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From Darth Vern . . .
I wanted to pass along a great story I read off a newsgroup I receive. Plus, its a new wreck to dive as well!!!
The Veronica M
On Wednesday, November 10, 2004, a 100' long tugboat was sunk on the Axel Carlson Artificial Reef in New Jersey. The tug, formerly the Captain Bill, was donated by McAllister Tugs. It will be officially known as the Veronica M after Veronica Segars of Brick, New Jersey. The story behind this artificial reef site is unusual and interesting. Veronica is the wife of Herb Segars, a local underwater photographer. She has multiple sclerosis and has spent the last twenty years dealing with a disease that has tried to take over her life. First, she had to give up diving – something that she loved very much. She experienced many health issues that necessitated the use of forearm crutches and a wheelchair.
It came as no surprise when she was asked by her husband to pick a special gift for her 50th birthday and the couple's 30th wedding anniversary that she chose to have a tugboat sunk on a New Jersey Artificial Reef and named after her. Veronica loves tugboats and categorizes them as "small but mighty", just like her. It took nearly three years to make her dream a reality. This could not have happened without Bill Figley of the New Jersey Artificial Reef Program.
On its last day, the tug proved to be as tenacious as Veronica. Veronica's family and friends along with Bill Figley and Jeff Carlson from the NJ Artificial Reef Program joined Steve and Barbara Nagiewicz, owners of the Diversion II to watch the tug reach its final resting place. The day started with 27 degree temperatures and a light north wind. Around 9:30 am, the seacocks were opened and the sinking began – or so every one thought. As often happens, things don't always go as planned. The seacocks were clogged and very little water came out. The crew aboard the tug Megan McAllister that towed the Veronica M broke out 2" fire hoses and proceeded to fill the fore and aft compartments with seawater. After a few hours, they broke out the larger pump which worked wonders until it ran out of fuel. After four hours, the little tug still had not sunk. Everyone decided that if they had to be on a sinking boat, this was the one.
In hopes of speeding the process along, the Diversion II circled the tug, making a wake over the stern that would take her down. The Veronica M wouldn't go. The tug Megan McAllister made a run past the Veronica M and her large wake washed over the stern. This was the nudge that she needed and in forty seconds, the Veronica M slipped below the surface with a slight stop as her stern hit the bottom 75' below.
The Veronica M will be a testimonial to a woman who has overcome many obstacles in her life. Her greatest fear is water and yet she loves the sea and never misses an opportunity to be there. You can see her standing on the bow of her boat, Snapshot, waiting for her divers to return from the depths. She now knows that her tugboat will be a part of the ocean that she loves so much and it will provide habitats for marine life long after she is gone.
To see a video of this wreck going down [link] also the included pics are credit to Herb Segars Photography at the previously link!
From Mike "Caveman" Nast . . .
Nov 21 - Kent and I (Mike Nast) decided to skip the last weekend at Dutch and do some real diving, New Jersey diving, that is. We figured this is probably about the last weekend until next year. We headed down to LBI on Saturday night, up at 5:30 and on the boat at 6:30. We set up our gear with four divers on the Tuna Seazure out of Little Egg Harbor, and went right to bed on the comfy v berths.
The boat cruises at 30 knots so we were out at the San Jose, a busted up freighter in 110', about 16 miles out.
Conditions were good, light chop, medium current, and viz of 20-25 feet, temperature 54 on the bottom, 54 on top.
This wreck is large and has some good relief on it. There are tons of hiding spots for bugs, but no keepers were to be found, although Kent caught some small ones. I figure if you have to measure them, they're too small to keep.
All in all, a very nice day, considering it's almost December.
From Tom Pritchard . . .
Tong-Tong Dining at Willow .
Tongs, noun. Any of numerous grasping devices consisting commonly of two pieces joined at one end by a pivot, or hinged like scissors. Tong, noun. A piece of wood scrounged from the wood pile, used with another piece of wood from the wood pile, not joined or hinged, operated with two hands with little hope of extracting buffalo wings from a crock pot. The plural isn't "tongs," so it must be tong-tong. George Heck hauled a trailer full of dive gear and kitchen utensils to Willow last night - and left us with bupkis. George likes to make us feed ourselves like a pack of wild animals. The tong tong was invented after several fingers were scorched in the crock pot. Plan B was to use the "baboon claw" normally used to move coals in the wood stove, but it was a bit too cruddy, even for us. We might have washed it off in the pot of hot water on the stove, but it was more a housefly broth than a fly consomme. We used Roger Heins' dive knife to cut the pies and just ripped the bread to shreds with our teeth. The bread, which I baked in aisle 6 of Giant, was such a hit that Terry Martzall offered to have sex with me. That's the last time I'm bringing bread, not that there was anything wrong with the sex. Bryan Palmer, who is in the midst of his farewell tour, brought food. Thinking this would our last chance to heap abuse on The Palm, we made the most of it. Now we find out he diving with the Irregulars next week; cool! GMan, Howling Terry Parsons, and I made it to the fire truck after doing an unscheduled, "how did we get back to the platform?" loop. On the way back we toured the weeds near the abandoned platform along the south wall and found, of all things, the lawn mower that GMan and I sunk a year ago during a hurricane. It wasn't really a lawn mower - IF IT WERE A LAWN MOWER, I WOULDN'T HAVE THROWN THE POS IN THE QUARRY! It's all covered with fuzzy stuff and silt-icles. Pretty disgusting, but a fitting end for that POS. JameZ was doing the scooter thing last night. His highlight reel included getting clothelined by one of the quarry ropes while scooting with the scooter - man, that's gonna leave a mark! The Irregulars' Thanksgiving Diving Bash will be next Wednesday. We may look fat, but we're not. Those are beer tumors! Bring more food next Wednesday! If you can't bring food, bring kitchen utensils!
