Seeker 2000 Goulandris I

Welcome to the world of perpetual midnight -- the New Jersey Mud Hole! The Mud Hole is the deep, silty ocean trench running from the mouth of the Hudson River to the abyssal dropoff of the Hudson Canyon, over 80 miles offshore. Being in smack in the middle of the approaches to New York Harbor and the Port of Newark, it is filled with shipwrecks from the past 300 years. Most of these wrecks are difficult dives -- they are deep (ranging from 150 fsw to 250 fsw), covered with nets and monofilament, and very dark due to both the usually poor visibility (most of the time just a few feet) and silty bottom which absorbs most of the remaining ambient light. For these reasons, the majority of the wrecks here don't get visited very often and still have many interesting artifacts.

The Greek freighter Ioannis P. Goulandris lies upright in 200 feet of water with a 20 degree list to port, is 362 feet long, and was sunk in a collision with the SS Intrepido in 1942. With the exception of the Arundo, which is on the edge of the Mud Hole, all major WWII Mud Hole wrecks were sunk in collisions, due to the practice of running with their lights out night to avoid being spotted by U-boats. The Goulandris still has many artifacts, but they are of generally poor quality, since the Goulandris brothers were cheap.

The following pictures (all images from video) are from the voyage of the Seeker to the Goulandris, Saturday, June 10, 2000. The original destination of this trip was the WWI Black Sunday wreck of the Winneconne, but offshore conditions were not suitable.

This is "Julio", and some guy that doesn't want to be identified, in the Seeker galley. We think he's in the witness protection program.
	This is the galley slave. If this wench doesn't serve you properly, be sure to give her a swift kick in the ass!
Bob Wilson hangs out on the way to the Goulandris. He used to dive with Peter Gimbel.
	These three coordinated their underwear for the dive.
Petie Wohleben is enthusiastic about going to set the hook into the wreck. Enrique "Enriquenator" Alvarez wonders what's up with this guy.
	Petie splashes.
The Enriquenator splashes.
	Bill Cleary gears up, assisted by Bob Ryan.
This is the tie-in point, a life boat davit on the stern. Visibility varied, but was poor for the most part, and it was very dark, not conducive to getting great images of the wreck.