I don't know the reason for this offshore barge's name, other than it might well be the real one. Nevertheless, this wood barge, sometimes called a drydock lies in 120+ of water and is usually a very good lobster dive, albeit a deeper one. Bottom visibility is often cloudy to poor. It's not the best bottom conditions here, but a careful and advanced certified diver can bring home a lot of lobsters for dinner with a dive here. This spot isn't frequently dived.
This wreck got its name from the first few divers to get there, who struck it rich in lobsters in its wooden ribs and decking. The wreckage is very well spread out in several lines or walls, with decking off to one side. Near the bow, an overturned piece of decking is home to ling and blackfish. Off to the side lie the winch and small bits of machinery.
The Bonito was sunk as a "fish haven", an artificial reef in modern parlance. I'm sure there is nothing left of the wooden hull, and anything else has long since disappeared into the sand, but it is interesting for being one of the earliest documented reefs.
Diving in the Caribbean is wonderful. The weather and the viz are practically guaranteed, and the reefs will be right there where you left them last time. You can plan a whole vacation months in advance, safe in the assumption that it will almost certainly work out, or at least it won't be the weather that does you in.
If it were only like that here. Diving in New Jersey can be a very hit-and-miss proposition. There really is a lot of great diving here, but nothing in the North Atlantic is guaranteed. A week's worth of bad weather, or a month, or a whole summer of sunshine and glass seas, there's just no telling.
