The USS Arthur W. Radford - New Jersey's newest reef!

[doctormike]

The NYC Sea Gypsies did a great charter last weekend with the dive boat John Jack to the USS Arthur W. Radford - a Spruance class destroyer which was sunk about 30 miles off Cape May last summer as an artificial reef.

We left Point Pleasant late Friday night, and did the overnight run to the wreck. Saturday conditions were terrific, with visibility up to 60 feet on the upper decks, calm seas and a light current. We did two dives on Saturday, and spent the night at sea, sleeping under the stars. Sunday, we were chased off the wreck after our dawn dive by a squall line coming in, but Captain Rich brought us in to the safety of inshore waters, and we made the run back to Point Pleasant through 1-2 foot seas, stopping for a late afternoon dive on the SS Mohawk before returning to the dock.

I didn't shoot much video, but here is what I got. I recently started using a green water Magic Filter on my fisheye lens to do ambient light work - a bit of a learning curve, but I'm working on it!

[vimeo]31056609[/vimeo]

Best,

Mike

 

[ScubaSam]

Mike - I enjoyed the video and diving vicariously through your video.

I was suppose to dive the Radford last month but it was called due to one of the hurricanes and I've yet to reschedule it.

Thanks for posting your video.

 

[doctormike]

Mike - I enjoyed the video and diving vicariously through your video.

I was suppose to dive the Radford last month but it was called due to one of the hurricanes and I've yet to reschedule it.

Thanks for posting your video.

Yup, our dive was originally supposed to be in September, but got rescheduled.

I'm up for going again (don't know if we will have such good luck with conditions this season, though)..! LMK if you figure something out.

Mike

 

[Chief Dave L]

Mike,

I was on the boat arriving just as your boat was leaving the wreck. We stayed for two dives and conditions were as you described. Really nice! Can't wait to get back. Loved your video.

Dave

 

[doctormike]

Mike,

I was on the boat arriving just as your boat was leaving the wreck. We stayed for two dives and conditions were as you described. Really nice! Can't wait to get back. Loved your video.

Dave

Hey, Dave..! Thanks so much, glad you liked it..

How late did you guys stay on Sunday? Did you get any weather? We were worried about a squall line out at sea, and we had a LONG drive home, so we left in the AM.

Looking forward to the next trip!

Mike

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Cool video. Maybe next season for me. And tell that guy to start tieing off his line every now and then. Will reduce risk of getting tangled and getting it cut from rubbing on the wreck.

 

[Chief Dave L]

Mike,

We stayed for two dives. I guess we left the Radford about 2pm. We were out of Cape May. It was calmer on the way back than it was on the way out. Couldn't have been nicer. Yeah, you did have a real long drive home.

Dave

 

[davetowz]

I will be going to see her next year. I spent alot of time on a similar vessel and cannot wait to visit her. Thanks for the vid, post breakup.

 

[francousteau]

Really awesome day out there for you guys, Doc! Is this all of the good video that you have or do you have more to clean up and post? Thanks for the look!

Franco

 

[doctormike]

Really awesome day out there for you guys, Doc! Is this all of the good video that you have or do you have more to clean up and post? Thanks for the look!

Franco

That's it, due to some circumstances...! Oh, well. Next time.

One of my buddies has about a half hour of raw video from the rest of the wreck, I don't want to post the link because I don't know if he's ready to circulate it yet. I'll let him know that people are interested!

M