Capt. Gavin

There is nothing like a nice warm bed, 5:30 in the morning is no time to be laying there only to hear a call go out for the dive team for a big fishing boat on the beach with people on aboard. Hit the floor and get dress and out the door in minutes.

   We had divers on scene in minutes along with the first aid and fire dept. Not much could be done at that time as we waited for another fishing boat which was suppose to come and try to tow the 77 foot Capt Gavin off the beach. With a strong east north east wind blowing and seas running over six feet that was going to be a very hard thing to do. The fishing boat never showed up and a call went out for a tug to come down from New York. But they too had to turn around due to high seas and high winds.

   So after eight hours on the beach we headed back to the building to get out of our dry suits. We stayed ready to answer the call to go back if anything happened, as the crew of three stayed on board and didn’t want to get off.  The new plan was for a tug to come down the next morning and try again on the next high tide. A bigger tug started down on Thursday morning and hit the same high seas and strong wind like the day before and it too turned around. 

    But all was not lost as the salvage crews used the time to pump out all the fuel on board and lighten the boat by 64000 pounds and used line from shore to hold the ship in place. The team was on hand for a few hours just in case something happened.    With the crew off the boat the team had no more business on the beach. It was all in the hands of Don-Jon and Budget towing.

  The new plan was to wait for Saturday and a change in the weather. Saturday came and you could have not gotten a better day. The seas flatten out the sun was out and it was pretty warm. The tug was there and ready to go. The plan was to turn the boat around so the bow was facing out. With a tow line out to the tug and a line to a front end loader on the beach the boat was turned and was ready to tow away. But by the time it was all done and ready the tide had dropped and the tow had to be put on hold until Sunday.

     But salvage crew didn’t wait for Sunday they pulled the Capt Gavin off the beach on the next tide high which was a little after midnight and also the highest tide of the day. Now it’s off the repair yard for the boat.

   A job well done! The boat is off the beach and no one was hurt and no oil in the water.

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"Treasure"....

I don’t remember how it started but it was many years ago. We always saw sinkers on the dive teams training dives and I started picking them up and the next thing you know everyone was doing it. We got buckets full of sinkers now what are we going to do with them!

 

Someone from the fire company said sell them at your fishing flea market in February and that’s what we did. The fire company gives the dive team a table and we sell everything we find underwater. Sinkers, old bottles, lures, fishing poles and reels, boat anchors, you name it we’ll sell it. One year Tom and Sue found a three foot tall concrete owl and it was the first thing we sold that year!! A concrete owl!!!

 

 

 

The money we get goes right back into gear for the team, ( IE, underwater still camera and a underwater video camera, dry suits, whatever the team needs.

 

 

 

 

We help the fishermen by cleaning up the snags that cover the bottom in the inlet. We also get to show them the stills and the videos of what’s on the bottom. We do get to free up fish that get hung up in the fishing gear that is hung on the bottom.

 

So when you see us out there with those PVC pipe tubes that what we’re doing, training to work underwater and getting sinkers and making the inlet just that much cleaner.

 

 

 

In 2012 we recovered 2264lbs of sinkers and that is not counting the few hundred lures we also had or the fishing poles.

In 2011 it was 2154lbs of sinkers  and lures. Every year we get over a ton of sinkers and lures. It’s like a never ending job. As fast as we clean up a snag we find another one. I know we been doing this for  over  ten years and we always get over a ton, so if you do the math that’s ten tons recovered.

  May be we should say you can rent them cause we only get them back again later.

 

We don’t always keep what we find, we have returned phones, rings, watches, pocketbooks, fishing poles, car keys.

 

Chet Nesley

Chief Diver

 

Fishermen's Flea Mkt ~2013~

Sunday was our big fund raiser for the year. The ocean #1 fire company’s fishing flea market. We recover sinkers all year and sell them back to the fishermen and anything else we find, ie fishing pole, lures, tools, anchors or old bottles. Some people will buy any thing. One  year we sold a three foot high concrete owl that sue and tom recovered.

