RMS Rhone

The Rhone is probably the most well known wreck dive in the Caribbean, and with good reason.  The wreck is massive, and the only thing I regret about this dive is not being able to go back and do it two or three more times.

An all iron, 310 foot steamer, the Rhone was one of the most modern ships of her day.   She was one of the first steamers to use a propeller instead of paddle-wheels, and had a full complement of masts and sails.  Built by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, her job was to transport mail, passengers and cargo between England, the West Indies and South America.  Her usual stop in the Virgin Islands was in St. Thomas, but an outbreak of yellow fever there meant that the Rhone was diverted to Great Harbor, Peter Island.

On October 29, 1867 the Rhone was anchored at the mouth of Great Harbor with a paddle steamer, the Conway.  By mid-day the weather began to worsen.  Both captains decided to make a run for the more sheltered anchorage of Road Harbor, Tortola.  The Rhone's anchor snagged on the bottom, and in his haste to escape, Captain Wooley was forced to cut free and abandon 300 feet of massive chain and his huge 3,000 lb. main anchor (which is still a popular dive site in its own right today).

The Rhone headed out of Great Harbor and was making for Road Harbor through the Salt Island Passage when the second half of the hurricane hit.  Even at full steam the Rhone was driven up onto the rocks on the western tip of Salt Island.  The sharp rocks sheared through the iron hull and water began to flood the hull.  When the relatively cool water hit the massive steam boilers, there was an explosion that blew the ship completely in two.  Almost all of the crew and passengers were killed.  Today the bow section lies in 80 feet of water, while the stern section remains in almost the same place it struck Black Rock Point in 1867.  A massive wreckage field lies between the two halves, containing the remains of several boilers, some smaller hull sections and some spectacular arches.

The visibility was not as perfect as our dive on the Chikuzen, but was still excellent.  Doug, Sterling, Aimee, Pascal, Delis and I started at the bow and made our way through the wreckage field, ending our dive near the stern section, and the Rhone's massive propeller.  We were lucky in that there were no other divers on the wreck the entire time we were there.  The wreckage is fantastic, and the hull sections are still in remarkable condition.  The sea life is also extraordinary.  Check out the pictures I managed to snag of a cute and playful porcupine fish hiding under a hull plate.

Wreck of the Chikuzen

The Chikuzen is a derelict refrigeration vessel that was abandoned by a Japanese fishing fleet in St. Marten.  The hulk drifted into the BVI where it was towed out to a spot between Tortola and Anegada and finally sunk.  The 246 foot ship now rests on her port side on a bed of white sand in 80 feet of water.  Her starboard rail comes within 45 of the surface.  The wreck is marked on charts, but we found that the reported position of the wreck is over a nautical mile off.  Luckily we managed to get our hands on the GPS coordinates of the wreck.  I'll definitely be holding onto these numbers.

This dive was far and away the best of any of my admittedly few dives.  We were incredibly lucky with ocean conditions.  The wreck is miles from the nearest land, and completely unprotected.  The slightest swell destroys the visibility and kicks up currents that make diving the wreck dangerous to suicidal.  We had vis that easily exceeded 100 feet.  To get a feel of how crystal clear the water was, the pictures I've posted here were taken using only ambient light at 80 feet.  The wreck was incredible, and we encountered curious barracuda, massive groupers, cobia, and more.  An incredible dive.

Holy Crap I Love South Park

Wow, great news, every single episode of South Park ever can now be viewed, legally online. Check it out here.

All Good Things Must End

Even with a chemical oceanography exam two hours away, I can't seem to accept the fact that I'm sitting under fluorescent lights in my office in Stony Brook.   Maybe I'm just in a post-vacation state of withdrawal, but I'd have to say that the past week may very well have been the best in my life.  I can now agree with Alan, based on first-hand experience, that wake-boarding is one of the finest sports ever created.  We also managed to get in some incredible diving.  We dove on the Chikuzen, RMS Rhone, Marie L. & Pat at night, The Chimney, Santa Monica Rock, The Indians, and Shark Point.

While the scenery, diving and sailing was incredible, the greatest part of the week by far was spending time with my family (Brisbins and Browns), and making new friends.  The crews of the Nahema IV and Go Free were some of the friendliest, most talented and coolest people I've ever met.  Leaving Pascal, Delis, Aneshka, Patrice and Anna Maria behind was very hard.  Hopefully we'll stay in touch, and I'll be able to share my travels with them.  Who knows, maybe I'll need their help one day getting a job on a charter catamaran!

