The Lana Carol and the Brunette May 12 2007

Small shallow wrecks aren't usually my bag, but it was worth going to spend time with friends. The Scuba Connection had chartered the Independence to the Lana Carol, a trawler sitting upright in 75'. Onboard was Stephan Francke, Craig Billings, Yasuko Okada aka Yasuko the Fiasco, with Dave Oldham crewing. Sean and Sue, a husband-and-wife instructor team were taking a number of students out for their first time off NJ, and Mark Clark and Bill were giving their Megs a first taste of salt water after last month's mega-Megalodon class. All told 6 of 16 pobs were diving closed circuit, with 3 Megs (the two afore-mentioned plus mine), Stephan's Sport Kiss, Dave's Classic Kiss, and Charlie's Evolution.

The Lana Carol is a scallop trawler that sank in 1976, intact and upright. She's deteriorating pretty well now, but has a ways to go before she collapses. Interestingly, she was pulled forward by a storm, leaving her rudder freestanding 20' behind her. I splashed right after Charlie set the hook, and was greeted by several keeper Tog and Sea Bass. I decided to pass on them though, in favor of looking for bugs and perhaps scallops. Down by the stern a sassy female walked right up to me, so I took her home. It's not a big wreck, so after a quick spin around I tied off my reel to see if there was any more debris out there. Stephan has been making a map of the wreck, and later I was able to report to him that the Lana Carol lies in solitude in the midst of a large and mind-numbingly barren muddy plain. By the time I returned all the game fish had scattered, so I poked about a bit more then made my way up.

We had hoped to hit the Spartan on the way back, in keeping with the shallow-intact theme for the newbies, but there was a fisherman on it. My vote was for the Delaware, but the problem with that is you are then committed, since at that point you are pretty much at the mouth of the inlet. Dan was leery of repeating an experience he had last year, where they cruised all over the damn place looking for something free, so when the Brunette came up unoccupied we jumped on it. I had high hopes for the Brunette, having dived it a few years ago and come up with several bugs. The dive started out a very sour note though, when the camera I had borrowed flooded. Youch. I've always wanted to own a tetra housing, but not that way, I'm sure hoping it's not a paperweight. The tide was coming out, and brought with it all the effluvia for which Jersey is famous. Hmm, how to describe the visibility? Murky fits. Crap would also be apt. Lets just go zen and say visibility was...not. You know it's not one of your better days when your strobe disappears into the gloom from less than 8' away. I was surprised there weren't more bugs to be found, as the terrain seemed ideal, but the few bugs that were caught were undersize. It was kind of funny to see what a bowl of spaghetti the boiler looked like, what with all the line running pell-mell off of it.

They weren't the best dives, but there were positive aspects. The obvious 16-went-down 16-came-up, plus nobody got hurt. The students still seemed chipper, and passed perhaps the hardest test by keeping it together in challenging conditions. After a too-long hiatus Craig got back in the saddle. I have some challenging dives in my near future, so more Meg-time is a good thing. Despite repeated threats Yasuko did not barf on me or my gear. While my bug may not have been a terror of the deep, it also wasn't the cricket that Dan cracked wise about, and was tasty. Best of all, it was a nice sunny day spent on the water with good people.

Like they teach my kids at school: You Get What You Get and You Don't Get Upset.