RESCUE 34 UPDATE

   Well we just got word that Rescue 34 is now done. There was a hold up on the light bar, but its in and done and has had its in water test.

 
 
 

 

Big Joe and I will be going to pick it up Monday and Tuesday we should be back later in the day on Tuesday. Again the team would like to thank everyone for your support, for without you this day would have never happened.

2018 Fishing Flea Market

Sunday was the Ocean Fire Company’s #1 fishing flea market at the antrim school in Point Pleasant Beach. The school was taken over by all things fishing, hooks, poles, lures, shirts and sinkers. Vendors lined the hall ways and filled the gym and the cafeteria, if it had anything to do with fishing it was there.

   As in past years the fire company did an outstanding job setting up and running the flea market and manning the kitchen selling food, sodas and coffee. The weather tried but failed to put a dent in the turn out. The customers came and filled the hallways and many found the deals they were looking for!

   The dive team was there selling their 3000 pounds of sinkers that were recovered this year and also the many anchors and old bottle they had recovered. Deals were made and the many customers walked away with bags, buckets and jars of sinkers. Fishing lures that were recovered and cleaned up by Joe S. were the first thing to sell out, there was a line to get to the rack that held them.

   By the end of the day it was an easy load out for the team, we came with buckets full of sinkers and went home with empty buckets.

   I would like to thank Ocean Fire Company #1 again for giving the team their tables and for running the best fishing flea market around and to all the fishermen who came out to support the fire company and the dive team.

       Let Hope for a safe fishing season with many big fish and many tall stories to tell.

Rescue 34 update

Just got word on how the boat was coming, This e-mail just came in with pictures from Ribcraft.
                   

Hi Joe!

Happy New Year. My apologies for the radio silence - I literally was coming in this morning to give you an update. Attached are a few photos of the boat. The boat is now scheduled to be complete the first week of February. We had a fabric delay with the tube, but as you can see the tube is installed with the exception of the lifeline and boarding patches. The last item we're waiting on is the Whelen Lightbar which has been on backorder, but we're scheduled to have that February 1st.

As we're about two weeks from finishing, you will likely be receiving a final invoice in the next couple of days. Is your plan to pick the boat up or would you like us to deliver? 

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Matthew

CPR/AED training

Januarys dive team drill is the teams recertification is CPR/AED. This is something we need to do every year even if our CPR cards are good for two years. With one of the squads CPR instructors ( Rachel G.) going over all the things we may need to do on a dive or first aid call.

Using  the adult, child and infant CPR manikins everyone got to do both one and two person CPR and then going over setting up and  using the AED.

Then to finish out the days training Captain Brian S came over to help out Rachel in setting up and using the squads Lucas CPR machine. The Lucas is not hard to get set up and takes over doing chest compressions from the first aider. These are all skills that the team needs to be up to date on. Cause we never know what's going to happen and we need to be ready for anything.

New Years Day 2018

The team has always done our first dive of the year on New Year’s Day and for the last 23 years we have never missed a New Year’s Day. In years past we have had warm days and some cold days, but this year may take the cake!

    The air temperature this morning was 8 degrees and we had a wind chill of -4 degrees. But that did not stop Chris T, Evan S, Joe S and Joe S, Sue L and me from jumping in the water at Gull Island Park. We went to Gull Island mainly because a dredge was working the inlet and the foot of Bay Ave still pretty much blocked off because of the new boat ramp being built.

    We hit the water with the tide ripping out and with the full moon and the northwest winds the tide was really moving. It was so strong you couldn’t swim against it, so we went in on the other side of the bridge and drifted through the bridge and drifted down towards the docks.

   The visibility was nothing to write home about, maybe two to three feet, but all together we recovered 2.5 pounds of sinkers and you had to grab them as you flew. The water temperature was 37 degrees but that wasn’t that big of a problem, the problem was when we came out in to the cold air. The gear pretty much froze on you. But we did have warm water with us to melt the ice.

   We can be called any time to do a job so we need to be ready and it’s not always warm sunny days. Days like this test our stills and show us just how bad it can be. Did we have to dive today, NO! We wanted to dive.

    Just to show how cold it was we left a towel and a piece of rope outside after washing our gear and in a few minutes this is what we had

Fishing net removed

 The team was requested to help in removing a fishing net that was a problem in Shark river inlet. The net was wrapped around the bridge piling in a area that was used by both divers (skin and scuba) and fishermen.

 

   At times it float high off the bottom and at other times it was close to the bottom and this wasn't one of those light fishing line nets, this was one of those heavy line one, almost like rope.
   Both Joes, Rich, Evan and I  headed up to the inlet and setup to remove it from the water. With a strong out going tide to keep the net from floating around us as we worked on it, a line was run from shore to the net.

   The plan was to tie the line to the net and put some small floats on it and then cut it free from the piling and the bottom and let it be pulled from the water. I hit the water first and ran the line out to the net and Joe(OJ) followed right behind me. We unwrapped what we could and tied the line to the net and then started cutting the net free. Rich and Evan came down ready to swim the net and guide it over to the rocks and help Big Joe pull it from the water.
   The plan worked better then we thought it would, once the net was cut free and guided around the piling the current just lifted it and swung right over to the rocks and Big Joe, Rich and Evan pulled it from the water.
   The fishermen were happy to see it come up and the team got many pounds of sinkers from it. Now the divers don't have to worry about it anymore. Not to waste a dive, we all swam around checking out the area that was covered by the net. Rich came out with six large brass bolts and the team recovered over 40 pounds of sinkers.

   We did shoot video of the mission and it can be seen on you tube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF8PXxndplw. This is what we train to do, we work in less then good visibility and strong current and we do it safely. We can be called and have been to do many jobs and doing jobs like this help make us be ready to answer the call when it comes in!

It's on its way!

The Point Pleasant First Aid Dive Team would like to say thank you to all who helped the team reach our goal. Sharing our posts and the go fund me page and making donations helped our campaign raise the money we needed to replace Rescue 34.

    We made our goal and the new rescue 34 has been ordered, these boats are custom made for what the team needs. As the team gets the status reports on the boat we’ll pass that on to everyone. So follow along with us on Facebook and our blog.

    Again THANK-YOU to every one!

PUBLIC EDUCATION 2017

    Saturday the dive team was at the Beachwood Elementary Schools bike rodeo. The team was invited to come down and set up our public education display and our touch tank which is always a big hit with the kids.

   

Here the kids and the adults get to see and hold some of the specimens that the team recovered on that mornings dive. Spider crabs, dog whelks, periwinkles, oyster drills, a baby horseshoe crab and hermit crabs and they also saw what grows on the rocks and bottom here along the Jersey shore, sea urchins, sponges, cold water corals and sea stars. But also got to see our shell board which hold all the sea shells you could see along a walk on any beach and also ship wreck artifacts and old bottles that have been recovered.

   The crowd kept the team members busy answering all their question, the only break the team got was where the Free-cycle bike running team did their show. These guys were so good we even had to watch.

   The rain had held off all day until just after the bike running team had finished their show. But the day was not over for the team, we had to return all the specimens back to their home in the ocean and clean and unload all our displays and equipment.

    It is not always about diving, we do these public education shows to just show how much alive the ocean is in our area and how anyone can help the oceans stay clean.