No diving due to weather.

No diving due to weather.

Grand Cayman trip! Trip report and photos coming soon!

This weekend marked a double-header of scallop dives on both Saturday and Sunday. We had a number of people interested in scalloping, so we got the dives on the schedule and off we went.  The weather was pretty good for inshore diving with moderate wind out of the West on Saturday and moderate wind out of the NNE on Sunday.  Since we're leaving for Grand Cayman at the end of this coming week, Dave and I were in the throes of packing up our rebreathers and associated dive gear, and decided to keep it all dry as we go through the process of trying to find the right packing configuration so that we can get everything on the plane. US Airways now has a 100# maximum on luggage they will accept (regardless of overage fees).  It is not hard to hit this number with a heavy duty storm case packed with dive gear.  I was bummed to miss the dives because on Sunday we hit the biggest jackpot of scallops that I have seen in a long time - everyone got the daily limit - and I do like to get my haul - but it made sense to take it easy this weekend given that we needed to pack.  So, we're off to Grand Cayman for the next 2 weekends and then we're back to wind down 2009 and ramp up for 2010!  Happy Thanksgiving!

No diving due to weather.

No diving due to weather.

No diving due to weather.

On Saturday we had planned to make one last trip to Stellwagen for the season, but it was not meant to be. The weather did not cooperate for a full day offshore so the group opted for the Poling as an alternative inshore choice. We loaded up and departed at the usual time for the Poling. It was raining and overcast, but sea conditions were pretty nice, much nicer than the forecast suggested – lately these forecasts aren’t worth much – so it had me thinking about whether we could have made it to Stellwagen after all.

Anyway, we arrived on site and Cape Ann Divers was in the process of refloating the second mooring, so we were able to get tied in pretty quickly thanks to them. I had the camera with me and was hoping for some decent visibility to practice with the new strobe. With all the bad weather and bad visibility and just "bad" whatever, I have had the new configuration in the water only one other time. When we got tied in, Dan and I suited up and splashed in together.

The visibility wasn’t good. The water column was pretty murky and it wasn’t getting better as we descended. I was surprised at just how disappointing it was, actually. I would give it a very murky 10 feet and kind of dark. I knew it was pretty much hopeless for any decent pictures, but I figured I would just blast away and see what I got. Needless to say, the results were not good.

Anyway, we swam to the break, back down the wreck and then through the inside. The visibility was pretty bad inside the wreck too (not just from other divers moving through). We made the most of the 40 minute bottom time. The water temperature was pretty reasonable (about 50 F), but since I now have my heated vest, I was quite content to flip it on just for the heck of it. Why not? I have already used it on some deep dives with a lot of decompression involved, and it makes a big difference.

We surfaced and the sun was coming out – but the wind was picking up too. In fact, it got quite breezy that afternoon. We arrived back a little before noon and unloaded the boat. Salem is getting crazy now with the October Halloween Happenings, so it was nice to get out of there before things were too congested with traffic.

The next day we headed offshore to the Nezinscot – the weather started out beautifully, but the wind came up in the afternoon making things a little sporty out there. Overall it was an excellent day though and I was glad that we were able to finish the weekend with a great dive.

Photos from the Poling:

From left to right: Dan swims along the starboard side of the wreck; a sink inside the crew's quarters; Dan exits the wreck.

Unfortunately, bad weather - and I mean nasty weather! - blew us out of our dive planned for Saturday. Somehow, conditions improved enough for us to get out on Sunday.  I had a hard time believing it could possibly be nice out there after 20-25 knots of SE wind and 5-6 foot seas, but sure enough the wind laid down and the seas flattened out.  In fact, not only did we get out, but we were able to do what we had planned and get offshore for a deep exploration dive.  It was a great day and a pleasant surprise!

No diving due to weather.

Saturday’s charters included one of the last remaining double-headers of the season with a morning trip to the Brenton Reef LV, followed by a lobster dive in the afternoon. Unfortunately 20-30 knots of wind out of the NW resulted in a morning cancellation and a somewhat modified plan for the afternoon.

