Dives 2008
Dives 2007
Dives 2006
Dives 2005:
Reliance and Romance 12/18
Pug Wreck 11/19
Lanes Cove 10/15
Chandler Hovey Light 10/11
Pug Wreck and SS Romance 10/01
Gun Rock Beach 09/23
Lanes Cove 09/08
Lanes Cove 09/05
Isles of Shoals 08/27
Chandler Hovey Park 08/19
Lanes Cove 08/16
Halfway and Paddock Rocks 08/14
Pebble Beach 08/13
Port Hunter wreck 08/12
Salt Rock and USS NH 08/11
Magnolia Rocks 08/06
Wreck Rodeo 2005
Old Garden Beach 07/30
Poling and Braces Cove 07/17
REEF Fish ID Dives 07/16
Wreck of the Idene 07/10
Lanes Cove 07/10
Magnolia Rocks 06/26
Pebble Beach 06/18
Wreck of the Romance 06/12
Halfway Rock and Paddock Rock 06/04
Kayak Diving 06/28-29
Chester Poling 04/17
Folly Cove 04/16
Burnham and Saturday Night Ledges 03/19
Homestead hot spring 02/21
Ice Diving 01/29-30
Magnolia Rocks 01/09
Dives 2004
Dives 2003
Dives 2002
Dives 2001
Dives 2000
Dives 1999
Wrecks of the Reliance and the Romance
Divers:
Robert Granetz and I headed out yesterday to dive the wrecks of the
Reliance and the SS Romance in Boston Harbor. This was exciting, because
the Reliance had only been positively identified this past week, so we were
one of the first diving a newly identified wreck. There's more information
on the Reliance at NADE's web site:
http://www.northernatlanticdive.com/shipwrecks/reliance/reliance.htm.
The air was distinctly nippy yesterday, as my thermometer read 28 degrees
when I pulled out of my driveway. I was passed on the highway by Robert,
who, to my amazement, passed the exit for Beverly, and continued on as if
going to Gloucester. [RSG: It was 8 am on a weekend, driving on 128 with a
trunk full of scuba gear. The car's autopilot thought it was headed for
Gloucester. Luckily I intervened immediately after passing the Beverly
exit.] We met the Gauntlet at its winter location (a considerably longer
boat-loading run from the summer location), and as we were the only two on
the boat besides Captains Heather and Dave, the boat was blissfully
uncrowded.
We motored out to the Reliance, which was quite a bit farther out than the
Romance and Pug. There was a rival boat out there that was "live-boating",
or picking up divers without itself being moored, which meant that we
couldn't grapple the wreck, come near the mooring, or do anything while
they were hogging the wreck. (In fairness, there was some logic to this,
as we were very close to the shipping lanes, and there was a lot of
shipping traffic about, all of it considerably larger than us). After some
negotiation and waiting, we tied in and Robert and I dove together, to find
ourselves tied in near the stern of the 110' wreck at about 120 fsw. It
was a wooden unpowered schooner barge, and it's settled into the silt quite
a bit, with only about 5-10' of relief, if that. The centerline is pretty
easy to follow, although as a precaution, I tied in my strobe and Robert
hooked in a reel, and off we went. We headed towards the bow, and after
the general outline of the boat tapered in, we found ourselves off in the
sand, so we made a U-turn and followed the sides of the hull back. I did
spy one of the hawse pipes in the sand near the bow, but not the other. We
made our way back to the stern, passing several areas where the wreck was
littered with coal, and several jumbles of fishing equipment that are an
entanglement waiting to happen. Poking around the stern, I never did find
the shaft log or the rudder, but I suppose that's for the next dive. Vis
was pretty good, at about 15', and the temperature wasn't too bad at about
40F at the bottom.
On the way over to the Romance, we made several passes over some hang
numbers (coordinates of a spot where fishermans' gear frequently gets
caught on something) in about 90 fsw that was rumored to have been a wreck.
Nobody had found anything at this site before, but Capt. Dave decided to
stop here and check again one last time. As he was getting ready to jump
in, he told us that if it was really a wreck, WE COULD GO DOWN AND EXPLORE
A BRAND NEW, UNKNOWN WRECK!!! To our disappointment, he came up a few
minutes later saying that he had identified the hang and the bottom finder
contact, and it was, to quote, one "gigantic freakin' boulder down there."
Too bad - we thought we had secured a chance to dive a virgin wreck as well
as eternal Scuba Club bragging rights.
We proceeded on to the Romance, but Robert's on the hook for that part of
the report.
The wreck is noted for its relatively intact bow, huge boilers, and poor
visibility much of the time. True to its reputation, the vis on our dive
was absolutely abysmal... 0-3 feet. Chris and I descended the mooring line
to the bow. We were expecting the poor vis, and we agreed beforehand that
it would be Chris's turn with the wreck reel. As many of you faithful
readers know, I consider this piece of equipment to be a torture device.
True to its calling, the reel jammed immediately while we were tying in
near the mooring line. You have to realize that in these zero-vis
conditions, you are really dependent on the reel. That's why I was a
little hesitant when I took a careful look at the end of Chris's reel line
and noticed that the latch hook was connected to the line with a piece of
duct tape! (Chris later swore to me that the duct tape was covering a
secure knot.) I also noticed that Chris was dragging around a length of
webbing strap, which I later found out was supposed to be a buddy line for
me. Duh! I made do by sliding my curled hand along the reel line as Chris
paid it out, making sure my hand never came off the line. That's how bad
the vis was. Anyway, we made our way along the port side of the bow (I
think), returned to our starting point, then along the starboard side.
Turning around again, I found that the reel line was now wound around my
fin, which I could barely see. You just have to keep repeating
Capt. Dave's mantra: "Remember, diving is fun, diving is fun". We
attempted one more foray from our starting point in search of the huge
boilers that Chris and Peter K had seen on their previous dives here, but
the silt was so bad that you couldn't even see the bottom unless you were
within inches of it. So we turned around and returned to our starting
point. I think it was about this time that the reel jammed again, and
Chris had to disassemble it to clear the jam, which isn't easy with frozen
numb fingers. (Water temperature was 4 C, or 39 F.) After reflecting on
this dive, I'd have to say that although it's a useful skill to practice
diving in zero visibility, I would have much rather done a 2nd dive on the
Reliance. Chris insists that I should reserve judgement on the Romance
until I dive it in better visibility.
Back on the charter boat, no sooner had we started under way when we were
approached by a US Coast Guard boat. Over the radio they asked several
questions of the captain, and then veered off. But a few minutes later
another USCG vessel came alongside and actually boarded us! They took ID's
from all of us, radioed the ID information to someone, and proceeded to
search the dive boat. After quite a long time out in the cold, they
finally allowed us to go back into the heated cabin. Finding everything in
order (life preservers, fire extinguishers, flares, permits, etcetera),
they returned our ID's and then hopped back onto their boat. "Diving is
fun, diving is fun."
Pug Wreck
Divers:
Yesterday was a beautiful day for wreck diving, although definitely a
little nippy in the morning. Chris, Peter, and I went out on a small
charter boat run by Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions out of Salem.
Besides us, there were also 2 divers who were taking a technical diving
certification course taught by the charter boat captains. There was a
slight delay on the way out of the harbor when we came across a disabled
boat and ended up towing him back to his mooring in Marblehead harbor.
We then headed for the
Pug wreck
(http://www.northernatlanticdive.com/shipwrecks/pug_wreck/pug_wreck.htm),
which was discovered only 3 years ago and is believed to have been a "work
lighter" that was scuttled in the 1920's. It's exact location is a secret
(if you bring a GPS unit on board, the captains will hang you from the
yardarm), but my best guess is that we were a couple miles off the north
shore in the Nahant/Swampscott area. The spectacular weather was also
accompanied by a very calm ocean, so I didn't have to worry about feeding
the fish. We had a great view of the downtown Boston skyline.
We three MIT divers were all suited up well in advance and hit the water as
soon as the captain had installed a new mooring on the wreck. The mooring
line attached down to a point roughly in the center of the deck. Chris had
done this wreck once before earlier this year, so he offered to gave us the
tour. Although the visibility near the surface was really good, down on
the wreck it was 10-15 ft, particularly after we hit the deck and stirred
things up. Chris took us all the way around the 120 ft long ship,
following along its gunwhales for the most part, although dropping to the
sand every once in a while to look at the enticing scallops. I recorded a
max depth of 37.4 m (123 ft) and a temperature of 8 C (46 F). It was
actually warmer in the water than on the dive boat. All of us were in
drysuits, and each of us was diving with single tanks of plain air plus
pony bottles. There were numerous openings in the deck which allowed entry
into the engine room and forward compartments. We didn't bother with our
wreck reels, but it got very silty very quickly, and if we had wanted to
venture deeper into the wreck, I would have definitely unfurled my reel.
Early in the dive I was monitoring my dive computer to keep abreast of my
no-deco time, but we were having so much fun exploring that I neglected
this for a few minutes. As I was coming back out onto the deck I was
surprised to see that I now had 6 minutes of required decompression. It
eventually climbed to 8 minutes as we slowly ascended the mooring line
towards our 5 m deco stop. After clearing our obligations by a healthy
margin (with Peter using his O2 bottle), we climbed back on board just as
the two students were getting in the water with the instructor. While
Chris passed around some snack food, we went over the first dive and
planned for the 2nd one. I had somehow missed the rudder, which is
half-buried in the sand, on our first tour around the stern. We agreed
that on the 2nd dive we would make a beeline for the stern to take another
look. After an SIT of 80 minutes we were headed back down. The rudder was
plain as day, but what was even better was the propeller, half of which was
in clear view above the sand. It was at this point that I recorded my max
depth of 38.0 m (125 ft). We then swam along the port side and popped back
up on deck somewhere towards the bow. I only had an 80 cu.ft. tank on this
2nd dive (I used a 100 cu.ft. tank on the 1st dive), so I was intent on not
going into deco again. But I looked at my gauge now and I had just about
reached my no-deco limit. Chris and Peter seemed like they were not ready
to leave yet, so I figured I'd head toward the mooring line on my own.
Chris had attached a bright flashing strobe on the line when we came down,
but darn if I couldn't see where it was, despite looking carefully both
forward and aft. So I queried Chris with a "where is it?" look. After a
little confusion, and three kick strokes aft, the strobe and deck hatches
came into view. We played for a few moments more inside the hatches and
then, with 7 minutes of required deco time now built up, I started making
my way up the mooring line. Moments later I was joined by Chris and Peter
and we all did a leisurely ascent and a very long hang at 5 meters. I was
a little annoyed with myself for not following my own plan to avoid a 2nd
deco dive with the smaller tank, but the conditions were so good, and
getting to explore a new wreck was a lot of fun.
Back on deck we enjoyed talking with the captains/owners/instructors,
Heather Knowles and David Caldwell. They are well-known wreck divers who
gave a great presentation at the Sea Rovers convention the year before
last. They continue running their dive charters throughout the winter, and
I'm sure we'll be out with them again in the coming months.
- Robert G
Lanes Cove
Divers:
We've had eight or nine days of rain and it was just another rainy
day. But, we had to scratch our dive itch and satisfy our appetite
for lobster. What a day for a dive. Just getting to the dive site
was an adventure. We arrived at 7:30AM after driving through pouring
rain, flooded roads, gusty conditions, and avoiding downed trees and
branches. To get to the site, I had to remove a fallen tree on
Andrews Street that blocked the entire road.
The conditions at Lane's were as follows:
When we first surveyed the site, we decided to exchange each other's
emergency contact information cards and review a few hand signals.
Louie filled his wetsuit with warm water before the dive -- a smart
thing. It was getting close to high tide and the surf at the entry
point wasn't too bad. We each timed our entry and kicked hard to
get out of the surf. We then swam in the waves for about 250 yards
before going down. The water was dark and murky and the wave
currents moved us back & forth 4-6 feet. Looking for lobsters was
tough because of the currents but we managed to find and catch
several keepers. Also, staying together was a challenge needless to
say; we both had lights and it helped increase our visibility by 6
feet. Regardless, I had to surface a few times to find Louie -- the
intrepid flag bearer. Exiting was more challenging as tide came up
even higher and the surfs were larger and stronger -- water was
spraying to the top of the hill. With regulators in and at least 500
psi, we were tumble-washed on the boulders getting to shore while
trying hard not to crush our dinner.
