Dives 2008
Dives 2007
Dives 2006
Dives 2005
Dives 2004
Dives 2003
Dives 2002
Dives 2001
Dives 2000:
Folly Cove 12/03
Magnolia Rocks 10/29
Norman's Woe 10/07
Norman's Woe 09/23
Key Largo, FL 09/
Back Beach 09/16-17
Beavertail Light, RI 09/09
Seattle, WA 09/
Haight & Breakwater 08/26
Stage Fort Park 08/22
Lanes Cove 08/19
Magnolia Rocks 8/5
Poling 8/2
Halibut Point 7/30
Norman's Woe 7/29
Old Garden 7/9
Nubble Light 07/01
Nubble Light 6/17
Folly Cove 6/17
Halibut Point 6/4
Norman's Woe 5/20
Magnolia Rocks 4/1
Dives 1999
Folly Cove
Divers:
Dive report from Folly Cove:
Question : How cold was it yesterday (Sunday) morning?
- Robert Granetz
Magnolia Rocks
Divers:
With snowflakes flying through the air and the wind chill in the teen's,
what's the best way to spend a Sunday morning? YES, DIVING! And that's
just what Darren Obrigkeit (aka: insane dive coordinator) and I (Robert
Granetz, aka: insane club secretary) did yesterday. Believe me, there are
numerous advantages to diving now ... the sites are less crowded ("Where is
everyone?"), you don't work up a sweat putting your gear on, and there are
none of those annoying lobster pot lines. We first went to
Folly Cove, but
yesterday's strong winds had turned the cove into a giant thundering wave
pool -- the worst conditions I've ever seen there. Undaunted, we drove to
the opposite side of Cape Ann and stopped at
Magnolia Rocks. Incredibly,
conditions here were invitingly calm. Both of us were doing our first
drysuit dives of the season. Darren was trying out the brand new drysuit
he just bought (dual overhead cam, chrome trim, 450 hp), while I was using
an old rental suit that had seen better days. (Noooo, I'm not jealous.)
As we were getting into our gear, a seagull with a broken wing hopped over
and befriended us. More about him later. Entries and exits for both dives
were a piece of cake. Water temperature was about 47 F at a depth of 35
ft. Very few finfish were still around, but there were lots of crabs and
small lobster. Strangely enough, a number of the lobster seemed to be
rather sickly, i.e. lethargic and weak. Normally, lobsters migrate to
deeper water during the winter, and Darren suggested that perhaps the ones
still left near shore are the sick ones that are too weak to migrate. Does
anybody have any further insight about this? On our first dive we also got
a kick out of watching a crab eating from a broken-open urchin while
simultaneously fending off other crabs. The first dive lasted 38 minutes,
our surface interval was only 55 minutes (to cut down on the snow
accumulation on our gear ... just kidding), and the second dive lasted 43
minutes. I bagged one lobster on our second dive, and when we got back up
on shore, I made the mistake of taking it out of my catch bag and putting
it down on the rocks. That injured seagull hopped right over and snagged
it away. It actually swallowed one claw whole, shell and all!
So who in the scuba club wants to join us for more winter diving? Don't
all answer at once.
- Robert Granetz
Norman's Woe
Divers:
Number of dives: 2
There were only two of us on this dive, Darren Obrigkeit and myself. I
had some anxieties about this dive since my last dive was in April/May
and it was for basic certification, and most written descriptions of
Norman's Woe
described it as an advanced site. Well, going for Thursday
evening's free scuba refresher class (taught by Lisa) had helped me get
a handle on the required skills and my equipment.
At the dive site itself, being part of a rocky coastline, there are no
easy beach entry/exit points, but with only a mild surf today, entry and
exit were just mildly challenging, even fun! There is a big rock jutting
out where we stride-jumped to enter our first dive. The rest of the
time, we crawled in and out. The key, as Darren reminded, is to make
sure I keep my gear and fins on till I'm completely out of the water.
Otherwise, the surf tide will push loose gear out and cause a
hullabaloo.
In fact, getting to the shore involved a 1/4-mile trek from the carpark,
which could be quite a pain if you have a lot of heavy (and wet!) gear.
The visibility was very good, with at least 15 feet of clear water. We
saw plenty of skates, lobsters, starfish etc. The temperature was logged
at 56 degrees, but with my 7mm wetsuit I felt really comfortable.
All in all, it was an enjoyable dive, well worth the drive and the
hassle of the long walk involved. Looking forward to more fall diving
opportunities.
Norman's Woe
Divers:
Barry Daniel, Keith Thoresz, and I (Robert Granetz) went diving at
Norman's Woe,
in Gloucester this past Saturday morning. Conditions were ideal, with
calm seas and an outgoing tide. This was Barry's first time diving in New
England, and we showed him why we like it so much: flounder, anemone,
skates, crabs, big starfish digesting mussels, little jellyfish, striped
bass chasing schools of shiny baitfish, and of course, lobster. We got 5
keepers during our two dives. We also saw a strange all-white fish, which
may have been a sculpin, but my sealife book doesn't list all-white as one
of their color possibilities. The visibility was very good on the first
dive (20 ft), but was surprisingly less on the second dive (10 ft), even
though we dove in the same general vicinity. On both dives we got to 35
ft, and the water temp was about 57 F. Entries and exits were a breeze.
Before the first dive, we noticed patches of seemingly boiling ocean,
complete with fish jumping out of the water and dense flocks of seagulls
overhead. The striped bass were having a feeding frenzy. We happened to
surface into one of these swirling schools of little baitfish on one of our
exits. I sure am glad that stripers don't like the taste of neoprene!