Aside from the wind, it was a pretty nice day, so we were at least able to salvage the afternoon by going to the backside of Cat Island and tucking into the lee by Comorant Rock. The conditions were OK there – some current and so-so visibility, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and a few went home with a good catch of lobsters. Since the morning trip got blown out, I wasn’t particularly motivated to get my rebreather all wet for a single lobster dive, especially when I was going to be diving open circuit scuba the next day for tech class check out dives. So, I kicked back topside and caught a little sun and wind over the course of the afternoon.

Sunday was truly a nice day. The wind dropped out, it was mild with plenty of sun and the seas had flattened out as well. We decided to dive the Holmes so we could get a mooring on it to give us some options (for the moment) when we want to get out for a deep dive, but can’t get further offshore in so-so weather.

We arrived on site and located the wreck. We dropped the shot line in and Dave went in to tie in the mooring. Soon enough, the bag popped up and we were tied in, ready to dive. Once Dave returned we got a conditions report and I got ready to head in with my 3 students. Dave remarked that it was "deep, dark and scary," with only about 5-10 feet of dark, murky visibility. Great!

We suited up and splashed. It was murky all the way down and fairly dark on the wreck. Visibility was definitely not more than 10 feet. I tied off my strobe and we set off towards the bow. We were tied into one of the old chains on the port side closer to the stern end of the wreck. There was a lot of fishing line and monofilament – black monofilament no less, which is nearly impossible to see without a light on it – stretched out across the wreck in several places like a tripwire. It was quite nasty actually.

We swam about halfway to the bow and then explored the stern. Again, the visibility did not allow for much of an excursion from the rail without running a guideline so we mainly navigated within view of the port side hull. When our bottom time was up, we ascended and had an uneventful decompression. A few other divers reported seeing dogfish in the water column on deco.

Once we surfaced, we gathered up the lines and headed in – arriving just before noon. All in all despite a windy start, it was a good weekend! No pictures unfortunately though – between teaching and visibility, the camera had to stay home.

Despite a nice start to the week, the weather took a turn for the worse late in the week beginning on Thursday.  By Friday, I wasn't sure what we'd be diving - if we got out at all.  But we had a group from NY up for the weekend and didn't want to cancel unless it were unavoidable. So, Saturday morning rolled around and it was still pretty nasty. Raining.  The wind was up out of the NE around 10-15 knots, and seas were showing 4.3 feet on the buoy.  By that time that morning, it was too late to cancel without people nearly at the dock, so we decided to meet and figure out what to do.  Since essentially almost everything was out - for sure out Baleen trip was not happening - we decided to try for the Poling. We figured we'd know if it were do-able when we were about halfway there and passed Baker's and Misery Islands. 

We headed out. It was pouring and a little foggy, but we made it up to the wreck. Seas weren't great, but they were better than expected.  We picked up the mooring. It was not long, however, before we could see that the mooring was too short and the line was chaffed near the buoy.  We were tied in way too tight for these seas. We tried to get slack on the line to tie in another piece below the chafe point, but we couldn't do it. The line snapped and that was that.  When we first got out there, I sort of decided I was going to skip the dive because it was so crummy, but once that mooring broke, I was going in.  Dave didn't bring his gear, so Pat B and I splashed in to tie in another mooring.  We got suited up and splashed.  The visibility wasn't terrible. We dropped to the bottom and still the visibility wasn't terrible. I was expecting nearly no visibility given the rain and recent conditions.  We landed next to the wreck about 15 feet from the break mooring, so we rose up, tied the line in, dropped back down and shot the weight.  It was actually nice down there. There was no current and visibility was around 10-12 feet - it was something.

We finished up the diving with everyone doing just 1 long dive and headed in. I was damp, kind of cold and looking forward to relaxing for the afternoon.  On Sunday, we were headed to the Pinthis.  The weather started out the same - some rain, lots of fog and overall kind of raw, lousy weather.  We decided once again to see how far we could get. The seas were down to about 3 feet in swell, with NE winds around 10 knots.  We made the run to Scituate and things got progressively better.  We arrived - no mooring present - dropped in a shot line and Dave splashed to refloat the old mooring. He did just that and then once the pool was open, everyone hit the water.

When Dave returned, I asked for a vis report. Once again, I was considering skipping it.  He said it was "beautiful" - at least 30-40 feet of visibility.  At this point, I decided that I would dive - and then broke into a lament that I didn't have my damn camera with me because I thought it was going to be lousy. I didn't have my scooter either. Boy, was I sorry!  Cursing, I suited up and hit the water.  I didn't have any of my regular dive buddies either so I was flying solo with no toys. 

