December 29-30, 2007:

The final dive weekend of the year was shaping up to be a blow out, not surprisingly considering the weather that we have had this past week.  While we thought having the Christmas - New Year's week off from work would mean lots of diving, what it actually meant was lots of cancellations and indoor time.  Saturday was a blow-out as predicted, but Sunday looked like we might salvage a trip.  Since the wind direction was forecast to be blustery out of the west, we decided to change the location from the USS NH to the Romance.  We needed to shoot some video for a presentation and this required good working conditions at the NH site; therefore we had to scrub that plan since the USS NH is too exposed in a west wind and it would be too rough there.  So, we decided on the Romance, which is the most protected site in W-SW winds that's worth diving.  We loaded up and headed out -- and surprisingly the conditions were quite nice.  The forecast had indicated the wind was going to drop out to 5-10 knots around noon, but it actually dropped out around 8 am and the seas flattened out nicely.  When we arrived on the Romance the mooring we had just put in a few days prior was still there luckily, so we tied off and got ready to dive.  Roman, Scott and I got ready to hit the water first. We didn't bother bringing scooters because we weren't that optimistic about the prospects for good visibility -- first, there had been 6 foot seas running the day before and second, it was low tide.  These are two things that don't make a recipe for good visibility at this site.  Anyway, we suited up and splashed.  Sure enough it was pretty murky in the water column through the descent - maybe 3-5'.  We got to the bottom and the visibility was slightly better, but not much - maybe 5-7'.  Roman tied off the reel to the top of the boiler next to the mooring and we got ready to head out.  Unfortunately, my light decided to go out again right at this moment.  Despite using a voltage-verified fully charged different battery this time, the light went out.  I was so disgusted I almost just called the dive and went up, but I didn't.  I pulled out a small back-up a light so Roman and Scott would see me, sort of, and pressed on.  [Note - when I got home the light went in a box and out the door to the manufacturer].  Doing a somewhat dark, murky low visibility dive on a backup light is not what I had in mind.  Even staying in the middle and trying to look where their lights were pointing only works so much.  In this kind of low visibility, you need a light to keep your own frame of reference.  Anyway, despite this we managed to swim all the way out to the stern and then all the way out to the bow.  We stretched out a 40 minute bottom time somehow - water temperatures were still holding at 40-41F.  It wasn't a bad dive actually, but it was tough without a primary light.  We worked our way up, surfaced and climbed aboard.  Dave and Jeff headed in for their dive next while we amused ourselves on the boat.  It did turn out to be a beautiful day.  Back dockside when I was collecting the rosters off the boat for the files, I noticed our last dive of 2007 turned out to be the same as our first dive of the season.  In between those two Romance dives, a fantastic dive season unfolded.  There were many highlights for us this year from great diving in Stellwagen, drift diving, diving with whales, locating several new wrecks, 2 superb trips offshore to the North American, and finally an awesome trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia.  In 2007, a lot of hard work paid off - and it has set the stage for even more cool diving in 2008.  Thanks to everyone who helped make this such a great season.

December 26-27, 2007:

The weather briefly let up on us long enough for a quick dive before the next round of storms moved through.  The conditions were pretty nice considering -- light wind 5-10 knots out of the W-SW, seas were totally flat, and the air temperatures were very mild around 35-40 degrees.  We loaded up with the group, not quite a full boat given the mid-week timing of the trip, but a unique group.  For the first time ever, we had an unplanned, spontaneous rebreather only charter!  There were 3 Inspirations (Tom, Pat and Brian), 2 PRISMs (Dave and me) and 1 KISS CCR (Don).  The boat likes rebreathers since there's a lot less weight causing wear and tear on the boat, and less weight means burning less fuel.  We like that too.  Anyway, we headed off to the Romance with hopes the visibility would be good. I couldn't see the bottom in the marina, which is not a good sign.  Generally if you can see the bottom at all times with the exception of perhaps high tide since the water is much deeper then, the visibility most other places would be good.  We had high tide at 12:30 pm, so an incoming tide would give us the best chance of good visibility.  When we arrived at the Romance about 35 min after departing, we soon found the mooring was gone.  Dave splashed in to put in another, while I patiently waited for a visibility report before deciding to bring my scooter in with me.  When the line was in, we opened up the pool and everyone hit the water.  Pat was finishing up his Inspiration CCR class, now the newest rebreather diver to join the ranks.  With everyone in, Dave returned and it was my turn.  Dave said the dive was great... but the visibility was not.  He said it was about 5-10 feet and real murky.  That was disappointing.  I knew I wasn't taking the scooter.  I suited up, taking my time since I was trying to time my entry around the time of high tide so I would have a chance at better visibility.  The Romance is very dependent on the tide, even when conditions overall are good/bad/other.  I hit the water and dropped down.  Visibility was actually not bad.  I guess I got lucky and caught the tide.  I would say it was about 12-13 feet give or take.  This is pretty respectable for the Romance.  I tied off my reel with plans for a quick tour out to the bow.  Unfortunately my light picked this moment to go out.  Not sure what happened, but either it didn't get a full charge or a connection was not quite right.  I later burn-tested the battery with the lighthead in a bucket of water at home and it burned for 2 hours - so something else was up besides a bad NiMH pack.  Anyway, it wasn't the end of the world since there was plenty of ambient light and ok visibility.  I found the bow, poked around there for awhile and then worked my way aft all the way to the very end of the stern.  The Romance was 245' long so it's a good size wreck and kept me busy looking around for my 45 minute bottom time.  I was trying out a new pair of wet gloves and to put it nicely, they didn't cut it so by the time I hit 45 min, it was time for me to get going.  I surfaced in just about 1 hours run time.  I would have stretched it out a little longer if my hands could have taken it since I knew this was probably my only chance to dive for the next few days to a week with the bad weather on the way.  In any case, I got a good dive - water temperatures are hanging in there at 41F.  I climbed aboard, stripped off my gear and headed into the cabin for a relaxing ride back in.  It was pretty cool to have all CCR divers on board.  I have a feeling this is going to become a more common occurrence on the Gauntlet given the number of CCRs coming online this year.  Anyway, we got in and headed home, cleaned up and called the dive for Thursday.  NE winds 25-30 knots and 10 foot seas quickly moved in and made the great day on Wednesday seem like a distant memory.

December 22-23, 2007:

No diving due to weather.

December 15-16, 2007:

December 8-9, 2007:

December 1-2, 2007:

Dive Report by David Caldwell

With 30 to 40 knot winds forecasted for Saturday, I decided on Friday that it would be best to sit tight and cancel the charter for the day. Based on the weather report, the wind was predicted to swing around and drop off for Sunday. With a big storm coming in on Sunday night, we hoped we would get a window to get onto the water. Early Sunday morning at about 5:30am the wind was blowing 15 knots NW, but it was forecast to diminish to 5 – 10 knots. Diving this time of year is always a crapshoot for getting out. Today it looked nice.

We had a full boat originally scheduled to head out to the Pug wreck, but since the wind was still blowing, we opted to head down to the Poling. Heather was not diving this weekend because she had just arrived early that morning on an overnight flight from Arizona, as she was away on business. Being somewhat tired and jet lagged Heather decided to drive the boat rather than dive. After a few rounds of loading and unloading for some of us, we finally ended up with everyone that was supposed to be on-board.

You see, some of us like to be proficient with every task involved with diving, including practicing loading and unloading the boat. One of the divers on for today did just that. He precisely unloaded his truck and shuttled everything down to the Gauntlet. He carefully stowed all his gear as needed. He then walked back up to park his truck. And then suddenly he was alerted via pager that there was a hostage situation in New Hampshire. Being that this person is on the N.H. SWAT Team that meant he needed to go immediately. If we had only left sooner! So this meant he came back down, grabbed all his neatly stowed gear and hauled it back up to his truck. As we were munching on the chocolate chip cookies he left behind, suddenly we saw him coming back! Not five minutes later he brought all his gear back down again and informed us that the situation was now under control. Therefore, in other words he was going to load his gear for practice a second time.

When we were finally loaded after playing musical loading and unloading we headed out. Heather cruised the Gauntlet up to the Poling. We quickly picked up the stern morning and started suiting up. Today I was doing a NAUI Deep Class, so my plan was to do two shorter dives verses one long dive as I normally do. Our plan was to get suited first to head so we would be able to have some surface interval between dives. With in a few minutes Caleb (our student) and I jumped in and headed down the line. There was a slight current running on the surface, but this diminished about 10’ below the surface. Surprisingly, the visibility was pretty descent considering all the wave action that had been happening for the previous few days.

