Back Bay in August

I came upon a beach where thousands and thousands of starfish had washed up on the shore. I saw an old man walking along picking them up one by one and throwing them one by one back into the sea. I went down and asked the old man what he was doing. He said, "I'm throwing these starfish back into the water, for without the water, they can not breath and they will die." I said, "But there must be thousands of these starfish here. What makes you think it will make any difference?"

The old man picked up another starfish, tossed it back into the sea, turned and looked at me and said. "Well my brother you see, it made a difference to that one."

~ Author Unknown~

The last days of summer are upon us and I am finally getting back into the water after a so long wait. I have so much to make up for, so many fish to poke and things to see. I never thought I could miss the sea so much, but here I am, with straight days of diving planned, the bay, a wreck and the inlet. All the things I have missed.

The Back Bay in Belmar. I haven’t been here yet, I missed the mating of the horseshoe crabs and the slow return of life to the sandy bay bottom. Each week is different, a small difference but one you never get back. I meet a group from Divers Two after dinner for one of their Happy Hour Dives. We gear up in the fading evening light, wondering if the temperature and visibility will be our friend or if dark and chill will send us back early.

I am joining Carl and two of his students who are making their first night dives. We swim out to some deeper water and drop down as the gray of evening settles on the water. It follows us down and the water is dark and gloomy, lit up only in the circle of our lights. That is enough though, the first thing our lights hit upon is a small black tropical with white spots. I have no idea what it was and it swam off before I could poke it, but the promise of things to see sends us on our way.

Small is the theme this evening. Compared to the inlet side of Shark River, the starfish are small and there only a few in the 2-4 inch range. Tons of little blackfish swim through the beams of our lights and swarms of small drumfish, I think they are drumfish, those light colored fish with the spot on them, anyway they are all around. Flounder, still cant tell them from fluke so don’t hold me to it, but flounder the size of my hand are all around. They give me that googlyeyed stare like a cartoon fish and I scoot them on their way.

I pick up a few bottles off the bottom and give them a shake to see who is home and am greeted by a few teeny crabs with attitudes not happy about being rousted from their homes. Small glass eels are weaving their way about the grass and algae and a lonely 2 moon snails is all we come across. I never tire of watching them pull themselves into their shell. It always amazes me they can fit.

There is a lone whelk shell as we swim along and when I pick it up I am greeted by the sight of an empty shell with a small crab crawling about. And a small blowfish sat for a bit while we all shined our lights on him and took a look.

There were a few exceptions to the small rule. The blue claws were looking big and healthy and the hermit crabs were gargantuan.

As we finned along, a slight current kept us moving with little effort and I stopped for a moment when I saw what I can only describe as a scene from Sponge Bob Square Pants…… a gi-normous, as in scary big, horseshoe crab shell just sitting on the bottom and through the square opening where his tail used to be you could easily see a large blue claw crab just sitting and munching away on a little late night snack in his little bachelor pad. It made me laugh.

There was one other little find which always makes the dive worthwhile. Seahorses. Seahorses were hiding in the grass and I found a yellow and an orange one. Always the forerunners in fashion and complimenting their surroundings, they are amazing to watch.

We might have seen more with a little better viz, but we did just fine. We surfaced and as we slowly swam back to shore, just enjoying the water and quiet of the night, we noted that we hadn’t seen many tropicals. No butterfly fish, no pipefish, no live whelk. So few puffer fish and moon snails and no larger eels. I had seen the flash of trigger fish at the edge of my light, but no one else had caught sight of any. You have to go often to see everything, it makes a difference. They don’t all come out at once. I have so much catching up to do.

Back in the Water

Take me to a quiet place,

Throw me in the water.

Watch the bubbles surface

as I'm slowly sinking under

The Eurythmics, Aqua

High tide was at 9:25PM and after so much time out of the water, I was apprehensive about carrying my tanks and climbing up and down the rocks, but I do love these dives and so I met Jay at the Avon bridge, and along with several other hearty souls, we geared up to dive. With the assurances of “we’ll get you in and out” I set out for the inlet. Did I mention I love these dives?

