Hello everyone,
I am newly OW certified (last Feb in MX) finally got out to do my first NJ wreck dive.
I have done a couple of dives in the bay just to get accustomed to diving from my own boat and do some basic skills practice but have yet to go and dive on some structure.
We left the dock around 3pm and ran down to Long Branch to the Dual Wrecks. I found the wreck on my first pass as it was right where they said they would be . The numbers I got off of another site were wrong and I knew that as soon as I punched them into my machine as it showed the wreck being on land .
Dropped anchor and started to suit up. The water looked a bit dirty but we figured that we would go down and see if it was any better at the bottom .
I was with a friend of mine and his buddy who is a dive instructor as well as three fishing buddies that were staying topside, so I felt that I was in good hands for my first dive in the North Atlantic. Down the anchor line we go with me being in the middle of the two of them so they could both keep an eye on me. Well the water didnt get any better as we went down and I was surprised at how quickly we got to the bottom. I saw a black mass getting closer and I assumed that it was Anthony who was the first one down the line I wanted to get close enough to him to let him know that I wasnt feeling comfortable with the viz being less than 1 foot and this being my first time in murky water. All of a sudden the surge pushed me right up against what I thought was him .to my surprise all I saw was a bunch of barnacles about 3 from my mask :shocked2: ..ok, I found the wreck!!! As I backed off I located my buddy and signed to him that I wasnt comfortable and that they should stay down and I would meet them back on the boat when they were done.
Since we were only in 25 of water they came up to the top with me and we talked for a little bit they decided to go back down and screw around down there for awhile while I went back to the boat. I had a stern line tied off to a cleat and decided to grab a hold of that and drop down a few feet and work on some of my skills. I did that for about 20 min and screwed around with my new computer before I got pretty board and called it a day.
I will admit that I was quite disappointed with the dive but I did get to try my new gear and get a feel of what it is like to have close to zero viz so it wasnt a total loss.
The other guys came up after about 30 min and we packed up our stuff . Had a couple of beers and headed over to the reef to do some fishing.
All in all it was a good time with good friend and a lot of laughs (most of them being at my expense). I am in no way discouraged and will be trying again sometime next week.
I am newly OW certified (last Feb in MX) finally got out to do my first NJ wreck dive.
I have done a couple of dives in the bay just to get accustomed to diving from my own boat and do some basic skills practice but have yet to go and dive on some structure.
We left the dock around 3pm and ran down to Long Branch to the Dual Wrecks. I found the wreck on my first pass as it was right where they said they would be . The numbers I got off of another site were wrong and I knew that as soon as I punched them into my machine as it showed the wreck being on land .
Dropped anchor and started to suit up. The water looked a bit dirty but we figured that we would go down and see if it was any better at the bottom .
I was with a friend of mine and his buddy who is a dive instructor as well as three fishing buddies that were staying topside, so I felt that I was in good hands for my first dive in the North Atlantic. Down the anchor line we go with me being in the middle of the two of them so they could both keep an eye on me. Well the water didnt get any better as we went down and I was surprised at how quickly we got to the bottom. I saw a black mass getting closer and I assumed that it was Anthony who was the first one down the line I wanted to get close enough to him to let him know that I wasnt feeling comfortable with the viz being less than 1 foot and this being my first time in murky water. All of a sudden the surge pushed me right up against what I thought was him .to my surprise all I saw was a bunch of barnacles about 3 from my mask :shocked2: ..ok, I found the wreck!!! As I backed off I located my buddy and signed to him that I wasnt comfortable and that they should stay down and I would meet them back on the boat when they were done.
Since we were only in 25 of water they came up to the top with me and we talked for a little bit they decided to go back down and screw around down there for awhile while I went back to the boat. I had a stern line tied off to a cleat and decided to grab a hold of that and drop down a few feet and work on some of my skills. I did that for about 20 min and screwed around with my new computer before I got pretty board and called it a day.
I will admit that I was quite disappointed with the dive but I did get to try my new gear and get a feel of what it is like to have close to zero viz so it wasnt a total loss.
The other guys came up after about 30 min and we packed up our stuff . Had a couple of beers and headed over to the reef to do some fishing.
All in all it was a good time with good friend and a lot of laughs (most of them being at my expense). I am in no way discouraged and will be trying again sometime next week.