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It is Saturday morning, and I am starting my journey to Point Pleasant New Jersey where I will be boarding the D.V. Tenacious. Jenn Selleti, and Joe Mazraani have invited me on their boat (D.V. Tenacious) for two days so that I can learn more about deep diving and artifact recovery. We will be heading to two wrecks, the Texel and then the Carolina.

I helped load gear onto the boat and met everyone who would be diving. That was Rick Simon, Joe Maz, Joe (not the same one), Chris, another Chris but we called him Tattoo Steve. And then Jenn and I would be topside while they dove down past 200 feet. I brought my dive gear with me just in case I got to dive down to the safety stop, just for the experience. 

We all got dinner near the marina, and Joe treated me which was very nice. We will be driving through the night at a slow and steady pace to get to the first wreck by sunrise. That is 85 miles offshore, crazy! Each of us would take shifts being awake. This entailed sitting in the captain’s seat and making sure no boats were directly in our way, and that our autopilot heading stayed correct. I was lucky and got the 5-6am shift so I got to sleep through the night. Mine was also the last shift, so everyone was starting to wake up to get into dive gear, and Joe Maz was up to position us right over the wreck.

In order to secure the boat, someone has to start their dive by securing the anchor. This is very important to make sure the boat doesn’t drag the anchor. So, Tattoo Steve and Chris got in first, as they will secure the anchor and also tend to have the longest bottom times. Then Rick and Joe suited up and got in about 30 minutes later. Their dives will be about 2 hours depending on how long they stay at the bottom. More button time means more decompression.

It was super interesting to see them get geared up, as they have so much extra protection and tanks that were backup in case their rebreather had any issues. Once the first group came up from their dive, Joe Maz went down. Since the group was only doing one dive on this wreck (the Texel), Joe Maz was in charge of making sure the anchor was free. The dive went smoothly and they told me about everything that was down there. The last time Rick had dove this wreck, one of his close friends died and he had to recover the body so it was hard for him to do this wreck. Rick and Joe Maz said some words in memory and floated a bouquet of roses for him over the wreck. 

We then drove to the next wreck which was only a few miles away. This wreck is actually owned by Joe Maz, so people have to get permission from him before they dive it. They will be doing one dive here this afternoon and one tomorrow morning.

They geared up the same way, and Tattoo Steve secured the anchor again. It was such a beautiful day. They gave me permission to hold on to the rope that they use for decompression and go down to about 30 feet. I was excited because I could see a ton of jellyfish in the water. The current was super strong, so I made sure I was holding onto the rope tightly. I stayed for about 15 minutes, then surfaced, because I didn’t want to get in the way of the first group’s decompression. With the current and the jellyfish, it felt like I was in a snowstorm. The water was wicked warm too, an unreal experience. When everyone else surfaced, they all had brought up different artifacts. Joe Maz had recovered intact china and gifted me a potato bowl. So cool!

Tattoo Steve really wanted to go on a third dive at like 6pm to retrieve a deadlight he had found. So he did, and was able to break it free, and shoot it to the surface with a lift bag. He was very excited about this artifact. 

We had burgers that Jenn made and lobster that they had snagged on their dive for dinner. It was a great way to end the day. Similar to the night before, someone always has to be awake to make sure no boats are coming near us. Since we are anchored, we can’t move so we would have to radio the other boat to go around us. My watch was from 4-5am, and I saw no boats.

The next morning, the water was much rougher and a storm was coming. They guys got in to dive as early as possible (6am) so that we could head back to land as soon as possible. The waves picked up when 4 divers were still down, and it caused us to drag the anchor almost a mile. They all know what to do in that situation and everything worked out okay.

We had to shut the cabin up, it was a wet ride back because of the waves and storm. I helped clean and move gear and then Rick and I headed out. I had such a great time and learned a lot about salvage and deep dives. Thank you so much to the D. V. Tenacious crew I will remember this forever!

No diving today since I fly tomorrow. Instead we will be exploring the South West side of the Island. Before we went there, we traveled to the mouth of a river where there was rumored to be a Beluga Whale carcass. We could smell it as soon as we pulled up, and just had to find it.  We did find it, it was pretty old and shriveled up, but you could see its teeth and jawbone which was really cool.