With a quick drop we arrived at the wreck, got settled and our buoyancy adjusted, and then we headed along the sand line on the starboard side of the wreck. If I was to guess the visibility was probably about 15 – 20 feet, but real clear; the temperature I had recorded at about 45 degrees. Swimming along about half way down the wreck, we moved up to the starboard gunnels then across to the catwalk. Continuing along we made it to the break end. Getting short on time with 20 minutes planned we thumbed the dive and started making a break back to the mooring line.

On the ascent, we did some simulated safety stops to practice making stops and controlling buoyancy. With and uneventful ascent we broke the surface with about a 30 minute run-time. Getting back on the boat it was cold, but not bad, and the two of us quickly got out of our gear and into the cabin to be warmed up. Caleb switched his tanks over so everything would be ready to go for our second dive. While warming up we did some debriefing of our dive and briefed for the next dive. Before we knew, it was time to get suited up again to head back in.

Quickly suiting back up the two of us splashed the water again and headed down the line. The current was still running somewhat on the surface, but it seemed to slow down some. Once on the wreck we decided to head right down the centerline to the break end. At this point, neither of us wanted to spend any longer then 15 minutes on the bottom, as not to get cold. One thing I have discovered over the years diving in cold water is that it is important to be ready to leave the bottom when you are still warm. Otherwise, it is going to be a very cold and long ascent when you are cold. Being stationary and being cold is about one of the most uncomfortable feelings.

As we swam along, I noticed there was a large school of fish swimming by. I really did not notice too much other marine life, but on the other hand, we were concentrating more on getting the skills completed. Before we knew it, the time was up and we headed back to the mooring line. With the thumbs up, we started our ascent making a few stops along the way, getting comfortable with adjusting our buoyancy in mid water as well maintaining stops as we crept our way to the surface.

Upon surfacing, everyone else had already surfaced from their dives and we quickly boarded and got out of our gear. The second time coming out of the water it felt colder, but we got our gear and stowed with the help of the others. From that point, everyone was pitching in to get the lines and flags down so we could get underway to head back to Salem.

Overall, the water conditions were excellent, much better then expected. The sea was flat and I believe the Poling was our best choice because when you looked out onto the water towards the horizon, it still looked nasty. Since Heather was driving the boat, I opted to grab a bunk down below and nap on the way back warming up next to the heater. Before I knew, I heard the engine slow and we were heading into the harbor. As we unloaded, there was the feeling that the weather was getting ready to change for the worse. Before long we had the boat unloaded and squared away ready for the incoming storm.

November 24-25, 2007:

Cold, windy weather arrived in time for the holiday weekend diving line-up.  On Saturday we were scheduled to dive the Poling, which actually worked out well because it's not likely we could have gone anywhere else with the wind and seas as they were.  The weather got progressively nicer as the day went on, and the wind even came down some.  When we arrived on the Poling we picked up a mooring and got settled in.  I wasn't sure how the visibility would be - given the rain, wind and seas there was every reason to believe it would be bad, but at the same time the W-NW wind tends to clean things up quickly.  I was sure the water would be colder, and that also helps the visibility.  Dave splashed in first and when he returned it was Scott's and my turn to dive.  I managed to drop my mask over the side while rinsing it out.  Since my wrist seals are neoprene, I have to lube up the seals to get my hands through them.  So, my hands were a little slimy and the mask just slipped right out of my fingers when I dipped it.  I borrowed Dave's mask and suited up to head in with a mission.  The visibility was an "OK" 12-15' or so.  The tide was turning and another boat of divers was on site, so this tends to diminish the vis.  When we arrived at the bottom my light went out.  We have been trying to ID a bad charger for a while and I think I finally found the problem.  Of course, it didn't help at this moment since now I didn't have a light to aid us in my search for my mask.  Scott tied off a line and we headed out, not exactly sure which way to go.  Eventually we ran across some fresh nylon line in a pile on the bottom.  We instantly knew where we were (approximately) when we saw this because this line had come from a lobster boat that pulled up to us with a wrapped prop.  One of our divers cut the line free for them.  This line was now on the bottom in the approximate area where the mask fell.  We took into account the slight current running on the bottom and sure enough found the mask not far from this line.  Since my light was out we weren't going into the wreck so we wrapped up the dive around 35 min BT and headed up.  An OK dive, though I was glad to get my mask back.  The next day we were scheduled for the Pug wreck but blustery W-SW winds made the Romance a better choice for sea conditions. Amazingly, the mooring was there.  Dave and Joel suited up first while Jeff and I hung out, bringing up the rear.  The conditions were improving and we were hitting dead high tide as the last of the divers surfaced, so I was really hoping the visibility would be OK.  This is such a great dive when the visibility is good.  But when it's bad it is really, really bad.  Everyone came up with happy faces and positive reports about the visibility, so that was encouraging.  The only question was, how much of an impact would the tide have since we were heading into an outgoing tide now.  Jeff donned his PRISM CCR as did I and we splashed.  I am still somwehat sick and probably shouldn't have been diving at all this weekend, so I had a difficult time equalizing on this dive.  It was a pretty bad sinus block... such that I almost called the dive at 20 feet, but somehow I managed to equalize and down I went.  I would deal with UP later.  The visibility was indeed good - 15 feet or so I would say.  I tied off my reel and we struck out for the bow.  We played around there for awhile before reeling back and heading aft.  I tied my reel off to a shaft and we swam all the way out to the other end of the wreck.  After 40 minutes we decided to head up and for me, begin a rather unpleasant ascent with a nasty reverse sinus block on the way up that didn't want to clear until I hit 7 feet.  Anyway, it did ... I was no worse for wear and ascended the rest of the way without issue.  All in all, it was a nice dive, everyone had a good time, and a few neat artifacts came up too. 

November 17-18, 2007:

More bad weather forced us to cancel our Saturday morning trip to the Romance.  While we did get out Sunday, our original plans were considerably revised by the weather.  The brief window in the conditions we did catch allowed us to get out to the Poling.  Unfortunately for me, I came down with a nasty cold on Saturday and thus, no diving for me.  Dave ran the charter while I hit the couch.  Not the most thrilling weekend for me. 

On a brighter note, November 19th marked the 3rd anniversary of Gauntlet's launch - always a memorable milestone for us.

Good times at the official Gauntlet launch party at Pickering Wharf Marina on December 4, 2004.

November 10-11, 2007:

No diving due to weather.

November 3-4, 2007:

No diving due to weather.

October 27-28, 2007:

We awoke to Southeast winds, rain and fog that kept us dockside instead of on the Bow of the Poling on Saturday.  But high pressure moved in and blew it out in time for our dive on Sunday.  The wind was up out of the NW -- with a steady 20-25 knots blowing most of the day seas were running even on the Poling stern, our destination for the day. We enjoyed a smooth ride up to Gloucester and settled in for what would hopefully be a good dive. As usual, I didn't have high expectations for the visibility given the rain and seas running through.  But that's the thing about New England -- you never know.  Dave headed in first and the rest of the divers followed.  Upon his return I got the visibility report -- 15-20 feet of visibility, strong current, but otherwise nice conditions.  That was good to hear.  I suited up with Jeff, one of the newest PRISM divers to join the gang.  We had 3 PRISMs on the Gauntlet on Sunday!  In a few weeks, we will see 4 PRISMs on the Gauntlet all at the same time!  We may well have a "rebreather only" charter naturally one of these days!  Anyway, Jeff and I suited up and hit the water.  This was Jeff's first ocean dive since training and he did great.  We spent 40 minutes on the wreck, swimming several laps around it before taking a quick tour inside.  The visibility was improving and we easily had 20-25 feet.  It was pretty cool at one point when Jeff and I were the only divers on the wreck -- quiet, very quiet!  Jeff called over to me and from about 10 feet away and behind me, I clearly heard Jeff sing, "ohhh Heather...." into his loop to get my attention.  It was pretty funny.  Anyway, it was great dive and another surprise considering the weather.  Seas were running about 2 feet on the Poling, but it was mainly surface chop, so it wasn't too bad.  The wind did pick up as the tide turned and it got quite windier with gusts around 30 knots.  Unfortunately this also coincided with a little detour we were taking to chase down a rogue acoustic buoy we were asked to look for.  Before too long we found ourselves in 4-6' - an indication it was time to go home, and with no buoy.  It was a rough ride, but the boat rode through it nicely.  We returned to a the marina around 4 pm and wrapped it up before the crazies totally took over Salem (T-3 days to Halloween).  Not a bad weekend, but these 1-day of diving weekends are not cutting it!