  This year we had over 2056lbs of sinkers and over one hundred lures to sell and fishing poles and anchors. It took over eight hours to clean the sinkers and lures to get them ready to sell. Saturday night we finished up the sorting and cleaning and loaded up the dive truck for Sunday.

Sunday morning saw a pretty good turnout of members to get set up and sell! Sell we did!! It didn’t look to us like a good turnout, most times you can’t walk around due to so many people. But not this year, you could walk around without any problems. Sales were slow for a little while but picked up after about an hour. The good lures were the first to go. Afew old bottles got sold and the anchors were gone, tom was pushing the fishing poles and sue and flo had the sinkers flying off the table!

Then it was let’s make a deal time! People didn’t want bags of sinkers, they wanted half buckets of sinkers. The captain of the queen mary got all the 4 oz sinkers and that started it off. Paulie D and his hand truck got one hell of a work out, he was running half buckets of sinkers out to cars and trucks the rest of the day. By 1200hrs we were sold out of sinkers and lures and anchors. We had afew fishing pole and some old bottles and that was it.

Getting back to the building and getting everything put away it was time to sit back and start planning for next year! May be we can get 2500lbs this time!

We had our best year ever, we made over $1300!  I would like to thank Ocean fire company #1 for the table” you guys are the best”, and I want to thank Sue, Flo, Joann, Ali, Tom C,     Tom T, BOB, Mike B, Paulie D, and new member Joe P for all their hand work in pulling this off.

Sinker Sales 2012....

Today, Feb 26, 2012, we had an excellent turnout for our Blowout Sinker Sale. Ocean Fire Co. #1 invited us again to table at their annual Fisherman's Flea Market, held at Antrim School. With a beautiful day, the event was well-attended, and fortunately 13 members were available to pack out 2116 pounds of sinkers. (In case you were wondering, that's nine FULL 5-gallon buckets. Of course, you shouldn't ACTUALLY fill a five gallon bucket with lead and try to move it. We did a scientific investigation and proved that it will break.)

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Our crew of Professional Sinker Sorters were busy sorting the whole morning and preparing custom orders to exacting specifications. Or not. (When you want to get rid of a ton of lead, it becomes necessary to throw in an extra handful here and there.) Mike and Justin were so busy selling, we actually ran out of bags and had to make a supermarket run. We also sold lures (hand-polished by Flo), F-Cove salvaged sunglasses, and a handful of vintage bottles. In the meantime, Larry the Singing Lobster kept the kids busy with his only two songs.
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In the end, we did have to take back home some bottles, lures, and a rusty anchor that just couldn't pass muster. And Larry. BUT NO LEAD. This was our best sinker sale to date, so thanks to everyone who stopped by and to our hosts.

Can we take ONE week off from collecting now? Not if we want to have 2500 pounds next year...

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WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:
1. Full buckets of sinkers are HEAVY!!! LIFT WITH THE LEGS!!!!
2. Kids LOVE Larry the Lobster.....Adults DO NOT!!! (Except Flo)
3. There are some things you cant even GIVE away!!

Sinker dive facts
52 sinker dives in 51 weeks
Biggest haul 288lbs
Most sinkers came out of manasquan inlet
five dives in shark river inlet
two dives on the wreck of the delaware
two dives at the highlands bridge
It took eight people six hours to clean and sort the sinkers.
Best sinker spot is sue's sinker garden, over five hundred lbs of sinkers came from that one spot.

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Missing swimmer Manasquan Inlet...