We then drove to the South West point, which had the old lighthouse still standing. We walked around the whole point and found a TON of crinoid stem fossils. They were everywhere! It was a beautiful coastline and I collected some shells on the way. There is a cemetery too, which Julie and I approached, and did a loop around the lighthouse structure. Michel flew his drone and got some wicked cool video from above the lighthouse looking down. 

On the way out the roads were really tight and bumpy so we had to be careful. Back on the main road, we got a flat tire. Michel tried to patch it and refill it with… a scuba tank! However, the patch wouldn’t hold so we changed the tire and headed home.

We saw a ton of foxes on the way home and I got a decent photo of one! All the other photos I had taken of foxes where too far away, but this was close enough to see his face. When we got back we collected all my gear that had been drying and I packed it up. I had a great time staying with Michel and Julie on Anticosti, and I hope to return to this island one day. We celebrated the week with some pizza, and talked about everything we did. Thank you so much for hosting me, it was a unique and amazing experience that I will never forget!

The weather is pretty bad today, with strong winds in the afternoon. We decided we would still dive, but just off the pier instead of going out on the boat. Michel said he would help me practice my turns using just my fins, along with the modified frog kick, and attempting to move backwards.

We suited up and walked down the trailer ramp and got our fins on. The wind was picking up making the waves choppy. We found a spot with 5 ft visibility which was good for this area. There were a ton of lobsters on the bottom, I had never seen that many in one spot. We started with turns, using just one fin to rotate. Michel helped position my ankle and told me to lock it in that position and this helped me learn the skill so much quicker. I got the modified frog kick, but the helicopter turn and backing up was much harder. Super glad we got in the water and did these skills as they also helped make sure I was flat in the water and had good trim. 

For the rest of the afternoon, I reviewed photos with Michel and discussed what was good, and what could be changed. Then, Julie and Michel talked with me about my presentation and how to best present the internship. I thought of a lot of ideas and ways I could structure it, and I plan to start working on it at home when I have my laptop.

Diving day today! We are heading way East, farther than Michel and Julie have ever explored by boat. The sea was wicked calm today, so it was an easy ride there. We will be diving a wreck! I will be the first woman and youngest person to ever dive it! It is very unexplored so this is an amazing opportunity. Michel and I suited up and got ready for the dive. The boat that was wrecked was being pulled by a tugboat and the rope snapped and it sank on the reef. The exact same thing happened to another vessel, but most of that one is above water and left exposed.

We swam to the first exposed piece as Michel wanted to get a split shot. The visibility was pretty bad though, so I didn’t have much luck taking photos. We descended and explored a bit and made our way to the boilers. Half of the boilers were also sticking out of the water so I tried a split shot but didn’t have much success. Our dive was almost an hour long (but in shallow water) so we swam back to the boat. Julie also wanted to dive the wreck so I stayed in the water and explored with her. Past the wreck there were SO many sea urchins. They all had rocks or other shells covering them. It reminded me of what an octopus does to camouflage themself.

It was a long journey back by boat, but the weather was great and the water was still flat. We spotted a type of penguin, whale, and plenty of seals on the ride back. 

We cleaned everything when we got back and inspected the props to make sure nothing was wrong. One of the pieces of the boat (like the sealed patch part) was coming off, so Michel and I worked to dry it so we could glue it back tomorrow. We had Pâté for dinner, and I tried duck and deer for the first time. 

Instead of going out on the water, we will be exploring a bunch of places on land. We left around 9am and drove about 2 hours to our first stop. This was the Baie-De-La-Tour. Michel and Julie have a picture of this on their ecotour website, and I was wicked excited to see it in person. It is a massive cliff face with tons of fossils that have been exposed over the years. I thought the one two days ago was big, but this one towers over it. While walking the beach, I took a bunch of photos and even found three deer legs! 

We then drove to the Vauréal Waterfall and had lunch. I turned down my shutter speed while taking pictures of the waterfall to try to get the water more soft looking. We also went to Observation Canyon and took some more photos. It was so sunny and beautiful and I wish I lived here. 