October 20-21. 2007:

Sunday's weather started out windy but ended absolutely beautiful.  It was definitely not a typical October day!  We had originally planned to dive the Reliance followed by the Romance, but the early AM wind forced to stick inshore and head straight for the Romance.  When we arrived on site the mooring was there, which was good and a nice surprise.  Scott, Roman and I suited up and hit the water.  I was hoping to do some good scootering even though I knew there was a better than not chance there would be low visibility on the Romance.  When I hit the water, I noticed immediately it was murky.  I had to pop my head up above the surface to orient myself to the line to start scootering back over and down - not a good sign.  We started our descent and it was rather dim lighting considering it was bright and sunny outside - another "not a good sign" on the visibility.  Sure enough we eventually crashed into wreckage and that signaled our arrival on the bottom.  It was a "solid" 3 feet and a murky 5' at best.  I clipped off a strobe and we tied off a line.  We also parked our scooters since this was impossible scootering visibility... bummer.  Anyway, we managed to swim around amidst the murk for 45 minutes, at one point following the prop shaft out to the end of the wreck, and then each of us taking a turn with the "which way should we try next?" act with the reel - running out until we ran out of wreckage and then going another way.  It was not the most thrilling dive considering the conditions, but it was a beautiful day to be out on the water and surely beat sitting home doing nothing.  We returned to the marina around 12-12:30 amidst the chaos of Salem's Haunted Happenings and a motorcycle road race that had 5000 motorcycles passing through Salem that afternoon.  That and a carnival fair that pulled into town certainly set an interesting landscape for the afternoon. 

October 13-14, 2007:

The weather during the week left a lot to be desired - rain, overcast, generally gloomy - and Friday didn't leave me with the impression that things were looking up for the weekend.  Rain, some wind and just downright lousy weather left me rather glum on Friday afternoon.  I didn't think there would be much of a day for diving on Saturday, especially since gale force winds were blowing through overnight.  We thought about canceling as 35 knot gusts swept through, but with a west-northwest wind I was hopeful that we could maybe get to the Romance.  Sure enough, Saturday morning arrived with moderate 15-20 knot WNW winds.  I figured Poling or Romance... and no visibility.  So I decided to leave my scooter at home and if I dove at all, just swim.  The group decided on the Poling and given the wind direction, we agreed this would be the better choice for good conditions and a shot at visibility.  We arrived on the wreck after a nice ride up and I readied to dive first.  I splashed in and surprisingly the surface visibility wasn't bad.  I kept descending and sure enough when I got to the bottom it was pretty good - solid 15-20 feet.  I cringed since I had left my scooter at home thinking there would be no use for it today.  Anyway, not the end of the world - I do have fins.  I decided to spend some time inside the wreck since no one else was in there and the visibility was pristine.  I toured through for about 20 minutes and found another plank with brass handles on it.  Dave has been collecting these so I set it aside hidden away for him so he could get it on his dive.  I didn't have my hammer with me since I haven't decided if I want to routinely carry it on my CCR or not.  I left the inside and swam around the wreck a few times.  I encountered pretty much everyone on the bottom from both our boat and Cape Ann's boat, also on site.  It wasn't until the last 5 minutes of my 45 minute bottom time that I was able to have the wreck to myself.  When I did, I really was able to appreciate being on a rebreather.  With all the open circuit divers gone, the wreck was quiet again.  It was just me left down there.  In a blink, all the fish returned.  It was really amazing actually.  I just settled down and hovered in the area as fish came all around me and the wreck.  It was very serene - quiet, no current and the visibility was improving throughout the dive.  If I had the scooter I would have no doubt not had the chance to experience this because I would have made too much noise.  Being so quiet on the rebreather, it was like I wasn't there - the closest one can probably get to being a true observer in the underwater world.  Anyway, it was a cool dive and a very pleasant surprise given my attitude that morning about what to expect.  The following day we headed out to the Bow of the Poling where conditions were decent, but blustery as the wind was more Northwesterly up off Cape Ann.  Overall the visibility was decent here too and we had a great dive cruising the wreck and mucking around on the bottom in the debris.  All in all it was a great weekend -- far, far better than one could have expected.  Can't wait to do it again!

PS - look back at the Sept 16 dive report for a recently posted report from John Mitchell.

October 6-7, 2007:

The first weekend of October brought a bizarre weather scenario that could only reinforce the fact that New England has some of the most unstable weather around!  Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day - reminiscent of summer, not early October.  The day was warm with air temperatures in the 80s with light wind and sunny skies.  We headed out in the morning for a final lobster charter of the regular season.  We hit Kettle Island and had the place to ourselves upon arrival.  By the time we left, however, there were 4 other dive boats on site!  Anyway, when we arrived Dave jumped in and made his dive.  He returned with a good catch and a good conditions report.  I headed in for my dive and found excellent visibility, about 40 feet, and overall pleasant conditions.  This is definitely one of my favorite non-wreck dive sites around these parts.  I also did pretty well on the lobsters and everyone went home pleased.  For the afternoon we had a trip to the Poling scheduled.  Conditions were still nice and the current on the Poling was pretty slack given the tide was just turning.  I headed in second again and found somewhat murky conditions - not bad, but not great.  Visibility was probably a murky 15-20 feet, with some mild current on the wreck picking up as the day went on.  All in all the dives were great.  In the morning I grabbed some lobsters and the afternoon I got some good scootering in.  I can't complain about that.  But I can complain about Sunday's weather, because the beautiful conditions vanished as a cold front moved through overnight, bringing 15-25 knots of NNE wind and 5 foot seas!  What happened?  That's New England I guess.  So unfortunately we were weathered out of Sunday's dives - a big disappointment.

September 29-30, 2007:

This weekend we had a group of divers from New York come up for a full weekend of diving.  Saturday's plan was to hit the Baleen followed by the Romance.  In typical late September fashion, the weather was a moving target all week.  It was a wait-and-see kind of approach.  And indeed, Saturday morning came with moderate NW winds and slightly choppy seas - good enough for a trip to the Baleen.  We headed out and arrived on the Baleen in good time. The mooring that we put in last weekend was still there, so we were happy about that.  Divers were splashing as soon as we were settled in.  Dave and I were holding off and diving just the shallower second dives so we could dive our CCRs.  The divers reported visibility of about 15 feet and decent ambient light.  We headed over to the Romance next and unfortunately our mooring was gone, which wasn't surprising given the mess there we were dealing with before.  Dave splashed in and put in another line.  When he came up I was getting ready to head in myself, but he said there was about 2 feet of visibility and don't bother.  I took a look over the side at the putrid pea green water and decided I was going to listen to his advice.  I can certainly dive this wreck another time and didn't feel like getting in just to claw around on the bottom for as long as I could stand.  The wind picked up dramatically and it got very nasty in the afternoon with a good 3 foot sea.  We cruised in when everyone finished up their dives and hoped for the wind to lay down for the next day.  Sunday morning brought light NE winds but it doesn't take much for seas to become choppy with a NE wind.  We decided to see what it looked like and make a stab at the Bow of the Poling, hoping the mooring was still there and that we'd catch a little lee off Cape Ann.  We had a bumpy ride up there, but once we were there the wind was shifting to the East and diminishing - and the mooring was there - so we decided to tie off and dive.  Again, there were good conditions here, albeit a strong surface current, but divers reported 15 feet of visibility, respectable for the Poling Bow.  When we finished up there we cruised the 2.5 miles over to the stern of the Poling where I splashed in.  The current was screaming pretty good, but my scooter solved that problem.  It seems the gillnetters are dropping their nets in closer to shore, probably because of the LNG pipeline construction, but it was the first time I can remember that a gill net was hung next to the Poling.  There was a huge mess of lines with lobster trawls fouled in the mooring.  It was a mess down there for sure.  Visibility on the wreck was an OK 15 feet or so.  I think it would have been better but there was a lot of traffic on the wreck.  The current was moving quite strongly on the bottom in addition to the surface.  One interesting observation I made -- on the port side there's a hatch opening right next to where the wreck rises up to the aft section with interior spaces.  Silt was billowing out of there, which tells me there's flow moving from the break to at least that far.  If the bulkhead is compromised there, that would be adjacent to the engine room and might explain where the movement of water is coming through since the silty/murky conditions in there suggest there's flow coming through.  Anyway, it was a good dive and a fun group - all in all, not a bad weekend.

