Thursday the 24th – Unfortunately the weather never really laid down enough to run our Thanksgiving Special. Cancelling a full boat is never easy.
Friday the 25th & Saturday the 26th – Private Charter – I had a new group charter me for both Friday and Saturday. Much like Jersey diving it’s always an adventure when a new group of divers comes on-board. This particular group turned out to be a pleasant surprise, all competent divers and each carrying high-end spear fishing equipment. I ran to the Dykes, a steel schooner barge that usually holds a fair amount of fish. The wreck didn’t disappoint and the charter seemed genuinely pleased. Since I had more help on Saturday I promised them that we would be able to move around if necessary and that they could do three dives, this put a big smile on their faces and I sent them off to get their tanks filled. Saturday was one of those perfect days, warm, sunny and flat. I ran toward the Sea Girt wreck only to find Bill and the Tuna Seazure sitting on it, I moved on to the Logwood, which is not nearly as good a fish wreck but did produce a 8 to 9 pound taug along with a bunch of smaller fish. We picked up and headed in toward the 120 only to spot another boat on it as well so I swung north to the Mahogany, again not my first choice for fish but can usually be counted on for lobsters and sea bass, unfortunately not today. Things were not looking good, we picked up again and I headed to the Railroad barge; this on a suggestion from my mate on Friday. I put a hook in it, told them there were monster taug there and crossed my fingers. There were indeed big taug on the wreck and I went from zero to hero in one dive, thanks for the suggestion Jon. They were so pleased they have me chartered next Saturday as well, now all I have to do is find them more big fish.
Sunday the 27th – OPEN - Mohawk 80’ – Although we did start toward the Emerald with the wind blowing out of the south it was getting sloppy and everyone agreed that heading to the Mohawk would be fine. We again had 30 plus feet of visibility and water temperatures in the mid fifties. Just about everybody on the boat took advantage of the great visibility to scout the wreck and establish landmarks to help them navigate the often challenging to navigate wreck.
All in all a GREAT weekend on the Sea Lion
REMEMBER We will be running OPEN boats through the fall and winter, there’s a lot of great diving late in the year. For any of the OPEN boats or if you’d like to get out on any day not listed I can be reached at either 973-887-DEEP (3337) or on my cell 201-401-4608 you can either call or text me.
This week
Thursday the 1st – OPEN – Delaware 80’ - There is actually quite a bit of this old wooden steamer left. A linear array of rather large pieces is clearly recognizable as the remains of a ship, beginning with the bow and, back through the boilers, engine, drive shaft, and propeller, with hull ribs, copper sheathing, and other wooden remains throughout. This has always been one of my favorite wrecks.
Saturday the 3rd – Private Charter
Sunday the 4th – OPEN - Emerald 80’ – In that we missed the Emerald last week we’ll try again to get to this great little wreck. The "Emerald" wreck is probably the Hibiscus, a wood-hulled twin-screw steamer built in 1864 and commissioned into the U.S. Navy at that time. She saw service during the Civil War out of Tampa and Key West Florida. She was decommissioned in 1866 and sold in New York; later renamed Francis Wright, then renamed back to Hibiscus. While cruising off the New Jersey coast she broke a propeller shaft, took on water, and sank. A pretty little wreck that got its name from the abundance of copper and brass on the site when it was first found and is best known as a “digging” wreck producing numerous artifacts over the years.
Next Week
This will be a short week with only two weekday dives available, we will not be running Saturday the 10th or Sunday the 11th as I’ll be up in Massachusetts visiting with my granddaughter.
Monday the 5th -OPEN – destination TBA
Wednesday the 7th – OPEN - destination TBA
Captain Al
SEA LION
We have established a diver’s e-mail list and if you’d like to be included send the message “please add me to the SEA LION diver list” to sealion@atlantic-wreckdivers.com
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