I watched the marine weather all week and was trying to figure out whether Saturday or Sunday would be best for diving. I am not sure why I watch the marine weather because I always seem to make the wrong decisions anyway. The prediction was for light winds on Saturday morning and then blowing up in the afternoon reaching a small craft advisory which would last into Sunday morning. I made the choice to go out earlier on Saturday morning and hopefully get a dive in before the winds came up. Choosing Saturday meant only one dive because my dive buddy, Beth Dalzell and her husband, Wes, had afternoon plans.
My quest for this summer is to shoot as much wide angle photography underwater as possible. That can often be disappointing because the visibility is not always conducive to wide angle but I am still going to try. My choice for today is another tugboat, Colleen, which is near my wife’s tug, the Veronica M.
Veronica and I had been out to watch the Colleen when she was sunk on the Axel Carlson Reef off Bayhead, New Jersey on August 3, 1996. She was sponsored by Budweiser, Crown Point Distributors and the Greater Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association.
Our plan for the day was to leave the dock at 7:00 am and hopefully get anchored in early. If everything went well, we might squeak in two dives. Our first glitch came at the Manasquan Railroad Bridge. It closed just as we got there. Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way. We left Manasquan Inlet amid a large number of fishing boats hoping to get some quality time in before the wind comes. We reached the Colleen in good time and had some small swells that were running opposite of the wind. It made grappling into the tug take longer than I expected. The bottom line was that we were here for one dive.
Beth and I suited up and headed down the anchor line. She brought her point and shoot camera and I had my monster wide angle setup. The visibility was not as good as last week on the Veronica M but I thought that I could work with it.
Here’s some facts about the Colleen: She was built in a New Orleans shipyard in 1956 and saw commercial tug and towing service on the Great Lakes and in New York harbor, hauling passengers and freight. She was taken out of service in 1991 due to heavy engine damage. The Colleen is 92 ft long with a 25 ft beam and gross tonnage of 150 tons.
The Colleen has been down much longer than the Veronica M but it didn’t seem to have as much growth. I think that all the artificial reef sites and wreck sites go through cycles where they are overgrown with blue mussels, tubularian hydroids and barnacles during one cycle and then things die off and new growth starts. We always plan on getting blue mussels if they are available. They were not today. Beth did notice lots of juvenile blue mussels on top of the pilot house so maybe next year will be a good mussel year for the Colleen.
I cruised around the Colleen at deck level while Beth did some exploring at the bottom. I joined her at the bottom and found another one of my subjects on the bottom near the stern. It was a reef ball. Reef balls are half round spheres made of concrete that are hollowed out and have holes that fish can swim in and out of. I knew that there was one on the rear deck but I had forgotten that there was one in the sand near the rear of the tug.
The visibility on the bottom was worse than on the deck and upper parts of the tug so we headed back up for more exploration. I found a lot of fish life on the roof of the pilot house as I also had found on the Veronica M last week.
I ventured into the large hold and moved forward towards the pilot house. I looked left and found an interesting sight.
There was a sink mounted on the wall with an opening just above it where a porthole had been. There was no other plumbing to be found but the frilled anemones seemed to really like the sink.
Beth and I took another swim around the tug before we ended our dive. We went to the bow and worked our way towards the stern where we were hooked in.
There was one more stop that I wanted to make before we ascended to the surface.
There is another reef ball on the stern deck of the Colleen. I wanted to get some photos of it with Beth in the photo. The visibility was worse now than when we started our dive but I never give up. I don’t always get the shot but I sure try.
So that was about it. We swam over to where our anchor line was hooked in and I need to mention what a great job my wife, Ronnie (Veronica) and Beth’s husband, Wes, do on the boat before – during – and after dives. They are the best.
Take a look where our wreck anchor ended up. What a great job of hooking up. I haven’t decided where we are going next but some of the places on my list are the Spartan, the Venturo Tug, the Rockland County and if I really feel ambitious, an M-60 Army tank or subway cars. Stay tuned for more. If you want to see more photos of the Colleen from our dive, please go here.
© 2009, Herb Segars. All rights reserved.
