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