I splashed in and headed down. When I was at about 60 feet, I looked down and I could see everyone swimming along the wreck. It was so awesome. These were the best conditions we have seen all year on this wreck.  I swam down and entered the wreck on the starboard side. I went through the entire interior. There were a ton of cod inside the wreck.  Then I did a few laps around the wreck - down along the sand, up high on the bottom of the turtled hull.  I checked out some nooks and crannies.  There were so many fish - it was bright enough that eventually I shut my light off and just swam into schools of them. Pretty cool.  There were dogfish creeping back to the wreck as the dive went on and I was the only one still down there.

After 40 min on the bottom I headed up and did a short decompression.  By the time I was back aboard the sun was out, skies were clear and the seas were flat from light wind. It was nice.  We cruised back enjoying lunch, music and pretzel rods - essentials, basically.  While I was disappointed not to have brought the camera, I still had a great dive just taking a relaxing swim around a great dive site.  Not a bad weekend despite some weather.

This was the first time in several years that we have been around home for Labor Day weekend.  As usual we had lots of dives lined up.  Saturday was a double-header trip to Kettle Island in the morning followed by the NYC 14-2 in the afternoon.  Even though some say it doesn't matter, I am still somewhat "old school" when it comes to certain diving practices and I felt that a reverse profile with about a 60 foot differential (the NYC 14-2 being 120' and Kettle about 60' max) was too big of a swing for me.  So, I planned to dive in the afternoon only, as I wanted to get the camera in the water with the new Ikelite DS200 strobe that we have added to the camera setup. The morning was beautiful - not much wind and mostly sunny. I enjoyed a relaxing morning on the boat and everyone that made dives seemed to enjoy themselves. I was told the visibility was only so-so around 10 feet. I wasn't surprised by this, but I was certainly hoping for better on the deeper dive in the afternoon. 

For the afternoon the weather was still pretty good, though the breeze had picked up slightly.  We motored out to the NYC14-2 where we found the mooring was gone.  Dave suited up and splashed in to re-float the old mooring, which he did and before too long we were tied back in and the pool was open for diving. When Dave returned he said the visibility was a murky 10 feet.  I wasn't all that surprised, but I was hoping for better since I was definitely bringing the camera to practice with the new strobe and test out the buoyancy and trim of the rig with this new accessory.  As we were suiting up, Cape Ann Divers arrived with a full boat of people to dive this wreck.  Amazingly, in the span of about 1 hour, 22 people between the two boats were on this 114 foot long wreck.  That's got to be a record.

Anyway, Tim Maxwell and I splashed in and headed down to see what we'd find. The visibility was wiped out in a few places, but there was enough current that it kept moving the water and silt away, so the 10 feet visibility was still pretty much the case.  Of course, I had a lot of learning curve to go through since this was a much more powerful strobe and basically all the camera settings are different now with shutter speed and aperture.  As Pat B asked me earlier in the day when I said I was planning to test out the strobe, "So, you're going to learn how to use the camera all over again today?" - Uh huh.  I wasn't getting it perfect with the strobe position or settings, but I was figuring stuff out on the fly.  That plus 10 feet of murky visibility and I did the best that I could.  The results were "ok" - I guess.

We wrapped it up and headed in after our dives, getting home around 6:45 pm. We prepped for our deep dive the next day - which was of course blown out when a cold front came through bringing NE 20-25 knots and 5-6 foot seas in for the next morning.  Yeah, great.  Monday I was working with students doing some fun skills and drills - the weather was beautiful. You'd never know there were 6 foot seas out there the day before.  That's New England.

From left to right: Tim Maxwell swims past the bow; Tim exploring around the engine; a view of the bow, starboard side.

No diving due to weather.

Surprisingly, we were able to get a night dive on the books at the last minute thanks to Jeff Wagner and a few guys from the MWDC.  We picked up a few more of our regulars and suddenly we had a group for a night dive on the Poling.  I was looking forward to this because I haven't done a night dive on the Poling in many years.  I was too swamped with breakdown, prep, work (the regular kind) and everything else I try to cram in between Monday and Friday to pull the camera together or my CCR for that matter, so I whipped up some nitrox in a set of doubles and topped up an AL40 of O2 for the dive.  I hadn't dove OC since May so I suppose this was good.