We climbed down the rocks and slid into the water. It was a little colder than I expected. I had heard it was in the mid 70’s recently, but not tonite. It was still warm enough to go without a hood at 64F and so with a quiet swoosh of air from our wings we dropped down to the sand. We were pleasantly surprised to find about 10 feet of visibility and pleasant currents and barely detectable surge. This was going to be nice…very nice.

I began to look around and was immediately greeted by a large eel curiously nosing out of his hole to see what was going on. As I moved along, Jay, who has a habit of wedging himself in every crevice to check things out, jammed himself in a space right next door to my eel friend, but as luck would have it, they did not meet.

The crabs were large and active, scurrying all about and the starfish are getting huge. Most much larger than my hand. The rocks were covered in a world of color with sponges and soft corals and hydroids and aneomes and plants of every kind.

As we moved along, Jay squeezed himself into every dent and opening and I poked and prodded the various crabs and grabbed and scooted the smaller fish. I came across 2 tropicals which looked like trigger fish and several small white ones I didn’t recognize. There was one lone flounder, or is it a fluke, I can’t tell the difference, just the size of my hand hiding among some discarded shells in the sand. I can’t help myself, he wasn’t happy and he took off for parts unknown.

But too soon I could feel the change in current and gave Jay the signal it was time to turn back.

The sea bass were abundant although most were not of gathering size. As we went along one particularly large one was spotted hiding just under the outcropping of a rock, staying still and hoping we would just move along. Jay opened up his bag and carefully lined it up before rousting him from his hiding place. Like something in a movie, this fish swam right into the bag……..unfortunately……. he must have seen this movie and not liked the ending as he immediately darted out slipping past the handles just as Jay snapped the bag shut.

The surge and current picked up a little as we came back and the water hazed slightly in spots, natures way of readying us for the end of our dive I guess.

As we made our way back along the rocks there were large crabs both blue claw and spider carrying smaller versions of themselves off to where ever it is that crabs scurry and small fish that didn’t learn their lesson the last time I passed by to be poked once more. Sea Robbins were swimming about and if you were close to the sand they swam right up to your mask. At one outcropping we came upon what I thought was a large blowfish and gave him a poke. He didn’t seem fazed and we moved on with Jay burying himself waist deep in an opening in the rocks. While I awaited his return I looked about the sand and there was what I now know to be a large blowfish. He too was unfazed at being handled and he was so big I held him with two hands.

As we moved farther along I looked up, watching for lights and our exit point and there above me was a small red squid, almost a foot long just swimming above me. I have never seen squid in the inlet and just sat and watched him move along. He took his time and I appreciate that.

Just a little farther along we spotted a light shining n the water above, a friendly signal from another diver just leaving the water that we had arrived.

I climbed on out and although there were offers of assistance, I slowly picked my way up the rocks on my own and walked on up the stairs and on to my car. Like a little wagon train of divers we were all parked one after the other along the curb, and as we began to shed our gear….it happened….

With the speed of light we were descended upon by our local game warden, shining his flashlight over everyones gear and in their cars, looking for illegal catch. I know he is doing his job, but ………. lets just say, he did seem a bit aggressive in his approach ……. and a hair short lobster did receive a ticket ……..

I have heard this year, the ticketing for dive flag and catch violations started early and happened often. True story.

Anyway, a really comfortable and relaxing dive, a great welcome back to the water. Thanks Jay, we will do this again.

Back in the Water

Take me to a quiet place,

Throw me in the water.

Watch the bubbles surface

as I'm slowly sinking under

The Eurythmics, Aqua

High tide was at 9:25PM and after so much time out of the water, I was apprehensive about carrying my tanks and climbing up and down the rocks, but I do love these dives and so I met Jay at the Avon bridge, and along with several other hearty souls, we geared up to dive. With the assurances of “we’ll get you in and out” I set out for the inlet. Did I mention I love these dives?