Wanting more punishment, we headed back for a second dive. The surf
action and waves worsened during the second dive. On our way back
there was a strong current that moved west along the shoreline. This
moved us further up the shore making it difficult for us to swim back
to our entry point so we swam straight for the shore avoiding the
heavy surf from the rocky protrusions jutting out just right of the
normal entry area. We were able to get out in relative safety and
hike back.
A few bruises and a good workout but we're happy to have been in the
water and to have a good meal for tonight.
- Don
Chandler Hovey Light
Divers:
Site- Chandler Hovey Park, Marblehead
Bill and I decided to get in a quick single dive on what looked to be
the least offensive dive condition day of the week at our favorite
local site -- Marblehead (see earlier dive report on this site)
We got there just before sunrise at 6:30am, and the surf pounding the
cove walls was stronger than I'd ever seen there. This was probably
a result of the direct northerly wind. Contrary to my assurances to
Bill that boat traffic would be winding down along with the summer
crowds, we saw about 6 boats (mostly ferries and fishing boats) cross
the channel right where we'd be diving) while suiting up.
Getting in was a snap despite the 3' breakers easy due to the pebbled
cove entry -- visibility was a different matter, resembling pea soup
with probably no more than 6' vis. Due to Bill's new strobe flasher,
I could easily detect him before I was able to see him. Every time
he came near me, I thought that either a plane was landing or someone
had brought a disco ball in with them.
Lobstering was not good at all -- neither of us saw many bugs, and
those we saw were smaller than we've seen at many other sites.
Strangely, even though there seem to be far fewer eggers at other
sites at this time of season, I caught proportionately a lot more
here -- as much as my past 3 dives put together. Also, there were
fewer bugs just sitting out in the open -- they were back in their
holes acting as suspiciously as lobsters usually do. There was
little other fauna -- just starfish and cunners. In the end, we
ended up with just 3 between us, with Bill bringing back a bunch of
rock crabs as well (hey the family has to eat somehow).
Water temp was 50 at depth (~30fsw), but felt chillier than a dive at
Magnolia 3 days ago which registered 44. Not sure why. Probably time
to add a vest and better neoprene socks...
- Louie
Pug Wreck and SS Romance
Divers:
I headed out yesterday afternoon with Norhtern Atlantic Dive Expeditions out
of Salem to dive the Pug Wreck (real name unknown) and the SS Romance, the
latter being a wreck I've visited a number of times before. It was the
first time heading out with NADE, and I was impressed. They've got a new
boat with a very nice setup for wreck diving, including an honest-to-god
dressing table, walk-through stern, reasonable rates ($60 a pop), and
friendly captains. It's definitely a techie-wreck boat though, as I was the
only one without doubles and there was lots of shiny new Halycon and other
DIR/GUE/buzzword-approved gear among the clientele. With six divers,
including the two captains and their gear, it was pleasantly uncrowded. The
boat makes about 16 knots, so we were out from Salem Harbor to the Pug Wreck
in short order.
The Pug is a bit north of the Romance, northeast of the tip of Nahant. It's
apparently an old work lighter, or maybe a steamer barge. There's no
superstructure to be found on it, and I'd estimate it at about 120' long and
40' wide. Depth is about 125' to the sand, and vis was pretty reasonable,
at about 20'. I splashed with Capt. Dave, and we headed down the mooring
line for our first dive. The mooring chain (apparently put in place by
CAD) is attached near the bow, and we headed directly inside a hatch on the
deck and found ourselves in the forward part of the engine room near the
boilers. We headed aft inside the interior, past the engine, around some
catwalks inside, and came out about amidships. We circunavigated the stern,
where the rudder lies in place and half-buried in the silt and made our way
back to the bow. Dave and I parted ways, and I headed back inside the wreck
alone. I had a bit more time to explore the engine room, but didn't find
anything of interest left that hadn't been picked over long ago. While
there are ample escape routes from the interior, there is a very thick layer
of silt on the bottom of the hull and I didn't want to stir it up too much.
Heading forward into the bow compartment, I found the head, but I wasn't
about to take that as a souvenier! I ascended after my dive, completed a
minute or two of decompression plus a safety stop and got back on the boat,
using their well-designed ladder.
Roughly two hours later, we splashed in at the Romance, a steamer that sank
in a collision near Graves Light in the 30's - it's been written up before
in dive reports by myself and Peter Kerrebrock. Depth is about 85 feet at
this wreck, and it's mostly a debris field. Since it's almost in a shipping
channel, boat traffic is heavy, and at least once we had to radio to make
sure a casino boat didn't run us down. It also means that coming up off the
line is a Very Bad Idea. To that end, using a reel is highly recommended,
especially with conditions like today, where vis was, at best, 10' and more
like 3-5' feet most of the time. Having been on the Romance in both good
and bad vis, I'd say that visibility can make or break this dive as an
enjoyable one. We were hooked in at the top of the forward boiler, I was
diving solo again, and vis was so bad that when I dropped down to the bottom
to tie my reel in, the boiler only a few feet away from me was indistinct.
I thought at first that my mask must be fogging, but it was just
exceptionally poor vis. I headed back to the second boiler and the engine,
and then back to my reel. I headed forward again in the other direction,
and almost literally ran into the upturned bow before I saw it. There was
also a lot of fishing line on the wreck today, and I had to stop to cut some
loose twice. No bugs in sight either - at least the wreck was good reel
practice, something you can't have enough of.
All in all, a fun day, and it was nice to hit some wrecks in Mass Bay that
aren't the Poling. I'll defintely be checking their schedule again.
- Chris
Gun Rock Beach
Divers:
Peter Kerrebrock and I decided to squeeze in a Friday evening dive last
night at Gun Rock Beach in Hull. We were out on full bug-hunt mode, but it
wasn't our night. Now that summer's over, parking is much easier there, and
we suited up at our cars on Atlantic Avenue and walked right down the steps
to the beach. It was right near high tide, so, after a long swim out, we
began circumnavigating the rock going clockwise. Water temperature was only
about 55 degrees, about ten degrees cooler than it was this time last year,
so we both dove dry.
While the first time we were here we thought we had found Bug Central, that
wasn't the case last night. We saw a couple of shorts, and a number of
culls, but it was surprisingly barren. I did see a decent-size dogfish
shortly after descending, as well as a number of skates, but no flounder,
which I would have taken, given the slim pickings for lobster. After
circumnavigating the rock about 1.5 times, we found ourselves exactly
opposite where we wanted to be, so we were faced with either swimming to the
left or right to get back - we chose Plan B, which was scrambling over the
rock itself (thankfully it was still high tide, so it was a scramble in
about two feet of water) to get back to our starting point. We grabbed the
flag from where we had anchored it, and headed back up the beach. I came
away with one measly bug, and Pete came away with what he thought was a
found lobster gauge - turns out it was mine that I had dropped while gauging
my bug! At this point it was getting pretty dark (although the bug we
grabbed was taken...ahem...just before sunset), but we waded up the beach
and headed home. Oh well, better luck next time.
- Chris
Lanes Cove
Divers:
Don and I decided to head out for some lobsters on this beautiful
Thursday afternoon. High seas and east swells limited the choice of
sites so we went to Lane's Cove which faces N-NW.
Lane's was definitely had higher surf than normal but it was
essentially like a good day at Magnolia. I lost my catch bag on the
way in (lesson to John.. time to find a new catch bag system). I am
offering a lobster to anyone who finds my blue mesh catch bag (it has
a lobster gauge attached to the handle via a key ring).
We headed out more or less due north and went to the edge of the drop
off. We then turned towards the W and followed the ledge for about
50 minutes. Max depth was about 45 feet. Sculpin, fish, 4 skates,
striper, baby scorpion fish, heaps of cunner, among other fish were
spotted. 5 lobsters bagged between the two of us. Total time ~65
minutes. Water temp 55 at surface, 50 at depth. Viz was poor, 5-10
feet.
We then took a 30-minute break to switch tanks and headed out again.
Same dive route, except we turned towards the E once at the ledge.
The tide had come in quite a bit and it was definitely surgey. Lump
fish, cod, flounder, rock gunnel, more skate, and several sculpin
fish were spotted. We bagged one lobster but it was 2.5 pounds.
Lots of beautiful anemone, We were also both very cold the whole
dive. I think the incoming tide brought in a ton of cold water.
Temp most of the dive was 51, a little colder at depth.! Total time
~65 minutes. Max depth 50 feet. Viz 5-10.
Keep a look out for my bag.
- John
Lanes Cove
Divers:
Sunrise: 5:40 AM, Temperature 55 degrees, 8-10 MPH Wind from the North
(straight onshore)
I arrived at Lane's Cove at 4:45 AM and it was dark. I kept myself busy
till sunrise by checking conditions, unpacking my gear, and putting some
saltwater in my cooler (in case a deserving lobster was spotted). The sun
peeked up and I was ready to hit the water.
The temperature felt like late April with the wind coming off the ocean
producing 2-3 ft. waves. Enter was easy as the tide was almost out but vis
was poor near shore and only got worse.
I now know what it feels like to be in a washing machine. Extend your hands
fully and they move out of view. Tide and wind combined to caused debris to
swirl from the left, right, bottom and top. I swam directly north (away
from the shore) approximately 800 yards before the vis cleared at 45' to 5-8
feet. I expected to find lobsters out before the sun fully filtered to the
bottom. There were a few, but they were small and well buried in their
holes. Fifty-five minutes was enough and I headed in to shore with half a
tank left.
I crawl out of the water and spotted a silhouette on the ridge. I ask, "Did
you bring an extra cup of coffee?"
It turned out to be a Massachusetts Environmental Officer and a real nice
guy. We had a pleasant discussion about my dive conditions and the current
state of dive gear. We both remembered the day when an orange horse collar
was standard buoyancy control. He mentioned he was certified years ago and
was thinking of starting up diving again...maybe the club should think of
creating "honorary" MIT Scuba Club memberships .for the future.
I got a few tips:
Driving out of Lane's, I took the left at Route 127 to avoid the Road Race
(Running) they were setting up for later today in Rockport. A quick stop at
Dunkin Donuts (after Cape Ann Divers), and I had my coffee for the ride
home.
- Bill
Isles of Shoals
Divers:
This weekend 12 divers made the trip to dive at the Isles of Shoals with
Northeast Charter Boat Co. out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The sky was
sunny and the seas were light. Perfect weather for diving! After some
confusion in the parking lot and at the dock we headed out in two boats to
Cedar Island Ledge for our first dive. For reasons of speed (at the dock,
not on the water), all of our dive gear went out on one boat so the boats
had to be rafted together when we reached Cedar Island Ledge. Passing dive
gear between two boats and then suiting as the boats bounced off each other
was a unique experience. Personally, I'm looking forward to trying one of
those shore dives that are supposed to characterize New England diving.
Depth at Cedar Island Ledge varied between 0 feet (the top sticks out of
the water) and 140+ feet. The moring line was set at about 70 feet, and the
stern line (dropped for convenience) was set in 80+ feet of water (????
Someone check this ???). Visibility at 70 feet was between 15 and 20 feet
(???). The bottom was fairly active with sightings of dogfish, crabs,
lobster, five pointed starfish, and a few anemone. The rumored ten pointed
starfish (whose existence the boat crew swore to) went unspotted. Group
consensus seems to be that nitrogen narcosis plays a key role in spotting
these elusive creatures. After returning to the boats we swapped tanks and
headed to dive with the seals.
When we reached the second dive site we could see seals sunning on the
rocks. After being warned not to try to touch the seals, and not to splash
on the surface, we were off. The boat was anchored in about 25 feet of
water, but most of the seals were around a pool that was only 15 feet
deep. Most divers saw at least one seal, many saw several. Bill Crossen has
the distinction of being the only one to touch a seal (he found one dead on
the bottom). A few divers on the larger of the two boats took the
opportunity to do some snorkeling while we were waiting for the last couple
of people to return. The seals seemed more interested in the snorkelers
than the divers, with one swimming in circles under Bebe.