We loaded up and headed out around 6:30 when everyone had arrived.  Sunset was at 7:40 pm, so we took a nice cruise up to the wreck, arriving at about 7:15.  There wasn't a hint of wind and the seas were perfectly flat - gorgeous night.  It was hard to believe that Hurricane Bill was headed our way and about to wreck the weekend (more or less).  Anyway, once it got dark, everyone starting suiting up and splashing.  Roman and I were diving together, so we splashed in last around 8:50 pm. Conditions were still perfect, but the current was screaming. We had a new moon spring tide, so the change on the flood tide was about 12 feet - and you could tell. It was moving...

When I jumped in, I had to kick like heck - and I mean really kick like heck - to get over to the line.  Even getting down was a bit of work.  In the total darkness with only a light to illuminate our path, this made things a bit more challenging than the average Poling dive.  But we moved through it and around 40 feet the current dropped out.  The visibility was pretty good - 15-20 feet and... dark (sorry, couldn't resist).  We swam out to the break, dropped down and checked out some good sized cod under the wreck. We swam back down the wreck, toured through the inside and decided to head up around 30 min bottom time.  It was a nice dive.  I didn't see a ton of marine life that I don't usually see, but in the dark water, with a light I definitely could get more color - the pinks, purples and yellows that just get washed out in ambient light and green water.  Nice dive.  We did a short hang and then surfaced. The current was still moving pretty good, but we had a nice flat ramp for unloading around 10:40 pm when we arrived back.

Friday we had to go to work to recuperate.  On Saturday we had planned on the Pinthis, but the uncertainty of the forecast made sticking closer to home seem like a wiser plan.  We went to the Reliance instead, which we haven't been to in awhile. I put the camera together since I was hoping to get some good photos, as all my other stuff is video.  The weather was good and seas were flat.  Of course, I had to wonder if we could have made it to the Pinthis.  The weather is such torture sometimes.  Anyway, we had a nice ride out and upon arrival dropped the shot line in the water. We were not planning to leave a mooring since this was somewhat a one-off trip, so Dave and Pat B splashed to tie-in, with Roman and I planning to pull the line once everyone finished their dives.

Dave came back with a grim conditions report - low visibility (lots of particulate), dark and real strong current on the bottom.  Hmm.  I collected a few more "opinions" before finally deciding not to bring the camera.  Roman and I splashed and dropped down. I was glad I didn't bring it because it wasn't that good down there. The current was so strong in fact that some pull and glide was preferable over swimming at times.  Overall, it was a so-so dive, but we made the most of it.  At about 25 min we got slack from the surface and pulled the line for our ascent at 30 minutes.  We swam the line off the wreck, put some air in the liftbag attached to the weights and headed up. 

When we surfaced, the weather had changed. We had about 15 knots of SSE wind and it was choppy. When we had jumped in, it had just starting raining like a squall was coming through. I guess we missed that, but caught the wind for sure.  Anyway, we hauled the lines and headed home.  It wasn't a bad day considering the terrible weather forecasts we had been seeing all week leading up to the weekend.  Sunday we had plans to take the day off, which was probably just as well because the 6 foot swells that did eventually show up from Hurricane Bill didn't look like ideal diving conditions.

Finally what appeared to be a legitimate summer-like weekend was upon us. Saturday’s double-header line up consisted of a morning trip to Kettle Island followed by an afternoon trip to the Poling stern section. The forecast was calling for light wind and while it was a little cool in the morning, overall it seemed like it was going to be a perfect day.

We loaded up with a regular gang and headed off to Kettle Island bright and early for some lobstering. We haven’t done many lobster dives this season – just hasn’t appeared on our schedule much, so I was looking forward to the dive. We arrived at Kettle and anchored up. There were a few other boats there, but we found a good spot and settled in.

I suited up and splashed. I was breaking in a new mask and this could only mean one thing: it was going to drive me insane fogging up. I had done the toothpaste thing the night before and I loaded it up with sea drops prior to the dive, but nonetheless, it fogged. Being on a rebreather, this isn’t a good problem to have since clearing your mask messes with your buoyancy, loop volume, PO2 and wastes a lot of gas. That was pretty annoying the entire dive, but somehow I managed and bagged up a decent haul of lobsters.