- Robert Granetz
Key Largo, FL
Divers:
Hi everyone, here is the dive report from the trip to Florida.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis was successfully launced at 8:45 AM and Eric
Prechtl, Carl Blaurock and I (Alex Makarenko) headed south to the
Florida Keys. Based on the feedback from the club members and some quick
web research we decided to stop at the north-most point of the Keys --
Key Largo.
DIVE SHOP
We paid $55 for the boat dive (incl. 2 tanks) + $20 for the rest of the
gear. The rates seemed to be pretty standard across different dive
shops.
ACCOMODATIONS
GENERAL
Overall we definitely had fun. It was not as exciting as diving on deep
wall dives in Cozumel (my only other warm water experience) but still
great. The weather was great, the drinks were good, and the sunsets were
as beautiful as promised.
DIVES
WRECK
REEF
Back Beach, Rockport
Diver:
This past weekend, I did my Open Water certification dives with Boston
Scuba Academy, at Back Beach in Rockport.
Conditions were sunny and 60's to 70's F, water temp in the top 30' was a
balmy (by my standards) 59 F. Visibility was quite good, perhaps 30', at
least before the fins of novice divers started churning up the bottom...
Crabs, lobsters, skates, flounder, and at least one very strange fish I
couldn't identify abounded. (Anyone know an online fish ID guide?) As
presumably everyone else reading this has also been through certification
dives, I imagine you can picture the initial mayhem and gross
incompetence, but I was relatively happy that by our last dive, my group
spent 45 minutes on a straight-out-and-back-again dive plan, making it
out far enough to see the really interesting rocky parts of the undersea
terrain off of Back Beach.
I rented gear from United Divers, which worked out quite well. They were
nice enough to both give me one of their wetsuits when the MIT gear
didn't have anything appropriate, and give it all to me a day early, too.
I also found out that a weekend rental includes free refills of rental
tanks, which was a nice suprise. There was a not-nice suprise in that I
was recorded as not having paid for my rental, but I guess I either
looked honest or was really tiresome, as they let me go without paying
again.
I am, by the way, very keen to go diving again, but I'm unable to make
this weekend. Oh, well. Next time for sure...
andrew
Beavertail Light, RI
Divers:
SCUBA clubbers:
Darren Obrigkeit organized a dive this past weekend to
Beavertail Light in Rhode
Island; Keith Thoresz, Nick Hahn,
and I joined him in the interest of possibly seeing
tropical fish swept north by the Gulf Stream. Beavertail
Light State Park is at the southern end of the island that
houses Jamestown, RI and is dominated by the lighthouse
(which provides a fun backdrop). Water was measured at
68F, and we had air temperatures in the 70s F.
We did two dives, one each before and after lunch. The
rocky coast presented us with a few challenges, and so we
scouted quite a bit each time to find suitable sites. Many of
the little bathtub coves rise up to the trail too steeply to
descend safely with gear. We arrived at the site right around
low tide, and so the multitude of just-exposed rocks about 20ft
offshore further hampered our ability to plan a suitable lane
out into the water. We decided to conduct the first dive off
the southern end of parking lot #2 (water to the west).
Nick and Darren took off first, and Keith and I slid down
the rocks next. Visibility was not great - about 2 feet in
the little cove we used for entry/ exit (bad sign!), but
it was closer to 10ft once we were a bit offshore. The
interesting rocky topology above the water was continued
underneath. Lots of crevices, canyons, and boulders, and the
visibility made it a bit adventurous. That is, you sometimes
found that you just swim up to a "wall" that goes about 6ft
above you. Surge was always present and was more noticeable
than any current. We made it to around 35ft, but Nick and
Darren didn't get past 25ft.
As for the fish, there were only a couple of candidates for
tropical species, but the visibility and the skittishness of
the fish made positive identification difficult. Keith and I
did see one with the distinctive "angel fish" shape, slate
grey with blue "trim". We also saw a number of dark grey
fish with blue mouths that reminded me of the many parrotfish
that you see the Keys. While we didn't see any fish with
brilliant reds or yellows, there were LOTS of the local
brown and grey fish. As you crested some of the rocks, you
were often greeted with a large groups of 2-4inch fish
steadying themselves in the surge - I really enjoyed this
sight.
We did see a large flounder, a couple of striped bass, and few
other species. Only a couple of lobster were spotted. Some
of the best color underwater was the dark red and sometimes
blue of the plant life. Darren noted that the area was devoid
of urchins.
The second dive was similar, except that we chose to dive
below the southern end of parking lot #3 (water to the east).
The visibility was much better, however, at around 15ft. The
experience was rather similar to the first dive, except that
Keith thinks a fisherman "caught" the dive flag line (the
tension went way up on the line and then dropped instantly).
Darren and Keith dove together, and they stayed under for
over an hour. Nick and I did not last so long, and so we had
the good fortune of exiting right before a driving rain
shower. A shower that conveniently ended by the time the
other pair exited.
The real picture-taking opportunities for this dive involved
the sights on shore. There was a group from New York who
dove with spear guns. We kept our distance as best as
possible. I watched one of those guns get pointed at 4
different people on the way down to the water. I am not
familiar with spear guns, but I know that you don't point
guns at people.
The other shore excitement came from the exits. Keith and
I popped up to have a look at our position, and we were too
close to these rocks. A big wave came in and simply threw
me up on a rock. I was tossed over this rock and knocked
around in a "washing machine" between two rocks before
managing to get on the crest of the second rock and work
over to a pool to rejoin Keith. A video footage of this
little episode from shore would have been highly amusing...
afterwards. The exits from the eastern side of the island
(parking lot 3) were the most difficult for everybody.
The only other notable event from this trip was the
8-minutes-flat gear-wash-and-return-and-tank-fill at United.