Shortly after 7 pm on Saturday, July 17, 2010, while we were still cleaning up from the Wooden Boat Festival, an emergency call came in for a submerged swimmer right off Manasquan Inlet jetty. (The normal lifeguard crew is off the beach by 5:30 pm, and red flags had been posted on the beach, but with such a hot day, hundreds of people were still in and near the water at the time of the incident.) As it had been a busy day, many squad members were already at the squad building and immediately responded to Jenkinson's Beach at its closest access point. First Aid Captain Jerry Meany, a first aid crew, and a dive crew got on scene within 4-5 minutes (the time it takes to get across town) and discovered one man being assisted out of the rocks by a Jenkinson's security officer and bystander. The crowd indicated that a second man had gone down right off the south tip of the jetty minutes before.

Sue had responded to the beach in exposure suit, mask, fins, and snorkel, so she surface swam to the point of last contact and searched the outside of the jetty. With several breathhold dives, she also dipped down to look for the victim, but with ZERO vis and heavy surge, all she could do was feel the bottom and avoid getting smashed into the jetty herself. Within a few more minutes, Chet and Tom C also made it to the beach in full scuba gear and entered to conduct a more thorough search at the base of the rocks and concrete. They had no more success than the surface swimmer and found themselves totally enveloped in sea lettuce and in even more risk of being swept with the surge into the jetty. One of them described the experience as "being in a washing machine" and one of the worst dives he's ever had to do.

In the meantime, several first aiders and volunteer fire fighters were also posted around the jetty to help with spotting. The US Coast Guard, State Police, Point Pleasant Boro FD, and Budget Towing also had boats on the water to provide eyes and possible assistance from offshore. With increasing surf and surge and fading light, we pulled our divers from the water, and the USCG helicopter conducted a search with a thermal imaging camera, with negative results. Deteriorating water conditions and darkness led all parties to suspend the search for the night by 9:30 pm.

We returned to the beach Sunday morning to resume our in-water search under better conditions, recognizing that this had become a recovery operation. Our Rescue 34 boat (Doug, Paul, Tom T, and Tom C) and the private vessel of one of our first aid squad members (Jonathan, with Megan and Tom G) ran patterns up and down the beach to look for the victim from the surface. Simultaneously, two divers repeated last night's search of the tip of the jetty, but the sea lettuce and low tide surge still resulted in this pattern being conducted solely by feel. Due to the still-dangerous conditions, these divers exited the water.

In the meantime, the State Police returned with their boat and ran a pattern using side scan sonar. By mid-tide, water conditions and visibility had improved significantly, so we sent another three divers back in. Chet was finally able to conduct a systematic check of all the crevices around the tip of the jetty. Sue and Milton drifted with the incoming tide around the jetty tip and into the inlet proper to to investigate potential snag locations. After over an hour of searching with negative results, the search was called off until further sightings or information becomes available.

Our condolences go out to the family of the victim.

Asbury Park Press article

UPDATE: On Friday, July 23, 2010, the victim's body was spotted floating about one mile offshore outside of Manasquan Inlet and subsequently recovered by United States Coast Guard Station Manasquan.

Response to Reported Missing Swimmer...

This summer has quickly proven to be incredibly busy for the Point Pleasant Beach First Aid Squad and its Dive Team. Over the long Fourth of July holiday weekend alone, we responded to nearly 100 emergency calls, many of which were heat- and/or beach-related. Off the beach, water temperatures have shot up over 10 degrees in the last two weeks, so it is suddenly very comfortable to be in the ocean (we normally don’t experience these water temperatures consistently until well-into August). Check out http://www.thecoolroom.org/swimmers/swim_sst.htm for satellite imagery of local sea surface temps.

Although we’ve been missing some dive time to help cover all the land-based first aid calls, we’ve managed a few dives in the warm water. Shark River Inlet, in Avon , is out of our normal coverage area, but is only accessible for diving from 5pm – 8am during the summer, so we took advantage of the opportunity to do night dives there the last two weekends.