September 22-23, 2007:

Summer-like weather returned for a very full line-up of diving and we welcomed it.  Saturday morning began with a trip to the Romance -- sea conditions were about as good as they get and temperatures were warm with light wind.  We cruised out to the wreck making good time.  Unfortunately when we arrived there was no mooring there, which wasn't exactly a surprise considering the mess that was there last time we visited.  Anyway, Dave and Pat splashed in to tie in a new line and before long we were settled in, flags up and splashing divers.  When Dave returned I headed in for my dive.  Not to be deterred by those highly variable visibility reports (10-15' sounded good enough) I took my scooter.  When I got down to the bottom though it was far, far from 10-15' -- I'd give it 5-7' at best.  The tide can affect the visibility quite a bit here and clearly the "good" visibility had passed.  Anyway, I tried orienting myself around the boilers but I was having trouble finding the "key" pieces of wreckage that I recognize and use to navigate.  I finally tied off my reel wherever I could and got started.  Aaron and Chris had reached the bottom and joined up with me swimming behind me as I scootered out line.  Of course, I couldn't really see where I was going so I just scootered along until I saw a good piece of wreckage to tie off to.  We did this until it appeared we had gone in a loop and I had nearly run out of reel line (it's a shorter one with about 250 feet).  Anyway, it was pretty much an "average" Romance dive.  Finally at the end of the dive when I think my eyes were more adjusted to the murk, I saw a key piece of wreckage and knew where I was at.  But the dive was wrapping up at that point so up I went.  For the afternoon we went to the Poling stern.  The wind had come up and the seas were a bit choppy with a moderate SE wind bringing in a 2-4' sea.  I splashed in with Scott and Roman and we scootered all around and over to the Gannet.  Visibility was decent but not spectacular at about 15-20 feet.  Unfortunately my light checked out (didn't change the battery pack between dives and was using a partially depleted battery to start) so when it blinked out, that ended plans to enter the wreck.  But we managed to scooter around like a motorcycle pack for about 35 minutes before heading up.  For the late afternoon we went over to the USS NH wreckage.  Dave jumped in here while I kicked back and enjoyed the fine weather.  We were treated to a few old style WWII era airplanes cruising by flying low.  My guess is there was some air show over in Beverly this weekend.  Anyway, it was a long day getting back to the dock around 6 pm, but fun.  Sunday AM we were greeted by blustery WNW winds and a bit of choppy seas.  Not too bad, but not too nice either.  We steamed out to the Baleen where we found the mooring was long gone.  Peter and Dave splashed in after we dropped the shot line to tie in a new one.  Roman and I brought up the rear once Dave returned.  Dave said there was 30 feet of vis and lots of ambient light -- well, there was plenty of ambient light, but the vis was more like 10-15' at best.  I was sorely disappointed since I had pretty much expected 30 feet and definitely did not get it.  But we scootered around and enjoyed the dive anyway.  I think I am having "issues" re-adjusting to New England visibility after our Halifax trip.  For the afternoon we headed back to the Baleen with a group from NH.  Dave and I skipped diving on this one since one dive on the Baleen was enough for us that day.  Instead I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in light wind (much improved sea conditions as the day went on), catching some late September sun.  I'll take another month of this weather, thanks.

September 16, 2007:

We had a short break following our return from Halifax - 1 day - before we went to work on Gauntlet for the yearly seasonal maintenance "hell week."  We haul out once a year for a week (M-F) to clean up and paint the bottom, wax the hull, do minor fiberglass repairs and re-do the back deck (the biggest job).  The back deck takes a real beating from tanks and dive gear and usually some fiberglass and gelcoat work is usually needed after a year of hard diving.  Since we were away and there was some extra time, the boat was hauled while we were gone so the propeller could be cleaned up from barnacles that had taken to growing on it, mapped and tweaked if needed.  So when we returned from Halifax, we went to work on everything else - which was a formidable list of things to do in the remaining 4 days the boat was slated to be out of the water.  We got it all done though and a big thanks goes out to Roman and Scott for their help.  Fiberglass and gelcoat work is far from fun, but their help made a huge difference for us in knocking out the job.  Gauntlet splashed back in on Friday afternoon looking good, and was ready for charters once again!  Saturday we attended the annual Boston Sea Rovers cookout, with lots of tales from Halifax to share with the gang.  And that left Sunday for a double-header charter day. The weather wasn't too nice on Saturday - not only not real nice for diving, but not real nice for a cookout either.  But the front blew through and left a cool NW wind behind it that definitely brought the "Fall is HERE" feeling to the air on Sunday morning.  We headed out Sunday morning to a diminishing but somewhat blustery NW - cruising up to Kettle Island for a lobster dive.  Dave and I opted out of diving in the morning since we were headed to the Pug wreck in the afternoon.  I will do reverse profiles if the depth differential is 20-30 feet, but this was going to be more along the lines of 60-70 feet, which is more than I like to work with.  Anyway, the group enjoyed their dives, reporting visibility around 20 feet, which was better than I was expecting to hear considering all the rain and occasional rough seas over the last week.  For the afternoon we headed out to the Pug wreck as planned.  The plan today was to get some still photos of the wreck.  I wasn't expecting the greatest visibility, but we were hopeful.  Since Capts Eric and Lori were helping us out today, Dave and I got to dive together.  So when they returned from their dive, we splashed in with another still camera and shot a roll of film.  We'll have to see what we did!  We took the phrase "point and shoot" quite literally.  We can do a half-decent job at video, but still photography... well... we'll see.  The visibility was about 10 feet, but given the ambient light, it wasn't too terrible.  It definitely was a long, long way away from Halifax where we were treated to 50-70 feet of visibility on every dive.  Anyway, we had a good dive and had snapped 24 shots of something by the time we finished.  All in all it was great weekend, even though a little short on diving.  But we were pretty beat from a long trip in Halifax and a hard week working late on the boat, so it was a good transition back to the regular routine kind of weekend.  We have lots of diving planned back in our playground, hopefully fall weather patterns will be kind to us.  PS-- one of our divers found a small housed digital camera on the wreck that someone had lost - if it's yours, contact us and we'll arrange to return it. 

The following dive report was submitted by John Mitchell -- thanks John!

I hadn’t been out to the Pug in a year, so when Heather emailed to inform me there was an opening, well…I jumped right on it.

It was a September day that was made to order. A delightful crisp blue sky above, while behemoth puffy fair weather clouds cautiously lingered over the land. It appeared as if they were afraid to venture out over the water. The only mar in the sky was the lone trail of some high-flying passenger jet miles above us.

The ride out to the Pug was uneventful. The sea was well behaved, albeit enjoying the spectacular weather itself. There was some question as to whether or not the wreck site had a mooring. But with splendid weather and calm seas on our side, we were hopeful our luck would be extended when we arrived there to find a mooring in place. There was!!!

When we reached the wreck site the first three divers splashed. Next went two single tank divers. Finally it was my turn to foray below and have a look.

As I entered the water the first three divers were already at their deco stops on the line. There was very little current as I released my grip from the down line and drifted effortlessly around them. It was then I noticed my console gage floating freely beside me. I had forgotten to secure it to my vest. I began fumbling on the descent trying to find the clip. Completely absorbed by that task I was descending ever deeper. Still I kept one hand on the down-line ensuring I’d arrive on the wreck and not somewhere out in the sand. I located the clip and connected the console thus streamlining me once again. My attention then shifted back to the descent…but not for long. Suddenly I noticed a form underneath me, materializing like a ghost out of nowhere. It was the Pug! I was a bit surprised at how fast it had come up on me. It seemed as if I had just entered the water and there it was already.

