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Northeast diver!

Today begins a new and exciting phase of my diving life. I did my first New Jersey dive.

The day started with me getting up at 3:30am. I got all my stuff together and was on the road by 4:30. I made it to Belmar by 6am. On the way, it rained. That got me worried. If the sea was to rough, the captain would probably not let us dive. I had checked the weather report before I left. The forecast was for rain and then thunderstorms later.

When I got to Belmar's marina, I drove around looking for the Venture III. It was hard to find. I thought it would be easy since who else would be up at 6am on a Sunday morning? Turns out there were tons of fishermen going out today also. I parked my van out by the gangway and started loading my gear onto the boat. On my way to the boat, I overheard a couple fishermen:

"People go diving out here?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"What is there to see?"
"I don't know."

Well, I know. The Venture III was going to visit the Pinta, a freight ship that sunk in 1963 carrying a load of lumber. It's the perfect boat for an introduction to New Jersey wreck diving. It's about 70 feet down and it's mostly intact.

But, first, a dose of triptone, an anti-nausea pill. Those who say they never get seasick have never been on a boat off New Jersey. Even those with stomachs of steel will find themselves bent over the rail if they don't use some sort of chemical prevention. I have yet to get seasick but I won't tempt fate by not taking the pill. I take it.

The boat is really crowded. It's an hour before we launch but it seems like it's already full. I find the last remaining space right on the stern of the boat. My big phobia will be that one nice bump will put my gear overboard and no one will notice. That would really suck.

On board, I meet up with Mike and James, instructors from Blue Water Divers, and my co-student, Lisa. It's her second New Jersey dive. I'm the one perfect newbie on board today.

It takes me three trips from the van to get all my gear on board. Four, if you count where I forget to fetch the pony bottle reg. I have my tanks in the tank holders and my gear sitting under my seat.

We all have to sign the usual waiver that we know that if we die it's not the boat's fault.

Seeing as everyone is early, we launch early around 6:30am. It takes a while to get to the wreck even though it's only seven miles offshore. During that time, Mike, James, Lisa, and I are going over what to expect. After a while, it's all just diving chit chat. I notice that sitting below decks intensifies the rocking motion of the boat. Mike says he's going above. I go also. Yes, it's nicer when you can just have the boat rock under your feet. I watch the sunrise.

When we get to the site, Mike goes down to set the granny line to the wreck. Lisa and I suit up and get into the water. We wait around 15 below on the granny line until James is in. We go down.

The visibility is super murky. Basically, you can only see at the other end of the beam of light from the flashlight. The wreck is a big rusting hulk. It's tipped on its side. The granny line is tied near the side of the boat. It's the landing area. The rusting metal is covered with sea anemones. The water is filled with jellyfish. They're non-stinging. When you shine your flashlight through them, their swimming hairs light up like a rainbow. They look like giant paramecia. We leave the 'top' of the wreck and go down to the sand. You can see the cargo lumbar sticking out of the wreck. But it's all unrecognizable being all covered with mussels, coral, and anemones. We swim under the mast. We're 90 feet down now. One of Lisa's goals was to find lobster. We make our way along the wreck looking under things. Tons of fish. No lobsters. We float back up to the top of the wreck and follow it to the granny line which is lit with a strobe. We come back up the line, do our safety stop at 15 feet and then surface.

dive 1: 30 minutes, max depth 85 feet

Getting back on the boat is a chore. The back of the boat has a fishbone looking ladder made specifically for divers' fins. I slowly make my way up it as the weight of all my gear starts trying to pull my back down. I need to weight train more, if only to have the strength to carry my diving gear. When I'm back on deck, the crew is so kind as to take my fins off for me as I extricate myself from my gear. We wait an hour and a half and then we gear up again to go back in.

I change my tank for a full one. One of the things that I worried about was that I didn't have enough weight to sink. I have had little experience wearing a wetsuit. All my diving previously, save for the drysuit weekend, had been in the warm-as-bathwater caribbean. I also had just bought a new buoyancy control device. So, with all this new equipment, I got 28 lbs of weight added to it so I could sink.

