We hit three spots today. I was concerned about about the bottom being churned up by the long swells from Hurricane Bertha, but visibility ranged from "NJ Good" to "a little bit challenging."

The ocean was very choppy with a lot of whitecaps as we left Belmar, although the wind calmed down and so did the seas as they day went by.

Our first stop was the Sea Girt wreck. About 15 feet of viz, but quite a bit of particulate in the water. Clear viz was only about 10 feet. Quite a few bugs and Sea Bass were found. Bottom temp was 52.

Second stop was a low lying rock pile in 80 feet. Viz was closer to 7 or 8 feet here. I saw a couple of smaller winter flounder, but I don't take em unless they're big enough for dinner for two. I did find a nice fluke that weighed in at 8 lbs. The fluke was lying over a rock, and there was a lobster peering out of a hole a few inches away. After bagging the fluke, I went for the bug but he had moved way back out of reach.

Third stop was "something interesting" that Captain Hepler had found on the sonar. Viz on this site was about a two feet. The site itself was mostly pipes. Maybe someone else has been there and can tell me what it was; it's hard to judge when the biggest thing you can see is 12 inches away.

I found what appeared by shape to be the bow of a small boat, by small I mean a row boat. The pipes ranged from short and thin to long and wide enough to hold a lobster. Some of the shorter piping was arranged geometrically like radiators, but they came apart with very little effort. I don't think it was the remnants of a boiler because there was just so much of the stuff all over the place. Maybe the remnants of a barge carrying pipes and radiators? None of the divers mentioned seeing anything that made the site look like a shipwreck, so it may have just been a lost or purposely dumped cargo of plumbing supplies. The captain said he dropped the hook into the center of the site, and I swam out about 150 feet from the tie in point and the stuff was still out there, so it's a fairly large site.

I ohpe everyone has a good weekend and does as good or better than we did if it's food shopping you're doing down there.