reason it seamed almost surreal to see this part of a once great ship completely out of place in a vast landscape of sand.

At the end of the day I did a bounce to pull the hook and what should have been a mundane 20 minute routine, turned into more excitement than I had anticipated. On the bottom, one of my cells was reading lower than the other and I suspected it was bad. Well, back at 20 feet I was playing with my handsets when I caught out of the corner of my eye a HUGE tail and about 8 feet ahead of that a HUGE dorsal fin swimming off into the distance. The big fish must have swam right past me when I was fooling around and was at least 15 feet long. I think it was a basking shark, but I didnt get a face shot to confirm. It was definitely an exciting way to end one of my best dive trips this season.

There were TONS of cunners swarming the top of the wreck

Do you see what I see ;-)

Not a very good picture but Capt Dan gives a good sense of scale of how big the wreck is and the visibility

Terry does his deco

So you want to be a deep sea diver?

"Dive! Dive! Dive!"

After an all night boat ride and spending some time by the bottom finder carefully picking the mark, the command to dive seemed to come pretty quickly... considering the boys were dropping down to nearly 400 fsw!

Yesterday a team of New Jersey divers on the Independence II ventured nearly 100 miles off the coast in search of long lost shipwrecks resting in deep water, hidden from daylight and human eyes for years, decades, and perhaps centuries. The bottom divers, Richie Kohler, Evan Kovacs, and Frankie Pellegrino are no strangers to deep expedition level diving and were pooling together their combined decades of experience to turn the dial on Northeast diving to 11 (yes, one louder).

I was honored to be invited along as support diver and crew on what was an incredible team effort. This is my version of how I saw things.

It was clear from the start that this was not a group of cowboys only looking for the "extreme" factor. Every detail and contingency was planned in case of emergency, and the bailout gas alone took up half the boat. The plan was to shot the wreck and live boat the entire operation to minimize stress on the divers during decompression. Three safety divers (Steve "the scab" Lombardi, Dan Martinez, and myself) were available and ready to splash at any time to ferry tanks and assist the bottom divers. Bill Trent was acting as dive marshal and would be running the show.

Capt Dan Bartone had several sets of numbers to investigate in 350-400 fsw and we spent some time checking a couple out to determine the best site to splash on. There were interesting bottom features on both numbers but the excitement mounted when a big showing came 30 feet off the bottom on the second and it was decided to hit that. After deploying the shot and nearly 500 feet of line, and checking the current, the three bottom divers splashed into a deep blue sea of anticipation.

I will leave the details of the dive to the guys who did it (hint: look for an article in a upcoming Advanced Diver Magazine), but I will say that things went without a hitch and the guys did find a wreck and had a great dive. They reported relatively warm (51F) conditions on the bottom with water 70+ near the surface. Support divers were used to swap out bottles and check on divers starting at about 120 feet. A support diver was in the water with the decompressing divers at all times from ~40 feet to the surface to monitor for any signs of oxygen toxicity. The entire team was CCR with nearly every major manufacturer represented (Evolution, Prism, Ouroboris, 2 Megs, and an Optima)

For me this was a great learning experience, and to see how expedition dives of this magnitude can be conducted safely in a dynamic environment using a team approach was eye opening. I will say that we did not find what we hoped, which means it's still out there, along with countless other lost vessels waiting to be discovered. The adventure continues, and when working with friends like these guys, I can't wait!

Many thanks to Fourth Element, TDI, and OMS for supporting this effort.

Glory days (they'll pass you by)

Twins

Got to dive the Glory wreck twice this weekend off the Tuna Seazure. This large steel wreck lies busted up in 70 feet of water 8 miles off Atlantic City and is still waiting proper identification but is thought to be the remains of the Kennebec or Lake Frampton. I was looking forward to getting some more practice with the camera and tripod on something shallow where I'd have plenty of time to mess around. Saturday morning seemed to roll in way too early and with the lack of caffeine I thought I had woke up on the Mars when my handset was reading PPO2s of 0.00 0.00 0.00, but oddly enough I seemed to be breathing just fine? I shook the cobwebs out of my brain and realized the battery that was reading low must have died and lost the calibration data. A quick swap (isn't that easy at 23 knots) and re-cal and I was ready to dive.

The vis on the wreck was 20 feet or so and I was having fun playing with my camera when all of a sudden it went from nice and bright (I didnt even have my light on) to dark as night. I thought "hmm that can't be good". Soon after, the rumble of engines clued in me into the fact that we might no longer be attached and sure enough the topside conditions had deteriorated as a squall moved through. The winds (I was later told) had quickly kicked up to 35-40 knots which brewed up some good 6 foot or better seas which had been enough to rip a large chunk of the wreck out. I worked my way back to the tie-in and sure enough a sizable portion of the Glory had gone missing (along with the anchor line). I cleaned up my toys and fired off a bag and managed to time my surfacing to be right after the storm passed. Just shows how quickly things can change in the North Atlantic.

Which leads us to Sunday... the plan was changed to head back to the Glory and recover some gear that got left behind. Vis was better than yesterday and closer to 30 feet. Long story short we got in some dives, recovered some of the gear, a lobster and a seabass, and left a little as an offering to Neptune, lest he smite us again.

Overall I'd rate the weekend at an A- with the only deduction being for the loss of my beloved Jotron strobe. I small price to pay for a good time. It had been way too long since I've been out with Kenny and Capt. Bill and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

I think this is where good lift bags go when they die?


Shaft alley

Engine and boiler (this was taken during the storm and required a 20 sec exposure)


The "crack" in the starboard boiler is actually John Perozzi's light trail over a 6 second exposure and gives a a cool effect