We arrived just before closing, and we didn't want to
overstay our welcome. We were grateful for their
willingness to accomodate us.
Cheers,
Brett
Edmonds Underwater Park, Puget Sound, Seattle
Divers:
Eric Prechtl, Laila Eleis, Dave Cutler, and I (Alex Makarenko) were in
Seattle and had some time to dive. We received great advice and actually
followed it. The emails from members are summarized at the end of the
report.
We ended up diving at
Edmonds Underwater Park.
The site is an easy 30 min drive from downtown Seattle (north of the
city).
The water was calm. The beach was not very crowded. There was parking
within 2 minutes walking distance. Visibility was about 10-15 feet, not
great but acceptable. Our computer didn't read temperature but it felt
like Cape Ann waters in june. There was some current which switched
direction in the middle of the dive. We were following advice and dived
around slack tide so the current was not a factor.
This is an artificial reef built by dumping various objects into the
ocean - metal and concrete debree, crates, pipes, etc. Cables are laid
out on the bottom for navigation forming an easy to follow grid with
"street" names marked at every intersection.
The highlight of the show is a 30' steam boat sunk on purpose in 35' of
water. This is the deepest corner of the park which gradually slopes
down from 15 to 35 feet. This was our first "wreck" dive so we had a lot
of fun. There was some bull kelp floating around and fish resting on the
deck.
Overall, a great dive considering how close to the city it is.
Alex Makarenko
Rockport Breakwater and Wreck of the Charles Haight
Divers:
Conditions:
Sunny and 70s, calm surface, 15 - 30' vis, low 50s (yow!)
Rockport Breakwater
The breakwater is a large stone wall several hundred
feet offshore near the site of the sunken Charles
Haight. Protecting the onshore town, the wall stands
about 15 feet above the surface and extends 65 - 70
feet below. For those of you like myself who have been
spoiled by the warm water the past few weeks, I have
bad news: the water has gotten COLD. At depth the
temperature was in the low 50s. On the positive side,
visibility was excellent. We dropped straight to the
bottom and moved along the wall, admiring the sea
anemonaes and other life growing on and hiding in the
rocks. The dive was pretty but uneventful. Staying
above the 30 foot thermocline on the way back, we took
in the rocky vista while warming up. At fifteen feet
we made a three minute safety stop before getting back
on the boat. Some of us who were shivering found a
friend in the boat's warm exhaust pipe.
Wreck of the Charles Haight
A World War II Liberty Ship, the 400 foot Charles Haight
got itself beached in the shallows off of Rockport.
Because it was a hazard to navigation,
the ship was dynamited by the Coast Guard, creating a
huge wreckage field of long-rusted hull and odd chunks
of industrial machinery. So shallow are pieces of the
wreckage that at low tide the ship's engine block
pierces the surface. The Haight is now the home of
zillions of starfish, crab, lobster and other yummy
morsels. Pieces of the hull are large enough to swim
through, which we did carefully. Passing through
anything underwater is far more thrilling than on
land. Perhaps it's the implicit danger, but whatever
the reason it was fun.
There was a fairly strong current in the area, so we
adopted the strategy of investigating the wreck along
a pattern of spokes. We followed a mooring line down
to 40 feet and used the line's anchor point as our
hub. Choosing an arbitrary compass heading, we
departed the hub, explored, and returned to choose a
new heading. Not only was this a useful way to deal
with the current, it was an efficient method for
searching the area. We all agreed that the highlight
of the dive was a recently dead striped bass being
overtaken and eaten by hundreds of crabs. You think
you've seen serious crab density until you've seen
this. Despite the two feet of bass real estate, the
crabs were fighting each other to claim a prime spot
at the dinner table. Wish we had the video camera!
Night diving at Stage Fort Park
Divers:
We met at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester
harbor around 17:00 so that we had enough time to first do a
familiarization dive, followed by a night dive at 20:00. This format helps
to reduce any anxiety about diving in the pitch black, particularly since
this was the first night dive for several of us. It was a beautiful
evening, with no moon, and good diving conditions, although the visibility
was limited. Tom and I dove along the coast to the right of Half Moon
Beach, while Avon, Jason, Rebecca, and Jeff explored the rocks to the left.
Many crustaceans tend to be nocturnal feeders, so not surprisingly we found
the sea floor to be covered with gazillions of juvenile lobsters, crabs,
and skates, and big moon snails. One of the neat things about night diving
is that you can only see what's in your beam of light, and so instead of
gradually coming up to some creature from a distance, you tend to see
things suddenly appear near your face as you sweep your light back and
forth. (Good thing there weren't any sharks!) The highlight for many of
us was the sighting of squid swimming together. Some of these were a
pretty good size, I'd say about 20 cm long. Another neat nighttime
phenomenon is bioluminescence. If you turn off your light, you can see
lots of sparkling points of light as you swirl your hands and kick your
fins, produced by phytoplankton. One other interesting sight were male
crabs hugging smaller female crabs. At this time of year the females are
egg-bearing, and the males provide protection by hugging them for weeks at
a time!
The dives were rather shallow (20 ft), and so the first dive provided a
chance to check out our buoyancy and weighting. I showed my buddy how to
correct for underweighting without having to go back to shore; I simply
stuffed a big rock into his BC pocket. The water temperature was 62 F, and
even Rebecca stayed warm.
- Robert Granetz
Lanes Cove (Gloucester)
Divers:
The weather cleared up in the morning just as we arrived at
Lanes Cove in Gloucester, a rocky site located
right next to a picturesque little harbor. On the first dive we headed
straight out from shore, finding a rocky terrain covered by dense plant
growth and plenty of little critters down in the crevices. I bagged a
lobster, and then we headed farther out, eventually getting down to a depth
of 50 feet. The bottom changed from rocky to flat and silty. There were
plenty of skates well camouflaged in the silt, a number of lobster out in
the open, and great examples of fan worms. The latter have a circular
crown of feathery tentacles sticking out of the silty surface, and when
disturbed, everything suddenly disappears down into a tube hole.