When I'm in the water, I didn't sink. I'd have to pull myself down the granny line before the water compressed my suit enough to sink. Mike also said that I may be breathing too much from the excitement. In diving, you lungs also help control your buoyancy. Shallower breaths help you sink. Deeper breaths help you float. On this second dive, we go straight to the wreck. From the top of the wreck, we immediately went to the sand. The search was on for Lisa's lobster. We got our flashlights looking under things and into holes. One the sand, I see something scurrying along the bottom that looked like it had a lot of legs. Was it a lobster? No, it's a sea robin. It's a fish. Really weird and interesting, but not a lobster. We even go into the wreck for a bit. We're inside the rusting hulk and looking up shows the faint glow of the sunny world above water. We keep looking in every nook and crannie to no avail. We're back outside and I signal to Mike that I'm down to 1400 psi on my tank. That's the signal to go up. I started out with 3500. You want to be back to the granny line and use the last 1000 for your nice slow and safe ascent.

I have to work on that. Even though I think I'm going 1 foot per second, you really want to do 1 foot per 2 seconds. Me and James go up first. Lisa still has air left. After a safety stop, I get to the ladder and I'm back on board.

dive 2: 32 minutes, 86 feet max depth.

Lisa and Mike come up a few minutes later. Still no lobster. I guess it just wasn't a good day for it.

I rest a little bit to catch my breath. Then I start peeling up my wetsuit off. You peel it like a banana. Turning it inside out. It's still a lot of work. My total experience with wetsuits and drysuits is they're a special hell that northern divers must tolerate. They're meant to keep you warm in the water. Out of the water, they tend to squeeze you and make you overheat. Only a dunk in the water can give you a brief respite. I manage to pack my stuff up. And I go below decks to enjoy a drink of water and my bologna sandwich. One of the side effects of anti-seasickness drugs is a really dry mouth. And breathing dry air for 30 minutes doesn't help much.

I stay below decks. There are umpteen divers on this trip. It's all crazy with gear and people on deck. Even though the rocking is bad down below, I took another dose of triptone before the second dive. I got two doses in me. And I guess, between the dive fatigue and the drugs, I'm really sleepy. I take a nap.

Mike wakes me up a little while before we make it into the marina. He's collecting tips for the crew. I give them 20 bucks. They really took care of me and took care of my gear. Despite the fact that I'm the newbie idiot on the boat.

Back in port, I've got my stuff organized that I can get it back to the van in only 3 trips. That is also really strenuous. Those tanks get really heavy after a while of carrying them. Some guys are smart and have these big carts to move stuff with. I thank Mike and bid my goodbyes to my fellow New Jersey divers. I learned a lot. I learned that I have to learn more.

I also have to get stronger so I can carry this stuff. And lose some pot belly fat so I don't need as much weight to make me sink. And next time, maybe I'll do a dry suit. The surface of the water was pretty warm, but get 30 feet down and WOO! There the water hits you like ice water. So, yeah, next time, maybe a dry suit.

Next time, I hope, is 3 weeks from now.

bright light

bright


Originally uploaded by Joelio.

Woo! the sky is so bright.

Rocke-feller

Took a series of pictures last Sunday in Rockefeller Center. Through some magical trickery, I became this invisible midget.

Houlihans

Plush - I love that song. It rocks.
She's Always a Woman - good ole billy joel. I've always wanted to do this song and I did. I was pleased.
It's a Mistake - it was a mistake. I sang well, I think, but not the right song for Houlihans.

AHHH!!!

So, I decided I should just start entering stuff. Yesterday, me, Frank, and kin went to Ramapo State Park. As part of the photography class we're takin, we're working on our projects for this photo show in September. I decided that I'd like to do a set of wacky self portraits.

here's what I shot that day:

Ocean City 2005

That's what a nerd does on vacation. I take the Seadoo out and I got a wrist mounted gps on it.

I import the track to google earth and Voila! Track craziness.

You'll notice that I tended to go back and forth to a particular spot in Assawoman Bay and that was this pink bouy that represented the edge of our area.