I found a spot about 10 feet above the Pug and clipped my strobe. Then, I drifted off the line taking on the position of a skydiver in freefall. Sinking deeper toward the wreck, a quick burst of air in my BC leveled me off squarely right in front of the mooring peg on the bow. There was still very little current. I finned my way over the bow and snapped the first of several pictures. Eager to take more pics, I began working my way towards the stern. There didn’t seem to be much by way of photographic opportunity when suddenly I spotted a mooring cleat! A couple shots of that and quick look around. I needed something more to spice up my visit to the Pug. Then I spotted exactly what I was looking for…an open hatch!

I worked my way over to the hatch and cautiously dropped down inside. It was quite dark in there and my lights were illuminating a lot of backscatter. As I entered the hatch I noticed a large pole or an upright of some sort. It was located just a few feet from the opening. To my left was a large chainlike type fence of some sort. Once more I put the camera to work. I finned around the pole and began my trek down the open passageway. As I went deeper into the Pug towards the stern, the entire experience was becoming a little strange. My lights cut through the dark but nothing was coming into view. The narrow beam scanned around the inside of the wreck as if looking for something, but never finding it. I hadn’t seen anything else except for that pole. I snapped some shots of the dark all around me in hopes something would show up in a picture. Later those pictures would reveal nothing but a void, sprinkled with backscatter.

I decided it was fruitless to go much further and figured I could obtain better photo opportunities outside. Turning ever so gently as not to arouse silt, I worked my way back past the pole and outside.

I exited the Pug and pulled myself down to the stern. The stern had a fantail appearance with a rudder in the sand underneath. I floated off the stern and down into the sand taking multiple pictures of the stern area in a softly controlled descent. A couple of kicks and I effortlessly lifted back up over the stern and began heading for the bow. Save for the cleats, the deck was relatively flat with no features to speak of. So, I decided I’d seen enough of the Pug and worked way over to the down line. When arriving, I spotted another strobe winking in the twilight mist next to mine. I realized then that I hadn’t seen another diver the entire time I was there!

I gathered my strobe and began my slow ascent back to a blue afternoon sky!

The Pug is a fun and relatively easy dive. Like all northeast shipwrecks current and limited visibility can be of concern. But a visit to the Pug wreck is always a worthwhile dive!!

September 2-8, 2007 (Halifax, NS):

We spent a week in Halifax, Nova Scotia diving some fantastic wrecks.  Awesome trip - check back soon for trip report and pics.

The group aboard the Ryan & Erin.

August 25-26, 2007:

Despite a week of very "fall like" weather, the weekend delivered summer-like hot and humid conditions that had us chugging water just to maintain some level of hydration.  The temperatures were predicted to be in the high 90s and with that humidity, it was just plain oppressive.  Anyway, we loaded up bright and early with fair seas - a bit of a ground swell running, but otherwise nice with light winds.  We headed out to Burnham Rock for the first dive.  The site had recently been rid of an abandoned gill net that was fouled in the mooring line.  I splashed in first and found the visibility to be excellent - at least 40 feet or so.  About halfway down, I could see the bottom.  Right at the base of the mooring line was a dead baby seal, an example of the collateral damage that gill nets leave in their wake.  Anyway, I headed down the crack, passing the first group of divers working their way back up.  I scootered down the crack, to a little past 120 feet out into the sand then turned around and worked my way back up.  From there I headed west a ways checking out the other side before cruising back east and out over the crack.  The visibility was so good I could hold my depth around 85 feet and see the bottom.  I didn't want to rack up a bunch of deco here so I kept shallower after bouncing down to the bottom so I could just run a 90 foot table.  After about 30 minutes of cruising around taking in the sights I decided to head up.  It was a nice dive with excellent visibility.  Scootering around the whole rock would be an interesting dive to do, but I wasn't up for doing it by myself, so I stuck to the parts that were easy to navigate.  In a natural landscape, it's pretty easy to get yourself lost on a scooter.  Anyway, we headed over to the Poling for the second dive and Dave jumped in there.  Visibility reports weren't quite as good as Burnham, but good dives were had by all.  For the afternoon we headed out to Kettle Island to do a little lobster diving.  The conditions weren't real good there as the ground swell that had been running was causing quite a lot of surge.  The wind was also picking up creating a little bit of chop.  This resulted in visibility around 10-15 feet in some places - and about zero in close to the island.  The current was ripping pretty good also - and a couple of times I found myself "going with it" because I didn't appear to have any other option!  In any case, it was good dive and we had a very respectable haul of lobsters.  For Sunday... well, I am going to go with the Soprano's style ending and

August 18-19, 2007:

The weather pattern developing over the course of the week suggested fall is advancing upon us.  By Friday it was clear that things didn't look particularly good for our plans to dive the YF415 on Saturday morning.  In fact, I wasn't sure what the forecast looked good for.  A last minute scramble to fill our tanks and prep CCRs for 0-250' had us covered - we'd just be seeing what Sat AM would bring.  At about 1:30 am on Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of rain and wind pelting the windows.  A front was moving through and I suddenly got the feeling the weather wasn't going to be real good in a few hours when we got up.  Sure enough when I looked at the weather buoy, I was shocked to see the conditions were in fact worse than initially predicted with W-NW winds 20-25 knots with gusts over 30 knots!  Seas were forecast for 3-5' and were well on their way there at 6 am.  We decided the Poling would be the "best" choice given the conditions and headed up there to edge out our dives.  The wind was howling - the kind of day when there's blowing spray coming over the rail even you're not moving.  I splashed in with Roman and we scootered around and off the wreck and then toured inside the wreck for about 45 minutes.  The conditions on the bottom were great - visibility was about 20-25 feet and mild current on the bottom.  Up near the surface on deco, it was a different story.  We were "spun" around and around as the boat was swinging fighting tide and wind.  We finished up our deco and surfaced a little more than an hour after descending.  It was a good dive.  We rounded everyone up when they finished and headed back to Salem.  We had another charter to the Poling and Halfway Rock, but there was no way we were diving Halfway Rock today.  We loaded up with a group from the New England Aquarium Dive Club and headed back up to the Poling.  The conditions had briefly improved since the tide was incoming, but they deteriorated again with some wind gusts that were well over 30 knots.  For some reason, I felt the need to go back in the water.  Actually, this was a good dive to log some time in challenging conditions on the CCR, so even though I really wasn't inspired to dive the Poling in these conditions again, it was good skill building - so in I went.  Roman and I splashed again and pretty much repeated the first dive.  The visibility wasn't quite as good, and the currents near the surface were just as bizarre.  Anyway, by the time it was all said and done, the conditions were in fact improving and we had a pretty nice ride back.  The following morning we headed up towards Gloucester for a lobster dive - conditions were quite different (better) than the day before.  Visibility was pretty good too and we all did very well with lobsters.  For the afternoon we had yet another Poling trip - and so we headed back up to Gloucester for our 4th and final charter of the weekend.  This time I was diving with Scott and we splashed in for a 40 or so minute dive.  Visibility on the wreck was somewhere in between what we had in the morning and in the afternoon the day before.  We scootered around and practiced some drills.  While 3 dives on the Poling this weekend was a little more than I was looking for, I can't complain.  I logged about 3.5 hours on the rebreather and Saturday at least if we weren't diving the Poling, I am not sure we would have gotten out elsewhere (on a wreck).  And in any event, as long as you are out diving and having fun with good people, that is what is most important.  All in all, no complaints - and a good weekend of diving was had by all.

