Bonaire 2008

 

The Cape Dive Club just returned from it's first dive trip. We went to the Island of BONAIRE, 16 of us spent 10 days. Dave Foley had the most dives............33. Roger and Cathleen got married there. Frank made his first dive there. He's not even certified. I took him down anyway. Bryan Burnham did a dive to 100 meters. That's 330 feet. That's *@#*'ing deep.

 

One of the days a bunch of us went on a charter called "Larry's Wild Side." The wind howl's out of the east 365 days a year. Sea's average 10 feet, No one but Larry goes there. Larry I'm pretty sure, is crazy. He runs a 25 foot Zodiac out of Lac Bay. The fish life on the east side of the island is unbelievable. Everything is on steroids over there. Huge fish! We saw Moray's as thick as telephone poles. Car sized Dog Snapper's cruised the drop-off. Spotted Eagle Ray's, Southern Sting Ray's buzzed over us like prehistoric birds of prey. I saw my first Green Sea Turtle underwater. It had to weigh 500 pounds. It had two remora's clinging to it's underside. We boarded the boat, flooded in a sea of raw emotion. Everybody talking at once, adrenaline literally running from our pours. We headed back to Lac bay for a surface interval and to change tanks. Our second dive was at a site called "Blue Hole." How to describe it........................ There were so many fish. No Aquarium on the planet could be stocked with so many fish. Inside this arena sized depression there had to be no less than 100 Tarpon. I will never again go to BONAIRE and not do a dive with Larry!!!! But, you have to be a little bit crazy. Like Larry.

 

One day I said to Bryan, "You pick the dive sites." The forth dive of the day, it's about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and we do this dive he picked. Honestly it sucked. We had a 2 or 3 hundred yard swim over empty sand to a so so reef/wall. The vis. was barely one hundred feet. On the way back in, over this empty sand field, all of a sudden, we start to see Spotted Eagle Rays. Over the course of several more dives we learn that dozens of them come here every night right before sunset to feed. At one time I counted almost a dozen in my field of view............ at the same time. You have to see the video Bryan shot.

 

One of my last dives of the trip. I encounter a school of baitfish. Surrounding them is three distinct schools of predators. Horse-eyed Jacks, Bar Jacks, and Palometa. Each species keep to them selves. If I got right in the center of the school of baitfish the exhaust bubbles would create a hole void of fish. It was like being in a living donut of fish. So thick I couldn't see the outside edge of the fish. Sometimes I would be surrounded by just the jacks. For 45 minutes myself, Bryan and Jodi floated in this cacophony of fish, this living wall of amazing colorful fish.

 

All in all it was a fantastic trip, except for a troop of howler monkeys that lived in a tree outside my window.

 

Next year, we're going to run two one week trips to BONAIRE. 10 people per trip.

 

Come with us if you dare.

 

~j~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2007 Final Dive Story

 

I can't believe another dive season has come and gone. We accomplished so much this year. So many diverse dives in different parts of the globe. It was such a pleasure to finally see a charter boat back in operation on the Cape.

 

Here is the list of accomplishments that many of you participated in this year:

 

January: The Dive Locker ran a successful trip to Bonaire for a dozen divers.

 

February: We put on two ice dives in Hathaways Pond. We called the Cape Cod Times, many of us got our names in the paper! Gary Gentile showed up for the second ice dive. We barely had a couple inches of ice. Jodi Burnham snapped a photo of the event that ended up on the back cover of Gary's latest book, The Advanced Wreck Diving Handbook.

 

March: The formation of the Cape Dive Club. It's been 20 years since the last dive club on Cape Cod. I look forward to watching it grow in the coming years. In only 9 months the club has grown to 54 members!

The Dive Club and The Dive Locker cosponsored a booth at the Boston Sea Rovers. We promoted the new charter boat and the dive club. We had hundreds of pounds of brass artifacts on display, recovered by many local divers over the past three decades. We were the hit of the show with our "Sea of Brass"

 

April: 1st official dive charter by The Dive Locker. We ran trips to the Port Hunter, John Dwight, The Dragger, and many other locations.

 

May The winter storms uncovered a huge section of the Horatio Hall's bow. Several intact portholes were discovered and...... recovered. It took the whole month and many man hours to remove them. Watch our video at www.capediveclub.com in the Latest News section. The video was filmed by Rick Marshal and edited by Brian Lalumiere

 

June: Myself, Bryan, Jodi, and David Wood went to RI and did two dives on the German submarine U-853. It was our only trip of the year to the Rhode Island wrecks; the wind gods were not with us this year. Also, on the summer solstice I took my boat up to the St. Lawrence Seaway with Mark Bramblet, Chris Welch, and "The Jimma" for a five day deep diving expedition on the "Roy A. Jodrey." We were blessed with unbelievable conditions, 60 foot underwater visibility and beautiful weather. The team logged over 25 dives on the wreck to depths exceeding 240 feet.

