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Sunday evening at 6 PM we left Rudee inlet on the Miss Lindsey to head up to dive the Marine Electric. This 605' bulk carrier foundered in a storm in 1983 while trying to aid the fishing trawler Therodora. Many crew members died due to exposure while waiting for rescue, and there was much resulting controversy as to the sad state of US registered shipping. We arrived at 1 a.m. and got a good hook. The trip was blessed with excellent weather so we were tanned, rested and ready for a good night dive. Max depth was 130' and water temp at the bottom about 45-49F, vis about 50'. When Luke and I hit the wreck, the first thing I saw was the lobster Luke shoved in my face! We dropped down the side of the hull and into lobster heaven. Every few feet a bug was sitting here and there on the sand, hanging off the wreckage, and bugging out throught the water! Even the old salts on board said they've never seen anything like it! By 3 am we had lobster tails roasting on the grill. While Luke and I were doing our decom stop, I was entertaining my self by snapping my fingers and firing up little clouds of photoluminescent creatures. It looks like green fairy dust popping off of your finger tips. Another neat trick is to roll over on your back and give a good exhale. Your bubbles will fire up the creatures and send a green glowing ball sparkling upwards. Suddenly a noise sounding like God on Gods Own Tuba blasted through the water. This shook us to our bones. I gave Luke my best "did you just fart?" look, but he denied everything. Then two more loud thumps shook us. I've heard whales on Jaques Cousteau shows before, but you have not heard whales until you are in the water with them. We scanned the darkness expecting to see a leviathan come out of the gloom, but no such luck. We did another dive on the Electric after a couple of hours of sleep at daybreak. This is a truly world class wreck dive. Huge relief (highest point was at the 70' mark), huge easy penetrations, tons of walls, shelves and assorted riprap make this one worth the trip. And of course the lobsters. We brought back 40 of the buggers and (Burp!) they sure taste good! I got the largest one, a six pounder. It's right claw is larger than my hand! I also found the top of the starboard running light which will make a good addition to my collection of stuff. After the morning wake-up dive on the the Electric we moved on the to wreck of the Monroe, a passenger ship which went down in 1914 after suffering a collision with the cargo ship, Nantucket. This is another really decent dive, the wreck is in surprisingly good shape for a wreck this old. there is still plenty of structure left and a few penetrations for the weak of mind. This wreck was flounder city. As I have never seen so many lobsters before on the Electric, I have never seen so many flounder in one spot before on the Monroe. I was set up for lobster and was kicking myself for not bringing my spear gun. After trying to stab at couple with my stubby line-cutter knife, I finally resorted to pouncing on the fish with my open game bag. I actually caught one using this method they were so thick. Back on the surface we had a boat which had drifted by and grabbed our current line. The were a bunch of hillbillys from west Virginia. The had taked their boat and run the 30 miles out to sea with no gas, anchor or VHF. Good thing we decided to dive the Monroe or they would still be floating around out there. We had to wait around for the coast guard to come and tow the idiots in so we did not get a 4th dive in on the Luckenback. This was the only blemish on a otherwise first-rate overnighter. Jim
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