After returning to the dock about half of our number headed to Warrens,
just across the bridge in Maine, for some tasty seafood and talk of future
and past diving exploits. All in all it was a great day to dive.
- Bill Herrington
For those on the small boat @ the Isle Of Shoals Dive...there are sunfish
with more than 5 arms - but I have not found the one with 10 arms.
Starfish are usually fairly sluggish, have five or six arms and get pretty
stiff when you try to pick them up. The Sunflower Star (Pycnopodia
helianthoides, below) breaks all of these stereotypes. It typically has
around 20 arms, moves -- practically flows -- quite gracefully across the
surface, and is soft (mushy?) to the touch.
- Bill Crossen
This is such a great summary I have very little to add. Conditions were
perfect with water temps at 66 degrees. Of course we on the bigger boat
had the luxury of shade, marine head and shower so we definitely traveled
1st class. It was unfortunate that we could not have been on one boat but
the bonus of being able to go directly to the dock without going to the
dive shop and having the tanks on board made the trip less stressful and
tiring. Tanks were also $10 instead of $15 which always helps though
aluminum meant more weights which I was unprepared for. The first dive had
visibility at 30 ft at depths (50 and below) though the first 20 feet was
for all practical purposes 0 vis. The second was much better at all depths
because the waters were better protected. Seals are really quite curious
and intelligent. The one that played with me liked my fins and kept coming
around to check them out. This seal kept constant eye contact so they
definitely don't shy away to avoid it.I wonder if seals see color. The
marine life in those kelp beds also deserve another look. I would have
liked to see those diving birds, too. Definitely a dive to do again.
- Bebe Jacque
Chandler Hovey Park
Divers:
For awhile now, a few of us having been chasing the elusive dream - a
local dive site with parking. Sure, Nahant is close, but the parking
cops there have a reputation for towing and most MITers are not
fortunate enough to have friends or family who are residents. My
inquiries into diving the Charles were met with scientific reports of
heavy metal contamination and general disbelief. So, Magnolia seems
to have been the best option in terms of travel time.
This morning, Bill Crossen and I decided to go give Chandler Hovey
Park a try. The best info we could find came from an older MIT scuba
club report. This site is open to midweek or off-season diving only
-- not only is it illegal, but the nearby marina and summer boat
traffic, combined with shallow depths makes it a pretty dangerous
proposition to test out. Directions were fine, and barring the Mass
Pike being closed and detouring us through Boston, we probably could
have made it from PG Dive to the site parking lot in 35 min. It was
a beautiful morning, and we arrived a little before sunrise. As you
can see from the photo, the site has parking for about 12 cars, and
we were the only ones. The parking lot is about 200' from an easy
walk to a small protected pebble beach.
We slipped in just at sunrise and found visibility to be pretty poor,
but it was pretty close to dead low tide. Bottom was combination of
sand/rock with interesting "rock reefs" scattered throughout.
Lobsters were present, but strangely, it seemed to be a harem area,
with a very high percentage of eggers. This is also not the place to
be if you're looking for size -- I saw no lobsters more than about
1/2" over legal. One of Bill's was pretty nice sized though.
Starfish and skates were out in force as well as a number of curious
stripers that would go chasing after discarded shorts.
Temperature was a balmy 62 because the deepest we got was 24fsw, with
an average depth of under 20'. Because of this, I got 140min bottom
time off my HP100 and decided not to make a second dive. Bill came
in a little earlier, but still managed to pick up a couple more bugs
than me. He has built a portable aerated lobster hotel in his van,
complete with AC-powered pump that he swears makes for happy
lobsters. And since fellow lobsterman Don Lee has written, "i found
that all lobsters have different personalities and life experiences,"
clearly it is important to keep lobsters in the right frame of mind.
On the way home, we took a detour through Revere, where Bill grew up,
and he regaled me with stories of dating triumphs and failures.
Apparently, he also grew up at a home with the street address of
"666," so if you ever wonder why he acts a certain way or gets a
certain glint in his eye, now you know...
- Louie
Lanes Cove
Divers:
Louie and I decided to get in some early morning summer diving. So
we departed Boston at 4:30am and headed for Magnolia Rocks. Our
preference was to avoid the "Cape" sites because we can save 15+
minutes by doing Magnolia.
Unfortunately the weather did no cooperate. After looking at the
rather large waves at Magnolia we still decided to give it a go. But
after watching Louie get tossed around like old boxer shorts in a
washing machine, just trying to time the waves, in we reluctantly
decided to bag Magnolia and head elsewhere. We must have looked a
bit sketchy driving through Gloucester in full wetsuits.
Lane's cove was chosen given our love for the lobsta hunt. We
arrived there around 7am to much calmer seas and a beautiful morning.
Dive 1- about 55 minutes, max depth 60ft. Water temp at the surface
63F, water temp at the bottom 50-52F. We were more or less already
geared up so we went directly to the water and headed out at 0
degrees. The weren't many keepers prior to dropping over the ledge
but once below 40 ft bigger lobsters were found under the rocks. On
the way out we saw schools of cunner fish, countless red anemone,
frilled anemone, starfish (red, white, purple blue), alligator fish
and giant grabs. The green sea urchins were out in force. Louie
bagged 3 keepers. Also over the ledge there was a strong current
pushing us from west to east making the swim home a bit longer than
expected.
Dive 2 - 65 minutes, max depth 55ft. Water temp 63-52. This time
went out at 320 heading. Again the live over the shallow bit was
great. More of the same as dive one. On this dive we saw "the
biggest" lobster Louie has ever seen (I'm not 100% sure b/c we left
this one in the hole.... but it was huge) along with two of his
brothers. We saw them at a cave that is heading 338 off the
launching point. We also saw about 3-6 skate swimming in the sand, a
few winter flounder, and a sculpin. Louie bagged 2 keepers.
We were back in Watertown by 11:30am. Just in time for lunch!
On a personal note this was the best "nature dive" of the season for
me. The variety of fish was the best I've ever seen in New England.
Sort of made up for my lobster 0-for.
- John
Halfway Rock and Paddock Rock
Divers:
2 Boat dives aboard the "Cape Ann Divers II" boat (with Capt. Steve)
to Halfway Rock and Paddock Rock
The dive at Halfway Rock was rewarding despite the long boat ride. I was
worried initially because the visibility off the boat was about 2 feet
(lots of plankton) but a few feet down the water rapidly cleared to about
20 feet of vis. Halfway Rock is large and Evan and I choose to explore
only the front face of the rock around 30 feet down (Halfway goes to 110
feet at the deepest point) but moved up and down the formations between 10
and 50 feet. Halfway has numerous rock ledges, overhangs, and holes that
provide cover for large sea stars, tons of mussels, and urchins. The
highlights were a yellow raven, several overhangs filled with stripers up
to a 18 inches long, a four pound lobster, and a relatively pristine dive
site. The water was approximately 60 near the surface and 50 past a strong
thermocline near 25 feet. After 36 minutes we became cold and a little low
on air long before we finished exploring. This site definitely deserves a
follow up.
The second dive at Paddock Rock was less fun probably because we didn't do
the trench at 80 feet that is supposed to be the highlight of the area. I
didn't have a computer and we decided not to push it and stay shallow.
Paddock runs along a ridge that reaches a peak around fifteen feet
underwater. We explored the ridge about 35 feet down and worked our way
around the peak. The visibility was good but the water felt colder at 48
degrees and there was no thermocline. Paddock has a steep drop off at the
ridge, a rounded top, and plenty of small sea life. We explored the site
pretty thoroughly before we became so cold that we had to surface. I would
make sure I could do the trench at 80 feet before I'd choose this site
again.
- Nate
I will not cover the same points as Nate does above so here's my take
on the experience:
The water temp at depth for both dives was 48F.
This was my first time diving with one of the two Cape Ann Divers'
boats, the 45ft "Cape Ann Diver II" (the larger one) operated by
Capt. Steve. The boat left the dock at 8am sharp as advertised. The
deck is roomy and functional, certainly more than adequate when the
air temperature is in the 70s or 80s as was the case on Sunday. I
think there must have been around 14 divers on our ride and the boat
was filled to capacity. There is not enough room for everyone to be
below deck in case of cold air temps/rain etc. when the boat is full.
Below deck served nicely as a dry place for things such as land
cameras, wallets and clothes. The promise of a hot shower was
unfulfilled, the shower was there but it was cold. The entry-exit
were easy with a platform for a giant stride and an aluminum stable
ladder respectively. The crew consisted of Captain and first mate and
they were both professional, easy going, polite and knowledgeable and
they expertly helped everyone with entries and exits. There was an
"honor" bar with tiny water bottles for $1 and a funny little
complimentary snack tray service afterthought consisting of PB&J
quarters (!), tiny fruit pieces etc. that the first mate brought
around to the divers during the surface interval. This was perhaps
the second most bizarre experience on this boat, the primary one
being described in the PS.
Bebe and Frank (who was not associated with MIT or Tufts) were my
buddies for both dives. For the first one to Halfway Rock (about
50mins boat ride) I navigated the group counterclockwise about a
third of the way around the rock to a max depth of 93ft and 23mins as
Frank was at half-tank very early. We saw plenty of legal-sized
lobster hiding in the numerous overhangs and crabs everywhere, a fish
that looked like a medium sized grouper, and plenty of small fish.
Frank was taking pictures and promised to send them (nothing yet -of
course- I have YET to get anyone to send me the pics they take of me
underwater in my 15 years of diving... is there some unspoken social
rule about not doing that? Is it perhaps illegal? Am I missing
something?).
Anyway.
It took about half an hour to sail to Paddock Rock which Bebe and
Frank and I dove to 63ft for 30mins. We found what looked like the
aforementioned "trench" (but at between 55-63ft not 80ft) and
followed it for a while, again going counterclockwise about half way
around the rock. This time we found a medium sized red raven and
"shook hands/fins" with it -it was only mildly annoyed. Huge starfish
were again the main attraction as well as plenty of lobster and crab
and urchin and anemones.
On both dives, seas were calm, dive lights were helpful (especially
because of the layer of light-absorbing material floating on the
surface), at least 7mm wetsuits with hoods and gloves were necessary,
and there was enough to see to make them worthwhile.
Upon landing at around 1pm, Nikolai, Evan and I went for lunch at the
"Causeway", across the street from the marina, which served me the
biggest skillet of linguini and mussels and squid I have ever seen
and it was only $11. Even though I was
"just-dived-in-48F-water-twice" -hungry, I couldn't finish the thing.
- Andreas
PS An amusing spectacle was a few divers with their leader in a dry
sporting doubles with a pony (trimix?) and water scooters -I thought
it was overkill given a max depth of 100ft but then again it's a free
country and to each their own. Maybe they were just training...
Pebble Beach
Divers:
This was the first post-certification dive for Mats and Yusuke and the
first cold-water dive for Fabrizio. Everyone was diving 7mm farmer-john
wets with gloves and hoods as the temp at depth was 48F. Vis was around
6ft, in some places up to 10ft.
Fabrizio, Andreas and Yusuke went first. For this 40 minute dive we headed
towards the reef on the right side of the beach (when facing the water)
~SW. Saw lots of smaller-than-legal lobster, plenty of crab, starfish, a
couple of flounders and a red raven. Since we entered the water at around
2pm, max depth we managed was 24ft. Playing with the marine life cost us in
air so we were running pretty low even before I lost my mask while
attempting to untangle the tow line from our flagman Yusuke (the thing had
actually knotted in several places as if actively trying to choke him).
Fabrizio and Yusuke spent the rest of their air doing search patterns for
the mask to no avail. The gruelling and boring surface swim that ensued was
the worse thing about this dive and it seems to be a general feature of
Pebble Beach that you have to swim out about 100m before anything
interesting can be seen below. Doing it with no mask was no fun lemme tell
ya...