August 11-12, 2007:

Poor weather in Southern Massachusetts for Friday and Saturday lead us to cancel our trip to the outer Cape and run locally instead.  While I was very disappointed about this change in plan, given how expensive it is to move the boat and keep it in Hyannis for a few days, we couldn't take the chance that we'd get down there and not be able to run and/or have the boat get stuck down there.  We had about 90 miles to transit to Hyannis (our jumping off point), and then 26-38 mile runs to many of the wrecks we wanted to dive.  Weather conditions need to be ideal for this sort of trip.  If we were local, it would be different, but obviously we're not.  So, we decided to stay in Mass Bay where the forecast actually looked pretty decent.  We spun the wheel of wrecks and the dial landed on the Romance for Saturday morning.  The - I should say "a" - mooring was there and was it ever a mess.  I can't believe this mooring was intact quite honestly.  It was two lines fouled together with 2 buoys and an empty jug of Sofnolime for a float.  The lines were tangled with other ghost lines, but somehow lead to the wreck in the machinery/engine area just aft of the boilers.  Today I was diving with Steve and so we headed down with scooters despite a "10 feet or so" visibility report.  Every time I balk at bringing a scooter on this wreck I regret it - so nothing was stopping me today.  We got down there and it was such a mess with the lines and low visibility from high traffic that it took me a few minutes to figure out where we were.  Once I did a few circles around the line I realized where we were at, and tied off a reel line.  I didn't think we could navigate without a line today.  I scootered the line out, putting in placements at various points until we worked our way to the bow, where I tied off the line.  From there we could work off this line scootering around the line using it as a guide and point to move off to explore to the sides.  We ran into Aaron and Roman late in our dive, but we were able to take a collective run up the wreck before I pulled the line and headed up just shy of an hour on the bottom.  All in all it was a good day - conditions were nice, though the air temperatures definitely had that "fall feel."  Anyway, we headed home early and enjoyed a relaxing evening.  Sunday the warm weather was back and with it we headed to Scituate to dive the Winsor and Pinthis.  We enjoyed a smooth ride down with flat seas, light wind and plenty of sun.  We arrived on the Winsor, a schooner barge sunk in shallow water known for great visibility and lots of fish.  Its mainly broken up beams and ribs (sort of like the Reliance) but the great visibility makes it a nice dive.  Dave and Steve splashed in to tie-in the line, and everyone followed in quickly once the bag popped up.  Scott and I headed in last and planned to shoot video, and of course scooter, and then pull the hook before we headed over to the Pinthis.  I enjoyed the dive on the Winsor and we spent about 35 minutes cruising the wreck getting various shots and exploring.  The wreck is small, but the 40 feet of visibility made for great scootering.  We headed over to the Pinthis after our dive where we set up the grill and took some time to relax in the pleasant conditions.  Everyone enjoyed hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill, and then suited up for the afternoon dive on the Pinthis.  Scott, Steve and I headed in last and did about 20 minutes inside the wreck and then we spent some time doing various drills at the end of the dive.  The visibility actually wasn't great - maybe 15 feet.  There were a lot of dead dogfish scattered about the bottom too, which I always hate seeing.  Anyway, it was still a good dive and after 40 minutes exploring the wreck we headed up, did a short decompression and then climbed aboard to cruise home.  All in all it was a great day with great diving.  The Cape trip will have to wait until next year.  I am sure we'll keep ourselves busy until then.  Here are a few pics of the Winsor.  Check out the video as well.

August 4-5, 2007:

After a few weeks of deep diving where we were using open circuit, I was looking forward to spending some time diving my rebreather.  We're still confining ourselves to shallow (<130') water until we meet our personal milestone in terms of hours.  Anyone who doesn't put the time in on their CCR before jumping into deep water is only fooling themselves.  Anyway, Saturday morning we headed out for a lobster dive off Marblehead.  The lobstering was so-so, but I got a few scallops and mainly just enjoyed spending a good hour cruising around on my CCR.  With fresh new sensors in the rig, I was pleased to have a flawless dive with tight PO2 control throughout.  Visibility was good and water temperatures were pleasant.  It was hot, hot, hot outside and I was dehydrating by the minute, but the dive was a great reprieve from the oppressive heat and humidity we've had hanging around lately.  Sea conditions were great for the morning - flat seas and very litle wind - but for the afternoon trip to the Bow of the Poling, the wind came up hard out of the SW and whipped up the seas to a good 3-4' before settling down in the late afternoon.  We sat out the Bow dive since we just didn't have time to get much mixing done this past week - and we didn't want to trudge around 2 sets of gear or do a reverse profile - so we just kicked back in some folding chairs while the rest of the group dove.  Visibility wasn't great from the reports I heard, but all enjoyed their dives.  It was a late day for us and by the time I had assembled the video camera rig and re-assembled my CCR after a little rinsing and drying out it was 9:30 pm.  Then we ate dinner.  Sunday AM came early with a 4:45 am wake up call.  Ouch.  For Sunday we were headed to the Southern portion of Stellwagen and then over to the Pinthis.  But we awoke to winds out of the NNW, shifting N and blowing about 15 knots.  The weather buoy and forecast was "ok-ish", but we knew running that far South would bring quite a lot of fetch and with it, seas.  We decided to try anyway and with about 14 miles (~halfway) left to go, we had to turn off and headed in towards the Pinthis - it was too rough.  Seas were building and it just wasn't going to happen.  Up on the North shore it was probably pretty flat, but to the South, it was pretty bumpy.  We picked up our mooring on the Pinthis and settled in for 2 dives there.  I opted to leave the video camera aboard considering the sea conditions and just do a little scootering.  Visibility was excellent at about 30 feet, some current for my dive, but overall great conditions with the exception of the surface waves.  I did a few laps around the wreck, poked around inside and in the area of the stern off into the sand - nice dive, CCR performed flawlessly.  We broke into the lunch food after finishing up diving and cruised back to Salem and wrapped a bit earlier than usual at about 4:30 pm.  It was nice eating dinner at 6 pm like the "normal" people.

July 21-22, 2007:

This weekend we had ambitious plans to dive both a new wreck on Saturday and make a trip to Stellwagen on Sunday.  The weather looked a little sketchy late in the week, which is unusual for July, but Saturday morning things were looking up with clearing skies and diminishing wind.  We made the run to the new target - a few hours ride but well worth it.  We did in fact dive a new wreck and it was great.  Anyway, as we get a few more dives on it and collect additional information, we'll share some details.  For now, we have more work to do at this site.  Sunday we woke up with a moderate NNE wind - yeah a NNE wind in July, what's up with that? - and so our plans for Stellwagen were out.  The fetch running down to the southern portion of the bank is good enough that it would have been real snotty there.  As it was, we had a little bit of choppy water to deal with on our way up to the Bow of the Poling, our new favorite wreck.  Why has this become our new favorite wreck, you might ask?  Well, we found stuff... and today we had a mission to extract the stuff.  Dave had thought he found a porthole - it turned out not to be - but it was a cool find nonetheless.  Anyway, we got on site and the first team of three - Dave, Peter and Pat - suited up with heavy industrial wreck diving tools and a plan to get into the space we needed to access.  These tools were about 10 feet of chain, a "come-along" cable winch, a large crow bar, a small crow bar, a hammer and a lift bag.  This contraption required some rigging just to get at the area, let alone actually get what we needed out.  Anyway, they went in and worked on this for about 30 minutes and while they were successful in opening up the area, the ran out of time and clear visibility to extract the artifact.  Visibility was down more near where it normally resides at about 10-12' - we had nearly dead low tide so this may have been part of the reason.  They sent up all the tools on the lift bag with a few brass knick-knacks like a fire hose nozzle and a large wrench/"key" of some kind.  Our plan, which was initially to shoot video, got scrubbed due to the visibility report and the need to go back to work on this area.  So, Scott, Dan and I suited up and hit the water with the same plan as the first team.  I had a minor delay at the surface because I discovered my wings weren't really holding air.  I thought I was adding a lot of gas to my wings with not much result the day before on the deep dive, but today I had about 10 pounds of chain in a bag clipped off to me and with "full" wings I wasn't floating at the surface.  I decided I better deal with this before heading for the bottom, literally.  The collar over the inflator elbow was loose so gas was leaking out right at the top of my wings.  Anyway, the crew tightened it up at the swim platform and off we went.  We got down on the wreck and the visibility was better than I had heard - we had some current on the way down so I think we were catching the changing tide.  We hit the wreck and scootered off for the area.  In no time at all we had broken out all the tools - Scott had the come-along, I had the chain, lift bag and rigging, and Dan had the crowbars.  Scott rigged up the equipment and we pryed open the area we needed to get at.  We were careful not to disturb the visibility until we had everything figured out.  Scott fished out the artifact - which is actually part of a compass range finder.  It looked like a porthole down in the hole, but when we got it out it was something else.  We quickly broke things down and rigged the whole mess up to send to the surface.  We sent it all up on a wreck reel, which I scootered back to the line.  It was not easy towing that back considering everything attached to it.  The scooter makes all the difference.  Anyway, it took us just about 30 minutes down in the mud at 170' to get this sucker out, but we did it.  It was a great example of team work to accomplish a project.  Thanks everyone!  All in all it was a fantastic weekend - new wrecks, artifacts, great diving conditions and fun, fun, fun.  Hard to believe July is almost over... but August is shaping up to be a great month.  I can't wait.