Next was Patate Cave! I was super excited for this. We hiked down to the cave and the entrance was so big and dramatic. We got out our flashlights and cameras and went in. The cave goes about 2,000 feet deep, and gets harder to get through the farther in you get. We saw so many fossils on rocks on the ground and walls. As we got deeper in the cave, there was also running water on the ground. We were duck walking through it and made it almost all the way to the last chamber before we had to turn around. It was an unreal experience, and I am so grateful that Michel and Julie took me here. 

On the drive back into town we stopped at this beautiful lighthouse overlooking the cliffs. I also wish I lived here. We also stopped at a plane that had crashed on the island a while back. I got inside and Michel took some photos and so did I. It was so cool!

We got back late, cleaned the truck, and had dinner. It was an epic day of adventures and I am excited to see what tomorrow brings.

Another day on  the water today! This time it is just Julie, Michel, and I. We got the boat prepped and collected the gear that was drying overnight. Today we are exploring the South East side diving since the water is pretty flat and it wouldn’t be a great day to explore land. On the way out, Michel showed me how to drive the boat in small waves.

We got to our first site and suited up. We will be doing dive sites they have never done today. We dropped down deeper than the day before, and saw more jellyfish, crabs, and a ton of starfish. After 30 minutes, we surfaced so we wouldn’t get too cold. The sun would not come out during our surface interval though, so it was a little chilly on the boat too. 

Our second dive felt much colder to me. I am not sure if this is because I was going into it chilly, or if it also felt colder for Julie. According to Julies die computer, it was 39 degrees. BRRRR! It was worth it though because we saw more jellyfish, and this time they had little shrimp and small critters on them. Upon surfacing on this dive, it started to rain. Since it was raining, and I also had to pee, we skipped the third dive and headed back to the dock. The rain was whipping our faces so Julie and I put our masks back on so we could see better. It was a fun ride back, we were all laughing.

After cleaning and unloading gear we got back to their house. We had a great dinner, and I talked with Michel about shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. He helped me understand what to change when I wanted to darken the background of a photo or change other aspects. I knew the basics, but this was really helpful.

Good morning! We were up and ready to go put the boat in the water at 7am. We pumped up the sides with air, as it is a Zodiac, so it was extra firm. Julie and Michel showed me how to put the boat in the water, and said I would be driving the trailer next time. Once the boat was tied up, Michel had to change some tires on his truck so he dropped Julie and I at the house. I prepped my camera and made sure I had all my undergarments for under my drysuit. There are two other people joining us on the boat, but they will not be divi ng.

We picked them up from the only hotel in town and made our way to the boat. Julie and I got in our drysuits at the top of the dock and then helped load any other gear. They gave us a safety briefing in French and English and then we were on our way. It started out very flat, but then the waves picked up as we went towards the first dive site. Michel helped us get out gear on, and we got in the water. We descended, and our first dive was at about 30 feet for 35 minutes. It was 41 degrees down there and WOW it was cold! We looked for different benthic critters for a while, and then came across a bunch of different jellyfish. Even a Lions Mane, it was huge! (I have been informed it actually wasn’t that big, but it was huge to me). Unlike other dives I have done, we drifted and swam where we wanted to, and then popped our SMB so that Michel knew where to pick us up. When we surfaced, the seas had gotten even rougher. We took out our weights and took off our BCDs and then climbed up the boat ladder with only our drysuits on. 

On the way to the next dive site, we saw a ton of seals. They were all sitting on this shallow rock area and got in the water at the same time. At this second site we entered the water the same way, and explored with our cameras. There were SO MANY lobsters here. And some of them were very, very big. At home, I work at a place where I am around lobsters, but only to a maximum of 5lbs. These were easily close to 9lbs, so wild. It was cool to see how the species of Anticosti changed based on the dive site. We got back to the dock and pulled the boat from the water. We then cleaned it and all the gear before heading back to the house.

The same people who went on the boat today wanted to go on a sunset tour of the Calou wreck, So, we headed out at 7pm and saw an amazing sunset at the wreck. Michel and I climbed on top of the wreck this time and got to see even more of the ship. It was a great way to end the day. After we got back, Michel and Julie showed me their book and how they use different photos to tell a story. They want me to get inspired and try to start thinking about photos in that way. I went to bed brainstorming ideas.

