Sandy Hook Pilot Boat ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving

Sandy Hook Pilot Boat

Type:: shipwreck, pilot boat, converted yacht, USA
Built:: 1902, Elizabeth NJ USA, as Anstice, later Privateer
Specs:: ( 168 x 24 ft ) 361 gross tons, 26 crew & harbor pilots
Sunk:: Thursday April 27, 1939
collision with tanker Oslofjord ( 16500 tons) - no casualties
GPS:: 40°27.556' -73°49.490' (AWOIS 1986)
Depth:: 100 ft

The drawing above pretty much sums it up. The bottom is extremely silty, and visibility is usually poor. Many small lobsters, but very few big ones. Lots of skates and ling on the day I went there, but little else in the way of fish otherwise.

Although I am told this is a great dive if you catch it on a rare clear day, I think this wreck is more interesting from a historical perspective than for the diving. In fact, I thought the surface interval was more interesting than the dive. The site is right at the convergence of all three shipping lanes with the main channel, and all day enormous container ships, tankers, cruise liners, and even the odd Navy vessel pass by. The view of New York and the surrounding areas is excellent.

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Photography - Accidents & Equipment Insurance

Having acquired all your nice expensive equipment, you may want to insure it against damage and flooding. Alright, perhaps not a cheap film camera, but a high-end housed 35mm, digital, or video camera certainly deserves the protection. On the other hand, with proper care and maintenance, and attention to detail when sealing it up, a modern camera housing is extremely unlikely to leak.

Here's something I learned the hard way:

Batteries + saltwater = one really nasty corrosive mess. Regular old alkalines are not nearly as destructive when you get them wet. What does this mean? Use NiMH batteries in the camera inside the housing, but use alkalines inside your strobes, so that if the battery compartment does flood, you can just rinse it out with fresh water and maybe lemon juice. The result of a wet NiMH battery will eat away the metal contacts of the battery compartment so fast that by the time you can do anything about it, it's too late. Alkaline batteries have plenty of oomph to drive a strobe, although not a camera. If your camera housing floods, the battery type won't really matter, since the saltwater will destroy the camera all by itself.

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