From Richie Burr . . .
Friday we (Gary Sanderson, Chris Gosling, Rick Tumbusch, & Jim Wood) were going deeper. The original plan was to go to the Varanger, but we lobbied a bit and changed the destination to the Steamer & Hopper Barges. We had five divers on board as we headed out on Lake Atlantic for the 32 mile ride. What a beautiful day to be on the water. Flat as can be. We hit the wreck in an hour and twenty minutes.
There was almost zero wind and zero current. We thought we had a bite on the wreck, but it was hard to tell. I went down to tie in. Vis was good, but not stellar for offshore waters. About 15' - 20' ....and very dark.
I hit the bottom and saw nothing but the hook sitting in the sand. With no wreck in sight I decided to drag the hook forward in the hopes of seeing something to tie in to. About forty feet away I came upon a tiny piece of junk and managed to tie the hook to it.
By that time Jim was right behind me. I took off in search of the wreck. I saw a dark shadow and headed toward it, wreck reel in hand. Jim started to flash his light to signal me. He pointed out that my reel with a few feet of line and clip were traveling with us... not attached to the anchor site. Some fun so far. :-) I headed back to where I thought the hook was and spotted the flashing strobe. I rehooked the reel and by this time Jim had enough fun and and went back up.
I took off for a short dive to see some of the wreck and look for lobster. I spotted a nice sized bug, but she was a female with eggs, so back she went. Continuing along I grabbed a smaller bug in a debris pile. As I toured a long piece of wreckage I came to a spot where it went in to the sand. and realized my time on bottom was coming to an end. I turned around and jumped to the other side of the piece to head back and spotted a huge claw under the wreckage. I put out the light and made a grab..... got him.... A nice bug that weighted in at eight pounds. Did my hang and came on board for the short trip the Hopper Barges.Gary brought up some nice sized scallops and a few more lobster came up.
We sat for while, had lunch, and swapped lies. Capt. Bill was interested to see if the anchor that he left here a few months ago was still here. The tie in went smoothly. We were hooked in the steel barge. I got another nice lobster in the five pound range. The water temps and vis were pretty much the same on all the dives. Vis from 15' - 20' and temps in the low fifties.
At the end of my dive I saw a large grapple wedged around a post. It was very encrusted, so I wasn't sure if it was Bill's. I saw the chain buried under the sand and pulled it out to find the strobe that was supposed to be on there still was. I got the strobe off and went back to the hook It was tight on the post but after some playing around it fell to the sand, but I was out of time.
Fortunately Gary & his team came upon it and were able to shoot a bag and get it too the surface. Capt Bill was intent on recovering this hook... I wondered why. Then he unscrewed the top of the hook and spilled many large emeralds & diamonds out on to the deck. We divided the treasure and ....oh wait that was another dream.... Well he did get the hook and line back. :-)
OK...It's near Thanksgiving and we had two days of excellent diving. Great weather, a nice haul of lobster (which my guys at the Eagles tailgate really appreciated), spring like surface weather, flat seas, and the joy of spending quality time with a great bunch of people. What a super way to round out a wonderful dive season.... But as they say on TV... Wait there's more!!!!!
As Bill was pulling the hook he started screaming. Dolphin ahead off the bow. As it turned out there were quite a few Dolphin. Close to fifty of them. They didn't just pass by..... For some reason they were attracted to the boat. They swam all around us. Around the boat, under the boat... again and again. This was truly amazing. They were within a few feet of the boat. Popping up all over the place. They hung around for ten or fifteen minutes until we got underway, then some rode the bow wave and other played in the wake of the boat. I've seen Dolphin on the water before, but never had an encounter like this. It's something I will never forget.
Thanks to the entire crew from Northeast Scuba Supply John, Capt. Bill & Doug for putting this all together. We'll keep our eye on the weather and hope for a few more magical days on the water before we put the gear away and start to dream about next season.
From Darth Vern . . . [again]
This is my usual spot to write and I wanted to add something . . . For avid readers this months [Dec 04] edition of Wired Magazine some fantastic articles. Great articles by James Cameron, Bob Ballard, Sylvia Earle and a gut-wrenching article about Bill Stone [who invented the Cis Lunar Rebreather among other things] They cover some of Emerory Kristof's accomplishments as well. For true techies they even cover Burt Rutan [who just won the $10 million X Prize] and Buzz Aldrin. Plus they cover all the cool tech gear for early next year . . . anyone wanting to spring for an Xmas present for me? I am looking for a Jawbone Headset! [page 153] It is well worth the few bucks [I subscribe] only problem is I do my best reading on the throne, so I will be constantly in the bathroom for the next few days!!!!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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