We climbed down the rocks and slid into the water. It was a little colder than I expected. I had heard it was in the mid 70’s recently, but not tonite. It was still warm enough to go without a hood at 64F and so with a quiet swoosh of air from our wings we dropped down to the sand. We were pleasantly surprised to find about 10 feet of visibility and pleasant currents and barely detectable surge. This was going to be nice…very nice.

I began to look around and was immediately greeted by a large eel curiously nosing out of his hole to see what was going on. As I moved along, Jay, who has a habit of wedging himself in every crevice to check things out, jammed himself in a space right next door to my eel friend, but as luck would have it, they did not meet.

The crabs were large and active, scurrying all about and the starfish are getting huge. Most much larger than my hand. The rocks were covered in a world of color with sponges and soft corals and hydroids and aneomes and plants of every kind.

As we moved along, Jay squeezed himself into every dent and opening and I poked and prodded the various crabs and grabbed and scooted the smaller fish. I came across 2 tropicals which looked like trigger fish and several small white ones I didn’t recognize. There was one lone flounder, or is it a fluke, I can’t tell the difference, just the size of my hand hiding among some discarded shells in the sand. I can’t help myself, he wasn’t happy and he took off for parts unknown.

But too soon I could feel the change in current and gave Jay the signal it was time to turn back.

The sea bass were abundant although most were not of gathering size. As we went along one particularly large one was spotted hiding just under the outcropping of a rock, staying still and hoping we would just move along. Jay opened up his bag and carefully lined it up before rousting him from his hiding place. Like something in a movie, this fish swam right into the bag……..unfortunately……. he must have seen this movie and not liked the ending as he immediately darted out slipping past the handles just as Jay snapped the bag shut.

The surge and current picked up a little as we came back and the water hazed slightly in spots, natures way of readying us for the end of our dive I guess.

As we made our way back along the rocks there were large crabs both blue claw and spider carrying smaller versions of themselves off to where ever it is that crabs scurry and small fish that didn’t learn their lesson the last time I passed by to be poked once more. Sea Robbins were swimming about and if you were close to the sand they swam right up to your mask. At one outcropping we came upon what I thought was a large blowfish and gave him a poke. He didn’t seem fazed and we moved on with Jay burying himself waist deep in an opening in the rocks. While I awaited his return I looked about the sand and there was what I now know to be a large blowfish. He too was unfazed at being handled and he was so big I held him with two hands.

As we moved farther along I looked up, watching for lights and our exit point and there above me was a small red squid, almost a foot long just swimming above me. I have never seen squid in the inlet and just sat and watched him move along. He took his time and I appreciate that.

Just a little farther along we spotted a light shining n the water above, a friendly signal from another diver just leaving the water that we had arrived.

I climbed on out and although there were offers of assistance, I slowly picked my way up the rocks on my own and walked on up the stairs and on to my car. Like a little wagon train of divers we were all parked one after the other along the curb, and as we began to shed our gear….it happened….

With the speed of light we were descended upon by our local game warden, shining his flashlight over everyones gear and in their cars, looking for illegal catch. I know he is doing his job, but ………. lets just say, he did seem a bit aggressive in his approach ……. and a hair short lobster did receive a ticket ……..

I have heard this year, the ticketing for dive flag and catch violations started early and happened often. True story.

Anyway, a really comfortable and relaxing dive, a great welcome back to the water. Thanks Jay, we will do this again.

North Carolina

Diving in North Carolina waters in August conjures up visions of 80 degree clear blue water with 100 foot visibility……and the downside? Two hour boat rides to reach the wrecks.

That is what normal people get. Me…..it is slightly different. But let’s start at the beginning.
It is ten hours to North Carolina, no matter how you map it, it is ten hours to North Carolina and that is without traffic or stopping….for stuff like gas. With my current issues with my back, it just seems longer.

