What else can you expect from a town that's shut off from the world by the ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other? ~ O. Henry 1862-1910, American Writer
There is a lot to be said for the diving off of Long Branch and that is our destination today. I enjoy these trips. Capt. Howard, Jack F., Francis O’G., Harley, John and me for today. Before leaving the dock we stop over at the Gypsy Blood to say hi and then we are off, headed north for our first stop of the day.
On the trip out we debate the need for hot showers on a dive boat, and whether they really have to be inside….on Howard’s next boat….among the many other things we seem to find the need to discuss as divers often do, and soon we arrive.
Off of Long Branch lies a wooden schooner. All wooden planking and ribs jutting up from the sand. At one end, the remnants of a small anchor jut from the sand. I pull up a barnacle covered cleat, still holding onto a small chunk of its rail, and see the charred remnants of the wood. A fire must surely have been the final demise. Where am I you ask? I ask the same thing all the time when I go out with these guys and it always confounds me.
The remnants of a wooden barge, possibly a schooner barge. Jack and I debated whether some of the long wooden remnants traversing one end of the wreck might have been masts. He doesn’t think so, but it’s possible, and I bow to his knowledge of these things. But the name…hmmmm……was this actually the “Belle Holder”? Noooo. The real name cannot readily be recalled but this is the wreck where someone found the bell holder, but alas, not the bell…. and hence its name. We are at the Bell Holder Wreck.
The ocean was flat, barely a ripple, but looks deceive. A good little current was running past and a safety line was put out to keep us on target as we rolled in. Me? With even less grace than usual, I plummet off the gunwale into the sea. Grab the line, a quick OK and I am descending, down, down, down in the dark green water, thick with egg casings and particulate. And suddenly….at 7 feet….I reach the weight and end of the line. Doh! I am on the wrong line. Back up and over and once more I am on my way down, this time to 60 fsw. At about 30 feet, by Harley’s measurements, there was a thermo cline and the water warmed a bit, to about 50F, but the visibility opened up a lot, to about 20 ft.
There is a lot of relief to the site and I swim it end to end just looking about. At one end lies the remnant of anchor and at the other wooden timbers and ribs, with one long one askew and heading off into the sand.There are fish to poke here, as the black fish abounded, but only one would have been of interest to my spear toting buddies. The rest were small. What was not small and definitely plentiful? Eels. Large eels. And lots of them. As you swam along and looked between the wooden timbers and planking, you could spy their cute little faces, and bodies, everywhere. Did you know that eels don’t blink? Makes you want to poke one. Yup.
Coming back to the anchor line I find my souvenir shell for this trip and begin to poke about the wreckage, fanning the sand and finding more and more planking as I move away from the walls. In among the piles of wood I find a cleat, encrusted from its time on the bottom, and can readily see the charred wood it still clings to, telling a part of the story of the ship, but not the bell.
Some wayward butterfly fish were spotted here swimming in a circle trying to keep warm, but no fish were speared, although 2 lobster did join us topside.
Once back onboard we are on our way to our next site. The Offshore Knoll, or the Other Knoll, or the Other Offshore Knoll. There are lots of them……and of course……they are not knolls, they are rock piles. You wonder why I get confused. There are dozens of fishing boats dotting the water, and our intended dive sites, but there are plenty of other rocks if we just take a minute and look, and so we do. Site #2 I have dubbed the First Knoll-L. Keep saying it, you’ll appreciate it. Let’s just say Francis is a bad influence on me.
The site is small, but there must be fish around. Why else would all these other boats be here? We are still debating this question.
We head back south and on to site #3, without a name, it will hereafter be referred to as the “Rockettes”, rocks slightly smaller than the Knolls. Jack has numbers, hundreds of numbers in a little book and he carefully picks out sites for us to visit, tossing out suggestion after suggestion. There is a chill in the air and we are all in the cabin with the heater warming up as Jack looks up possible sites and their numbers. He is on fire today…. Smoking…. literally. I smell burning rubber and smoke is coming from Jacks suit, he is standing too close to the heater……. We reposition the heater and continue on.
The Rockettes are a pile or ridge of rocks in 45-50 fsw and offer no larger fish to shoot than the last sites, but they are interesting. The bottom is silty and the rocks are covered in white coral and small taug swim all about them. Starfish are tucked in among the cracks and crevices and offer contrast to the brightness of the coral and black of the rocks. This site must teem with life in the warmer water months and swimming among the coral and sponges and tropicals that pass through, along with our regular locals, must make this a great sightseeing dive in late summer. And I imagine a decent hunting spot too.
Alas, I did not get to see all of the area as my suit again leaked buckets suddenly this dive. Francis videoed some for me and it came out great. I thank him. I must have had something not tucked right at my neck seal as I was wring ‘em out wet from chin to toes and did not last long in the cool water. Now I know why you need a hot shower on a dive boat. I changed to my dry clothes and we headed for our 4th site. And for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.
An unidentified wreck close to shore which the Historical Divers have been monitoring, trying to find the pieces of puzzle that would allow them to identify this ship. It is definitely wood and it is definitely old and it definitely did not give up any clues this trip although it could have with crowbar and hammer. But that is how these things go.
We headed on into the marina in late afternoon and loaded up for home.