So, any of you out there find my beloved grey TUSA Splendive-II mask with
blue/yellow hair-saver strap cover and Mares snorkel, you know there is at
least a couple of drinks waiting for you upon its return.
For the second dive, Mats, Fabrizio and Yusuke went with Mats amazingly
more-or-less fitting into all my gear (I'm 5' 7" he's something like 6' 3").
This time they went straight out due south and let the current carry them
east before turning in straight north and having a lot of painful fun
exiting with the surf that had picked up in the 50 minutes they spent
underwater. According to them, there was absolutely no lobster on that part
of the sea but plenty of crab and flounder and other -unidentified as of
yet- fish. Max depth they went according to my computer was 20ft.
The ice cream truck kept the ground support entertained and cooly hydrated
- Andreas
Port Hunter wreck
Divers:
While vacationing on the Cape Friday 12 August there was a rare confluence
of slack tide and relatively calm seas in Vineyard Sound, so on the spur of
the moment my Dad and I took a few hours off from the kids and headed out to
the wreck of the Port Hunter. Unfortunately there wasn't time to make
arrangements for a buddy, so I was diving alone with my dad boat-sitting.
We took my boat out through the Menauhant inlet and headed towards Hedge
Fence shoal, about a mile north of Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard, where the
remains of the Port Hunter lay. I had dove this wreck several times a few
years back but hadn't been recently, so I was interested to see how it looks
now.
The P.H. was a 380 foot long British steam freighter that sank in a
collision with the tug Covington in 1918. It was scheduled to join a convoy
across the Atlantic and was carrying war supplies. The bow of the Covington
struck the P.H. on the port side forward, cutting a large hole in the hull.
The captain knew his ship was doomed, so he ran it aground on Hedge Fence.
After it sank much of the ship's superstructure was above the waves, so some
of the cargo was salvaged then and in later years. There is a good article
on the P.H. on the Metro West Dive Club's web site
http://www.mwdc.org/Shipwrecks/PortHunter.html.
Today the P.H. skewers Hedge Fence, which is a long underwater sand dune.
The midships of the wreck is almost completely buried in the shoal, but the
bow and stern stick out of the sand on either side of the dune. The wreck
is pitched upward with the bow shallower than the stern, and it leans to
port. This year there are two moorings on it, one on the bow and the other
on the stern, but they're only on the surface at slack tide. The current in
Vineyard Sound is swift, up to 3 knots over the wreck on a spring tide, and
the mooring buoys are pulled under all the time except for less than an hour
at slack tide. At peak current, the surface swirls and roils where it
passes over the wreck. We arrived to find the bow mooring buoy up, so we
snagged it and began suiting up. Just as I was about to go in I saw the
other buoy pop to the surface, so I took off my tank and fins and we moved
to the stern, which I think is more interesting. This mooring is tied off
to the stern rail, much of which still exists. The stern is mostly intact
and you can swim under it to see the rudder and propeller shaft. The
propeller was salvaged years ago, but oddly, the salvage crew bothered to
put the propeller nut back on the shaft when they were done. The bottom
depth is about 60 feet at the stern, but the current scours under the wreck
so the maximum depth is about 80 feet. On the port side of the stern is a
large anti-submarine gun on its mount, pointing forward and down. This gun
is quite large compared to anti-submarine guns used in WWII (see the stern
of the Black Point sunk by the U-853). Swimming forward the bottom rises
steeply to where the wreck begins to disappear in to the shoal. Without a
buddy I decided to stay near the stern, but had I swum all the way to the
bow I probably would have seen the hole in the hull that caused the ship to
sink, and a bunch of railroad wheels that had been part of the cargo (these
were visible features I'd seen on previous dives). The visibility was about
15 feet, and the water temperature was in the mid 70's. A few large
stripers and many large tautog were milling around the stern.
Several days later, while taking the kids to jump off "Jaws Bridge" on the
Vineyard, we passed the wreck again at slack tide and there was a 150 ft
luxury yacht anchored near the shoal. Their jet-powered RIB was moored at
the wreck with several divers entering the water. I guess this wreck has
become pretty popular.
- Peter
Salt Rock and USS NH
Divers:
I was itching to get in the water and I can't go diving for the next few
weekends, so I took a weekday morning CAD charter to Salt Rock and the
wreck of the USS N.H. I always intend to write up dive reports for the
dives I go on, but I felt especially compelled this time because it
doesn't look like there is any previous report for Salt Rock (which is
apparently not Salt Island) and only one for the USS NH. For that reason,
I am actually writing one this time. I apologize for any mistakes.
Dive 1 - Salt Rock
Salt Rock is basically a tiny rock off of a nice little beach on the
southwestern portion of Cape Ann. I originally thought it was going to be
Salt Island, but I realized that we were heading southwest from the
harbor. Someone mentioned we were passing Norman's Woe. Anyway, when we
got there, after about a 30 minute boat ride, the Captain anchored the
boat and I noticed the beach was actually pretty busy with people. It
felt a little weird going scuba diving next to a busy beach. I thought it
might be fun to crawl out of the water and grab a few little kids. It was
probably too far a swim.
I ended up diving solo since there were two solo lobsterers aboard and
another pair of site seers had buddied up. It was fine with me, since
about half my dives end up solo anyway, due to lost buddies (who are later
found (healthy)). I had a redundant air source as well. As per the
captain's recommendation I descended to about 40 feet and swam I believe
southwest, away from the rock. In this direction I encountered some large
monolithic rocks covered in sea urchins. I swam back the same route to
check out Salt Rock and found the bottom to be more vegetative with the
usual crabs and lobsters lingering about. I even witnessed one of each
engaged in a feud with each other. Then I saw a shark! Well, a dogfish,
but technically still a shark. It was about 3 feet long and I followed it
around until it took off. I later found out that the other divers had
seen them as well. Someone mentioned they are often seen at Salt Rock, so
you might want to check it out if you're into dogfish. Stats: water ~50
deg, visibility: low, ~10 ft., max depth: 40 ft, time: 50 min.
Dive 2 - USS NH
After about a 5 minute boat ride to the northeast we were anchored on the
rock that doomed the USS NH. Actually, it was already doomed before it
hit the rock, because it apparently was being towed for salvage when it
broke free and drifted into the rock. It sank a long time ago, but not
exactly sure when. The captain informed us that the interesting objects
to look out for are large copper nails and sheets. The nails say Paul
Revere Foundry on them and are very hard to come by after years of
picking, he added.
I descended and mingled around the seaward side of the rock. The wreck
was so broken up and old that it pretty much resembles any other Cape Ann
reef. I eventually came across some very old rusted tubular shapes and
strange pipes sticking up here and there. Some other divers later told me
that there were some boards (?) with immobile lipstick size bronze nails
sticking up, or something like that. I found some interesting copper
sheeting sticking out of the ground in a few places. Then I found some
strange iron rods, and what appeared to be a nail! Curious to hear what
others would think of the stuff, I lugged the razor sharp rubbish back on
board and dumped it on the floor of the boat. The rods were clearly
nothing interesting. I showed the nail to the captain and he pointed out
the rust (it was almost all rust), and that copper shouldn't really rust
that way. So, it was a nail, but not the fancy kind! I had been shut
down. I threw the rods back, but kept the rusty old nail. I felt this
was ethically OK since the wreck didn't seem to be of such epic importance
to humankind. In all, it was quite an interesting dive on a very old
wreck. Stats: nearly the same as Dive 1.
I made it back to MIT in time for a meeting and reflected on how I had
been wrestling a huge shark just hours earlier.
- Ian
Magnolia Rocks
Divers:
On Saturday, John and I decided to get in two no-nonsense dives at
Magnolia for the express purpose of acquiring the increasingly
elusive lobsters. On the past two trips up to Cape Ann, we had come
up pretty dry at Old Garden and Back Beach and found that site choice
is everything. Fortunately, the drought ended and we ended up with a
total catch of 11 between the two of us.
We departed Cambridge at 7:30 and arrived at the site less than 45
min later. Conditions topshore were deceptively terrific, with a
light breeze (not the 10-15 knot winds forecasted), cloudless bright
sky, and seas gently rolling at 1-2' max. We suited up quickly and
got in at relatively low tide -- only one other set of divers was
visible and they were coming in with what appeared to be healthy
catches. We headed out on the right side first, with the intent to
get out a fair bit before dropping down. This turned out to be a
good idea, as the first 300-400 feet out from shore seemed to be
pretty barren. Upon dropping down, it was apparent that the lobsters
have not yet left this site. Clarity was excellent and there were
plenty of lobster around, though there seemed to be a higher
proportion of berry-carrying females here and lots of shorts. At
some point, John and I separated, and when I next surfaced, his flag
was a good distance away in our original azimuth. I followed,
continuing to hunt, but we kept missing each other and by the time I
finally got to where I last saw him, he had headed back. First dive
ended with 85 min bottom time, I picked up 3 bugs and John scored 2.
Quick tank change and we were back at work, this time heading left,
mindful of a ripping current moving east to west (the pair of divers
we had seen actually abandoned their flag when it was caught on a
buoy and they couldn't fight the current). The terrain here was much
different, with more kelp, less large boulders and rocks, but still a
fair amount of holes and lobsters out in the open. Poor John had the
flag again and was struggling against the current as I ran out
ahead. Interestingly, the water temp here at the same depth (25-35')
was 10 degrees warmer (58F) than on the right side, probably due to
the current. We saw some excellent large puffy starfish that I
haven't seen locally and brilliant purple sea pens. John finally
handed over the flag to me and commenced chasing a large winter
flounder, SeaHunt style with his dive knife. Not much later, we got
short on air and surfaced only to face the prospect of fighting the
current to get to shore. I made it in, swimming almost into the
current -- John made the smarter decision of swimming just
perpendicular to the current and hiking back on the road. Later on
shore, a local diver who had done over 200 dives here mentioned that
this was one of the strongest currents he's seen at the site. Second
dive was a bit shorter, at 75 min, but successful, having cleared 6
bugs.
After stowing our gear, we saw Bob, the owner of the house on the
corner that fronts the site, out on the porch with friends. We went
over and said hello but couldn't stay long. We were back in Cambridge
by 2:30, making this one of the quickest double-dive days we've had
yet.
- Louie
Wreck Rodeo
Divers:
Well, better late than never, here it is! The long-delayed dive report on
the 2nd MITSC Wreck Rodeo! Thanks to everyone who contributed
their recollections, because mine were fading fast.
The second annual MITSC wreck rodeo kicked off Thursday afternoon 28 July,
2005 with a long drive from Cambridge to Bethlehem PA. John Armstrong and
Keith Thoresz wrassled the rental van a.k.a. the "bottle bitch" so named
for the copious number of cylinders it would carry, while Robert Granetz
and I drove the family car I stole for the weekend. Chris Russo was on a
business trip and flew up to Bethlehem from Florida, while Carl Stjernfeldt
drove down late that evening. It should be noted that in spite of its
lumber bulk and massive payload, and delays caused by detours, traffic
jams, and even a certain pair of scissors, the B.B. made the best time
point-to-point on most every leg of the trip. Credit John's uncanny sense
for the unfathomable traffic patterns in the NYC area. Credit John, too,
for making most of the arrangements for this trip.
Friday morning, after a night spent at a local hotel, we made the short
trip to Dutch Springs. This is a former quarry in the Pennsylvania
countryside that has since been flooded and turned into a diver's
playground. Numerous "wrecks" including old boats, an airplane, trucks, a
trolley car, and one very large helicopter dot the bottom of the quarry.
These attractions are marked by buoys on the surface, and ropes connect
them underwater. Depths range from about 40 feet to 70 feet, with the
quarry bottoming out at a maximum of about 100 feet. Zebra mussels cover
most everything, consequently the water is well filtered and the vis was up
to about 40 feet. Surface temperatures favored a wetsuit (high 70's), but
bottom temperatures rewarded drysuited divers (mid 40's). A very crisp
thermocline at about 30 feet looked like oil and water when disturbed by a
diver. Chris and I took advantage of the favorable conditions and
practiced shooting a bag and ascending the wreck line. Meanwhile, Robert
was snookered into giving John a free ride around the bottom of the quarry
when he went to attach his reel back onto his harness and mistakenly
clipped off the line end rather than the reel body. The reel sank to the
bottom paying out line as Robert swam away, and John picked up the reel and
set the brake. Apparently it was some time before Robert noticed the drag
of another diver towing along behind, to John's delight. The wreck-diving
lite was enjoyable and relaxing.