Today I am headed to Anticosti  Island off of Quebec, Canada. I took a flight to Montreal yesterday, and now I am up at 4:30am to catch a small plane to Port Menier, the town in Anticosti. Anticosti Island is unlike any other place, with a population of 200, 350 miles of beautiful coastline, and 160,000 deer. It is sure to be a spectacular place. The only other people on my flight were a group of ladies going on a yoga retreat. They helped me translate some announcements as I don’t understand french. It was my first time being on a small flight like this, they even gave us earplugs. We stopped at Quebec City to refuel, and made it to Anticosti by 11am. I saw Michel and Julie at the fence of the airport waiting for me right when we landed. Michel Labrecque and Julie Ouimet are owners of Anticosti Ecotours, which is a branch of their company N2Pix. They run excursions, both on land and underwater with Anticosti Ecotours, and I will be joining them for the next 8 days to both dive and explore the island. I feel very lucky that I get the opportunity to dive here as only 24 divers are able to per season. And this was their first season!

Today we won’t be diving because of potential rain, so instead I will be exploring the island. Michel is leading a tour for two others at 2pm, and I will be joining. First I brought my bag up to the extra room that they have that I will be staying in and it is so beautiful. There is a view of the water!

I grabbed my camera and Michel and I picked up the two others and headed to the West side of the Island. We went to the Boulay Waterfalls, Bay St. Clair, the Calou Wreck, L’anse-aux-Fraises, and Cap-de-la-Vache-Qui-Pisse. It started to rain hard at the waterfalls, but it made it even better.

Bay St. Clair is where the old town used to be. When Henri Menier bought the island, he decided he wanted the town elsewhere and tore everything down. There are still some remnants of house structures though. There was a really friendly deer hanging around and I got to feed him a flower. I felt like Snow White.

We then drove over to the Wreck of the Calou. This is a wooden ship that is beached fully out of the water, not too far from town. We walked all around it and even inside through an opening at the stern. 

After that we headed to these beautiful cliffs. There were so many fossils that had been exposed by the erosion of the cliffs. I walked the whole beach looking for fossils and also collected a TON of sea urchin shells. I wanted to make an art project out of them later. 

We drove back, and probably saw around 50 deer. Before dinner we went to where Julie and Michel store their boat, and prepped all the dive gear for the next day. The space that was available to store their boat is actually an ice rink where they normally store a zamboni. I analyzed my nitrox, set up my gear, and loaded weight into my BCD weight pockets and weight belt. Michel and Julie also made sure the boat was functioning and prepared well for the next day. 

We got back and had a version of poutine for dinner and then went to bed. This was a long day for me, and I want to get a good night’s rest before diving tomorrow!

My time working with Rick has come to an end. So sad! Today we will be heading to Greenwich Connecticut to work on a Dam. Rick was called on this job to do an inspection of the Dam, and I got to help. To start, Rick threw dye tablets in the water to see if he could see any areas where water was seeping through, and out the other side. These tablets turned a fluorescent green color, so we could track the movement of the water easily. There didn’t seem to be any troubled areas from this initial test, so Rick got suited up to dive and inspect it underwater. He would be diving surface supply, which means the air he was breathing came from tanks on the surface and he was wearing a Superlight mask which allowed him to talk to us through a communication box we had on the surface. This communication was very useful as he was able to tell us problem areas and we could mark them in chalk on the top of the dam. I was in charge of feeding him the umbilical, which is the tubing that feeds him air from the service. If he had too much slack then it could become tangled, and if he had too little then he wouldn’t be able to move well. So I had to make sure I was pulling it up and giving him more as needed based on where he was at the dam. He brought a gopro in with him so that he could show the engineer if there were problem areas. Inspecting the deeper part of the dam went smoothly, but when he started doing the shallower part there were quite a few cracks in the stone that would suck water in. Through the communication box, he asked for us to toss him some more dye tablets so that he could place them in front of the crack and track where the water was leading. There were multiple cracks/little holes, and Rick put the green tablet in each of them. The downside of this is that once the green dye showed up on the other side, we weren’t exactly sure which hole they came from. If they were to want to pinpoint this issue, they could either space out when they put the dye in, or use a different color dye. The point of the inspection though was just to address any issues. Once Rick was out of the water, we made our way down to the gate house, where the water was coming out of the dam. The engineer, Alex, realized there were little rocks in the stream of water there that weren’t there last time he was here, so they must have been coming from somewhere else. We tracked it down to the other gatehouse or the entrance of this one, and decided the rocks likely weren’t coming from inside the dam. I really enjoyed the whole process of problem solving that revolves around Rick’s job in commercial diving. We finished that job up earlier than expected, and got lunch with Alex.     