 

July: Gary Gentile joined us for several weeks of diving local shipwrecks. Chris Welch volunteered his brand new 25 foot Stamus that we positioned in Chatham. I can't even tell you how many divers got to explore the wrecks with him. We went to many different sites and recovered some nice artifacts.

 

August: Myself, Gary Gentile, Marcie Bilinski, Harry Dutton, and Mark Bramblet left Oak Bluffs Martha's Vineyard for a three day, 180 mile round trip, expedition to the Italian Luxury Liner, ANDREA DORIA. It was an adventure of a lifetime. Later that month Gary did a presentation on "The Doria" chronicling nearly 200 dives on the Grande Dame of the Sea for the dive club. It was our best event of the year.

 

September: We conducted a second St. Lawrence Seaway trip. 16 divers of all levels of training and experience spent 8 days in Alexandria Bay, NY. We had a total of 4 different dive boats! We dove such wrecks as the Keystorm, Vickery, Daryaw, America Barge, Kingshorn, Islander, and Roy A. Jodrey.

 

As you can see, it was quite a year for many of us. We also located many new sites. The YSD 56, Herman Winter, Colonel William B. Cowin, Navy Hellcat, FV Darnoc, Unknown FV, and the Andrea Doria, were explored by myself and others this year.

 

I look forward to next year. We all have much on our plates. Some of the things we're planning: Bonaire, Roatan, Sea Rovers, Beneath the Sea in NJ, The Seaway, twice, diving the wrecks of North Carolina, Several dive trips to "The Doria" Diving the wrecks of Stellwagen Bank!, Bryan, Jodi, and I...... becoming instructors in technical diving. Trimix, advanced decompression, etc. More involvement in the charter boat. 

 

Here are some great pictures from past years diving adventures. Next year, come with us if you dare.

 

~j~

 

 

  

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Nauset Barges

October 6, 2007

 

We dove two of the three, the intact #703 with it's cargo of granite paving stones and the collapsed #766.

 

Myself and Bryan were divemastering on the charter boat. Conditions were perfect. Flat calm seas, just a slight, gentle swell. Warm, light winds for an early October day made it seem more like July. A whole week of no wind produced perfect conditions below the surface as well. A total lack of particulate matter from the surface all the way to the depths, 120fsw, made the use of a dive light optional. Visibility was in access of 40 feet and with the ambient light it appeared twice that. The surface interval was a total joy. The bright sunlight warmed our bodies from the chilly 45 degree bottom temperature. The silence was broken by the sound of Finback whales as they gently passed by the boat.

 

The current, however, was cranking on both dives. The #766 proved to be a real bear to grapnel into. We attempted to hook the bow, and then the stern a half dozen times. The hook would plunge into the depths only to have the current sweep it away. After thirty minutes we gave up hope and moved to the #703. On my twenty minute deco stop, clinging to the line precariously like a wind sock at the airport, I took a compass heading into the current. It was 300 degrees. Armed with this new information we made another try for the #766. Maintaining a heading of 300 degrees, we passed over the small target that the bow presents and dropped the hook just forward of it. Bang! We caught it first pass!

 

The current was even worse; I ran a reel from the bow back to the stern section. There are virtually no sections in between. With one hand I held the reel and with the other I'd claw my way across the sandy bottom. The return trip was much easier; I could barely reel in the line fast enough as the current swept me back to the bow.

 

I got back there only to find a diver tangled in the anchor line and my strobe. As I was headed in the same direction I freed the diver and continued on. Another divemaster suffered a catastrophic relief valve malfunction. I know what that's like :)

 

The end of another season is upon us. Soon we'll be huddled around the fireplace as the sleet batters the window's, reliving the past summers adventures. Planning future explorations. I'm ending a 31 year military career this winter. I don't know what the future holds for me, or where I'll be in three years. But next year I'll be diving, and riding. And diving some more.

 

I'll be asking you to "come with me if you dare" at an even more prodigious rate!

 

~j~

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St. Lawrence Seaway Trip

September 2007

We had a great trip to the seaway this year, attended by 15 people and 4 boats. (Actually seven boats. One guy went thru 4 just himself) More on that later. Between all the divers we had over a hundred tanks, I had 21 myself and 700 cubic feet of Oxygen.

 

We had all kinds of weather, from sunny and 85 to rainy and 50. Plus, by my count, 5 thunder storms. Nothing, however, caused us to loose a dive or a booze cruise.

