Down too long in the midnight sea...

Posted by: mcjangles | November 11, 2008

Emerald (FRANCIS WRIGHT)

Headed out today to the Emerald wreck (80 fsw) on the Tuna Seazure‘s maiden voyage out of Manasquan. This small wooden steamer is believed to be the remains of the FRANCIS WRIGHT. The distinctive feature of this wreck is the double engines which rise 15 feet off the sandy seabed. The remains of a broken prop shaft can be found aft of the engines and forward the wreck is mostly sanded in with “chunks” of wreckage protruding here and there providing good lobster habitat.

Heading in to tie in I was pleased to find visibility and bottom conditions about the same as Sunday’s trip with 20-25 feet of visibility and 57F top to bottom. The shot landed right next to the engine making my work easy. A LARGE blackfish came to investigate when the mussels coating the engine started getting rubbed off by the chain during my tie in efforts. I scouted around the engine noting several more large fish before tying off a reel and heading forward. I spotted several nice sized lobsters and did a bit a fanning before calling it quits.

During the interval John recalled his epic battle with one of the large tog of which he was ultimately defeated despite firing multiple rounds into the fierce beast. Not one to walk away in shame he turned on the big fish’s allies and took several sea bass casualties. Kenny vowed to avenge John’s loss, and was rewarded with a nice 14 pound blackfish when he finished the job. Tony grabbed a lobster and I snapped some pics. A really nice set of dives.

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Posted in EMERALD, New Jersey wrecks | Tags: EMERALD, Francis Wright, New Jersey wrecks

Posted by: mcjangles | November 9, 2008

GULF TRADE

Dove the GULF TRADE (90 fsw) today off the Independence II. This was my first time on this wreck which is actually the stern section of the 430 foot long tanker that fell victim to U-boat attack in the second World War. The bow section rests 10 miles away in 60 feet of water.

The visibility was a quite nice 25 feet, and the water in the mid 50s. I tied my reel off but ended up changing my mind and leaving it, the conditions were so nice. The wreck still rises about 20 feet off the bottom and has some decent penetration oppurunities which is usually rare on these inshore wrecks. One lobster was boated by Alek and Rich Galiano of njscuba.net fame bagged a very nice blackfish with his new gun.

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Posted in GULF TRADE, New Jersey wrecks | Tags: GULF TRADE, New Jersey wrecks

Posted by: mcjangles | November 8, 2008

Site updates

Added a gallery of AYURUOCA (Oil wreck) artifacts, and 2 PINTA galleries.

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Posted in Ayuruoca, Pinta, Site Updates | Tags: Site Updates

Posted by: mcjangles | November 5, 2008

Book review #1 – Titanic’s Last Secrets

Over 1500 souls were forever silenced when RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912. A story so tragic that the film bearing the same name is still the number 1 grossing movie of all time 11 years after its release.

In Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, Brad Matsen recalls the story of the Deep Sea Detectives as they dive to the most famous wreck of all time and find new evidence that could re-write the final pages of 1500 hundred people’s lives.

There are probably hundreds of books on Titanic, and the author does not try to reinvent the wheel. Focus is on the new findings, with enough historical background on the ship, shipping, and central characters presented to build his case, and catch up those of us aren’t “Titaniacs”, without boring the non-history buffs out there. The book is a good complement to the History Channel specials that aired on Titanic and Britannic. A book with Deep Sea Detectives in the tag line wouldn’t be complete without diving talk and it’s in there. More of a wet-your-whistle for you hard core divers out there but exciting none the less. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to dive Titanic or Britannic?? Overall the book flows nicely and is a quick read, and I would recommend it to divers and non-divers alike.

The real reason Titanic did so well… Billy Zane

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Posted in Book reviews | Tags: Book reviews, Deep Sea Detectives, Titanic's Last Secrets

Posted by: mcjangles | November 2, 2008

Gotta know when to fold em

Got turned around at the inlet today by some pretty ugly seas on the Independence II

😦

Sometimes you have to poke your nose out and see. The drive home on the NJ Turnpike was relaxing and scenic so was not a total waste of a day…

I’m heading back to finish up Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. Should have a review up this week.

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Posted in Misc | Tags: Misc

Posted by: mcjangles | October 28, 2008

Grand Canyon

Got to do a descent of a different kind this past weekend. Did some hiking in the Grand Canyon, and it was spectacular. I had been before but never did any hiking. Made up for it with a 47 mile rim to rim to rim (3 rims) hike done in 42 hours.

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Posted in Hiking, Non-diving | Tags: Grand Canyon

Posted by: mcjangles | October 19, 2008

PECONIC gallery added

Well, with no diving today (blown out) or next week (I’ll be in the Grand Canyon) , here are some images from a trip to the PECONIC (70 fsw) off St. Mary’s Georgia from early 2007 to hold you over. The wreck was identified by AUE explorers in 2005 and still continues to give up many nice artifacts to the persistent digger. On our trip we recovered numerous portholes, bottles, china, engine room telegraph, helm, bridge bell, inclinometer, among other artifacts.

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Posted in Georgia wrecks, PECONIC | Tags: Georgia wrecks, Peconic

Posted by: mcjangles | October 12, 2008

New Jersey double header

One of the things I love about diving in New Jersey is that it is exactly like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re going to get. Heading down the line Saturday I was expecting the bottom conditions on the MOHAWK (80fsw), to not be any better than the pea soup near the surface. However once I hit about 40 feet it was like the bottom dropped out and I could see the wreck stretching off in the distance and huge schools of fish of several varieties, in the wonderful 40-50 feet of visibility. I was able to spy a good tie in and adjust my descent accordingly, which made my work much easier. For a second I had flashes of the Caribbean, and was totally unexpected for being only 6 miles off the beach. This is the best time of year to dive. It’s not hot, and the sub surface conditions are about as good as its gets. It was 64F from top to bottom.

