USS Algol from Belmar, NJ

I dove the Algol last Sunday with my son (great Father's Day deal for
me!). It was sunk as part of NJ's artificial reef program. Cool dives.
The wreck is upright and level. Visibility was quite good (25' or
more). 110' or so to the main deck, and most of the superstructure's at
80-90'. I'm told it's 140' to the sand, 150'-ish if you swim under it
where the washouts are. (We did not go the sand, not on EAN30. We'll
bring EAN28 next time so we can do a decent amount of exploring in the
holds.) There was about a half know current running diagonally over the
wreck.

The Algol's in good condition but is starting to deteriorate, with
corrosion beginning to widen openings, etc. It is very far from fully
encrusted but is headed in that direction.

There are lots of opportunities for penetration into the holds and
superstructure. There were lots and lots of fish and the each of the
spearfishers all came up with his limit. There was some lobster and two
divers came up with medium-sized ones.

There isn't too much to get tangled in that I saw (not that we saw
nearly everything on 2 dives). One guy came up with a goodie bag and a
wreck reel recovered from the bottom, lost by some guy with the same
first name. He won't even have to re-mark them. (No, they were not
his; his handwriting on his own gear was clearly different.)

I went out on the Ol' Salty II from Belmar, and it was great. 28 divers
plus crew and it wasn't crowded in the least. The crew was friendly and
efficient but put up with no BS. They have obviously done this before,
and stage divers into the water deco first, big/double tanks second,
everyone else third so that everyone's dives end in a staggered way and
there was never a crowd anywhere other than the 20' stop (and that one
was small). The wreck is big enough at 469' long that it wasn't
crowded, either.

The vast majority on the boat dove doubles, there were a couple with
large singles and a pony (including my son, who had plenty of air except
when his octo free-flowed near the end of the second dive) and the few
remaining divers dove AL80s (most with no pony).

We'll be going back to see more, eventually.

John Eells

Jer...

Glad you boys enjoyed your dives. However, with only 25' vis, I'd never
tolerate spearfishing on the same dive with me.

Greg Mossman...

Why not? Do you look like a fish?