The group with part of a range finder/polaris from the Bow of the Poling.  Back row from left: Roman Ptashka, Scott Tomlinson, Dan Bruso, Peter Piemonte, Pat Beauregard.  Front row: David Caldwell, Heather Knowles, 5 Submerge scooters and 1 Gavin!

July 14-15, 2007:

This weekend brought another full line-up of diving beginning with a trip to the Bow of the Chester Poling on Saturday morning.  Once again the conditions were beautiful with virtually no wind and flat seas.  By all accounts, it was a fabulous summer day.  We cruised up to the wreck and picked up the mooring, settled in and began splashing divers in no time at all.  Dave headed in first while Dan and I waited topside to bring up the rear and shoot some video.  The surface visibility looked great - so I was hopeful about the bottom conditions.  But I know better than to get my hopes up, especially when dealing with the Bow of the Poling - typically a dark, low visibility dive - and of course having a video camera generally means the visibility will be terrible.  But when Dave returned he had a favorable conditions report - like last time, but better.  I'll take that!  Anyway, we suited up eagerly and hit the water.  We scootered down to the wreck and got the camera set up for filming.  We spent some time down in the debris along the bottom then up over by the break - this really is an under-rated dive.  The poor visibility gives it a bad rep, but I really have enjoyed the last 2 dives I've made here and have changed my mind about this wreck.  I will try to get some video and stills up soon.  I had an interesting experience while scootering down the hull - another marine life first for me - I got pinged off the head by a flounder.  I had never seen a flounder doing anything but skimming across the bottom before, so at 170 feet when one "flew in" from who knows where, bounced off my head and then skipped away, I was a little surprised.  At 170' when anything bounces off your head, it gets your attention.  I got a quick glimpse of it on camera as it sailed off - anyway, another marine life first.  Not quite whales, but interesting none the less.  An uneventful (how we like it) decompression wrapped up a great dive.  For the afternoon we hit the stern of the Poling, marking my second true "Poling-Poling" day.  The conditions were great there too - this afternoon I was diving with a student so no scooter for me. Ugh, I hate swimming!  Fins are for steering not kicking!  It's a sin to fin.  But for Sunday morning's trip to the Poling stern I had my rebreather and scooter, so I got my fill of bubble-less cruising.  The surface conditions weren't quite what we had Saturday - winds were SSW at about 15 knots and increasing.  Under the water it was as nice as it gets.  Visibility was a little better the afternoon before, but a load of divers had just come through and the tide could have been impacting it.  It was still a solid 15-20 feet.  I made a few runs out into the sand looking for my stage bottle leash that had fallen out of my pocket a few weeks ago, but it was not to be found.  For the afternoon, we headed back out for a lobster charter to cap off the weekend - conditions had really gone by this point though and we were dealing with SSW winds 20-30 knots with seas running 3-5'.  It was nasty and there weren't any good spots for us to tuck into the lee and still hit good lobster spots in the area.  Kettle is basically completely exposed there, and even trying to duck behind the corner a bit, we were still taking it hard.  Given the surface conditions and divers spread out over the area, we decided to stay topside to be ready for live pick-ups if need be.  Unfortunately the conditions didn't make for good lobstering, but we still enjoyed the trip. 

July 4, July 7-8, 2007:

A whirlwind of diving and traveling kept me busy for the last 2 weeks. Leading up to the 4^th of July was a very hectic time for us. First we kicked off things with an offshore trip for some great diving on the North American with our friend Eric. Offshore trips are always fun, but require lots of prep work with gases and equipment. Going home to get your undergarment is not an option, so everything needs to be pulled together several days to a week in advance. Anyway, we returned on Monday afternoon, and blasted home so I could turn-around quick to get on a plane to Norfolk VA to see my brother’s sub come in from deployment. It was pretty cool and I even got an onboard tour of his boat, the USS Scranton SSN-756, a Los Angeles class fast-attack nuclear submarine. Then I jumped back on a plane to be home in time for the 4^th of July and our trip to the Delaware. We had a beautiful weather window for the morning – the afternoon and evening looked a little questionable, but things looked good for the start of the day. Despite being completely exhausted from arriving home at 1 am and then getting up at 5:30 am, I was looking forward to the trip. We cruised down and anchored up – we weren’t too sure if we were going to get on this wreck real easily. It’s very difficult to find since it’s basically debris among a huge boulder field. I didn’t have the land ranges most people use to get on it, so we were shooting from the hip with lat-longs and TDs. Anyway, the short version is we didn’t get on it so we decided that rather than make another shot at it since the visibility was around 10 feet, we’d pop over to Minot’s Light and see what all the fuss was about with the recent ROV surveys or whatever has been going on over there. We anchored up next to the lighthouse. The lobstermen are pretty obnoxious in this area – purposely coming up very closely while going fast and throwing a wake at anchored boats. One lobsterman completely ignored our flag and came up within 10 feet of us off our stern and up along our portside hauling and re-dropping a string right on us and over our anchor line. I wish I had a video camera running on the surface to capture how foolish and stupid some of these people are. One day someone is going to get hurt because of this type of behavior. It’s just so unnecessary, that’s the frustrating part. Anyway, he fouled his trawl in our anchor line, of course, so that had to be dealt with. Otherwise, Scott and I enjoyed a pleasant 90 minute dive scootering around the lighthouse. We came across the plaque placed at the site by the Coast Guard. The plaque itself was nice, but the gigantic concrete modern day mooring block it was attached to that they dumped there seemed a little out of place for a site of such "archaeological significance." Anyway, I digress. Once we were back on the boat we enjoyed some burgers that Dave had been cooking up on the grill. The visibility was much better over by the lighthouse – probably about 20 feet at any rate. Sea conditions did start kicking up with a gusty SW wind and back up off the North shore there was a solid 2-4’ in chop running. We had a nice following sea for the ride back through. Once we got back to the marina we cleaned up and put away the gear and went back out for fireworks later that evening. Unfortunately it poured and was kind of overcast and raw. Marblehead’s fireworks got cancelled so we had to settle for a somewhat mediocre performance over in Salem Harbor. We headed in when the fireworks were finished up, offloaded the boat and headed home, finally getting to bed around 11:30 pm. Long, but fun day. We had a short 2-day lull and then were back at it for a weekend full of diving. I was still pretty tired and could have definitely used more than 2 days to "recover" from all the activities during the past week or so. Saturday morning we kicked things off with a trip to the YF-415. The weather was beautiful with very little wind and flat seas so we made good time getting out. Finally the gill nets seem to have gone away, for now, so another group got a mooring on the wreck the day prior. There must be a hold on gill netting right now because of quotas because there was really no gear at all this weekend in the water. Anyway, we grabbed the mooring and started splashing divers. Dave headed in first and Steve and I were bringing up the rear. Our plan was to shoot some scooter-video if the visibility was good. When Dave returned he said the visibility was pretty good – 20-25 feet or so on the bottom, a little murky but not bad by any standards. We suited up and splashed with the scooters and camera.  The surface water was pretty crummy, but below the thermocline it cleared right up to a crisp 30-40 feet.  On the bottom it got a little dark with about 20 feet of visibility, but it was still pretty good.  I've done dives here where there was great visibility all the way down, but on the wreck it became a murky 10 feet.  I set up the video camera and sure enough the lens had a giant condensation spot on it.  I had thought the air temperatures were cool enough that it wouldn't be necessary to soak the camera, but clearly that was not the case.  In summertime we soak the camera in a bucket of cold water to chill it down so that at depth we don't get condensation on the lens.  This works really well, when we do it of course.  I decided to just video anyway and hope it dissipated quickly.  Another one of those "practice video" dives was going to be had it seemed.  Anyway we did a few laps around the wreck trying to get some decent video.  Interestingly, when we got to the bottom initially Steve signaled to me that his bottom timer was toast - no display of anything.  He only had 1.  I had two on me, but interestingly, one of mine had malfunctioned on the way down.  It wouldn't turn on on the surface.  I figured it would turn on when I hit the water - well it didn't.  In fact it still wasn't on at 20 feet.  I don't really know what I thought, but I just let it go and we scootered down to the wreck.  When I looked at it on the bottom, it was working so I just let things go along.  Later in the dive towards the end I happened to glance at my other  bottom time and realized there was a several minute discrepancy between the two - not surprising, but I didn't notice it sooner.  It was no big deal as we just followed the good timer and had tables for the time we apparently had done, but it was the first time I have ever had 2 bottom timers essentially "fail" during a dive.  So, the lesson here is that it's good to wear 2 per diver and look at them both.  Anyway, the decompression was uneventful and we were able to stay tight during the deco so that we could share 1 timer.  For the afternoon trip we were off to the Poling where we did some scooter practice skills - visibility was excellent there at about 30 feet with very little current.  A good dive was had by all.  The following morning we headed out into Stellwagen to explore some new areas.  We had one of the more remarkable dives in my diving career at least when we got to dive with humpback whales.  Scott and I were scootering along the bottom drift diving when 2 humpback whales decided to come "play" with us.  I wasn't sure if we should be frightened or excited, but it was real cool.  Definitely a highlight dive!