Most of my photos are underwater, but I'll be putting more and more up as I get them uploaded and organized.  Doug took a lot of really great HD video as well, so hopefully I'll be able to share some of that with you as well.  For now, you'll have to whet your appetite with some photos of our trip down to BVI.

...The Bitter End

So far the British Virgin Islands have been incredible.  We arrived on Beef Island on Saturday afternoon, and were met at the airport by our captains Patrice and Pascal of the Go Free and Nahema IV.  Patrice is from France, and his wife, Anna Maria is from South Africa.  Pascal, Delis and Anesca are all from France as well.  The boats are amazing and we've been totally spoiled by the crews.  This morning we dove The Chimney off Great Dog Island.  Its a massive stone arch surrounded by incredible coral gardens.  A nice warm-up dive.  It's also supposed to have been Cousteau's favorite site in the BVIs.  Tomorrow we'll be diving on the Chikuzen, a 246 foot Japanese refrigeration ship that burned and sank in open ocean between Anegada and Tortola.  Tonight we're anchoring at The Bitter End, a marina on the north side of Virgin Gorda.  I doubt I'll be writing anything else before I get back to NY, but I'll have plenty of pictures and underwater video (hopefully) to share with you then!

Norbert Wu Photography

Just one more day till I'm taking off for the British Virgin Islands for spring break. I'm going to be spending a week on a catamaran with my family and some family friends for spring break, and I want to try and post some stuff before I take off. I had a meeting today with Dr. Peter Brink, chair of the physiology and biophysics department at Stony Brook (more on that meeting later) who among other things, is hosting photographer Norbert Wu at Stony Brook on April 2nd. I had never heard of Mr. Wu's work before, but after checking out some of his stuff (click on the title of this post, or check your required reading list to the right) I was blown away.  Seeing as how I'm going to be getting into photography heavily next year, I set up a personal meeting with Mr. Wu on April 2nd.  Please, anyone on Long Island, let me know if you want to meet this guy or come to his presentation, I have a feeling it's going to be spectacular.  If you spend a few minutes going through Mr. Wu's work, I can almost guarantee you'll find a photo you're familiar with.  The volume of his work is so prodigious that it's inevitable.

Unfortunately Mr. Wu has a strict policy on reproducing his works, so I can't include any of his pictures here, but I spent a little time going through his website and picked out some shots and albums I thought were pretty interesting.  The first shot that really struck me was this picture of a dynamited grouper from his Borneo album.  The incredible size of the fish struck me write away, quickly followed by the senseless of its death, and the wonder and compassion in the eyes of the children.  Kind of a sad but really impressive photography.

I also really liked some pictures of a cave called Turtle Tomb in Borneo.  Apparently this cave system is so vast and maze like that sea turtles swim in and drown before they can find their way out.  The idea that sea turtles get lost in caves and drown simply never occurred to me.

I'm not sure why I'm so fixated on tragic pictures today, but the last album keeps with that theme.  It's called "Mattanza (The Killing)", some of you may have heard about this before.  It's a ritual slaughtering of tuna that takes place every year near Sardinia in the Mediterranean.  The tradition apparently dates back 1200 years.  Fisherman set up nets in a narrow channel in the migratory route of critically endangered Giant Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus), slaughtering every single fish that tries to migrate through the channel.  The photography is incredible, and some of the images are quite disturbing.  It's hard to imagine killing an animal like this.

It's definitely worth spending some time looking at some of the amazing images on Mr. Wu's site.  It would be great to see what other people find in his albums.

Holy Crap I Love My Brother...

Also, for those of you following the Spitzer fiasco, this is awesome...

Weekend Update

I wrapped up a very busy week last night at the Public House in Southampton with some friends from school.  Enjoyed a few delicious espresso stouts, and there was a reggae band that was actually pretty impressive.  It was a lot of fun, and a great way to start the weekend.

I've added some fun stuff to the bottom of the page, and I'm going to try and keep them updated regularly so if you're curious or bored you can see what I'm into at any given time.

On a sadder note, Mahe Drysdale pounded Rob Waddell into the dust a few days ago.  Apparently Waddell has been having medical issues with his heart.  Not surprising since it's probably the size of a pot roast.  Mahe will be representing NZ in the single scull in Beijing, but if Waddell can get his medical issues under control, he'll probably be offered a spot in a team boat.