When everyone finished their dives we headed back to Salem, offloaded and reloaded with the group for the afternoon Poling trip. We cruised up to Gloucester – wind was still light and the weather was great. There was a ton of boat traffic. It seemed like everyone was taking advantage of a true summer-like day.

When we arrived, we had the wreck to ourselves, so we grabbed the stern mooring and got settled in. Dave suited up and splashed first. I got all the divers off and then kicked back for the short while everyone was gone and listened to some music. When Dave and the others returned, I suited up again and hit the water. Dave had said the visibility wasn’t great, so I decided not to bring the camera. I figured I’d just do a dive and swim around, but I am sure I could have used the practice shooting photos in lower visibility conditions.

The visibility was about 10-12 feet and kind of murky. I got down on the wreck, dropped inside for a quick tour and then headed out and to the break. I dropped down to the sand and spotted a pretty large codfish under the wreck. The Atlantic Wolffish we saw a few weeks ago appears to have moved on. Anyway, I swam the perimeter of the wreck along the sand line. The visibility seemed a little better off the wreck. I was surprised it was so lack luster considering we were around high tide, there wasn’t much current and the overall weather has been decent. Oh well, it was good dive anyway.

When we finished up, we headed back to Salem to conclude a great day of diving. On Sunday, we headed offshore for some deep stuff and though the weather wasn’t quite as nice as it was on Saturday, we had a good day!

More bad weather resulted in the second of our three planned offshore trips being canceled. One more to go! Will it be three strikes and you’re out or third time’s a charm? Who knows? Anyway, it is what it is – certainly not the first time we’ve been blown out of dive trips. On Saturday, we decided to lay low and remain dockside to complete some much needed repairs to the boat after last weekend’s charters, which resulted in a few of things being damaged/broken. Sunday, we were able to schedule a last minute trip to the NYC 14-2. The weather was certainly much nicer on Saturday, but Sunday was pretty decent too – a little cooler, some fog and a bit overcast.

We loaded up and cruised out to the wreck. When we arrived, the mooring was present so we tied off and began splashing divers. Since Roman wanted to shoot video, and Dave and Eric wanted to dig, we decided to go first! Scott, Roman and I splashed in and headed down. Visibility for the first 20 feet was pretty murky (and warm), but below the thermocline it cleared up nicely. Visibility was about 15 feet on the wreck – a bit dim, but not completely dark.

We swam to the stern and I tried to do some off-camera lighting for Roman. I decided not to shoot still photos since I just felt like doing a low-key dive and I really felt like not spending 2 hours cleaning stuff when I got home later. Anyway, we swam around the stern. For some reason I felt like cramming myself into small places on this dive, so I swam up in behind the rudder next to the propeller blade and illuminated the area. Then we swam forward and dropped into the wreck. I have never swum through the entire wreck one end to the other inside before, but on this day I decided to try. I saw a reasonable path alongside the boiler on the portside, so I swam along it until I reached a bulkhead. I was able to fit through a hole in the bulkhead, so I passed through. From there, I was on top of the water tanks on the other side. With a little squeezing, I was able to get over the top of it and then popped out on the other side, inside the forward area. That was kind of fun, but the visibility is totally silted out behind you doing this – so it’s sort of a one-time swim – for that dive at least.

Anyway, we swam to the bow and around the wreck, taking our time just enjoying a nice dive. At 35 minutes bottom time, we headed up, decompressed and returned aboard so Dave and Eric could splash in. Little did they know what we did inside the wreck! When Dave and Eric returned, we pulled the lines and headed home. It was overcast and breezing up a bit, but overall it was a good day. I enjoyed getting in a bit early and spending the afternoon relaxing at home.

Finally a truly summer-like weekend was upon us. Saturday broke with hot, humid weather – a little light rain in the morning, but overall, not too bad. We’ll take it. The wind was very light and other than a slight ground swell, the seas were flat too. We were off to the Chester Poling for our morning trip, followed by a lobster dive in the afternoon. For the morning, I was diving with Roman – he was bringing in his HD video camera and I was bringing the still camera.