 

We had 4 NDE's and one case of the bends. For those of you not familiar, an NDE is a Near Death Experience.

 

All the NDE's happened on the Jodrey. The 640 foot self loading ore carrier that's fifty feet off shore in 240 feet of water. So if you see people jumping in the water with hundreds of pounds of dive gear on and you see trees and the shore in the background, you'll understand why.

 

Two of the NDE's were basically the same, happening to Bryan and myself on different days. I dropped down to the main deck by way of a stairwell on the port side. It's the "high" side of the wreck, she lays on a 45 degree angle. The depth here is 178 feet. Remembering exact depths on critical waypoints is very important. While the vis is usually 50 feet it's pitch black. I head toward the starboard side of the main deck. Above me is the twisted remains of the crane tower that controls the self loading mechanism. It gives you that closed in feeling of a penetration dive. I reach the starboard hull at 200 feet and I roll over the side. I turn around at look "up" at the port hull and the stairwell. I can just make it out in the ambient light. I drop to the riverbed. This side of the ship took the brunt of the impact from the collision with the rock wall. There's twisted steel, huge pieces of machinery, the remains of what looks like the crane, all knotted up in a mass of unrecognizable junk. I begin my exploration down the length of the hull. After 50 feet, I turn around and retrace my route. I reach what I think is my starting point, I'm at 220 feet now and I slide up the hull to 200. I look for the familiar tunnel and the safety of the port stairwell. Nothing. I move right and left, staying at 200ft, knowing that the entrance is at this depth. My heart rate climbs. I stop the search shortly and decide that I've got to get to higher ground. Above me is a mass of twisted steel. I have no choice but to work my way through it. I reach the safety of a catwalk I'm familiar with on the crane tower. Ya, ya, I should have run a line.

 

Bryan as I said, got lost in the same area but under slightly different circumstances. His second NDE of the trip was on the last dive. Not to be confused with the book by the same name. He'd been penetrating the wheel house at 165 feet looking for artifacts all week. He discovers something on the floor, all shiny and bright. Bryan grabs it, frees it from feet of silt, and heads for the door. His progress is halted, stuck half in, half out of the doorway, clouds of silt billowing around him. He looks down and sees he's cocooned in a myriad of line. It's all around him, clinging to his gear, rapped around his deco bottles. A pool of adrenaline burns in his spine as he realizes his predicament. Slowly, he begins to untangle himself. After a minute he's free of the line and exits the wheel house. Later, I discover a mass of electrical conduit streaming out the same doorway a ton of it. The inside of the control room is a mass of silt, I pass on entry and move on, just imagining what had taken place.

 

The last NDE involved a diver that just wanted to do a touch dive on the mast of the Jodrey. Depth, 143ft. He became a little overwhelmed and things got out of hand. Later in the trip, with emotions under control the diver not only touched the mast but alighted on the upper deck at 153 feet.

 

Jodi got bent on her last dive, it was a mild hit involving a wrist and some skin bends, typical of a long dive on Helium. She sucked on some O2 and was fine.

 

My last dive on the Jodrey lasted 119 minutes. A 35 minute bottom time and the finial deco stop was 50 minutes long. I shot some nice video of the wreck, ask me for a copy.

 

Some interesting things happened to some of the other divers out of the water:

 

Chris's saga: Chris, God love him, while he wasn't steeling my dive gear off the boat, he was getting into all sorts of trouble. ( Chris, get a pen and mark your gear) The first night, he offers to grill some chicken for us. He starts the grill, throws on the chicken..................... and walks away. The grill catches on fire which then lights the side of the building on fire. A passing car sees this and puts the fire out with a hose. The chicken wasn't too bad, once you scrapped off the black stuff. He stabs a knife into his BC. He stabs himself in the hand with a knife.

He has this annoying habit of talking to himself when he's getting suited up for a deep dive. "I'm putting this on, I'm putting that on" "I'm turning this on." Blah, blah, blah. Even with all that, he still manages to get all that gear on...............roll off the back of the boat...................... and his drysuit was never zipped closed.

 

Bryan's Song: Note to Bryan: I take you to the St. Lawrence Seaway to dive two centuries of shipwrecks that number in the thousands. Dude, they wrecked because the captains got the ships OUTSIDE of the shipping lanes. What does he do.......... he gets his boat outside the channel on the second day. Same result........................ the lower unit gets vaporized on a huge rock. Even three not so sober crew chiefs can't fix it.

 

He rents a pontoon boat. He overloads it with thousands of pounds of dive gear and divers, runs it full throttle down the seaway, and is surprised when the motor throws every connecting rod it has.