Check back next week for updates, I'm working on some sculpture and surfing stuff!

Eccezionale Fabregas!!!

Today was a crazy day!  I got to sleep in, which was great, but once I was up, the hits just kept on coming.  Once I had taken care of some reading and a bunch of emails, I headed over to the NYS Marine Resources Bureau for a meeting on mapping new york seagrasses.  I just started working as a technical advisor for the DEC in February, so this was really my first time meeting a lot of people involved with the project.  The meeting focused mainly on the technical problems surrounding aerial surveys of coastal areas, and the need to develop comprehensive standards for surveying seagrass beds while taking into account the unique aspects of each system we'll be looking at (south shore, LI sound, Peconics, etc.).  Until now, several different surveys have been carried out at various times by a number of different entities, all using different survey and groundtruthing methodologies, so hopefully one of the things the NYS seagrass task force will accomplish this year is a standard procedure and schedule for conducting these aerial surveys.  

Chris Friel and Gary Florence from Photoscience presented a lot of interesting information about new digital sensor technology and analysis.  Even though seagrass biomass is probably declining in almost all of our systems, the new digital sensors are so good, that switching from analog to digital imagery makes it look like there have been large increases in seagrass coverage, simply because the digital sensors are able to pick up signatures we never would have seen with the older equipment.  Kind of a 'good' problem to have, and one I never would have thought about before today.  By far the best part of the meeting though, was the Tate's Cookies that someone brought.  Next time you're in Southampton check these guys out, their cookies are incredible!

The meeting ran past 4pm, so JB provided me with important text message updates on the Arsenal - AC Milan game.  Apparently Cesc Fabregas is not only blessed with an incredibly awesome name, but an incredibly awesome ability to score goals:



GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!

After the meeting I had time to grab a quick bite to eat before I drove back to school for my bronze casting class.  Right now I'm working on a piece inspired by Zena Holloway's photo "75 Metres".  When I get a chance I'll upload some pictures of all the different pieces I'm working on.  Right now I'm mostly finishing up some Wax burnouts and pouring some molds.  It should get a little more interesting when I start actually casting the Bronze.  I'm also working on some new stuff to add to the blog.  Good Night!

Waddell vs. Drysdale

My chemical oceanography course is cancelled today, so I'm sitting at home waiting for the live broadcast of the NZ Olympic rowing trials to begin (Click on the title of this post to check it out).  At 9 am on March 4th (3 pm today for everyone on the east coast, noon for Alan, Will, JB and everyone out west) the starter's flag will go down at Lake Karapiro.  Mahe and Rob have been battling it out for weeks, and right now are tied at a victory apiece in Olympic qualifying races.  These guys are arguably the top two scullers in the world right now, so while it's terrible that only one will make it on to Beijing (and Delux), the race this afternoon should be excellent.

I was going to hold off on posting here, but I guess this race is as good a way to start as any.  I'm not sitting at the starting line of an Olympic qualifying race (I wish), but I do feel like I'm at the beginning of a pretty awesome adventure.  Hopefully I'll be able to include as many of you as possible with this blog.  Right away I need to throw a huge thank you out to Karl Huggins, Karla Heidelberg, Ken Nealson, Brad Peterson, my family, my friends and everybody on Catalina.  I also want to thank everyone involved in the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society, especially Robin Parish, Brenna Mahoney, Jim Corry and everybody else who have been sending me messages over the past few weeks.  I haven't even left home yet, and I can already feel how incredibly supportive and important this group of people is going to be to me.  I realized the other day that this scholarship is so prestigious because of the accomplishments and the character of the scholars that have preceded me, so I'm really excited to take what you all have given me and do my best to push it higher and farther than ever before.

While I'm super excited about the scholarship and about sharing my adventures with everybody through these posts, when it comes to blogging about myself, I'm just like an unfrozen caveman (thanks Chuck!!!).  I really have no idea what's going on.  I've included a couple of things like my favorite links and videos etc.  I'm going to try and keep them all updated and constantly changing, so subscribe to my RSS feed and check up on what I've got going on.  I also see this thing as a great way for people to get in touch with me, so post comments and send me messages about what you guys are doing.  Feel free to make fun of my early attempts at underwater photography and videography.  Hopefully a year will be long enough for me to learn the difference between my elbow and my aperture, and everybody can play a role in shaping my final movies and presentations.  Anyway, I've gone on long enough for one day.  Hopefully some of you see this in time to check out the race, I've got my money on Waddell!