The ride up to the wreck was quick and uneventful. Roman and I suited up to dive first since Dave was saving himself for the afternoon lobster hunt. We splashed in and dropped down to the wreck. Visibility was respectable, but nothing to write home about – 15-20 feet I would say. We swam the wreck and then went inside for some touring around. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone had already been through the interior, so the visibility was wasted for any chance of getting a decent photo. Once all the particulate gets into the water, there’s no focusing the camera on anything but that. But, that’s fine we have plenty of opportunities to get photos in there, no doubt.

The highlight of the dive was seeing an Atlantic Wolffish hiding under the break on the port side of the wreck. We were just about 36-37 minutes into the planned 40 minute bottom time when Jeff came cruising over to point it out. Fortunately we were on the break mooring so I had time to drop back down to the sand and snap a few pictures. They are definitely pretty cool to look at.

We headed up for a short decompression and then returned aboard. Once everyone wrapped up their dives, we returned to Salem, offloaded, reloaded and headed back out to Kettle Island for a few lobster dives. Everyone did pretty well on lobsters and it was a good afternoon.

Sunday we headed offshore. All in all it was another fantastic day with great weather. Since we were in the neighborhood on our way home, we decided to go through the Annisquam River for the cruise back to Salem. It’s been a long time since I have been through the Annisquam and passed by Wingaersheek Beach. I don’t ever remember seeing so many boats rafted up along the beach when I was a kid. It was pretty crazy the amount of boat traffic. It was a great ride though. We got back to Salem around 3 pm, offloaded and called it a day, and a weekend!

From left to right: Tim Maxwell exits a hold through a bulkhead; Roman shooting video; an Atlantic Wolffish hiding under the wreck.

Our offshore plans got scrubbed on Thursday due to a poor forecast for SE of Nantucket - what else is new?  This left us scrambling a bit at the last minute to make new plans for the weekend.  After a little hemming and hawing about what to do, we were set to dive the Seaconnet on Saturday in Vineyard Sound with our friend Eric aboard the Quest.  On Sunday, we were able to arrange some last minute scheduling to finish a recreational wreck diving class with a few students on the Poling.  The Seaconnet is a wreck that we've wanted to dive for awhile, but never had the opportunity.  So when Eric mentioned going there on Saturday, we were definitely up for that. Of course, I was not too sure if we'd see anything down there since the visibility this time of year (and apparently on this wreck) is quite poor.  But, we figured "what the heck" - beats sitting around on a perfectly good Saturday, and a nice cruise through Buzzards Bay is hard to beat in July.  Anyway, we steamed out to the wreck, got tied in and splashed.  This was the first time Dave and I have had the opportunity to dive together in quite a long time - quite possibly the last time was in October when we dove the Trojan.  We dropped down to the wreck and were quite astonished by the visibility - Mort had said it was good - but this was far better than we could have hoped for. It was easily 15 feet with plenty of ambient light. We were psyched.  Eric and Mort got us tied into the stern, so we did a quick tour through the engine room and then tied off a reel and headed all the way to the bow. It was a great dive!  The Seaconnet is very similar to the Suffolk, a deeper wreck and sister ship.  This wreck is also turtled, but there are many breaks in the hull that allow for penetration and exploring all kinds of nooks and crannies.  I really liked this wreck.  Everyone cooled my enthusiasm later though when they told me that normally this wreck has about 2-3 feet of visibility.  We seem to have a thing with Buzzards Bay / Vineyard Sound wrecks in that the first time we dive them, we have great visibility - and then never again.  This was definitely the case with the Trojan and Yankee.  Anyway, we did a 35 min bottom time and called it a dive.  It was fun diving with Dave.

Eric Takakjian and Dave Morton get suited up to tie-in on Seaconnet.

We had hoped to do a morning trip to the Baleen, but the conditions on Saturday night and Sunday AM didn't really look too good, and not everyone had blow-out shallow gas in case we had to stay further inshore - so we slept in. This was not a bad thing considering Dave hurt his finger pretty badly on Saturday and my back was acting up.  But we had a class to finish in the afternoon, so after spending most of the morning in bed with ice packs, we got up, took some advil and headed down to the boat. Dave sat out the dive so I was diving open circuit and working with the class.  Of course, the only tanks I had full with nitrox were the heaviest ones I own, so I was really worried about what this was going to do to my back.  Oh well, I had a chiropractor appointment already scheduled for Monday! Anyway, we loaded up and headed out - the weather was improved with sunny skies, some clouds - but the sea conditions were only marginally improved. We had a fairly good surge running, with some chop on top from a SSE wind. It wasn't nice for sure. 