Thursday was a drive day and Friday was a dive day. We awake to warm temperatures and head for the shop to see if we will have flat seas. Discovery Diving was our shop and SEQUEST II our transportation, with Captain Jerry at the helm and Mate Mark, his trusty side kick.

The shop is a decent size and right on the dock, the staff friendly and helpful. Our tanks are moved each night from the boat to the shop for fills and returned the next morning ready to dive. There are freshwater rinse hoses at the dock and a decent amount of parking, all making for a pleasant dive experience.

Day 1

Our first day of diving, the seas are alive and kicking. This makes our trip out slightly longer than an NFL game and much more bumpy. Keep in mind my back and brace and as you can imagine by the time we reached the wreck of the Schurz, I was more than ready to set anchor and dive.

The USS Schurz was a 295 foot cruiser sunk in a collision in with the tanker Florida in the early morning hours of June 1918, in 110 feet of water. The irony of the Schurz was that it was originally the SMS Geier, a German navy cruiser seized during World War I and refitted and loaded back up with the original German guns and ammunition and sent back out to sea to fight the Germans.

Normally, this time of year the water is close to 80 degrees with visibility that can reach over 100 feet. Under the deck plates in the sand, ammunition clips can still be found and large amber jacks and bait fish swarm the wreck and deck gun lying in the sand.

Unfortunately with the arguable 10 foot of viz, we were lucky to find the anchor line at the end of our dive, although you definitely made out the hazy outline of barracuda, ever present during our hang. We ran a wreck reel and Jersey diving it was….just warmer.

Once back onboard, one of the other divers brought up some shells they came across in the sand and out of one crawled a decent sized octopus that ran across the deck making a break for freedom. With a little help from the divers he made the water and then just had to get past our barracuda friends and he was back home. Hope he made it.

We left the dark and murky waters surrounding the Schurz and moved inshore to the Spar and promises of………sharks. The infamous sand tigers of North Carolina to be exact.

The Spar was a 183 foot US Coast Guard buoy tender sunk in 105 feet of water as an artificial reef in 2004. It was named after the original Coast Guard Women’s Reserve and is an acronym for the Coast Guard motto “Semper Paratus, Always Ready”, and is alive with sand tiger sharks.

To get me diving, my gear is lowered to the water with a gear line, and I slip into my harness and buckle in midwater and I am off. Upon surfacing, I clip the gear off to the line and climb the ladder to board the boat. The mate then jumps in and carries my gear back onboard. Not a bad deal and more important.....it works.

As we descend the anchor line, we see that the visibility is slightly better here with 20 plus feet and upon arriving on the deck we are greeted with what appears to be a never-ending supply of sharks. Sand tigers are recognizable by their brownish coloring and gnarly toothed grin, a ragged row of teeth visible even when the shark closes its mouth. Sweet. Mark busies himself taking pics as we navigate around the deck. As you look around you are surrounded by these sharks with the sight of them suddenly looming out of the haze on all sides of you. Above the decks were also baitfish and large amber jacks which I happily poked and grabbed, and the sea life is rounded out with schools of spade fish, a splattering of blue chromos, queen angelfish and other tropicals. On the decks were assorted sea life including some outrageous yellow sea cucumbers.

On the line up were the resident barracuda which we found on every dive site, hovering just out of reach and eyeing us. I don’t know if they were hungry or curious, but they were definitely eyeing us.

Day 2

Today the seas were quiet and we had a much better ride out. Our target was the Papoose, a 412 foot tanker lying upside down in 120 feet of water about 36 miles south of Beaufort Inlet. This trip usually takes about 2 hours but today it is slightly longer as are all of our rides this weekend.

In March of 1942, the Papoose was traveling blacked out to hide from patrolling U boats, but unfortunately was spotted by the U-124 and torpedoed. The portside hit took just 4 minutes to flood the engines and make the ship a sitting duck for the next torpedo which ran under the lifeboats of the escaping crew and sank her.

