Through the black night and driving rain A ship is struggling, all in vain, To live upon the stormy main;--------- Miserere Domine!
The surface interval wasn’t quite that bad........but I am getting ahead of myself.
The morning was not ........ Cheery, that’s it cheery. Not bad but not cheery. I arrived at the Stingray and no one was there. Hmmm. Stas, the mate, arrived shortly and we both loaded on board. We were soon joined by our Captain, Henrik and Rocky the sea dog and John(Captkcj) and Mike(mhuttner) from Wreck Valley. I have been diving with John before, but this time he was sporting his shiny new Kiss Rebreather. First time for Mike.
8AM we were pulling out of the slip, and heading for...................Where were we going? After some discussion, it was decided that we would dive the Banana Barge. Also known as the DVD Barge. This barge, I believe was originally called the King Barge and was sunk as an artificial reef in 1998, sponsored by the Delaware Valley Divers and their love of bananas. This 140 X 40 steel barge is pretty much intact although the sides have fallen to the sand exposing the interior which is a maze of bow to stern of tall braces and struts. Normally ambient light shines through the wreck making it an inviting swim through. The top of the barge is covered in sand and soft sponges, hydros and anemones, as are the walls and a lot of concrete rubble has been dropped around the structure.
On the trip out, the out we were in for quite a treat! Swimming all around us were pods of dolphin. Everywhere we looked. Several of us sat up on the bow and just took in the show. Swimming in groups, they arched in and out of the water and we would look ahead to see where they would surface next. Several breached the water, jumping and twisting an turning. A truly bright spot on an overcast morning.
We spent the rest of the time learning how to tie knots. I can say bring the bunny up through the hole, around the log and back in the hole in my sleep now, and tie one heck of a knot.
We arrived at the Banana Barge and tied in. With the mate reporting upper 40’s as bottom temps and a definitive thermo cline, I opted to try and wear lighter undergarments this time down. Over the side I rolled in after John and Mike and down the line I went. I guessed wrong on the weighting for this new configuration and was a bit heavy on the bottom but tapped some extra air in my wing and was off.
We were tied in to the bow and the viz was a murky 10 foot. John ran a reel across the top of the wreck and down the side. We then proceeded to circle the structure and see what we would find. With the visibility so poor we made no attempt to swim through the center of the wreck but circled the outside looking about and moving along switching between the top and the sand. There were lots of small juvenile sea bass and I set my sites on them and tried to catch them in my hands. The sides were covered in the usual assortment of things looking like jellied apples and lace among other things. There were several abandoned wire cages, lobster traps I think. In one were an assortment of different fish of a decent size and I tried to lift the top to release them but couldn’t get it to budge. Its sad, I hope another diver comes across them and succeeds.
Upon completing encircling the wreck I thumbed I was going up as I was cold. 50F and 70fsw, I guess it isn’t warm enough for the lightweight stuff yet. I was on my way up the line. Between 40 and 30 feet the thermo cline kicked in at 55 F making the hang quite nice. While we saw nothing of particular size the mate found a few good sized blackfish and brought them back.
We opted to stay for the second dive and this time go out into the sand past the wreck and check out the rubble piles. The surface interval proved a challenge. The wind picked up a bit and the skies grew black and then the rain came down. The air was so thick with moisture, it didn’t matter if you were on the deck or inside, you got wet. We made the best of things and John educated us on the differences of closed circuit diving. We debated the new bench configuration and John pooh-poohed the idea of a buddy line with a vengeance. I had switched to my heavier 4th element top but it was drenched by the time I suited up for dive 2.
Down the line and I knew we were in trouble. The visibility had dropped to about 5 feet but we were determined. We were going to look for the debris field off the bow using a sweep with the reel line and John again ran his reel out. As we headed out with the short viz I bet John reconsidered his position on buddylines. It didn’t take long and we were among scattered piles of concrete and mangled rebar. Again the assortment of attached sea life rich and varied, but still no crabs or lobster and only small sea bass and blackfish. I chased on after them to no avail.
Upon returning to the wreck Mike went up the line and John and I continued on to circumnavigate the wreck once more. As we swam along, I noticed something move in the sand. It turned out to be a small stingray. We followed it for a while as it slowly swam about and then it turned and took off. Life is coming back to the wrecks.
We headed back up the line for lunch. The sun broke through and the weather cleared and waiting for us on the grill were marinated chicken, fresh blackfish and sausage kabobs, with fresh cut watermelon and honey dew.
The skies got clearer and brighter as we headed in and the conversation turned to more rebreather discussion, Henriks new slogan for his boating venture and of course diving.
We arrived back at the dock under warm clear sunny skies and unloaded with parting gifts of blackfish fillets for those who wished to have them. Funny how things turn around.. I would like to do this dive again under better conditions. With the water a little warmer there is no telling what kind of sea life would be around and with better visibility I bet the swim throughs would be very inviting.