On Friday, 7/10, the night dive session was a little challenging with a quick tide change and low visibility. Immediately upon exiting the water, we were notified that a call for a possible missing swimmer was in progress back in Point Pleasant . Assistant Chief Melo had assumed command of Beach Operations and was already on scene with Brandon, Tom T, and Paul, and a first aid crew. When the still-wet dive crew arrived, that added 5 more sets (Chet, Milton, Sue, Andy, and Dave) of eyes on the beach. Also present were the Ocean FDs #1 and #2 and the Point Pleasant Boro FD and FA. With very rough surf and no confirmed victim, we conducted our primary search from shore with lights. The USCG, State Police, and Budget Towing (captained by Tom Hurst and crewed by our divers Tom C and Doug) participated in the search off shore, taking great caution to stay out of the rough conditions by the beach. At some point, a white object which could have been a t-shirt was spotted, so two rescue swimmers were sent to make contact - Milton got a rough lesson in rough surf entries, but he wisely extracted himself, while Chief Nesley went out to the object; once there he could only describe debris and lots of sticky sea foam, which could have been mistaken for a solid object. The USCG vessel even deployed two flares to help illuminate the night surf, and we could still find no victim. Upon further communication, it was revealed that the original emergency call from a bystander did not clearly describe an actual human body in the surf, and at least one experienced fisherman relayed that ocean sunfish (Mola mola) had been spotted around Manasquan Inlet and close to shore earlier in the day. Based on direct observations and the fact that still no one had been reported missing, we determined that this was a false alarm.

The following day, the first aid calls (almost all on the beach and boardwalk) just kept piling up on top of each other, and ANOTHER dive call came in - boat on fire, people in water. Four rescue divers got fully suited-up for a surface rescue while bouncing around in the back of 347 in the time it took to drive to the call. What the crew didn't know was that the USCG canceled us on the way there, so when we jumped out the back of the truck on arrival, we were very surprised to discover that we'd been re-routed to a first aid call on the beach. (Unless someone in the cabin tells you, you really have no idea what's going on outside when you're in the back of the dive rescue truck.)



It's going to be a loooong summer....

Michelle K ~2004~

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While conducting some research on the Manasquan Inlet for the blogpost concerning the lost “Kayaker”, I came along these photos of the “Michelle K” incident that happened in 2004...


Chief Diver Chet Nesley advised me that he was at the inlet when the Michelle K incident occurred and witnessed the clam boat running up to the South seawall of the inlet. Reports indicated that the Michelle K first struck the North jetty and then veered South ending up alongside the seawall.


Nesley stated that he was at the South seawall and saw the Michelle K veer across the inlet heading towards the seawall that had numerous fishermen at that time. He then warned the Fishermen of the impending impact and then helped the crew of the Michelle K as they exited the boat. Nesley then called back to the Dive Team that was gathering for a scheduled meeting and advised them of the incident and pending boat sinking in the inlet.





This resulted in a full response by the Point Pleasant Rescue Dive Team, the Point Pleasant First Aid team, the Fire Department, Police department, and Manasquan Inlet Coast Guard.


The Dive Team inspected the hull of the boat to determine the amount of damage and proper steps to secure the vessel to prevent further damage. They advised that the rigger should be tied off to keep the clam boat from rolling to far once the tide went out…


Following is a short report that appeared in a local paper:
Monday, October 04, 2004 The Sinking and Raising of the Michelle K
This is a picture taken of the Michelle K yesterday, after she was raised from the waters of the Manasquan Inlet. (I believe she is a clam boat.) Last week, as she was coming into the inlet, she hit the Northern Jetty and then proceeded across the inlet and sank in front of the parking lot on the Point Pleasant side. The Columbia was used to pump the water out of the Michelle K and raise her from the depths, while two tug boats kept the Columbia in position so she could do her job. This is all the information I have as of right now; most of it coming from my hubby and the talk down at the inlet. I'll keep you posted as I get more info!


Additional Copyrighted photos appear on the following website:

http://artseaphotos.com/photo_gallery1.htm