That afternoon we drove to the Point Pleasant area on the Jersey Shore,
with the B.B. making a detour through Hoboken to pick up a load of
cylinders. The next day got off to a late start since our charter was in
the afternoon. The morning was spent searching for a dive shop to top off
the hot fills we got at Dutch Springs the previous day. Both dives that
day were to be on the S.S. Mohawk, a passenger steamer that sank on 25
January, 1935 in a collision with the freighter Talisman. We rode the
"Blue Fathom", a sport fisherman nicely converted for diving, and we were
blessed with calm seas and sunshine. The Mohawk's remains rest in about 80
ft on a flat silty, sandy bottom. It is a flattened and scattered wreck
made of large plates and steel beams. In the 15 foot vis this was a
somewhat disorienting dive because the wreck is about 400 ft long and
everything is on a large scale. The mooring was attached forward of the
boilers, and Robert and I managed to locate the bow which is mostly
collapsed, but the anchor and hawse pipe are still easily recognizable. On
our second dive we swam over the same area, then aft to try to find the
boilers and stern, but the wreckage planed out into sand. Like many wrecks
the Mohawk has a lot of monofilament on it, which Robert tells me I was
collecting on my fins. But he was swimming along behind me doing such a
good job cutting it loose that I really never noticed. Between his and my
tangles he said he's never had to cut so much monofilament. John found a
ceramic deck tile, and Chris got the artifact of the day: a complete door
latch and lock mechanism, probably from one of the interior doors.
The second day of diving off Point Pleasant, again from the "Blue Fathom",
was to the
Stolt Dagali,
the partial wreckage of an oil tanker sunk in a
collision with the brand new passenger steamer Shalom on 26 November, 1969,
Thanksgiving Day. Again we had calm seas and sunshine. The Stolt's stern
was completely severed in the collision and it plunged to the bottom ~130
ft below taking 19 lives. The midships and bow of the Stolt stayed afloat
and this part of the ship was eventually welded to another stern section to
make a new tanker. The sunken stern lays tilted to starboard with the
propeller and rudder at the sand line. The structure of the wreck is
fairly massive, rising some 60 ft above the bottom. There was a distinct,
15 degree F thermocline at the top of the wreck, and where the current
flowed over it the two layers of water swirled and mixed like oil and
water. The first dive was spent just getting our bearings on the wreck.
Robert and I found a vertical penetration that passed through several deck
levels, and I found myself in the cavernous engine room looking at the top
of the large engine, and the propeller shaft running aft through the shaft
alley. The surface interval was spent trading impressions of what we saw,
and for our second dive Robert and I decided that we were going to try to
locate the rudder and propeller. We descended the mooring line to the port
rail, and then swam across and down the large curving surface of the port
side. After what seemed like a long swim we found ourselves at the sand
line at 128 ft with the fan tail of the stern towering above us. This part
of the wreck is dark with little natural light, but the vis was good and
our lights carried far into the gloom. I got a great view of Robert
standing on the rudder, which is broken off the rudder post and lays flat
on the bottom. Next to him the propeller hub was at the sand line, but one
blade rose higher than his head, looking like an enormous headstone. Using
my knife I scraped some growth from the propeller blade exposing a patch of
bronze underneath. In our lights it glittered like gold. It's hard to
believe this prop hasn't been salvaged. Next we swam up the underside of
the fan tail and saw the deck winches, davits, and finally the galley super
structure. Chris scored again, finding a lost light, and Robert found a
snorkel. In the hang we watched through the clear water as towers of
bubbles rose from divers down on the wreck. The warm water and clear vis
made the hang a pleasure, and I stayed at 10 feet well past my
decompression obligation just for the joy of being underwater.
http://www.njscuba.net/sites/site_stolt_dagali.html
On the trip back in we chatted with the crew and marveled at the number of
wrecks in the recreational diving depth range scattered off the New Jersey
shore, enough to keep MITSC wreck rodeos going for years to come. Soon
reality set back in and we found ourselves on the NJ turnpike making the
long drive back to Boston.
- Peter Kerrebrock
Old Garden Beach
Divers:
After considering the weather, we narrowed down the dive site choice
to Lanes Cove, Cathedral Rocks, and Old Garden Beach. Louie vetoed
Cathedral, because he had done his last two dives there. Lanes Cove
was deemed too risky for a group of our size -- the lobstermen there
are crooks looking for a fight with out-of-towners. This was a wise
decision indeed -- today I read reports of three divers' cars getting
their tires stashed at Lanes over the weekend. So, we settled for Old
Garden Beach.
Old Garden looks quite different from last summer. The once sandy
beach is now covered with rocks - a reminder of the storms this past
winter. Yet, the site still has the appeal of easy entry and exit,
the convenient concrete flat, and the relatively painless parking.
After reviewing the site layout we started gearing up and entering
the water in teams. Louie and John went after the lobsters
while Mike, Marta, and Jim went for a tour of the shallows. Stacy and
I went on a little photo dive around the rocky arc starting from the
right side.
As we were making our way around the arc, the water temperature
dipped down to the bone-freezing mid-40s. My druisuit was perfectly
capable of taking the cold water, but I had my doubts about the
rental suit with a flapping knee pad Stacy was wearing. To my respect
Stacy braved the chill, and we made our way 2/3 around the deep side
of the arc before making our way back to the shallows in the middle.
Unfortunately, the visibility wasn't too spectacular - about 5 ft or
so in most places. I ended just dragging my camera around until we
reached the sandy area at 15ft. The water was much warmer there and
the visibility was 12ft or so. A moon snail, flounder, and a crab
obligedly posed for the camera while we made our way back. The main
attraction for my lens though was a big lobster trap housing two
unfortunate bugs. Once I blasted my strobe in the trap and the
picture appeared on my LCD, I realized (to my delight) that the trap
was painted in a clean blue color, which nicely complemented the red
shell of the lobster. Without the artificial light, the trap appeared
grayish. I had been thinking of giving Stacy my dive light for this
exact reason, but had ended up forgetting it in the car. Dive time -
62 min. Max. depth - 42 ft.
During the surface interval we met Victor who had missed the first
dive but joined in for the second. Mike reported that the visibility
to the right of the site wasn't bad. Louie and John came back with
one dead lobster (and no live ones). Reportedly, the bug had been
crushed by a larger comrade beyond legal size. As we were preparing
for the second dive, and I was helping Stacy unscrew her stuck yoke,
we listened to an older diver's rationale of the cold water we had
encountered. According to him, the weather pattern had pushed the
Gulf Stream to the south making way for the Labrador current, which
had been dumping bountiful amounts of arctic water in the Gulf of
Maine. Quite an interesting, if not plausible, theory, if I may say
so.
For the second dive, Stacy and I decided to explore the shallows to
the East of the beach. This direction proved a better choice than the
rocky arc. The overgrown kelp was providing good cover for a
multitude of lobsters and lesser fish. The visibility seemed better
over the kelp, and the water temperature was around 56 degrees. We
enjoyed a leisurely swim over the kelp, accompanied by a large
striper. We ended up spending some time playing with some hermit
crabs and peeking under the larger boulders to meet some good sized
lobsters. We even found a swim-through of sorts between two large
rocks. At some point, while trying to demo some hovering techniques,
I managed to loose my lens cap (a new one is already in the mail).
Stacy was looking around for it to no avail - it's mission impossible
to find anything that small in the kelp between the rocks.
The highlight of the dive was an unexpected encounter with a baby
seal. It all happened when I spotted a stream of bubbles coming from
behind a rock. When I approached to investigate, a tiny seal shot out
from behind the boulder and quickly disappeared in the kelp. From my
previous trips to the Isle of Shoals, I knew that seals prefer the
shallow beds near uninhabited shorelines. However, it never occurred
to me that I would spot one at Old Garden Beach. On a separate note,
besides the seal, we encountered a shy fat flounder, a few skates,
and smaller flounders. Dive time - 85min. Max. depth - 18ft.
On the way back, we paid tribute to our club's tradition by stopping
for pizza and ice cream. What a nice way to end a good day of diving!
A few pictures from the dives are available here:
http://ase.tufts.edu/scuba/reports/2005-07-30/
- Nikolai
Poling and Braces Cove
Divers:
Dive 1:
The conditions on the Poling were quite favorable this time around.
Beyond the mild current and the colder-than-usual water temperature,
everything was perfect. The visibility was great - 20-30 ft, the
surface was calm.
Our group of 6 was joined on the large Cape Ann Divers boat by 3
other divers (one couple and a guy with rebreather). We let them go
first and followed in two group (Ian, Nate, Nikolai - all diving
Nitrox) and (Evan, Bebe, Mike). Since I was all geared up before
everybody else (silly me), I had to hop in the water to cool off and
wait for Ian and Nate at the hang bar. After I spend about 5 minutes
contemplating the jellies around the bar at 15 feet, I started
wondering what was going on the boat. Just when I was about to
ascent, Mike's group ascended to the bar and continued down towards
the Poling. Nate and Ian followed shortly behind.
When we hit the stern of the Poling, to my amusement the visibility
was excellent (it didn't appear so at the hang bar). Since there was
a mild current from the starboard side of the wreck, I decided to
lead my group around the port side of the ship. Being shielded from
the current, we had a leisurely swim to the midship (the broken end).
Along the way we enjoyed the oversized cunners, sea urchins, anemones
and other ornaments of the wreck. I directed my divelight inside the
gigantic opening in the ship and found the wolfish inhabiting the
wreck. We crabbed our way (at angle to the current) to the stern of
the ship following the catwalk, which is tickly covered in anemones.
In one of the portholes, we found a pretty red lumpfish. Bottom time:
33min. Depth: 95ft. A very satisfying dive indeed!
At the boat we learned that Mike and Bebe had some problems on their
dive. It all started out with Bebe's tank falling off on the descent
line. Mike and Evan helped lock it back in place. When they hit the
deck of the Poling, Bebe experienced difficulty breathing off her
regulator. She executed a shared air ascent with Mike loosing a fin
along the way.
Dive 2:
After a leisurely 1h surface interval, Capt. Steve took us to Braces
Cove. In his words - his favorite dive. Bebe borrowed a fin from
Steve and buddied up with me. The cove turned out to be quire shallow
(our max depth was 30ft) but a great place for lobstering because of
the abundance of rocks and boulders. The fact that the area is rocky
certainly helps with visibility (about 20 ft). Bebe and I swam for
about 40 minutes around the Braces rock and back enjoying the
abundance of seastars, lobsters, and sea ravens. We could stay
longer, but the water temperature was around 48 (surprisingly cold
for July), so we decided to wrap up the dive. My navigation proved on
the spot. I was quite confident we were near the boat, when Bebe
asked me to look around for it. I surfaced only to find the boat
about 40 ft away. After descending back to the bottom, I led Bebe
right under the boat.
Mike skipped the second dive due to sea sickness. Evan, Ian, and Nate
reported that they had a nice dive and found some large sea ravens
and even a wolfish. We wrapped up the day with a bountiful lunch at
the Gul at the Gloucester Marina.
- Nikolai
REEF Fish ID Dives
Divers:
Louie Cheng, Don Lee, and I (Bill Crossen) have been getting together on a
regular weekend basis for Cape Ann diving with John Herbert and Robert
Granetz this summer. John missed last Saturday's Fish ID Dive which, at
8am, was earlier than usual for us to make sure we got a good parking spot
at Cathedral Rocks. Robert Granetz was our excellent dive site coordinator
and I am sure he will fill in the proper names of the other MIT divers in
attendance - I believe we were 10 or 11 divers strong (now the entire club
knows my weakness - I'm horrible with remembering names).
