Maclearie Park (L - Street) May 20, 2015

[lowviz]

Hey all,

I made too many changes to my SM rig. I don't feel comfortable falling off a boat in the open ocean this weekend (in the shipping lanes) to find out if I got everything right. In addition, the GoPro and I aren't getting along all that well. -need some quality time together.

Maclearie Park this Wednesday is a better than even chance. Google: Maplewood Road & Rte. 35 in Belmar, NJ.

Nice high tide at 10:18 PM, two hours after sunset. (Tide Location Selection for New Jersey) Gonna be dark, no moon. I'm planning to splash a half hour before high tide.

Easy dive. Stop by...

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Ok this is now the third rewrite of this message... lol

Kid stuff is early in the evening - I can go now... I want to test out a few lights I just purchased - So I should be there by 9:30pm - I have not dove Maclearie so this should be interesting with the new entry spot.

And I have a new battery and set of jumper cables in case anyone needs a jump...

 

[lowviz]

... And I have a new battery and set of jumper cables in case anyone needs a jump...

Ah HaHa!!! I thought you were keeping that on the QT...

OK, cool. I'll be ON TIME this time.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

You gotta laugh at yourself once in a while...

 

[lowviz]

Anybody else?

Really cake night dive. We could do buddies or guided... Guarantee it will be fun.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Weather looks good for tomorrow and the wind is North Westerly... Tom and I will be there - we are going to play with a GoPro rig Tom has built so we will be scouting some crabs or critters to work the video...

 

[lowviz]

I'm still in, looking forward to it...

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Maclearie Park (L-Street) - is a very nice entry spot. I did not realize - lots of parking with a short semi-grassy walk to a very wide set of stairs. Although I did notice the steps are very short not the average step height in a home - I call that out because it was slightly awkward to sit and put on your fins on the stairs. Slightly comical when I almost rolled off the stairs into the water - good thing no GoPro's were running at that point. The blinking yellow light on one of the stair posts makes it ridiculously easy to find your exit once you surface. So all in all a really nice dive site.

The dive was just a tune up so no really agenda was on tap. That said the dive stats were in the water at 10:28pm - 60 min dive max depth was 13 feet and min temp was 54 degrees with a 3 to 4 foot viz. Saw an eel and lots of crab - my son saw a shrimp but I was busy clearing my mask - my mask was acting up on me for this dive. Lowviz was working on his sidemount setup and all was good from a getting wet perspective.

Relatively calm night and easy dive over all.
Looking forward to more dives as the water clears and the tropicals come in.

 

[lowviz]

One of the big "take aways" from last evening was the value of a lighted dive flag on a moonless night.

Two flags in the water, luckily we both had added strobes. Without any lighting, there would be absolutely NO chance of seeing the flag unless you were right on top of it. I'm thinking of adding one of those cheap dive lights that Carl found. Wickedly bright and inexpensive!

 

[lowviz]

I have a sidemount clinic this coming weekend and still haven't successfully transitioned from the swivel LP primary regs that I trained on to my non-swivel coldwater regs that I'll be diving in the NE Atlantic. Need more fine tuning with hose lengths and positioning.

Better than average chance that I'll in back in the Brielle Basin this Wednesday night. Not concerned with weather or viz, just need in-water time to fuss with rigging.

If the weather holds, this could be a stellar evening:



Informal meetup? I'm planning to splash around 8:30 PM. Seriously solo, though, I'll be occupied...