Janet Tug

[Admin]

County Decription: 85 Foot Tugboat named the Janet
Deployed: 10/1/1997
Depth: 93 ft
Relief: 30 ft

[Bayesj]

15 Jul 07,
Dove the Janet today. To quote one of my buddies "there were at least a gazillion bait fish swarming around it". That didn't include the schools of Atlantic Shad, undersized AJ's (with minor exceptions), and some hefty baracuda. Vis was only 30' but that was definitely better than the LCM. Buddy had fun playing with the octopus (plural).

[Mikey]

Our first dive was on the Janet, an 85’ tugboat, sunk in October 1997, which currently sits upright with the bow pointing to the west. The wreck sits on a flat sandy bottom at 100’, but you can get 105’ if you swim under the stern. The flat top of the wreck is at 76’ and is a great place to sit and observe the myriads of fish swimming around the wreck. The center section of the wreck is cutaway allowing easy access to the engine room and lower compartments. They did a good job cleaning this wreck with virtually no cables or debris hanging inside, although there are some pipes you can get hung up on if you’re not careful. Once you’re inside, you can swim aft to a cramped engine room area or forward into what might have been storage or crew areas. The access to these is on the port side as you move forward. From the outside, there are several compartments which can be accessed easily. The wheelhouse is easy to gain access to and there is a cabin just behind the wheelhouse that you can explore, although it is small. The wreck is fairly clean of monofilament, although there is some. There is a fair amount of growth on the wreck which seems to bring in large schools of bait fish which, in turn, bring in schools of Amberjack and individual Barracuda. You can find Snapper, mostly Red Snapper, inside the wreck. There are also some small Grouper milling about plus large Queen Angelfish, Butterflyfish, and some Damselfish. There was a large Octopus in a hole on the port side and a small Spiny Lobster in a space in the stabilizing bumper on the port side. Visibility was over 85’ since you could see the entire length of the tug. Water temperature was 86-87 degrees from the surface to the sand. It was an awesome dive.

[JFG]

1/12/08

Dive #1 Janet: Vis 40' Temp 63 degrees (surface water temp)
The wreck was covered in spade fish, lots of small snapper and legal AJ's. There were several good size Gags as well. There was also a large scool of red fish in the sand around the wreck. I shot a nice AJ. I don't dive the Janet much, but don't remember seeing as many fish on the wreck as this dive.

[ReelFinatical]

We also went to the Janet on January 27, 2008. There, we anchored several times in different spots & also drifted over it a few times. Again, fish were down there and we had a few hits but no takers.

[stone]

Janet - 1 Mar 08

[Capt Rick]

Dove the Janet with my dive buddy Spear on 3-12-08.
1-2' sea, air temp appx 64 degrees and sunny.
Upon decending anchor rope I saw we were anchored just off the stern and was greeted by a school of about 4 to 5 large bull Redfish in the sand.
I swam up and over the stern and saw a beautiful school of about 15 large Red Snapper in the 10 to 15 lb range circling just above the tug.
I swam over top of the wheelhouse toward the bow and observed a 6' Bull Shark about 35 feet off the starboard side crusing out in the sand just at the edge of visability an then turned away from the Janet and disappeared. Soon after that I noticed a legal Gag Grouper swimming off the port side heading back toward the stern and started closing in for a shot. As I was about shoot, it went into a hole in the wreck and out of sight.
Continuing toward the stern I saw Spear stringing up a nice 15 Lb Gag he'd just shot. I gave him the shark sign and we both headed to anchor line as I placed my game bag over Spear's Gag to take the visual aspect away from the shark. Spear headed up the line first as I followed watching his back, but the shark never reappeared.
(The Janet is a beautiful dive with great swim throughs and lots of marine life. I highly recommend this dive if you've never dove her before.)
Visability for the day was appx 40 feet, temperature 63 degrees top to bottom, dive time 18 minutes, (shortened dive due to shark sighting) Nitrox 32%, 5 mil Pinnacle Merino one piece wetsuit with 3 mil Pinnacle Merino hooded vest (very warm and comfortable) :cool:
Capt Rick