Here's a narrative about the New Year's dive. Since I'm kinda new, I don't know the whole roster, so I won't go there.
FYI, I'm the "Michelin Man," in the gray parka. By the way, thanks to Angela for the photos.There were about 14 of us on the Outlaw. We departed the Shark River dock at 10 and motored I'd guess 20 miles to the Sea Girt, an old, sunken sailing barge. Mike reported zero visibility at that site, as a result of the recent storms, I guess, so we weighed anchor and motored to an alternate, the Mohawk.
I splashed into the two-foot seas at 1PM, wearing my dry suit, going from the 45 degree air to the 45 degree water. It was down the anchor line to the wreck, which lay in gloomy darkness in 75 feet of water, which was also at 45 degrees. Visibility was only about 6 feet. Close your eyes and imagine being in a dark room illuminated by only a small candle.
The Mohawk is an old wreck, well broken up. I attached the guideline on my reel to a piece of it and led my buddy, another Mike, on an exploratory trip. At my half-tour point we turned around and followed the guideline through the darkness, reeling ourselves back to the anchor. Mike had a spear, but even with his bright light, he couldn't find supper. There were plenty of small fish, though, who watched our foolishness from the safety of their sponge- and starfish-decorated hidey-holes in the wreck.
I made a nice, slow, decompression ascent to my safety stop, then a super-slow ascent to the bow of the boat. From there it was a drift-swim to the stern, and a heavy climb up the boarding ladder to join the happy group already back on the boat. Mike, with his big air supply, followed me up some minutes later.
Some dive data: I logged 24 minutes of dive time and consumed about 2200 psi (pounds per square inch) of the air in my 2700 psi LP steel cylinder. I wore 14 pounds of ballast (or about 24, counting the pony) and felt a touch light at the stop. I later computed my SAC rate to be about 1.1 cuft/min. I was toasty warm in my thick, fuzzy long johns, although the initial splash of the cold water on my face was, well, shocking.
On the long trip back to the dock we celebrated the new year and the dive with a bottle of champagne and some stollen. It's always special being on the ocean, but this dive and this particular day on the ocean were extra special for all of us. I hope you've enjoyed a little of it, too!
Have a great new year!