Trip Report 8-10 thru 12-06
The boat & I have been in Montuk for six weeks now, I was ready for the last trip of our Montauk campainge. The final trip was to the Norness, a WW2 tanker, sunk in 290' of water, 60 miles from Montauk. We set about the business of readying the boat, by loading on ice, fuel, and enough gear for a squad of Navy Seals. Once loaded, we went into town for a nice meal.

At the stroke of midnight, we spooled up the cats, and headed out the inlet. The crew on this trip were Jeff, George, Capt. Theresa, and my long time friend John Yurga. We took turns at the helm running out to the wreck. We arrived on site about 8 AM on calm seas. This wreck is relatively intact lying on it's starboard side, rising 70' off the bottom. On this wreck we do not use our usual method of shotlining the wreck, instead, we use a grapnel hook. We pay out only 250FT. of line hoping to catch the wreck high up, avoiding a 290' dive to set. We luck out and get a solid hook on the third drop. Jeff, and John take in a second line to tie to the exact spot we want to be in. We then retrieve the grapnel hook and line latter.

When Jeff, and John return to the boat we get the details. The hook snagged the gun in the stern, exactly where we wanted to be, just a lucky hit. They then tied the second line to an area we got some nice china from last year. Conditions on the bottom were pretty nice, with 25 FT. of vis. George, and Tim jumped in for thier dive. Since the lines were already set up, they were able to spend thier time looking around. George found a few beer bottles inside the stern.

The seas started to pickup in the early afternoon, but the divers were eager for a second dive. This dive brought a few more trinkets. But the diver earned them with a long rough Deco. Once diving was done for the day we sat down to delisious meal of shrimp & string beans, prepared in a black bean sauce, by Jeff. We saved a little room for the Mrs. Smith's Pumpkin pie.

We endured a restless night, as the seas built. There would be diving today. We stayed on site, because the weather was forecasted to improve. We whiled away the day by napping, reading, watching DVDs,and of course, eating. It was baked ham with the Mrs. coconut custard pie. Unfortunatly, the oven ate almost as much pie as us. The seas started to lay down as promised, making for an east, restful night.

Tim was in the water early today. Good thing too, because the wind started to increase again. Gearge & Jeff went in to untie from the wreck. George found a nice brass alarm bell. Jeff found some pieces of china. Tim made sure the prop was still on the wreck, which it was, mostly burried in the sand.

The building waves were right on the bow as we steamed towards Montauk. Once half way in, the seas became calm. We sailed into Port by 7 PM. Once there, we did a complete cleaning and unloading in less than an hour !! Record time. By 8 PM George & I were back out the inlet, heading for home 115 miles away.