On the second dive, we decided to stay in the rocky area so that Keith
could do some lobstering. After catching a couple, we all leisurely swam
back, taking a careful look in the crevices. Keith turned over a brick and
found a "brittle star". It has five legs like a starfish, but they are
very spindly and the central core is almost non-existent. I was fascinated
by the way this creature could right itself after being turned upside-down.
I also noticed that a lot of the rocks had sheets of orange growth covering
them, which I think is sheath tunicate.
The water temperature was in the low 60's F, and since we were only at
20-30 feet, the second dive lasted 61 minutes. After the second dive,
we enjoyed the sunshine and had a nice lunch on the rocks.
- Robert Granetz
Magnolia Rocks,
Saturday, August 5, 2000
Divers:
Conditions Site profile First dive Second dive -Keith Thoresz
Wreck of the Chester
A. Poling and Kettle Island Divers: Win
Burleson, Darren Obrigkeit, Paolo Sodini Wreck of the Chester
A. Poling During descent, I
almost had my regulator ripped out of my mouth at a depth of about 25'.
The dive boat uses an anchor line clipped to the ascent/descent bouy line
for the Poling. The anchor line has a 10 lb. weight on the end which was
irregularly settling down the ascent line in the surge. I was holding
the ascent line in my right arm when this 10 lb. weight on the end of
the anchor line slid down the ascent line and through the loop in my regulator
hose, half-ripping the regulator out of my mouth. To fix this predicament,
I simply re-secured my reg. in my mouth, lifted up the weight throught
the loop in my hose, and let it slide down the ascent line in front
of me. In all, it took us
about 4 minutes to get down to the stern deck of the wreck at about 85'.
We dove along where the port side met the deck, swam across the opening
side of the hull where we saw a stunning orange lumpfish, and then returned
to the ascent line across the deck about 21 minutes into the dive. After
a short delay finding the ascent line (there were numerous lobster trap
lines and other lines in the area), we ascended to 15' for a generous
7-minute safety stop before surfacing. After boarding the
boat we noticed that one of the other divers had mistakenly ascended along
the wrong line and was floating 200 yards away from the boat. The divemaster
had a balloon for surface signaling, so they were easy to spot when we
went back to pick them up. In spite of the relatively poor visibility,
we still really loved the wreck and are looking to go back soon. Kettle Island
Halibut Point,
Sunday, July 30, 2000 Divers and Buddies Conditions Site Profile
The walk is pretty,
though, starting through a quaint garden with an arbor over the trail,
passing through some forest, right by a drowned quarry (no swimming allowed:
there's a giant, deadly jellyfish at the bottom) and then over brush-covered
rocks to the shore. The actual entry can
be tricky, especially at high tide, as Halibut Point is pretty much exposed
from every side except the south. Even the low-level waves we were getting
that day were crashing in hard in some places. First dive "That'll be a good
lesson not to do stupid things in the future!" Halibut Point gets
deep pretty fast so we kicked out a tad, went down and started hunting
lobsters (I had just gotten my licence two days before) amongst the many
crags and niches. To sum up: lots of sea urchins, lots of starfish, lots
of stripers and, until we got below 25 ft (John and I maxed at 51 ft.),
lots of back and forth current from the surf. We bagged two lobsters.
Once done, we rose
slowly to the surface from about 45 ft. to discover that we had a fair
amount of kicking to do to get back to the shore and that we had drifted
eastward a smidgen (reference Darren's dive planning presentation for
methods to avoid wasting energy and time if you don't like kicking back
on the surface, something which I kind of like in most circumstances).
We were about a quarter
of the way back to shore, when, lo-and-behold, who should emerge from
the swirling depths but another of our group not originally in the John/Ian
lobster-hunting buddy team. Surprised to find that we were not their original
buddies, our new party member was a little frazzled and was going to go
back down to search for their buddies (Not usually the best course of
action, especially if you are a little bit frazzled: if some searching
when you originally lost them doesn't yield your buddy, the best thing
to do is surface and wait for them to do the same) but we convinced them
it probably made the most sense to stay with us. Deciding that they were
frazzled enough to drop their weight belt, they made the second sacrifice
of gear to the Sea God. We were soon joined
by their original buddy team and everything was hunky-dorey. The rest
of the exit passed without note except that the surf conditions were much
gentler now. We had drifted far enough down the beach by the time we got
out that the walk back to our site in the grueling sun, laden still with
wetsuit and full gear, caused me to reflect deeply on the eventual fate
of the lobsters I was toting. In between Ate some sardines.
Second dive Anyway, to skip the
details of the rest of that dive, the rest of getting out of Halibut Point
and the rest of that day, here's the crucial information: at 12:30 AM
the next day, the three lobsters were cooked and eaten. They were tasty.
-Ian Ingram p.s. We did lose one
party member on the way out of Halibut Point to the giant jellyfish in
the quarry; they just couldn't suppress their curiousity.
Norman's Woe, Saturday,
July 29, 2000 Divers: John
Ballantyne, Ian Ingram, Darren Obrigkeit, and Alison Wood On our way to Cape
Ann, we decided first to check out conditions for diving at Magnolia Rocks.