Cathedral Rocks is an interesting dive site to count fish and invertebrates
because at first look you really don't see a lot of marine life. Bring a
flash light for a "hide and seek" adventure. Go out 20-30 feet in a NE
direction and the kelp and large boulders start creating huge holes for just
about everything on the REEF Fish ID Card to hide in. Robert found a 12-13
lb lobster, I saw a cod that looked 4 feet long. Striped bass glided slowly
in groups of 2 and 3. Louie and Don brought digital cameras which produced
great pictures which were shared will all in attendance at the Fish ID
Picnic later in the day.
The second tank dive was more of the same. On the way back to shore I
reflected that during this dive I had seen everything when I sensed the rush
of a bull shark and grabbed for my dive knife - it was just Louie C. showing
that he could attain terminal velocity in the water.
Visibility was very good at 20-25 feet. Seas we calm, weather great...the
only thing you have to watch out for at Cathedral Rock is the poison ivy on
the pathway between the car and the entry point.
On to the Reef Fish ID Picnic. Don Lee - you have won a 2005 one year
subscription to the Metrowest Dive Club. Your good buddy Bill was kind
enough to walk up and claim your prize.
Don's prize was better than the DAN water bottles some of the MIT club
members received but not as nice as the beautiful blue scuba fins Louie won.
Louie traded those beautiful fins for a Scuba Travel Bag. He will
definitely look the most professional with his new bag on future trips to
Cape Ann.
I won an OMS 55 lb Lift Bag - orange in color. Andrea Doria - here I come!!
Robert hit the jackpot and won a Tek (4) Dive Lite Set - with whistle - who
says it doesn't pay to be a dive site coordinator.
I believe someone else from MIT may have won one of the grand prizes.
Nikolai conducted an AOW Training session in the morning at another dive
site. Ian was multi-tasking taking the written portion of the Nitrox and
AOW tests while watching his raffle tickets.
Everyone received a prize and all had fun - thank you Bob Michelson for
including MIT in your event.
We participated in the REEF group picture - look for your copy of this
publication, I believe it will be a "collector" item.
- Regards, Bill
Wreck of the Idene
Divers:
After some rescheduling this weekend, Peter and I were the only ones who
were able to make a Sunday dive around Block Island with Ninigret divers.
After some debate about where to go, we decided to hit the wreck of the
Idene, a dragger scuttled southeast of Block Island about 15 years ago. The
forecast called for 2-4 foot seas with 10 knot winds, but it soon became
apparent that it was a bit rougher than that.
After a ride around the east side of Block Island to the site, we grabbed
the mooring, both of us diving dry on air. It was a little rough, but not
too bad, and we dropped down the line into what to me felt like a balmy 51
degrees, although the RI natives have been known to complain that that's
cold. The wreck sits on a nice sandy bottom and isn't silty at all, meaning
that vis was an excellent 25 feet or so. While descending, Peter followed
the line all the way to its tie-in point at the top of the pilot house,
while I dropped off the line about 20 feet above the wreck and swam the rest
of the way. Hence, I didn't pick up on what Peter noticed, which was that
the rope attached the mooring chain had been rubbing against the wreck and
had almost frayed completely. While I was blithely exploring the wreck,
which was really quite nice, Peter joined me on the deck and we swam around
a bit. The wreck is almost completely intact and upright, and the interior
spaces in the hold and inside the pilothouse are fairly spacious and
uncluttered, making the dive a real treat - you could swim through from the
stern, into the cabins, into the cargo hold and then out through the hatches
near the bow. The props and rudder are buried, although there's a funny
wrinkle around the sand-line at the stern that might or might not be damage.
The wreck had plenty of cod and cunners lurking in the hold, and I was
having a great time until I came out through the bridge windows and saw
Peter on top of the pilot house ready to ascend and pointing at the line
after only 15 minutes.
I finally figured out what he was talking about when I saw him pointing at
the rope, which was unraveling as we watched. It reminded me of one of
those campy movie scenes where you're watching the rope unravel and waiting
for the hero to show up and rescue someone. The sea conditions had become
rougher during our dive, and we could see the boat heaving and pulling on
the line - in seas like that, were the line to have snapped with us on it,
we would have been jerked to the surface and likely on a trip to the nearest
chamber. If we were to have let go and remained on the wreck, we faced a
number of unappealing options, ranging from shooting a bag from the wreck
and waiting for the captain to back down on us in rough seas, to drifting
under a bag for our stops, to doing a free ascent. We made it up the line
in as short order as we could and got back on the boat. As it turns out,
once we told the captain the condition of the line, all it took was a brief
tug in reverse to snap it, so we really were pretty close it breaking on us.
As I mentioned, the seas had turned decidedly rougher during our dive, with
the wind now gusting to 25 knots and the seas at about six feet, and we
briefly considered heading to the U-853 for another dive, but eventually
decided to call it a day and head back in. We had a pretty rough ride back,
during which I was particuarly glad that I'm not prone to seasickness, and
headed back to Boston. We'll have to head back out there again - we're
giving some thought to a group dive to the Larchmont sometime soon.
- Chris
Lanes Cove
Divers:
We were planning to dive yesterday but Louie suggested Friday evening that
we postpone due to swells and rain from Hurricane Cindy remnants. Sure
enough, Saturday morning at 8AM, Massachusetts Buoy A showed that the swell
was 5.3 feet with 5.3 second period. That would have been a challenging
dive. Today (Sunday) was beautiful with blue skies and air temperature
rising from 75 to 85 degrees F. The water condition was fantastic; it was
calm, visibility was about 15 feet, and water temperature was between 50
and 62 degrees F depending on depth. Kudos to Louie for checking out the
marine forecast and saving us a trip.
We were on a mission this Sunday -- lobster!. During our first
dive, Don grabbed a lobster that must have weighed 10 pounds -- probably
25-30 years old. I showed it to Bill, Bill returned it to its domicile.
After all, he wisely explained, it has been able to evade traps and scuba
hunters during its lengthy life so let’s show it some respect! Our first
dive catch was abysmal - we only caught a couple of legal sized lobsters.
However, our group had a great optimistic spirit and our second dive turned
out to be much more fruitful. Mike (with his new lobster permit) and Don
caught several lobsters. More interestingly, both Bill and Louie, sporting
high-pressure and high-volume steel tanks that can keep them in the water
for days stumbled into remote areas (that we will not disclose -- so
don’t ask) where big lobsters were having a big celebration. Louie came
back with 9 big lobsters (YES 9!) that literally jumped into his catch bag
at his request. He caught one legal lobster that weighed must have weighed
5 pounds and was about 0.5 inch from the 5" maximum size limit. It was
hilarious, Louie’s cooler was overflowing with lobsters and some were
crawling around in his car. The 5 pounder drove his Mini back home.
Although Louie just upgraded his cooler, he clearly needs to get something
a little bigger.
It was another great day of diving in Cape Ann.
FYI: For keeping lobsters fresh and lively during your trip back home, it’s
a good idea to keep your lobsters in seaweed and/or moist newspaper and ice
with the cooler opened so that the lobsters can breathe; they need oxygen
to survive. Check out the following document for scientific details on
storing and transporting lobsters.
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/publications/livestor3.pdf
- Don
Magnolia Rocks
Divers:
We had a great day of diving on Sunday. The sun was shining, water was
warm(er), vis was 20 feet+, and the lobsters were out in force.
Dive One- We entered the water around low tide. Seas were calm and the
low tide allowed us to sit on the rocks, but our fins on, and then just
float into the water. I had a bit of an equipment issue when I noticed
that the hose connecting my inflator button was snapped in two. No clue
how this happened, but I'm told that the elephant trunk hoses often have
this problem. After some discussion about diving essentially without a
BCD, and seeing very calm conditions, I elected to continue the dive. If
we had been at Pebble with the 15 min surface swim I probably would have
aborted.
The dive itself was great. Plenty of legal bugs, great viz, monkfish, a
school of stripers, etc.. Water temp at the surface was 53F, below 30 ft
was 48F. Our general dive route was drop down, go out about 30 kicks,
and then turn left (east) 20 min later or so turn around.
Dive Two was also very pleasant. More of the same. This time we went
right (west). The tide was coming in and the surge was a bit more
noticeable but all and all an awesome day.
As far as diving with a broken BC, not recommended for obvious safety
reason. However, on a shallow dive where you plan to spend 100% of your
time on the bottom, it isn't too bad. Nevertheless, my back was a
little sore last night from having a slightly over-weighted tank on my
back for 3 hours.
After coming out of the water Bill and I went and met the neighbors
across the road. Bill generously donated some of his catch and the
neighbors (Bob and Marilyn) invited over to the shaded porch for a beer.
We had a great time relaxing with their family and enjoying the great
view. I learned quite a bit about Magnolia's history, the stories
behind the homes on the cliff, major storms that have impacted the
Cape, etc I was having so much fun learning about Magnolia's days as
a brothel haven that I even stayed for a second beer.
Now there have been a few stories floating around between divers and this
family over the past few years and I know there are different
interpretations of the Mass property code. There are also some new 'No
Trespassing' signs at the path's entrance. I'm not sure of the entire
history, but it appears that Bob and Marilyn own the part of Magnolia
Rocks to the left of the path, and the city owns the part of the rocks to
the right (donated long ago to pay off a tax bill). They don't mind
divers per se, but they do mind the Coney Island effect that beach
umbrellas, and of course the trash people leave behind have on the
rocks. I guess a few large dive groups in the past have been disruptive
to the neighborhood.
Bottom line:
- In the future they requested that we leave our dive gear to
the right of the path, and of course clean up any mess.
- Entering the water on the left side is fine, especially given
that the easier entry point is there
- Just remember that there are neighbors around and this isn^Òt a
secluded area.
- John Hebert
Pebble Beach
Divers:
After announcing that Nikolai Schwertner of Tufts as instructor and myself
as divemaster would be conducing two of the five required open water dives
for the PADI Advanced Open Water certification for free, three divers
replied. Brian Cook, newest member of the MIT Scuba club and freshly
certified last weekend, Teru Hayashi, member of the Tufts scuba club -also
certified last weekend and Nate Carstens, certified for OW last November
(in 15F air temp!). The reason we did it was that I had to participate in
one advanced dive to fulfill the last of my DM reqs.
The weather prediction by weather.com was abysmal: 60% chance of constant
rain all Saturday. Checking pilot weather service though (www.aopa.com),
gave a different and evidently more accurate prediction: almost no chance
of rain, some clouds and generally an OK day around Gloucester. NOAA gave
a high F40's to low F50's water temp and light and variable winds.
Weather.com predicted much better weather on Sunday (which, with
hindsight, ended up being total BS)
Since I was flying on Monday, I pushed to go on Sat. no matter what
weather.com said.
The day at Pebble Beach proved to be beautiful. No rain (other than a
little on the way to the dive site at 6:30am), lots of sun, a pleasant
breeze, minimal surf. Visibility was lousy, maybe 5ft i.e. just right to
emphasize the importance of compass work for the navigation and search and
recovery dives we did.
Nikolai decided to make this an especially educating couple of dives and
spent considerable time setting up the hidden objects for the search and
recovery dives as well as teaching knots and other intricacies of
navigation and search and recovery. He was diving dry while all the rest
of us were wet. Even though we were in the water from 8:30am to 3:00pm
with a one hour break, no-one got cold. Unfortunately, one of the students
did get dehydrated and exhausted by the end of the two dives. A few
pitchers of water at "The Gull" seemed to help a little.
During our dives we saw several lobsters -all smaller than legal, many
small starfish, a bunch of crab, flounder and one medium sized raven.
Some dude came by in a van trying to sell us wetsuits and drysuits.
Some guy in a dry with no BC went in and came out a couple of hours later
with about 15 lobsters.
