This weekend saw the fruition of a dream, the culmination of five years of training, hard work and hundreds of dives. Five years ago, I dove the warm, clear, Caribbean waters of Cozumel, and wondered why anyone would dive off the coast of New Jersey. Yesterday, dropping down through the clear blue water off Nantucket, I saw, touched and brought back a small piece of history known as the Andrea Doria!
After the weather turned me back, last year, and again last weekend, I found that there was one spot left on the Independence II for July 29 trip. I wasn’t sure if it would be “third times a charm” or “three strikes, and your out”. Neptune co-operated this time, and the Independence headed out of Montauk in near flat seas with a favorable weather forecast. NOAA’s 2-4 ft seas turned out to be 1-2 at most. The sun was bright and currents tolerable (mostly).
Terry and Mark dropped down an existing morning line, and drifted across the wreck in search of another good tie-in. They were quickly done, and the pool was open. There was current on the surface, but nothing unmanageable. Danny and Brandon were nearly dressed, and quickly got in while the conditions were favorable. Anne and I soon followed.
The water on the surface was clear and blue, but was pushing hard against us. Light penetrated down to the thermocline at 50 ft. Here a cloudy layer was absorbing the light and it quickly became cold and dark. The temp dropped to 47, but down a few feet the vis cleared up a bit. We dropped into the blackness. Down… down… The only thing we can see is the rope and plankton illuminated by our lights. Down… down.. 100, 120… (I’m convinced the boogie man at the bottom is not so scary as his brother Murphy we strap on our backs.) Captain Dan told us the sounder reading to the top of the wreck at 195. When beacons suddenly came into view at 130, I knew the visibility on the wreck was good.
The decent to this point had been hand over hand against the current, but now the current dropped off at 150 ft. I had been monitoring my pO2 and adding gas to the drysuit, but with the current there was no need to put gas in the wing. Dumping gas into it now did not stop my now rapid decent, and I was soon kneeling on the hull. More gas … pO2 is good… more gas…. Ok neutral. Clip off my beacon. OK, breath… breath… Look around. Damn! port holes, port holes, and more port holes. They’re everywhere. However, you can not get to them. They are on the inside, and we are on the outside. Oh well, just interesting to see. The chain was tied in close to the edge of the hull, so over and down. A few smallish openings revealed rooms with tiled floors and hallways beyond. Dropping down, the glow of the beacons above is comforting. Teakwood planks cover the deck, and debris scatters a horizontal area below. Too shallow to be the bottom, but within the beacons glow. Looking around its easy to make out the frame of windows, some with glass. Bottom time disappears quickly, and I’m sure the excitement made it go much faster! Back to the line and the long cold ascent.
The current hadn’t let up. At 70 feet we were suddenly enveloped in a school of small shrimp, krill I think. For a few minutes we were surrounded. Of course you wonder if there are any predators after them. The thermocline at 30 ft brought the temp up to 76 degrees. Boy did that bouncy castle for sale feel good! At this point we are all being blown horizontal like flags, parallel to the Carolina line. Time is dragging… Oops… Why is my pO2 dropping? It’s usually pretty steady during deco. Hit the Kiss valve… Nothing! Shit! I can’t be out. Check the O2 gauge… Zero! Shit! I can’t be out! I’m still at 1.1, but it’s dropping. OK, relax… I’ve got plenty of 50% bailout. Let me check that O2 valve. It’s off? One quick turn, and the friendly hiss if the Kiss orifice can be heard. Apparently the Carolina line had rubbed against the valve and shut it off. Always Know Your pO2!
Back on board, we each discussed what we had seen, and congratulated the Doria Newbies. Dan and Brandon found a port hole they thought could be extricated from it’s surroundings. Terry and Mark had flown across the wreck as the current pulled the line. A few tiles and brass handles made it aboard. We eat and talked and settled down for some R&R as Captains Dan and Jay went in for a look see.
After a nice four hour surface interval, we geared up for round two. Captains Dan and Jay had reported no current, and they were right, it was gone. This time we dropped down the line with no effort at all. I didn’t bounce off the wreck either. The conditions on the wreck were unchanged. Clip off the beacon, tie off the reel, and over the edge. Anne looked left, and I looked right as we passed over the debris. Both looking at the wreck, and for some souvenir of the trip. Again there were the window frames and inaccessible port holes. One of the davits which had lowered the lifeboats stood up majestically out of the chaos below us. Our hopes were for some of the tiles others had reported. Perhaps a nice piece of teakwood could be fashioned into a memento. Again time passed quickly, and despite coming up empty handed, it was an enjoyable dive. As we left the bottom we could hear Dan and Brandon hammering off in the distance. Ascending the line was much more relaxing in the still water, but still cold below 30 ft.
Shortly after surfacing a nice hot dinner was well appreciated. The plan was for an early dive in the morning, then pull the hook and head back. Captains Dan, Jay and Terry entertained us with stories of previous Doria dives, and how much the wreck had changed. Brandon described how he had dropped his hammer into the wreck, and got stuck reaching for it . All the while his buddy, Danny, was video taping the event. There was another round of congratulations for a second Doria dive, and we were soon off to bed. The full moon rose red over the calm ocean as the gentle lap of the waves rocked us to sleep.
Captain Dan splashed early to check the current. Conditions were good, so we soon followed. There was some current on the surface but it was manageable. We had directions to one of the three swimming pools. Again the bottom conditions were great. We headed off over the side and off to the right. Past the davit. Down to 240. Time was starting to run out when we hit pay dirt. There was a huge expanse of tile, some twenty foot on a side. We dropped down to look for some more manageable chunks, and quickly bagged a few. If we can make it back to the windows in time, we can try to shoot one of them also. As fate would have it we were running late, and some monofilament delayed us long enough to prevent the extraction of our second target. That’s OK, our primary target was achieved. Up the line we went, flapping in the building current, holding on for dear life. As we reached the 20 ft stop, the current became variable. One minute you’re at 20, the next you’re almost at the surface, then back to 20. Fortunately this was infrequent, but very disconcerting. I stuck around for a few more minutes of deco to compensate for the washing machine effect. Onboard we found that Terry and Dan had shot up some of the brass windows which Mark swam out on the surface and retrieved. They were now strapped to the deck for the long trip back. Once everyone was up we got under way. No china, but most of us had souvenirs of the trip, and memories for a life time.
Tags: dive, SCUBA, scuba nj, scuba training, wreck diving
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