Visibility has improved some today but not too much and we have picked up a little current as we travel along the hull of the upturned ship. We are tied into the rudder and we swim against the current as schools of jacks swim above the wreckage. We look about and the hull bottom is covered in corals and assorted barnacles and sponges, the ocean floor scattered with sea stars of varying sizes, shapes and colors. Unfortunately, we were unaware that the interior of the wreck was where we should have gone as it was alive with tropicals and other fish. Live and learn.

We leave this site and head back in with a stop again at the Spar and a shark fix. This wreck teams with Sand Tigers and although we plan on hitting the sand to look for shells we never really leave the deck area and our finned friends as we circle around the wreck. I will never tire of watching these graceful creatures and wondering exactly how you go about poking them….especially the 10 foot ones…..that’s a lot of fish to poke.

Day 3

I am apprehensive today as the seas are picking up again, but, as it turns out, they decide behave, and the ride out is long, but manageable. At least that is how it seems, or maybe it is just the excitement of finally getting to dive a submarine. Our destination this morning is the U-352, a 218 foot German U Boat lying in 115 feet of water.

The U 352 was the first U Boat to be sunk by the Coast Guard in World War II. Ironically in May of 1942, having failed to thus far sink any allied ships, the submarine sited what they thought to be an unprotected freighter and fired a torpedo which missed its mark. It’s mark turning out to be the US Coast Guard Cutter Icarus which immediately began to hunt the sub down. After 2 rounds of devastating depth charging the U 352 surfaced and the crew abandoned her with 33 crew members escaping to later be picked up by the Icarus and interned as prisoners of war and 13 crew going down with the ship.

Over the side and down the line we travel to arrive upon an intact and recognizable structure of a World War II sub. As we navigate up and down the wreck you can look in the torpedo tubes which fired on the Icarus and swim the conning tower which the Icarus straffed with bullets to keep crew members from possibly reaching the deck guns. As we swim along we see Stephan stop at each porthole or torpedo tube and try to squeeze in. Earlier, another diver had shared a bit of trivia with us….the average German submariner was 5 ft 8 and the average submarine bunk was 5 ft 4……Stephan is a healthy 6 foot and not only was he not going to be able to sleep on this sub…he wasn’t making it inside either.

As we move along it is not hard to imagine this as a working vessel, but I am mindful that it is also a war grave. While small in stature compared to other wrecks it is unique and makes for an interesting dive. Diving a submarine….another item I can now check off my diving wish list.

We go on up the line and head back in to make a stop just 300 yards from our previous days second dives. The Aeolus.

The Aeolus is a 426 foot Navy cable layer lying in 120 feet of water just 300 yards from the Spar, sunk in 1988 as part of the artificial reef program. In 1996, Hurricane Fran snapped the wreck into 3 pieces and rearranged it on the ocean floor, proof once again of the awesome power of the ocean.

While it is in close proximity to the Spar, this wreck was eerily devoid of sharks and as we swam along, looking about, I wondered what made one spot so popular for shark and just a few feet over another spot home to mostly baitfish, spade fish and tropicals.

We swam along an upper deck with arched openings that appeared to previously be some sort of a walkway. The walkway was filled with small fish and we looked about for where to go next, I spotted the outline of a lone shark making its way along to the end of the walkway and turning the corner and disappearing into the haze of water. The image was striking as it appeared as if this mighty creature was not just swimming about the wreck but slowly and purposely moving along this walkway just as so many sailors had so many years ago.

It was time to go up and since it was our last dive here for this trip I called out to the barracuda as we hung on the line. They remained ever present and circling menacingly close at times but stayed just out of reach. Mark, flashed me the do not touch sign just in case.

I guess a fitting end to the trip.

With A Little Help From My Friends

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

Beatles ~ John Lennon and Paul McCartney

I have been quiet lately….maybe you noticed….hey….maybe not….. As some of you know, I fractured my back and things have been…….less than fun.

Well, guess what……..I’m baaack….kinda…..with a little help from my friends.