A few pics... from left to right: the USS Scranton arriving in Norfolk, whales on the surface, the best shot I could get underwater of the whales and far right, Steve Pace scootering down the starboard side of the YF-415.

This weekend it was Dave's turn to be away since he was on work travel in Europe.  I was able to secure some help from Scott and our good friend Capt Lee Livingston, so even though I didn't get to dive all weekend, I did get to do some diving.  Saturday morning arrived with somewhat gloomy conditions - drizzle, fog and a bit raw.  The seas were pretty flat though, so we trudged out through the fog, which was at times so thick the visibility was barely 100 feet, and arrived on the Bone Wreck.  The Bone Wreck is a large schooner barge in 180 feet of water believed to be that of the Lt Sam Mengel, once a mahogany carrying -schooner later cut down, and still later dumped off Boston.  We got settled in quickly since there was a mooring on this wreck already.  Everyone splashed quickly while Scott and I remained topside listening to some music and waiting for the visibility report.  I wasn't diving this morning, but since the Bone Wreck is usually a low-vis dive, I was curious how it would be today since the surface visibility looked pretty good.  Sure enough, it turned out to be very good.  I was happy to hear that, but disappointed I missed it.  The visibility reports did vary, but I think the final consensus was a "dark 30 feet" - which is very, very good for this site.  Anyway, I missed it.  Not much you can do.  It doesn't happen too often that our work conflicts with our diving fortunately.  In the afternoon I did knock off a couple of dives with an Advanced Open Water student.  Sunday I had Capt Lee to help out for our Pinthis and Josephine Marie trip.  This is a big trip, a long day and all in all Gauntlet traveled about 90 miles spanning Salem, Scituate and Provincetown.  We headed out at an ugly hour - 6:30 am departure - and steamed down through heavy fog to the Pinthis.  Fortunately the skies cleared and it turned into a beautiful day.  The Pinthis turned out to be a great subject for the first real filming with the scooter-video rig.  Heading out into Stellwagen it got very rough for a period of time right around mid-day.  Getting tied in we were definitely in the better part of 3-5' and it was not very nice.  But it calmed down a bit once the tide turned and we all enjoyed fantastic dives.  And to top it off, we got lots of scooter-video since the final buoyancy/trim check on Saturday was perfect.  The Pinthis was incredible with about 40 feet of visibility.  The Josephine Marie was also excellent with spectacular vis - and a well-timed slack dive allowed for a good bottom time.  Check out video here.  Great diving this weekend for sure.  We missed Dave and look forward to being back in the regular swing of things this upcoming weekend.  A big thanks to Scott, Lee and Marge for helping me out this weekend.

Heather enjoys the Pinthis (left) and at right Dan Bruso buzzes along the Josephine Marie.  Photos by Scott Tomlinson.

This weekend found me in Chicago for a work-related meeting.  Dave manned the fort running a few lobster charters along with a trip to the Holmes. From the sounds of it, it was a nice weekend, though Sunday got a little snotty.  While I didn't get to go diving, I did manage to sneak away long enough to visit the Museum of Science and Industry and tour the U-505 exhibit.  If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it when passing through Chicago.  I have wanted to go for years, but never had the chance.  It's a fascinating story and the u boat has been immaculately restored.  The U-505 is now housed indoors and is surrounded by various u-boat accessory type exhibits that can keep a wreck diver busy for hours!

U-505 at the museum of Science and Industry, Chicago IL. 

With the Memorial Day weekend upon us - already - we were ready for a full line up of diving that began with the Snetind on Saturday morning, followed by the Pug wreck in the afternoon.  The weather was beautiful - hardly any wind and flat seas with sunny skies.  We cruised out to the Snetind, eager to get on this wreck since it's really one of the best deep wrecks in Mass Bay.  The Snetind is a large schooner barge that a family of squatters lived on for many years until it became so decrepit from being wrecked on an island and pounded by the elements that it was towed out and sunk.  There's more info here on the wreck.  Anyway, we got out there and got the shot line ready to drop in.  There was quite a bit of current running so it took a little longer to get the lines in the water and be sure that indeed we were dropping the tie in team on the wreck.  Dave and Scott suited up and splashed in - and soon enough the bag was up, we were tied in and diving.  After the main group of divers were in, Dave and Scott surfaced and then it was Roman's and my turn to dive.  They said the visibility was not very good (~10 feet) and there was a lot of current running.  We could tell the current was ripping, but I was disappointed about the visibility.  We opted to leave our scooters on the boat and headed in for a dive.  The current was pretty ripping so it was a hand-over-hand pull down the granny and to the wreck.  On the wreck we opted not to run a line and to just try and navigate along beams.  Despite it being large and mainly intact, the wreck is actually fairly confusing in some areas.  You can be swimming along following a beam or what you think is an edge and then suddenly there's a break and you're at a large void.  In low visibility its fairly challenging to swim unless you're simply running the edge of the rail.  Anyway, we made a dive - anemones were out in full bloom so it was pretty even though the dark, murky water didn't make for cruising all over.  The decompression was a bit of a grind in the current, but it wasn't too bad.  We surfaced and jetted back to the marina to re-load for the afternoon trip to the Pug wreck.  There we were planning to do an actual test dive with the scooter-camera rig since we've made some adjustments.  Scott and I suited up here for the sea trial dive.  The camera was very positively buoyant in fact so we had to add some weight under an inner-tube on the scooter to get it to sink.  Once we got it squared away, we dropped down.  The surface visibility was absolutely horrible and I wasn't sure how much of a test dive this could actually be.  But as we got closer to the wreck we passed through a nasty layer and then poof the visibility cleared up to a dark-ish 20 feet.  Not bad.  It took a few minutes to make adjustments to the camera, but once we got it set up we were actually able to make some passes around the wreck with the full rig running.  It was very cool.  We have a few minor adjustments to make and then we're there.  Coming soon - video while scootering!  I can't wait.  It's been a lot of work to rig this up, but it will be worth it.  Anyway, the group enjoyed the dives and decent visibility on the Pug wreck.  The next day a small group of us headed offshore to check out a new wreck in deep water - can't say much more than that right now, but suffice it to say we got on it and it was cool.  Monday Dave, Scott and I headed down to Long Island Sound to do some diving with our friend Gary Gilligan and check out some of what they've got going on with a recently discovered wreck.  The diving is difficult in the sound due to low vis and silty condiitons, but another great dive was had by all.  We knocked off 4 good dives in 3 days - not a bad Memorial Day weekend!  We definitely wore ourselves out.  Both Dave and I have a brief interruption coming up here soon due to work travel, but more great diving is in the works and I can't wait!

May 12, 2007:

April 28-29, 2007:

A relatively decent week ended with a very rainy day on Friday resulting in a lingering overcast, at times wet and raw, weekend. Winds were light though and overall it was pretty decent weather. There was a little bit of surge still noticeable but other than that the seas were flat and conditions looked good for diving. We headed out Saturday morning with plans to dive the Baleen. Since we had gotten our mooring on the week before, we were looking forward to quickly getting settled in and diving. With any luck we were also hoping the visibility had improved. How much improvement would be seen remained to be seen. We got on site and the water had a more blue-like appearance compared to last weekend’s pea green look. This was promising. Once all the lines were lowered into the water, we could better gauge the surface visibility – it looked to be about 20 feet. Everyone was encouraged by this and there was even talk of scootering, but I knew better. I jumped in first with Chris, and without my scooter. Things were in fact quite nice for that first 20 feet, but by the time we hit 80 feet it was pretty black with "last weekend’s visibility" present. We dropped down to the wreck and once again saw it when I touched it. There were already a few strobes o