Upon arriving, we found a dive class of about 5 students was about to
exit the water. While the conditions weren't inherently hazardous, the
students started to have problems as they exited the water, which had
a pretty good amount of surf and a relatively steep rocky entry. Instead of crawling
all the way out of the surf zone with their fins on, the students started
to take off their fins while still in the surf zone. Needless to say,
trying to hold onto your fins in the surf doesn't make it any easier to
crawl out. As waves crashed in, one of the students lost a fin (which
someone else found) and another student was just struggling while getting
rolled around in the surf. Almost all of the students had removed their
regulators and/or snorkel from their mouth, which brought them closer
to panic each time a wave rolled them around and threw a bunch of water
in their face. To add to the excitement, one of the students about 10
yards offshore panicked and started to yell, and appeared to be sinking.
We helped drag a couple
of students out of the surf zone and picked up their fins while the instructor
went out to help the panicked student. After the situation looked under
control, we elected to go to a more relaxed dive site and chose Norman's
Woe, where we enjoyed two nice dives on a sunny morning. The first dive went
to 29 feet and lasted 37 minutes. As usual, we saw numerous fish, very
many lobster, and enjoyed the huge starfish-covered pink boulders. Alison
ended up with two right hand gloves in her rental gear, so she only used
one glove for her dives. I tried the same for the second dive, and found
out that after 34 minutes of dive time to a depth of 34 feet my bare hand
was very comfortably warm, but did look like a prune.
Old Garden Beach,
Saturday, July 9, 2000 Thomas Pedersen and
I did a "farewell dive" at Old Garden Beach in Rockport yesterday (Saturday).
Thomas is leaving later this month to become a professor at Columbia,
having recently received his PhD in physics from MIT. I was Thomas's PhD
research advisor. We picked Old Garden Beach
so that our wives and kids could come along and have an enjoyable family
outing on the sandy beach. We dove pretty far out, past the rocks on the
right side, and each of us caught 2 lobsters. (One of Thomas's was really
big.) Back on shore, our boys were having a great time finding all sorts
of starfish, crabs, and hermit crabs in the tidepools around the rocks.
At the end of the day, we all went back to our house to have a scrumptious
lobster feast. A quintessential New England day diving, beaching, and
lobstering! Good luck, Thomas, in your new career and your new home in
Manhattan.
2nd club dive at Nubble Light
Divers:
The 2nd club outing last Saturday to
Nubble Lighthouse in Maine was a
resounding success! It was certainly well attended - there were eight of
us, which makes it one of the largest dive outings in the past few years.
About half the group had not been diving since last summer, but everything
went off without a hitch. We all started our first dives around 10 am, and
our second dives around noontime. There were lots of other divers at this
popular site, but it was not uncomfortably crowded. A very nice diver from the
Merrimack Valley Dive Club
saw my club T-shirt and said that he had
read on our website that MIT was going to be diving at Nubble this day, and
he gave me a copy of an underwater map of the site that he had worked on.
I buddied up with Carl, and on our first dive we went out to the far tip of
the island and around to the ocean side, reaching a max depth of 50 feet.
We were having a lot of fun swimming in a school of cunner, but eventually
had to surface a little early when the dive flag snagged a lobster buoy.
There were a good number of little lobsters, hermit crabs and starfish, and
a colorful sculpin or two, but I agree with Eric Grovender's comments from
two weeks ago that there's not as much sea life here as there is on Cape
Ann. On our second dive, Carl and I headed out to try and find an
abandoned UNH marine biology station that was marked on the map. The vis
was pretty bad where we went, so we got a lot of practive at navigation,
but we never did find the UNH station. We got down to almost 60 feet, and
the water temperature down there was a noticeably cool 47 F. Because of
our greater than expected depth on the second dive, Carl wisely had us do a
3-minute safety stop, even though the computer didn't require it. Back on
the surface, the group enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the rocks under a
gorgeous blue sky and 70's temps, and took in the beautiful scenery of the
lighthouse ... a great way to end a fun day of diving.
- Robert Granetz
Nubble Light, Saturday,
June 17, 2000 Cindy Kiddoo, Eric
Grovender, Darren Obrigkeit, Timothy Garnett, and Carlos Rinaldi all attended
our first GSC-sponsored club dive of the summer. We all piled into Darren's
minivan drove to York Beach, ME. The
weather was beautiful when we arrived, but the site was crowded with divers
and a diving class. Upon starting our first Dive I discovered that my
inflator valve was leaky (on my rental BC - I have now learned a valuable
lesson to check out my gear more thoroughly before leaving the shop....)
so Darren and I had to abort before descending. This turned out to be
for the best, as our video camera housing had fogged up due to the high
humidity. Darren engineered a process to de-fogg the camera, which involved
using his van's AC in combination with my cooler, which we filled with
cold seawater. After Carlos, Cindy and Tim returned from their dive I
borrowed Carlos' BC and Darren and I went for our first dive. The visibility
was not as good as we expected, probably due to recent rain and the number
of divers at the site. Things soon became exciting as my 30 lb. weight-belt
fell off in about 30ft of water and I had to put it back on with Darren's
help --- my belt fell off again in about 40ft of water about 5 minutes
later....luckily this time I caught it and I adjusted weight so it was
no longer up against the buckle (I think it's position was releasing the
buckle and that It had shifted when I was carrying it to the beach...)
and I had no more problems the rest of the day. Darren managed to get
some decent video, in spite of all of our exciting adventures. The second
dive was relatively uneventful...there were very few divers left...however
we still did not see very many fish or lobster. The surface temp was about
52 F and it was about 45 F at depth, which made a 30 minute dive about
all I could handle. That about wraps it
up...