- Andreas
Wreck of the Romance and Middle Brewster Island
Divers:
Peter Kerrebrock and I headed out of Hingham Harbor yesterday morning
without a planned dive site in mind, but after seeing that the seas were
calmer than had been forecast, headed for the wreck of the Romance, an old
steam passenger liner that made runs between Provincetown and Boston early
in the last century. Joining us on the boat was Peter's dad Jack, a former
course XVI professor, who upped the MIT-quotient on the trip. There's
some nice information on the Romance at:
http://www.mwdc.org/Shipwrecks/Romance.html
Now that some of the dive boats in the area are frequenting the wreck,
there are permanent moorings on it, meaning that both finding and hooking
it are considerably easier. Not knowing which mooring was which, we chose
one at random and found ourselves tied to the prop shaft when we
descended. Especially after the sweltering weather on shore, the 42 degree
water at the bottom was bracing, to put it mildly. Looking at my logs,
that temperature was not unusual for this wreck at this time of year, but
we both thought it felt colder that it had in the past. Visibility was not
on our side this time though, being only about 10-15 feet, so Peter hooked
his reel up and off we went. (If anyone decides to do this wreck with CAD,
a reel is highly recommended, since it's easy to get disoriented in the
debris field, and poor vis is the norm.) The wreck is pretty spread out,
but we found the stern and poked around the area where the shaft protruded
from the hull. The prop has long since been salved, but the rudder
remains, and we examined it for a while, looking for the pintles. We
headed off the wreck in a search for the bow, but we never found it, and
headed back to the line after about 25 minutes. I noticed a marked lack of
both bugs and artifacts yesterday. The former may be a consequence of the
cold spring water, but the latter might be because of the wreck's increased
popularity.
After off-gassing for a while, we threw around some ideas about where to do
our second dive, and settled on Middle Brewster Island, on our way home to
Hingham. This was a shallower dive, hopefully rife with bugs, but it
wasn't to be. Even most of the traps we saw were empty. During our first
foray south to the island, we saw several bugs, only one of which I even
bothered to gauge, but it was pretty slim pickings. After our turnaround
back to the boat (we hadn't used a reel this time), I suggested we surface
to see where we were, and due to my incredible navigational skills (I claim
that dumb luck had nothing to do with it...) Peter almost hit his head on
the hull as we came back up right under the boat. We decided for one more
quick trip out in fruitless search for lobster, with me on reel duty this
time. We got to the end of the line on my reel, with no bugs in sight, and
finally headed back, lobster-less, but still having enjoyed a fun day of
diving. Carl Stjernfeldt was supposed to have joined us, but backed out
owing to a head cold, and both Peter and I thought we had missed our chance
to educate him on the wisdom of diving dry - the chilly water today would
have changed his mind for sure!
- Chris
Halfway Rock and Paddock Rock
Divers:
This past Saturday MITSCers Keith Thoresz, Bill Crossen, Robert Granetz and
myself joined three other divers on Cape Ann Divers' big boat for dives at
Halfway Rock and Paddock Rock. Two of the other divers were a middle-aged
husband and wife team who said they frequently dove Halfway Rock and
declared it one of their favorite dive sites. The other diver was on the
boat solo. We found out on the ride back that the first mate (Matt) was an
MIT alum, and by the time we'd docked he was interested in joining up.
The weather was perfect, with only a light breeze from the SW, a cloudless
sky, and a nearly flat sea. It took about an hour to reach Halfway Rock (so
named for being halfway from Boston to Gloucester) which is a granite
pinnacle well outside the mouth of Salem Sound. It sticks out of the water
even at high tide, so it isn't hard to find. On the NE flank of the
pinnacle it drops down steeply to about 100 ft, on the other side it is more
gently sloped and bottoms out shallower. The boat anchored against the NE
side, and we found the anchor lodged in rocks on a shelf at about 50 ft.
The vis was poor at the surface (just general silt and algae, nothing
distinctly red!) but the vis below about 40 ft was excellent. We toured
around the base of the pinnacle starting deep and working shallower. At the
base of the pinnacle is a small cave with a big opening and a much smaller
exit, too small for me to fit through. Lots of urchins and starfish dotted
the rocks. Bugs were few, and none of legal size. Water temperature was in
the low to mid 40's, enough to feel a little chill after half an hour.
About halfway back to port we stopped at Paddock Rock, which is always
submerged and much closer to shore. Paddock is a large knob of rock with a
relatively flat, round top about 75 ft across and a minimum depth of about
15 ft. It has steep sides to the SE and a more gentle slope to the NW. The
steep side goes down to about 80 ft, and has a large chasm and overhangs
that are neat to drop down next to. Similar vis and life were present, but
again, no legal bugs. Robert and I saw an ocean pout coiled up in a
depression in a rock, and we probably caught and threw back the same lobster
(just barely short) because it was remarkably agile and ornery, and it
pinched us both.
- Peter K.
Kayak diving off Rhode Island
Divers:
Over memorial day weekend I took Ocean State Scuba's kayak diving (or
scuyak) course. OSS is in Jamestown RI, and is a well equipped dive
shop. They have an indoor pool, lodgings, and kayaking classes and
rentals, and friendly and informed staff. Dave, the proprietor,
wrote the original PADI outline for kayak diving. Like most
recreational scuba specialty courses, this one is not heavy on
material and is not rocket science. However, for $275, even if you
think of it as merely a two day private guided kayak rental it's
worth it.
My instructor, Dan O'Neil, is an avid kayak diver, freediver and
spearo. Day one we headed to Fort Weatherill. The coves collect a
lot of debris after storms, but on this occasion it was mostly on the
surface and the visibility was surprisingly good. There were a lot
of lion's manes (stinging jellies) but most of them were probably too
small to hurt much. We began by paddling around the Weatherill area
shore dive sites, and Dan gave me a idea of the terrain. The area
takes on a new look from this vantage point. There's a lot more
going on just outside the coves, including 100' walls, but the
currents are often strong, and it's a heavily trafficked boating lane.
Normally Dan would cover more of the fundamentals of kayaking, but
I've got enough open water seakayaking experience that we moved right
on. We loaded up our yaks and paddled out to Kettle Bottom Rock.
The rock is just visible from shore, but it's way too far for a
surface swim. We dropped anchor and I learned the (simple) procedure
for getting geared up on and off a kayak. Then began the mundane
part of the dive-- the diving. Out there, the visibility was pretty
bad, and the current strong. Since there were a number of fishing
boats and yahoo boaters in the area, we towed the kayaks. Getting
the gear back in a bit tricky. I barely had the strength to lift my
LP95 and ~25 pounds of weight with one arm into the rear tank well of
the kayak. Using a weight belt instead of integrated weight would
have made the job easier.
After cleaning my gear at the shop, I headed south to Narragansett
for lunch at Crazy Burger, perhaps the best beachtown eatery in all
of RI. They have great vegan options, and are right across the
street from Pier Dive Shop.
On day two we launched from a rocky cove at Bearvertail. Dan brought
along two spearguns so we might catch some tautog, but once at the
dive site both guns had technical problems. In any case we saw what
I would describe as a lot of tog, but none big enough to bag. Dan
later told me that we didn't see nearly as many or as large as usual.
Again the visibility was low and the currents strong so we towed the
boats instead of leaving them anchored. This essentially became a
drift dive, and was a lot of fun.
The bottom temperature was 48F which is chilly for me in my wetsuit.
Dan gave me lot's of additional info on local spots, and freediving
and hunting techniques, and was a first rate instructor. Having
enjoyed the dives and the ability to get to dive sites beyond the
ones we're all familar with, I left RI will a diveyak on my roof rack.
For more information, I also recommend Mark Theobald's ebook "Kayak
Diving," which despite an unfortunate use of html contains a lot of
good info, especially on rigging kayaks, and Jim Spears' website
http://www.kayakdiver.com/kayakdiving/topics.htm
- Elron
Chester Poling wreck
Divers:
Peter was the only taker for going diving this weekend, so we headed out
late Sunday morning to dive the Poling with CAD. I'm on the hook to write
it up, although Pete agreed to chip in as well.
I was looking forward to an empty boat (as late as Thursday, nobody was on
the boat at all, but everyone must have read the forecast and signed up at
the last minute, since the boat was full on Sunday), but it was crowded
with lots of sets of doubles and stage bottles. We had debated whether to
do one long dive or two shorter one, and the arguments went something like
this:
Pete: That water's so cold that once you get out you're not going to want
to get back in.
Chris: Yes, but are you really going to want decompress in 35 degree water?
In the end, Pete brought his doubles and I brought my singles and pony and
we played it by ear. On our first dive, I had forgotten to turn on my
computer at the surface (something I didn't feel too bad about, since Peter
has the same computer, and the same thing's happened to him), so I followed
his computer and tried to stay a little shallower. The vis was pretty
good, about 25 feet, although there was a slight current over the wreck
from port to starboard and a mild surge. We cruised the deck and break,
and I found that the lobster from the pipe was missing - maybe it's still
too cold for him, since I didn't see any other bugs. No worries though -
we just ducked inside the galley skylight and I headed into the starboard
stateroom while Pete poked around the galley. I found a boot there that I
thought was a neat find, until Peter told me that it was a
plant. Bummer. We also found a few of the lightbulbs floating against the
ceiling, and I decided to leave them there for the next diver. We had a
fairly lengthy dive, I would guess around 25 minutes bottom time, hitting
93 feet to the sand. During the surface interval we soaked up the sun, and
debated whether to do another dive, but decided that with the new prices at
CAD, we'd better get our moneys worth.
For the second dive, we headed down to the second level of the engine room,
which wasn't particularly silted up, and I found what I thought might have
been a small toolbox (a shoebox-sized metal box with a handle), but it was
cemented firmly in place. Oh well. We cruised along the hull at the sand
looking for bugs, but none were to be found. (Some divers did bag some
scallops off the wreck though.) Having had our fill of cold water for the
day, we completed our stops and came back on board, grateful to warm
up. Can't wait until the water is at least back to the mid-40s, since the
current water temps are giving me ice-cream headaches.
- Chris
- Peter
Folly Cove
Divers:
Louie Cheng and I decided to give our new gear a whirl on Saturday. A very
calm Folly Cove was the lucky destination.
I was testing out a core heater with and integrated hood to go with my
normal 7mm farmer John. Louie was trying one of those new semi-dry suits
from Pinnacle. We both had new DIN connectors on our 1st stages. We also
recently purchased some used HP-80s.
We geared up and headed out into the cove, focused mainly on the right side.
Objective - Lobsters. Note on the tanks... what a difference! Smaller and
more negatively buoyant. I had the extra core and still carried the same
weight I did with LP-80s. There was no doubt that I had better
maneuverability.
Upon dropping down to about 20-25 feet we started hunting for lobsters and
other assorted main courses. The viz was excellent. Pushing at least 20ft
if not more. We were able to work independently and consistently find our
respective bubbles. Unfortunately the haul was a bit thin. One keeper
flounder and a few lobsters that did not make the size minimum. Still we
saw a bright orange lumpfish, countless crabs, mollusks, and colorful
starfish.
The water temp was a very chilly 42F and after 30 min I was starting to feel
cold at the extremities. Even Louie with his new semi-dry suit wasn't a
picture of warmth. Given that we each had more than 60% of our tanks
remaining, and it was a sunny day, we elected to just crawl out onto one of
the larger rocks and warm up. After a ~35 minute surface interval we headed
back in and started going a bit deeper in search of lobsters.
At about 50ft Louie picked up his first legal sized bug of the season. We
were thrilled but noted that the water was ~40F at that depth. Honestly we
could tell the difference and quickly returned to ~30Ft. We then spent the
next 30 minutes searching for bugs, slowly working our way back to the cars.
Alas the season is new and we were unsuccessful in retrieving more bugs.
After 30 minutes we were very cold and headed in to warm-up.
Given the early spring date we parked our cars directly in the resident only
parking area. Louie's wife was minding them and reported no interest from
local law enforcement.
All and all a great day with awesome weather.
- John
Saturday Night Ledge and Burnham Ledge
Divers:
On Saturday morning, Robert Granetz and I headed out with Cape Ann Divers
to Saturday Night Ledge and Burnham Ledge. They had the big boat, but with
only six divers on it (the maximum because they didn't have a mate
available), it was pleasantly uncrowded. That, combined with the fact that
everyone on board was pretty experienced, made for a nice efficient
trip. Seas were very flat, which surprised me since there was very strong
breeze near shore, and the air temperature was a pleasant 45 degrees.