My doctor told me I couldn’t lay around, it is problematic for me, take my brace and move around he tells me. What do you expect me to do, I ask? His response….Walk…..ride a bike, you won’t be graceful so don’t fall off…swim…swimming is good, it takes the pressure off your spine, you don’t even have to wear the brace to swim. Hmmmmm……. With a little help from my friends….

Frnak knew what he was in for, but he volunteered anyway. He deserves a medal.

We were meeting at Dutch this morning, down by the peninsula and as I drove down with my gear, I ran into…and nearly over our own Grand Master E. I backed up traffic a bit as we talked, but a quick hug and good luck and I was off. Frank had set up along the fence, close to the dock. Shortest walk for both of us.

As Frank helps me unload my car, I noted that I came in an SUV with both seats down and the car filled front and back, only brought one tank mind you, and still looked like a bomb went off and 3 divers exploded. I had to open three doors and the lift gate to get everything out. Frank, on the other hand, comes in a sedan, with 2 sets of doubles and all his gear and he still has room for a family of 4. This always amazes me.

He moves my rig down to the water and floats it and I walk down. This isn’t bad, I can do this, this can work. As Frank returns with his gear, I step off the platform and slip into my harness midwater. When I first took open water and we did all those don and doffs in the pool, I thought, when on gods earth will I ever need to do this…..little did I know.

I was quickly buckled in and the time had come to descend. As we slowly slipped beneath the surface I was a little nervous and had to remember not to hold my breath. But…..but…..nothing….absolutely nothing….it felt good….really good……this was going to work!

We turned and headed out for the old plane. As we finned along I looked down and the algae covering the sand formed a tan and green argyle carpet below us. I looked for some fish to poke but none were around. We came to the kitchen sink and Frnak stopped to wash his hands before moving along past the crane, or maybe it was the tanker and then telephone pole and then the trees, this time covered in a veil of flowing yellow algae making them look like something out of a scary movie. They are always my favorite part. And then we were up at the old plane. But the viz was horrific here and we turned to move on, under and around the helicopter and over the bus and a then a boat and a lone ten pound gold fish swam by at the bottom. I was feeling good but it was cold and I was diving wet and we headed in. On our hang Frank searched diligently for crayfish to entice some of the locals hanging under the platform over but none were to be found.

At the platform I slipped out of my rig and Frank snagged it and still wearing his gear he carried it up to the tables. I was sure he would be singing soprano with all that weight but he was a trooper.

We had a pleasant surface interval talking diving, as divers often do. And then…...the rain came…with the thunder…..and more rain……but it was quick and the skies dried up and the sun came out…..and we were ready to dive again.

My tanks were floating at the dock when I arrived. I could get used to this. I was geared up and ready when Frnak and his gear arrived. Hmmmm….First one ready again…..just like old times : )

This time we were going fish poking and headed out to the island. Here among the lake grass the blue gills nest and they are very territorial. These fish form bowl like indentations in the thick plants on the bottom and each bowl contained a huge fish or two “protecting” his space. Fish pokey heaven. Frank sent me in first to see if the fish “were biting”. They were and we amused ourselves for a while playing tag with the neighborhood tough guys and looking about.

We then moved on to the helicopter again, with a quick swim through and past the bus and around the plane and onto the wall. We were going to check out what was over this way at the wall between the student side and the peninsula. In case you are curious….. the answer is……nada. But it was a nice relaxing swim, though a little on the chilly side and so we headed on up.

Apparently, Mr. Ernie had a little talk with Frnak before I arrived this morning and tried to get him to “make my retractors disappear”. Thanks to my plight, Frank took pity on me and left them alone. He figured I already had enough problems. Thank you Frank. And Rookman…..I am getting 3 more for my birthday….just for your class.

The quote of the day may turn out to be…..”Don’t squeeze me, my name isn’t Charmin”, but that is another story.

I can do this again….this is good…..good dive buddies are good. Thanks Frank.