I had only been on the MOHAWK once before, and today gave me a chance to get a real lay of the land. The wreck is huge and I took a good hour going from the very stern where we were tied in to the bow and back just soaking it in. During the interval an exhausted sparrow took refuge on the bench, and kept us company. About 5 decent lobsters came up topping off a really great day to be out on the Atlantic!

Sunday the Independence II headed to the AYURUOCA (aka Oil wreck). This 468′ frieghter sits in 175 fsw in the Mud Hole. It was cut in two in a collision with the GENERAL FLEISCHER during blacked out WWII operations. Among other cargo the AYURUOCA was carrying trucks to support the war effort which litter the main deck of the wreck. The stern and bow sections both sit upright and mostly intact but are separated by a 100 feet or so. The Mud Hole is a canyon cut from the surrounding sea bed by the Hudson River. It is very silty and conditions can be dubious at best, but we had high hopes that the conditions form Saturday would carry over. Danny and I were tieing in, and the surface and mid-water visibility was excellent. At about 70-80 feet we hit a strong current and the shot line was going horizontally through the water column (not a good sign). Suddenly the mast appeared out of the gloom and we knew we were at least on the wreck. As we dropped down it was apparent the shot had draped over the wreck. We finally found it snagged in the debris field where I registered 173 fsw. There was some confusion as we thought we were on the bow section but as Danny and I scanned for a good tie in spot, the bridge area didn’t look familar. The wreck is beginning to seriously collapse in on itself. Last year the top of the bridge was about 125 fsw. Now the highest point is the port railing at about 135-140 fsw and the entire bridge has collapsed with a severe list. Visbility was variable and it didn’t take much to stir up the silt. The flounder on deck getting scared off by divers didn’t help. But for the Mud Hole it was very nice and averaged about 15 feet. I didnt get a bottom temp but there was a thermocline around 100 feet above which it was 64 F. Can’t wait to get back!

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Posted in Ayuruoca, MOHAWK, Mud Hole, New Jersey wrecks | Tags: Ayuruoca, MOHAWK, New Jersey wrecks, Oil wreck

Posted by: mcjangles | October 6, 2008

Virginia Beach report

October 4-5 2008

It’s rare that I use the word “perfect” to describe a weekend of diving in the Mid/North Atlantic, but this past weekend’s Virginia Beach offshore trip on Capt JT’s Under Pressure was just that. The weather conditions in October can be spotty and judging by the forecast last week the weekend was going to be no exception but it improved last minute and we gave it a shot. Good thing we did! Seas were nearly like glass and only got better as the weekend progressed. Our target destination was an unidentified wreck in 280-300 fsw that has only been dove a handful of times. I got a small taste of her last fall and was anticipating the trip back all year. The wreck appears to be a large (>400 feet long) tanker that is sitting intact (mostly) and pretty much upright except for a slight list to port.

We pulled up and hooked into the stern of the wreck as the sun was rising Saturday morning. It was hard to judge the surface visibility through the reflection off the “glass” but it looked promising 😉 The group was split with 4 CCR divers (I was the only one without some form of Hammerhead) and 2 OC divers, so it was decided that we’d go in 2 groups. After a bubble check at 20 feet we started the long way down the line, passing through a thermocline at around 110 feet where the water dropped from 73F to 60F and the visibility opened up to… a lot!. Around 150 feet the wreck came into view and it was absolutely incredible. It was apparent the grapnel had dropped down by the large superstructure and looking forward you could see cargo holds stretching as far as the eye could see and aft the stern was completely blown apart leaving a large debris field. We hit the highest point on the wreck at about 235 fsw and greeted by a large Mola Mola circling the wreckage in the distance. After checking the hook we set about exploring and looking for something to possibly identify this nameless hulk. The huge boilers lay exposed, framed by the superstructure and towering above the seabed and debris field spread out below making a truly impressive sight in the unbelievable vis. Last year the temperature was in the 40s, this year the temperature never fell below 60 making for an immensely enjoyable dive. Time flies by way too quickly at this depth and with the conditions as they were it was tough to tear away from the bottom.

Deco entertainment was supplied by the co-captain Mark who was knocking the sea bass dead one after another (along with a couple tile fish). Every couple minutes another fish was zipping past on it’s way to the cooler which was nearly full by the time we surfaced from our long hang.

While we did out interval JT and Tom did a dive to get some video of the wreck. I don’t think they believed us when we told them the conditions but their faces when they got back told a different story.

After a healthy interval we jumped back in. JT asked me to get some pictures of the steering quadrant and I happily obliged. I didn’t seem to be throwing much light and sure enough one strobe was out (I’m pretty sure it’s flooded), oh well ambient light was so good I got away with one. I turned my primary light on for the first time all day at the 20 foot stop as daylight faded and the sea went from blue, to gray, to black.

From the unknown wreck we headed over to the OCEAN VENTURE where JT coerced Tom into doing a night dive. I crashed for the night and didn’t get the report until morning. JT didn’t get the lobsters he was after but he said the conditions were nice and that we were tied in near the “cathedral”. I decided to tote the tripod along on this “shallow” (160 fsw) dive, as there were a couple shots I had in mind. The conditions were the same temperature wise as the previous location but the visibility was not quite as good. Actually it was still really good at 40-50 feet, it just seemed paltry after being spoiled the day before. I had a good time snapping away for half an hour waiting for models to pass by. Chip, Andrew, and Mark all played along and I was able to get some pretty sweet shots. Thanks guys!