 

He gets a tow in and they give him another boat. Are you keeping score. This is boat #3!!!!!!!!! Next day............... same thing........... blows that boat up.

 

The really funny this is................ these rental idiots give him yet another boat................... hahahahahahahaahahaha

 

This boat lasted. They were great for the booze cruise. And great to dive off of too. As long as you weren't going too far!

 

I have two more trips scheduled for next year!!!!!

 

Come with me if you dare

 

~j~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrea Doria Trip

August 4, 2007

I jump off the swim platform. I'm drenched in sweat, struggling to put several hundred pounds of dive gear on as the boat pitched and rolled in six foot seas and 80 degree heat. I get no relief, as the water temp is 76.

The first thing that strikes me is the color of the water. It's cobalt blue. If I didn't know any better I'd swear I was in some tropical paradise. As soon as the bubbles clear from my entry I spot a yellow tail snapper, a jack of some type, just a myriad of small creatures more suited to a coral reef than the North Atlantic. The visibility is in access of 100 feet. Bonaire should have such vis. I'm enchanted by it. Never expected it. Why had nobody ever mentioned this aspect of the dive?

As I sit several feet below the surface waiting for Mark, my dive partner, I notice that below this layer of beautiful Caribbean water lies another, less inviting layer. It's as if I'm looking into a fog bank from above. The greenish/brownish color is uninviting, ominous. Foreboding. The color of doom. Of course it's the demarcation of the thermocline but I've never seen it expressed in colors before.

Mark joins me at the down line, he no doubt, marveling at the same spectacle before us. I give him the signal to descend and we plunge into the abyss. At 30 feet we're engulfed by the darker, less appealing water. The temperature drops exactly 30 degrees. Down we plunge, stopping at 100 feet and again at150 feet for gear checks, pressure checks, the usual stuff. At 185 feet I notice Mark stopped below me. Both of us clear headed, as we're breathing trimix containing 18% Oxygen and 40% Helium. I slide up to Mark and follow his gaze. A lone ribbon of steel appears suspended above a dark and foreboding mass. He signals me to descend and I make first contact. I slip past him and at 196 feet I place my hand on a boat davit belonging to the ANDREA DORIA.

Years of money, training, and hard work have finally paid off. Hundreds of dives we've done in preparation for this day. The horror of last year's disappointment when a dive boat I will not name took $4000 from us and promptly went out of business. All that washed away by one, simple, touch. We knelt quietly for several minutes on the slowly collapsing boat deck of "The Doria" each awash in our own private emotions.

After our time of contemplation we each strike out for some exploration. There was a noticeable current on the wreck, less than a half knot. Vis was about 15 feet. And yes, without the light, it was stygian blackness. Whoever wrote that book: Deep Dark and Dangerous certainly nailed the description. I told him so back on board the boat. I followed one section of hull plate in the direction of the bow. To the left the boat deck, to the right the twisted remains of the promenade deck. Every stanchion held the remains of some past tie-in. Along with hundreds of feet of spent line. So thick was the line, a member of the second dive team became entangled with it. I join up with Mark and at the nineteen minute mark we leave The Grand Dame of the Sea. I slowly watch as the boat davit fades from view. We switch gasses at 95 feet and again at 36. Each of us lost in a sea of emotion as we complete the 55 minutes of decompression.

So many stories I could tell you about our three day expedition. For another time I suppose. Some highlights: Refueling the boat with 100 gallons of gas in 20-5 gallon jugs in 6 foot seas. Standing watch at night as super tankers cruised past, unseen in the dark. Warning one away as it approached to within 4 miles on the radar screen. Encounter with ocean sunfish, dolphins, and tuna. Mark and myself, and our 12 hour bout of seasickness. The recovery of a large section of tile flooring by the other dive team, Marcie, Gary, and Harry.

Several more Doria trips are already in the works.

Come with us if you dare.

~j~

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Diving with Gary Gentile

July 2007

As many of you know, we just got thru six days of diving with Gary Gentile. I made arrangements for us to work off a bigger boat. Our base of operations was Ryder's Cove. We had six divers on the boat every trip. Special thanks to Dave Wood and John Billings for providing the pictures.

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June 30, 2007

Chatham Dives

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 June 16, 2007

The Pinthis Trip

Today Bryan, Jodi, Dave, Chris, and myself left Sandwich Boat Basin aboard........... man we gotta put a name on that thing....... the charter boat. Coleen was our captain. Our destination was the Shell oil tanker "PINTHIS." She was rammed in dense fog outside the Boston approaches. The collision caused the fully loaded tanker to explode, emoliating the crew, the PINTHIS capsized and quickly sank.

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June 9, 2007