Unfortunately, things went downhill in the water. There were some folks
who were on the waiting list for these dives; let me assure them that they
didn't miss much. We stopped at Saturday Night Ledge first, and partway
down the line, Robert had a lot of trouble clearing his ears. He motioned
for me to continue on, so dove solo the rest of the dive. Water
temperature was a very chilly 34 degrees, and after I passed through a
layer of slop at about 20 feet, it might as well have been a night
dive. The lack of light, combined with poor vis on the bottom, meant I was
dependent on my reel (not my favorite piece of equipment) to find anything
down there. I maxed out at 107 feet, and after exploring a few of the
trenches (which I imagine must be quite nice in good conditions), I headed
back to the line as my hands were going numb. When I got back to where my
reel was tied in, I found that Robert had just made it down the line to the
bottom, but I was relieved when he joined me in ascending after just a
minute or two, since I was about to enter deco territory and the cold water
was giving me the Mother Of All Ice Cream Headaches.
After a surface interval of about an hour, we jumped back in at
Burnham. The mooring line had been torn off during the winter, so the
Captain hooked in a large danforth anchor in the general vicinity of the
old tie in point. This meant that we weren't hooked in right at the big
trench, and also that we had a long swim down the nearly horizontal
line. Robert was unable to clear his ears again (for him to abort a dive
is a pretty big deal, so he must have been in some real pain), so I dove
solo again. Vis was somewhat better at this site, maybe 15 feet in some
spots, but not spectacular and still pretty dark. Alas, it was no warmer
here than at SNL. I hooked in my reel, poked around for a while in an
easterly direction, seeing nothing of interest, and headed back to the
line. As I was debating whether to continue off to the west, I realized
that my hands were getting too numb to work my reel, so I thought that was
a sign that I should call it a day. Vis poor enough to require a reel,
combined with appendages too numb to work said reel, should both be strong
indications that perhaps waiting for better conditions is a good idea. I
came back up the line, grateful to warm up, and we enjoyed a pleasant ride
back to the dock, capped off by ice cream on the way home on 128. A day
diving still trumps most other activities I could have had planned for the
day, but I don't think either of these dives are going to be on my top ten
list.
- Chris
Homestead hot spring crater, (near) Park City, Utah
Divers:
This past week my family and I were out in Park City, Utah doing some
snowboarding in the powder. One day after the lifts closed we drove to
nearby Homestead Crater
(
http://www.homesteadresort.com/leisure/crater.html).
This is a hot spring that has formed a beehive-shaped limestone dome above
itself from the minerals dissolved in the water. The Homestead Crater is
supposedly the only warm water scuba diving destination in the continental
US. You enter the domed spring through a large tunnel in the side of the
rock at an elevation just above the water's surface. There's actually a
small dive shop in the tunnel where you can rent scuba gear. So although
just a few weeks ago I was ice diving with a drysuit and frozen regs, here
I was in 91 deg F water with just a swimsuit (and needing only 4 lbs of
lead). I was worried that I would suffer heat prostration, but it really
was more like comfortable bath water. Under the surface the spring is sort
of cylindrical shaped with steep walls going down to a flat silty bottom at
about 65 feet. Its diameter is perhaps 40 feet. The gear rental does not
include a dive light (it should), although there are several flood lights
at varying depths and in the dome overhead. But it's still not enough to
see very well, so the most interesting thing to do is swim around close to
the walls to look at the weird rock formations, which look a lot like lava
flows and lava pillows to me. You can also watch the multitude of novices
taking scuba lessons. The dive shop owner warns everyone to ascend very
slowly, because this diving is taking place at an elevation of about 7000
feet. After my dive I was talking to the dive shop owner and found out
that he does a lot of ice diving in various reservoirs and small lakes in
Utah. Since there aren't a lot of deciduous trees there to create tannin,
the visibility under the ice is 100+ feet. Maybe next time...
- Robert G
Ice Diving Certification
Divers:
The thermometer was reading -5 F when I left my house on Saturday morning
to begin my weekend ice diving certification class. There were eight
students (three from MIT) and several experienced helpers (one from MIT),
in addition to the instructor, Steve Brown of the Cambridge Fire Dept.
There's an incredible amount of preparation and equipment required to go
ice diving, and the instructor had a truck and trailer loaded with sleds
carrying chain saws, augers, propane stoves, tethers, ice tongs, ice
screws, harnesses, carabiners, shovels, a tent, emergency equipment, a big
dive flag, etcetera. Everyone in the class helped to haul all this gear,
as well as their own diving gear, out to the middle of the lake, over a
blanket of snow that was more than a foot high. The first thing we had to
do was shovel the snow off of a big circular area in order to get to the
ice surface. Then the instructor drilled three holes with an auger through
the one-foot-thick ice to form the vertices of a triangle about 8 feet on a
side. Next came the chain saw, which was used to cut out the triangle of
ice, slicing it up into blocks which we then stacked up to form a
wind-blocking wall. A tent-like structure was also set up to provide a bit
of shelter (for the wussies). Several large pots of water were heated up
on some propane stoves for later use in thawing out frozen regs, BC valves,
zippers, etcetera, and to provide some hot water for soup and hot
chocolate. All of this hard work kept us from getting too cold, but it
wasn't until about 11 am that we were finally ready to think about diving.
Daniel and I volunteered to go first. An important piece of equipment that
you have for ice diving is a harness, to which a polypropylene tether is
attached with double carabiners. The other end of the line is anchored
with an ice screw near a vertex of the triangular entry hole. There are
also lines for the instructor, as well as the emergency rescue diver(s),
who are suited up and standing by. Each line is tended by someone who
gives two yanks every minute or so to the diver, who in turn is supposed to
respond with two yanks to signify all is okay. If the tender feels three
tugs, which signifies an emergency, his job is to quickly pull in the line,
dragging the diver back to the hole. One or two emergency rescue divers
are always suited up and ready to dive in on a moment's notice in the event
that a diver somehow gets untethered. (The tender would not get the A-OK
back, and he'd order the emergency divers into the hole.) Over the
weekend, we each were required to do three dives of 15 minutes or more, and
take turns doing each one of the these tasks.
Anyway, Daniel and I slid into
Sunday, 18 December 2005
Authors: Chris Russo and Robert Granetz
- Chris
-------------
The Romance was a steel passenger steamer that sunk in a collision near
Graves Light (in Boston Harbor near Nahant) in 1936. Even though there
were more than 200 people onboard, there were no fatalities. More info can
be found at
http://www.mwdc.org/Shipwrecks/Romance.html.
- Robert
Saturday, 19 November 2005
Author: Robert Granetz
Saturday, 15 October 2005
Author: Don Lee
Condition: Rainy & Windy
Air Temp: 58 deg. F
Winds: N 10-20 kts
Wind Gusts: 30 kts
Visibility: 1-2 miles
Surface Water Temp: 51 deg. F
Water Temp @35 ft: 47 deg. F
U/W Visibility: 6 feet
Waves: 4-6 feet
Boats: none
Tuesday, 11 October 2005
Author: Louie Cheng
Saturday, 01 October 2005
Author: Chris Russo
Friday evening, 23 September 2005
Author: Chris Russo
Thursday, 08 September 2005
Author: John Hebert
Monday, 05 September 2005
Author: Bill Crossen
1) Parking is definitely legal at Lane's even though the Rockport Police
will sometime agree it is not. Be sure to park on the sea wall side - that
is town property.
2) "Having breathing problems with your regulator" does not work as an
excuse for filling your bag with every lobster you see to later check them
on shore.
3) Blatant Environment violations can result in your tanks and regulator
being confiscated. Don't worry; you will see them again when you come to
your Court date. If you don't like that scenario, you win a new pair of
matching bracelets!
4) Dives should be careful to not hook or tie their flag to their person.
It is confirmed that Lobster boats have in the past dragged dive lines and
cut flags in Cape Ann.
Saturday, 27 August 2005
Authors: Bill Herrington, Bill Crossen, and Bebe Jacque
Friday, 19 August 2005
Author: Louie Cheng
Tuesday, 16 August 2005
Author: John Hebert
Sunday, 14 August 2005
Author: Andreas Mershin
Nikolai from Tufts has already sent a dive report with some pics so
here's the MIT side of things.
Saturday, 13 August 2005
Author: Andreas Mershin
Friday, 12 August 2005
Author: Peter Kerrebrock
Thursday, 11 August 2005
Author: Ian Garrick-Bethell
Saturday, 06 August 2005
Author: Louie Cheng
Fri-Sun, 29-31 July 2005
Author: Peter Kerrebrock
Saturday, 30 July 2005
Author: Nikolai Schwertner
Sunday, 17 July 2005
Author: Nikolai Schwertner
Saturday, 16 July 2005
Author: Bill Crossen
Sunday, 10 July 2005
Author: Chris Russo
Sunday, 10 July 2005
Author: Don Lee
Sunday, 26 June 2005
Author: John Hebert
Saturday, 18 June 2005
Author: Andreas Mershin
Sunday, 12 June 2005
Author: Chris Russo
Saturday, 04 June 2005
Author: Peter Kerrebrock
Memorial Day weekend, 28-29 May 2005
Author: Elron Yellin
Sunday, 17 April 2005
Authors: Chris Russo and Peter Kerrebrock
Yesterday was a perfect day for diving Cape Ann, with bright sunshine and a
light wind, with the only caveats that there was a long, high swell running
in from the SE (more about that later), and that in New England it's still
winter under water. Not surprisingly everyone was diving dry. The rest of
the clientele was decidedly techie as I looked around at a lot of shinny
new sets of manifolded high pressure doubles, canister lights, and even a
rebreather setup. It seems likely, though, that few came close to needing
all that gas, because the water temperature (in the mid 30's) was keeping
most buddy groups to bottom times of 20 minutes or so. When the boat
arrived at the wreck there was no mooring to be found, so the crew dropped
a large danforth anchor. Going down the anchor line we found the anchor
hooked in a wuzzle of wrecked pots and line on the bottom next to the port
quarter. I'd say the vis was closer to 10-15 feet on the first dive, low
enough to make the wreck right next to us indistinct. Not knowing where we
were on the wreck, I clipped a reel line off to the anchor and swam upward
until I reached the deck level, where it became clear we were on the aft
deck above the port staterooms. Having our bearings and not needing the
reel anymore, I wrapped the line around a small bollard (or something) and
left the reel behind. We could always find it again by following the port
rail. On our cruise over the tank deck I thought the surge from the
swell above was very noticeable, sweeping us back and forth across the
deck, several times I got pushed up against the remains of the catwalk. On
our return to the reel I found the line still wrapped around the bollard,
but the reel not in sight. From the bollard I followed two lines over the
rail and downward, one I knew lead to the anchor. I was surprised to find
the other line leading into a porthole, inside which I could just see my
reel. Unless some other diver had played a practical joke on me, the surge
had swept my reel off the deck and shoved it though the porthole. It
seemed pretty funny, until I realized the reel was pretty far
inside. Pulling 350 feet of line off the reel and through the porthole to
get the reel back, then reeling it all back in again, didn't seem appealing
what with bottom time ticking by and fingers turning into
icicles. Fortunately, I could just reach the reel. The surface interval
passed as Chris reported, with a bit of fussing about with tanks, etc. On
the second dive the vis had improved considerably to perhaps 20-25 feet. I
think by then it was well after low tide, and cleaner water had washed in
from offshore. I was surprised to find some light bulbs remaining,
floating against the overhead in the engine room. I thought they'd all
been found years ago. On the whole it was a good season opener, and
fulfilled my need to dive the Poling for this year.
Saturday, 16 April 2005
Author: John Hebert
Saturday, 19 March 2005
Author: Chris Russo
Monday evening, 21 February 2005
Author: Robert Granetz
Glen Lake, Goffstown, NH
Saturday and Sunday, 29-30 January 2005
Authors: Robert Granetz and Daniel Nedelcu