Folly Cove, Saturday,
June 17, 2000 Cut me some slack
as this is the first time I have written one of these up... Feel free to ask questions
though. On Saturday I went
on a dive at Folly's Cove with United Divers,
Inc. (UDI), there were the 2 Divecons, myself and 2 others for a total
of 5 people, (someone didn't show), the water temperature was 55 degrees
and the first dive went out to the left towards that lonely rock at the
tip. The dive lasted 40
minutes underwater and approx 35 minutes more snorkeling in and out. The
Divecons were a Marko and a Greg from UDI, After a slow start which I
was partly the cause for, we headed out, the visibility was fantastic
at about 20 feet in areas. It was a shame that it didn't last though as
we ended up going through another classes wake, which had left the area
before we got there, which caused the visibility to drop to less than
5 feet at times. We ended up surfacing
and the other two literally came up right in front of us within 10 feet.
Marko wanted me to do the navigating with my compass, but it turns out
the compass was malfunctioning, I was able to lightly tap on it and the
heading would change by 20-50 degrees! This problem only occurred in the
water though. I
was disappointed in the lack of marine life, other than 3 baby lobsters,
a few small flounder, 1 20-25 inch striper, 2 or 3 nice crabs and the
multitude of starfish, nothing much was seen. After an hour break
on the rocks, the next dive headed out along the right side where we re-entered
the smaller cove on that side and swam around, the maximum depth this
time only went to 16 feet. This dive was better as the group stayed together
better than the first time where we had to surface once when the visibility
dropped and the other people dropped out of sight while we were looking
at one of the big crabs. Once
again though there was not a large number of things to be seen... I decided to go without
gloves on the second dive and had absolutely no discomfort, in fact on
the first dive I didn't bother to put my hood inside the suit and was
refreshed when the cool water ran down the suit. I paid for that on the
second dive though as the hood I wear, (wore, I brought a new one) is
the dual velcro type and the velcro wasn't holding well, so I ended up
diving with a loose hood, glad the water was warm. I started with 3000
lbs of air, and came up with 900 at the end of the first dive and the
second dive I returned with just over 1100. The second dive lasted about
40 minutes. I increased my weights
this time as the extra weight "I" have put on makes wearing the usual
size suit a little too tight. I went up a size and added 8 lbs to compensate,
and could have actually used 10 as the suit seemed to be this years or
a late last season purchase. Things that are obvious
to those that have dived at Folly's: The slippery entrance
reared it's ugly head, and although no one was hurt, other than a sore
foot, I fell 3 times and others fell a few times as well. The path / walkway
seems to have fallen into disarray since I last dove there 2 years ago,
while never being what can be considered safe, there are now 2 large steps
that need to be taken when bringing the gear down. All in all a good time
was had by all.
Halibut Point This past Sunday,
Paolo Sodini, Darren Obrigkeit, Ryan Swenerton, and I (Robert Granetz)
did a couple of dives at Halibut Point
State Park, at the extreme tip of Rockport on Cape Ann. This is not a
heavily dived site for two reasons: (1) it requires a half-mile hike with
all your gear through the wooded footpaths and over the rocks, and (2)
it's a very exposed point and consequently usually has difficult currents
and surf. But conditions were ideal on Sunday and so we took advantage
of the rare opportunity. On the first dive (at an area called Sea Rocks),
I bagged a very large lobster (2-3 lbs), and I also found two really huge
monster lobsters...the kind that you see on display in aquariums. These
babies must have been decades old. Forget about lbs, we're talking metric
tons here! Not only were they way larger than the maximum permissible
size (that's right, there are now both minimum AND maximum size limits),
but they also had eggs, so I couldn't bring them back. For the second
dive, we moved over to the base of the rocky lookout point area. Darren
brought along the club's underwater video camera (which club members can
rent, by the way), and got some really good footage, which we may show
at a future club meeting. As far as sea life goes, there were lots of
finfish, anemone, urchins, and lobsters, but I didn't see any starfish
or mussels...much different than Magnolia Rocks, for example. Water temps
were 48-52 F, vis was 25-30 ft on the first dive, 10-15 ft on the second,
and depths were 25-40 ft. And the weather was beautiful on shore.
Norman's Woe, Saturday,
May 20, 2000 Brett de Blonk, Teresa
Tutt, Darren Obrigkeit, and myself (Robert Granetz) took advantage of
the early sunshine on Saturday and went shore diving off of Gloucester.
We checked out Magnolia Rocks, but opted to go instead to nearby Norman's
Woe, whose south side was somewhat more protected from the surf. Water
conditions were surprisingly good (15 ft vis, 47 F) given the recent rains.
Brett has only done a handful of New England dives, and we managed to
show him some pretty unusual sights. There was a great example of an ocean
pout (head like a fish, body like an eel), a large flounder willingly
being cleaned by a crab, and a big stunningly bright yellow fish, which
I think was a sea raven, after consulting my photo book of North Atlantic
sea life. (It says that some really can be yellow.) All of these fish
were quite stationary in the water, so we were able to get a very good
look, not like the usual fleeting glimpse. I was on the hunt for lobster,
but although I gauged quite a few, there were no keepers. All of us were
diving in wetsuits, and we were quite comfortable. Back up on the rocky
shore, the sun was out until the middle of the afternoon, and with temperatures
in the 50's F, it made for a very enjoyable day. Norman's Woe continues
to be my most favorite dive site on Cape Ann.
Magnolia Rocks,
Saturday, April 1, 2000 This past Saturday,
Gillian Lee and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went diving
at Magnolia Rocks. There were no other
divers at the site, although there was an artist with easel, painting
the rocky landscape. An on-shore breeze kept us comfortably cool while
we donned our drysuits, and the light surf allowed for easy entry and
exit. (We both rented our drysuits from Northeast Scuba in North
Reading for only $35 each, including undergarments). The visibility was
15-20 feet, and water temp was 38 F. There were no lobsters to be seen
yet (nor any of those nuisance lobster pot lines), but far out from shore
we came across large numbers of giant starfish, happily working their
stomach sacs into the zillions of mussels that paved the bottom. We were
also lucky enough to see a (sleeping?) lumpfish with bright orange/red
pectoral fins. Boy, they are ugly looking! After 40 minutes of dive time,
we surfaced within a meter or two of our entry spot, thanks to the well-honed
navigation skills of yours truly. (Sorry about the bragging, Gillian.)