Overall, I really enjoyed my time training and working with a commercial diver. My time with Rick this week has made me realize that this side of diving is appealing to me, and I want to explore it more in the future. 

Rick and I drove to his boat this morning and met up with his father, Eric. Today we will be diving two wrecks! The original plan was to head to the wreck of the Volund but since itwas pretty overcast and the wind was supposed to pick up, we decided the wreck of the Onondaga in Watch Hill Rhode Island was a better decision. This wreck is in about 50 feet of water, and usually has better visibility. Rick and Eric had put a mooring off of the Onondaga so that it was easier to find this season. When we got to the mooring above the wreck, we waited a little bit until the tide was closer to switching and becoming slack as it would be an easier dive for me. I haven’t dove a wreck in New England, so I was very excited! Eric went down first for about a 30 minute dive. Before he surfaced, Rick and I got into our drysuits and were ready to go so that once Eric was on the surface we could hop right in. The current was still moving pretty strong at this point (or at least strong compared to what I have dove in before). We back rolled off the side of the boat while holding a rope so we didn’t float away, and then transferred over to another line that was hanging from the stern to the bow of the boat so we could safely make our way down the mooring line. We descended holding on to the mooring line since the current was strong and we would have had trouble finding the wreck if we had just descended with no guidance. The mooring was attached to the boiler of the ship. I tied off a reel to the end of the mooring and Rick tied off a flashing light. This light was for safety. If we were to get separated, and couldn’t find each other after a minute of searching, we would head back to the mooring line and surface. If the light is there, you take it with you, so that if your buddy comes to the anchor line they know you have surfaced. It is just another form of safety and communication underwater.

With the reel in hand, we headed to the stern of the Onondaga. This is a wreck that you can take artifacts from, so Rick was showing me how to fan the sand to reveal things, as there is over 100 years of sand and mud piled on top of the artifacts. We found a lot of broken china at first. And then, after fanning a spot like Rick showed me, I found a bobbin that would’ve been used for sewing! It is wooden, and can fit in the palm of my hand. Rick got a video of me finding the bobbin too. In another area I found the sole of a shoe, and Rick found a full intact shoe. It was like a mens size 14. It looked like a clown shoe.
Nobody died in this wreck. The Onondaga ran aground on the reef, and all its crew were able to evacuate before the ship went down, but it took all its cargo with it. We kept searching until we reached the end of our dive and used the same mooring line to surface. Eric helped us out of the water and we headed to the next dive site. This was going to be the wreck of the Atlantic. The wind had picked up quite a bit though so it was hard to get our anchor to stay in one place. Rick and I got suited up and went to the anchor line and descended. Rick moved the anchor into a place where it would hold well for us, and then we tied off our reel and headed to the wreck. It was a little swim away since we couldn’t get the anchor to stay. As we were swimming there, the reel came to the end of its line, which is 185 feet of line. We had decided to use the reel for navigation, so we couldn’t go farther than it would reach, so we didn’t make it to the wreck. We explored the substrate and saw a lot of starfish and looked for lobsters underneath rocks. We headed back to the boat by reeling the reel in and using the anchor line to surface the same way we did on the previous dive.

That was it for our day of diving so we brought the boat back to the slip. Rick let me drive a little bit on the way back, but I couldn’t dock, made me nervous. We unloaded everything and headed back home but made a pit stop at New England Dive Center in Wallingford Connecticut. Rick said he needed to pick something up, so I looked around the shop at all their gear and hung out with their really cute dog. The piece of gear Rick had to pick up was actually for me, and it is something that I had debated upgrading as I had been borrowing Ricks for the dives today. I was shocked and so happy and grateful that Rick got this piece of gear for me, and it will serve me well in all my diving endeavors! Thank you Rick! 

Back at the house I helped do chores (basically petting their dog and donkey, I wasn’t super helpful), had a really great dinner at a local restaurant, and then unloaded and prepped all our gear for tomorrow. I had a great day of diving with Rick and Eric, and am sad that tomorrow is my last day here.