Delaware River Water Gap - Train Wreck

[lowviz]

Yes, enjoyed reading it too. Excellent summary.

Great time, great company, and promises for more local diving. It was a really nice dive, team of three, no MIA's and nobody silted up the place. Fun even at the end when a bunch of kayakers circled to listen to BRD's explanation as to why we were diving there. Beautiful day.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Attempt at a video...

https://youtu.be/2wJuoiH1i30

 

[Rich Keller]

we had a doubles BM, a doubles SM and a singles guy with a pony

How much air did you actually use?

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I ended up using 1000 psi on an LP85 - there was no real current to fight - just an easy dive.

 

[lowviz]

I used a bit more, 25-30 cuft. I could have done the dive on a single 40. But that is not why I was there.

This dive was a classic "loose federation of solo divers" buddy team. We all had our own agendas, and they were similar enough that we could accomplish our respective goals while staying together. The predive agreement was that we would attempt to stay together. Nothing more.

I got sidemount instruction in N. Florida and the conditions differ greatly from what I dive. I learned on rented primaries that had swivel LP ports. My goal was to continue to transition my sidemount gear to my local conditions using non-swivel environmentally sealed regs. That presents issues.

It was a most enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

 

[Rich Keller]

I used a bit more, 25-30 cuft. I could have done the dive on a single 40.

That is why I asked. Would be easier to get back and forth from the site with a small tank if that is all that is needed.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

In hindsight we thought we were going dive the train as well as swim across the river and dive the boulders (we talked about it on the site but got a late start so we nixed it) - so if you only intend on doing the train wreck a 40 cu ft could be enough gas if you have a reasonable RMV and don't silt up the site - if you do it is a slow moving current and it would take some time for it to settle down.

The walk from the road or the parking lot to the site is about a hundred feet or so - I recommended the road because walking from the parking lot to the road - cars are traveling at about 50 mph and there is a blind curve where it is difficult to tell if cars are coming. Walking in scuba equipment is not worth the risk to me and parking on the road is acceptable - a fisherman was there as well as other cars and trucks. If you wanted to you could walk down stream (although I did not scout it out) and swim up to the wreck to try and keep the site clean on the approach...

 

[Rich Keller]

In hindsight we thought we were going dive the train as well as swim across the river and dive the boulders (we talked about it on the site but got a late start so we nixed it)

Are the boulders directly across the river from the train? Is there a place to park on the other side to dive the boulders? Is there a lot of boat traffic on this part of the river?

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Boulders are upstream to the right - the rockface is where they are supposed to be. Maybe a hundred yards upstream.
There is supposed to be a place to park but I never saw it or looked.
At the time we went not a single boat was on the water - kayaks but not motor boats. My guess is later in the season it gets the more boats to expect - 50 to 80 feet in the river is what I read.

 

[waterpirate]

Sounds like everyone had a great time! Thanx for the write up, I enjoyed it.
Eric