All-in-all, it felt great to be back in the water, and it was a very relaxing
dive. Before leaving the site though, Gillian wanted me to check the accuracy
of her computer's temperature reading, so I jumped in with just my swimsuit
on. After 40 milliseconds of dive time, I surfaced within a meter or two
of my entry spot again! I'd say the temperature reading was right on.
Sunday, 03 December 2000
Author: Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
Answer #1: It was so cold, the mask anti-fog stuff solidified in the bottle.
(So I considered using spit, but decided I didn't want that
freezing onto the lens either.)
Answer #2: It was so cold, several minutes after Darren and I got out of the
water, ice starting forming on our fins (salt water ice).
Answer #3: It was so cold, the moon snail that I brought up to take home and
show my kids froze solid before we got all our gear into the car.
Answer #4: It was so cold, most of the phytoplankton had disappeared, so the
visibility at Folly Cove was phenomenal. On the bottom at 30
feet, we could look straight up and clearly see the bright sun
shining in the sky!
I find it quite interesting to observe how the underwater life changes with
the seasons around here. Right now, most of the mobile animals have
vanished, although there were still a couple of small lobster, crabs,
skates, and two MIT Scuba Club divers. Mostly what remains are the more
primitive things like starfish, sea urchins, anemones, moon snails, sand
dollars, and tube worms. (No, the two of us don't belong in the
"primitive" category.) The water temperature is still hanging in there at
43-44 degrees F, so those of you who want to get in some more dives before
your annual MIT Scuba membership expires, you know who to contact.
(MIT Scuba Club secretary)
Sunday, 29 October 2000
Author: Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
Saturday, 07 October 2000 (morning)
Author: LuFong Chua (lufong@mit.edu)
Dive #1: 30 min (max. depth reached: 32 ft)
Interval: 1hr 2min
Dive #2: 31 min (max. depth reached: 32 ft)
Saturday, 23 September 2000
Author: Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
September 2000
Author: Alex Makarenko (alex@mide.com)
We dove with Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort. It's located at MM104.2
(that's "marker mile 104.2" -- because the keys are so narrow, there is
only one road, the Overseas Highway. to locate a place all is needed is
the distance from Key West.)
We had no hotel reservations but were not worried since it was the peak
of the OFF season (august to september). After checking out several
standard options (Best Western, Holiday Inn, etc) we decided to stay at
the same place we were diving -- Amoray Dive Resort. We got a great deal
on an apartment which housed all five of us for $125 a night. The rate
was definetely reduced due to low occupacy.
The Keys have no beaches to speak of so all dives are boat dives. Most
boat dives are on shallow reef (25-45 ft). There are some interesting
wrecks in Key Largo area including the USS Duane (sp?) at 115ft. Our
dive shop goes to that wreck once a week (on Tuesdays). The prerequisite
for that dive is either advanced certificate or at leaset one dive below
90ft in the last 6 months.
We did two dives: a shallow wreck dive and a shallow reef dive. The
boat held about 20 divers and 10 snorkelers. Visibility was over 40 ft.
Water temperature was an unbelievable 86F, very warm. The shallow depth
would have made it possible to fly the same day: according to the MIT
computers our time to flight was only 2-3 hours.
The Norwegian freighter Benwood sank near Key Largo in the 40s and was
used for years as a bombing target. Then the Coast Guard decided it
became a hazard so they blew it up into several large pieces. The hull
rests on sandy bottom in depths varying from 25 to 45 ft.
There are some fish and moray eels right at the wreck site. One of us
saw a 6ft long nurse shark.
For the second dive we were brought to the North Star site on the
Molasses Reef. The reef dive was even shallower, max depth 33 ft, mostly
15-25. There were quite a few divers around from 2-3 boats. The captain
said that in peak season all 28 anchor lines are often taken.
There was a lot of fish around. Unfortunately I am too ignorant to
recognize them.
Saturday & Sunday, 16-17 September 2000
Author: Andrew M. Boardman (amb@mit.edu)
Saturday, 09 September 2000
Author: Brett J. de Blonk (deblonk@mit.edu)
September 2000
Author: Alex Makarenko (alex@mide.com)
Saturday, 26 August 2000
Author: Keith Thoresz (thorek1@yahoo.com)
Tuesday, 22 August 2000
Author: Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
Saturday, 19 August 2000
Author: Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
(Lobster wars)
Author:
Keith Thoresz (thorek1@yahoo.com)
Sunny, windless.
Water 65 degrees, surface calm with light surf.
This was
the first time to Magnolia Rocks for
Mike and me. Magnolia's rocky profile offers beautiful terrain and marine
life, including many lobsters which Robert and I set out to catch. The
site has no sand--a bonus for your gear. Instead it has slippery, barnacle-covered
rocks which make the entry somewhat difficult but manageable. As pointed
out by Darren at Wednesday's meeting, a no-fail entry technique is to
walk to the dry/wet rock threshold, sit and put on fins, don mask and
snorkel (or regulator), then simply slide into the water in a sitting
position. It's always a good idea to enter any site with snorkel in mouth,
but it is especially important at a site like Magnolia Rocks. Even on
a calm day the surf can easily cover your head while pinning you to the
rocks. However, with gear in place the surf becomes your friend, pulling
you away from the rocks and out into the water. This sort of entry is
challenging and can easily overwhelm an unprepared diver. Magnolia Rocks
is probably not a good site to dive on even moderately choppy days, unless
you are the experienced, hardcore type and seeking a workout.
