Basking Ridge Diver
Contributor
First I am extremely disappointed in the GoPro video taken but I will claim it is not my fault. At this point it is rendered unusable unless I can continue to play with it and find a way to save some footage...
After watching the weather and buoys all week with 6 foot seas and 6 second intervals - the weather gods were smiling on us and the winds died down the night before - July 1st.
I slept on the Sea Turtle Charter boat the night of - $50 when all the hotels and motels close by were running $250 to $800 - yes we were in the land of the Rich and Famous and neither my dive buddy nor I made the list...
First off I think my dive buddy and I were a little nervous - neither of us had been to this depth in the North Atlantic - New England or NJ waters. So we were not sure how it was going to go but we both loaded up with Nitrox 30%. Some call this hot since the wreck to the sand is 130 feet. But neither one of us was going to go to the sand unless absolutely necessary.
As we descended - I came up a bit on the line just to make sure my buddy was set - I was first in the water. At about 60 feet there was a second line wrapped around the mooring line - I was careful but left the line there as I did not want to waste my dive time untangling an errant line... I looked down and at 60 feet I could see the conning tower... My heart started to jump and I was hooked on this dive...
We descended to the tower and dropped down onto the decking - if you can call it that - after 75 years of being in the ocean some things start to fall apart. Our first business was to go to the stern and to the Torpedo Loading hatch - lots of sea ananomies, small fish and one small sand shark or the Captain called it a Dog shark. We poked our heads and video into any of the submarine holes and really started to enjoy the dive.
Looking back now - it was dark, slightly chilly and maybe 25 foot viz (but if it was dark how do I know? lol). Based on how far my flashlight beam would go I would estimate 25 to 30 foot of viz when we did not kick up silt.
We headed back to the conning tower and toward the bow. Just forward of the conning tower there was a blast hole. My guess is 10 feet by 15 or 20 feet. Remember 250 Hedge Hog explosives among other explosives were used to sink this sub and it was hit twice... but that is all it took.
My buddy and I both dropped into the blast hole to 117 feet inside the sub - one at a time. It did not feel like a blast hole that pushed the sub material onto the floor. It was odd but it was like a can opener just cleanly sliced the sub open for us to drop in.... This blast hole was just before the conning tower which is the main control room very large for a sub and a spherical shape to it - like in the movies. The second room towards the bow - not sure but figure it may have been mess hall or gathering area or something...
I looked around first and thought I was grabbing "primo" video - turned out my video is crap...
We spent time looking around but not disturbing the War Grave. We popped back out and headed toward the bow toward the second Torpedo Loading hole... Got there and we had maybe 6 mins of NDL left so we went back to the blast hole again for one last look.
Not sure but the folks that we dove with must have been there - the hole was all kicked up with silt.... but we dropped in anyway and took a last look around... Wow to be on a German UBoat - strike that inside a German Uboat and looking around the ship was unreal. Definitely the coolest NorthEast dive I have ever done...
Memorable day and dive...
Second site was the Block Island Wind Farm - it was ok... LOL - after the UBoat nothing was going to match the excitement and awe of that dive...
After watching the weather and buoys all week with 6 foot seas and 6 second intervals - the weather gods were smiling on us and the winds died down the night before - July 1st.
I slept on the Sea Turtle Charter boat the night of - $50 when all the hotels and motels close by were running $250 to $800 - yes we were in the land of the Rich and Famous and neither my dive buddy nor I made the list...
First off I think my dive buddy and I were a little nervous - neither of us had been to this depth in the North Atlantic - New England or NJ waters. So we were not sure how it was going to go but we both loaded up with Nitrox 30%. Some call this hot since the wreck to the sand is 130 feet. But neither one of us was going to go to the sand unless absolutely necessary.
As we descended - I came up a bit on the line just to make sure my buddy was set - I was first in the water. At about 60 feet there was a second line wrapped around the mooring line - I was careful but left the line there as I did not want to waste my dive time untangling an errant line... I looked down and at 60 feet I could see the conning tower... My heart started to jump and I was hooked on this dive...
We descended to the tower and dropped down onto the decking - if you can call it that - after 75 years of being in the ocean some things start to fall apart. Our first business was to go to the stern and to the Torpedo Loading hatch - lots of sea ananomies, small fish and one small sand shark or the Captain called it a Dog shark. We poked our heads and video into any of the submarine holes and really started to enjoy the dive.
Looking back now - it was dark, slightly chilly and maybe 25 foot viz (but if it was dark how do I know? lol). Based on how far my flashlight beam would go I would estimate 25 to 30 foot of viz when we did not kick up silt.
We headed back to the conning tower and toward the bow. Just forward of the conning tower there was a blast hole. My guess is 10 feet by 15 or 20 feet. Remember 250 Hedge Hog explosives among other explosives were used to sink this sub and it was hit twice... but that is all it took.
My buddy and I both dropped into the blast hole to 117 feet inside the sub - one at a time. It did not feel like a blast hole that pushed the sub material onto the floor. It was odd but it was like a can opener just cleanly sliced the sub open for us to drop in.... This blast hole was just before the conning tower which is the main control room very large for a sub and a spherical shape to it - like in the movies. The second room towards the bow - not sure but figure it may have been mess hall or gathering area or something...
I looked around first and thought I was grabbing "primo" video - turned out my video is crap...
We spent time looking around but not disturbing the War Grave. We popped back out and headed toward the bow toward the second Torpedo Loading hole... Got there and we had maybe 6 mins of NDL left so we went back to the blast hole again for one last look.
Not sure but the folks that we dove with must have been there - the hole was all kicked up with silt.... but we dropped in anyway and took a last look around... Wow to be on a German UBoat - strike that inside a German Uboat and looking around the ship was unreal. Definitely the coolest NorthEast dive I have ever done...
Memorable day and dive...
Second site was the Block Island Wind Farm - it was ok... LOL - after the UBoat nothing was going to match the excitement and awe of that dive...
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