After a
lot of trash talking about who would catch the biggest and most lobsters,
we entered the water at 10:30. Both groups took an easterly heading. Visibility
was roughly 20 feet. Marine life included the usual suspects: crabs, starfish,
urchins and various random fish. There were many lobsters hiding in the
rocks and even out in the open, although few were dinner-sized. Several
small eels were also spotted. Mike and Robert saw a sea raven (a type
of sculpin), which has fleshy tabs growing in every direction off its
body and a face that only a mother could love. If disturbed or caught,
a sculpin will assume a defensive posture by puffing itself up. Close
to the shore on the return course, we were treated to a brilliant visual
display of iridescent red plant life stimulated by the light rays penetrating
the surface. After a fifty-minute dive at a maximum depth of 24 feet,
everyone navigated flawlessly to the exit spot. Robert nabbed two lobsters,
and I got one. We ate lunch while Darren made a run to Cape Ann Divers
to fill his second tank that had leaked too much air.
We made the
second dive after a surface interval of almost two hours. Darren and I
headed west, where we found the lobster to be in abundance. Darren stumbled
onto a red sculpin hiding in the rocks. It let us follow it around until
we turned our attention back to catching dinner. Robert navigated perfectly
as usual to the exit point. This was my first time navigating, and it's
clear that my skills need sharpening. Darren and I exited about 20 yards
from the entry spot because I turned around too late and didn't allow
enough air to complete the return trip. Lesson learned: consider air consumption
as well as compass heading. Anyway, I saved face by bagging two more lobsters.
Overall, the diving was excellent. The weather was perfect, the water
was warm, and visibility fair and consistent. One final note about the
site. Someone had placed "Private property: No trespassing" signs at the
entrance to the site. These signs were unofficial, and they may even be
false. (In fact, several local residents commented on the signs, wondering
who put them there and why.) While divers and other visitors should always
respect the sites and surrounding areas, we have a right to use the beaches
and should continue to do so.
Tuesday,
August 2, 2000
Author:
Darren Obrigkeit (dobrig@mit.edu)
Conditions:
Light rain/drizzle, 2-3' swells, 70F air temp, water temp 65F at surface,
52F at depth, 10-15' visibility.
Paolo Sodini and I started our advanced course by diving on the Chester
A. Poling with Win Burleson as our instructor. After hearing about how
impressive this wreck is, we made sure we planned out the dive very meticulously
so we could fully enjoy it.
The boat
captain took us to the sheltered side of Kettle Island for the second,
dive, and we enjoyed a 43 minute dive to a maximum depth of 38 feet. Although
none of us got cold on the Poling the water around Kettle Island felt
tepid, so we enjoyed a lengthy dive through the lush underwater vegetation,
spotting numerous lobster, and a couple of skates along the way. After
returning to the surface, we noted that the swells had picked up on the
way back to the dock.
An Offering
of Gear to Appease Kraken and Bring Good Fortune in the Hunt for Lobsters
Author: Ian Ingram(egern@mit.edu)
John Ballantyne/Ian Ingram
Aaron Thode/Teresa Tutt
Alison Wood/Tim Brennan
Sunny day in the low 70s on shore. Virtually no winds but nonetheless
kind of choppy with some occassionally harsh breakers. As the tide went
out the surf chilled out to near bathtubbyness. Low 60s in the water (!)
with decent visibility for all dives (worse on second).
Halibut Point is a great place to dive if you don't want to see many other
divers and feel like hauling your gear (I always feel like hauling my
gear) because there is a good distance between the parking lot and the
shore; a distance many folks don't seem interested in dealing with.
Like most folks we chose to do our entry down by the large pile of quarried
stone at the northwest part of the shore. Despite a reasonable amount
of trepidation on the part of some of the less experienced divers in our
group (we had a range of experience from folks who had done less then
10 dives to those who had done over 200) we hadn't too much trouble with
the entry except that one of our members, having decided to put their
mask around their arm for the entry and THEN put it on (?!), lost it in
the surf and had to forego the first dive (the first sacrifice to Sea
God). In that person's words (slightly paraphrased):
It turned out that a third sacrifice had been made to Kraken by the other
team in the form of a pole from one of our flags. So, that pole and the
Ali's mask having been lost soon after entry in about the same area, it
was decided that a special Sacrifice Recovery Snorkel Task Force should
be assembled to try to relocate these items. End result: good wetsuit-aided
body-surfing, one flag pole recovered, one mask forever lost to the ravages
of the wild ocean.
Teresa decided to call it a day and head out. Tim decided to forego the
second dive, take a nap on the shore-side and lend Ali, who had spent
the first dive sitting on a rock, having deep thoughts about the nature
of the sea, his mask. After a quick trip back up to the parking lot to
acquire fresh tanks, we were back in the frothy water. John and I hoped
to bolster our lobstering efficiency by adding the Ali/Aaron team to our
lobster-spotting crew with the end result that we caught one legal lobster
after having a look at about 15 illegal ones.
Author: Darren Obrigkeit
(dobrig@mit.edu)
Conditions:
Mild/moderate (2 foot) surf, water temp 60F, sunny, 75F air temp, high
tide
Author:
Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
Saturday, 01 July 2000
Author: Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
Author:
Eric Grovender (ericg@mit.edu)
Author:
Frank Warmsley (allanon@mit.edu)
Sunday, June 4, 2000
Author: Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
Halibut point by the "Searocks"
Author: Robert
Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
Author:
Robert Granetz (granetz@mit.edu)
accesses since July 28, 2000 with
per day.