I splashed in with our class, and Roman came along doing some practice shooting video.  We had 2 nice dives on the Poling - visibility was only OK with about 15 feet of somewhat murky water and occasional dark periods from clouds passing by.  But overall, the students did great and we had fun, which is what's important.  All in all it was a fun day, and despite a sunburn, I didn't fare too badly overall.

July 3-5, 2009:

Nauset – Cape Cod overnighter (and a long ride to the Romance)

About two years ago I got the idea to do an overnight trip off Cape Cod, anchored up on a wreck in the area. I went as far as researching all aspects of the trip, but actually getting it scheduled and making it happen did not come as quickly. For one, Gauntlet’s bunks in the forward section are still not completely done. This is an area of the boat’s construction that we’ve been a bit delinquent in finishing. And we also needed the right configuration of people and gear (as in CCRs). Finally, this opportunity presented itself and assuming we could get the weather, we planned to head down to Nauset and dive the Perth Amboy Barge #703. From Salem this is about 65 miles one-way.

On July 21, 1918 the WWI German u-boat U-156 fired and sank 4 barges under tow by the tug Perth Amboy. There were 32 people aboard the 140-foot-long iron tug, the wooden coal barge Lansford, and 3 steel barges #703, #740 and #766, including the captains' wives and children. The #703 barge was carrying a cargo of paving stones. The tug released the barges and escaped, but the u-boat proceeded to sink the 4 barges. Rescuers from the Chatham Coast Guard Station rowed lifeboats directly into the heart of the shelling and heroically rescued everyone. Before the U-boat finally submerged and disappeared, nearly 800 people had witnessed what local historians later dubbed the "Battle of Orleans." This marked the first time the U.S. mainland had been attacked since the War of 1812 and the only attack on U.S. soil during World War I.

The Lansford drifted for several days before sinking in approximately 110 feet of water a few miles from the other barges. The other 3 steel barges, also known as the "Nauset Barges," sit upright in approximately 110 feet of water. The #703 is the most intact steel barge of the three, with a completely intact hull except for the last 15-20 or so feet of the stern, which is collapsed. The wreck is full of paving stones and sits on a white sand bottom.

Our plan was to leave early Friday morning and steam the 4.5 hours from Salem to Nauset, get tied in on the #703, spend the night there, dive the next day and then return on July 4^th getting home in time for our plans that evening to go watch fireworks in Marblehead. I took the day off from work on Thursday to get the boat fueled, pick up food and get ready to go. The weather wasn’t good and the forecast looked questionable at best, but we decided we would go and just see how far we could get.

We opted to run Gauntlet’s first overnight trip with a small group of crew and friends. We also wanted to keep the amount of gear light, so everyone was on CCR. We selected the #703 barge because it kept the diving operations a bit simpler where the wreck is in relatively shallow water. We carried full fuel (about 320 gallons), but only had enough food to last two days! We also had a new "feature" aboard Gauntlet thanks to Scott’s good thinking – a new radio that could be interfaced with an MP3 player or iPod (and is upgradeable for satellite radio). So, we had good music as well.

The run down to Nauset was uneventful – probably because we could not really see anything. We were in pea soup fog pretty much the entire way. A few times the sun attempted to come out, but overall the visibility never got much better than 0.25 miles until we reached the #703 at which point it did start to improve. Overall we had a great run at just under 4.5 hours.

Dave and Pat B splashed in to tie in the line while Scott, Jeff and I remained topside. This site is known for very good visibility from what I understood, so I was hoping to be soaking up some of that. We had scooters, and the camera. The #703 is about 187 feet long, so it’s a good size wreck for a little scootering.

Dave and Pat B get ready to dive.

When Dave and Pat B returned they had a good conditions report – fairly strong current, but good visibility (30-40 feet). We suited up and splashed in. Once we reached the wreck it became apparent the current was pretty stiff. I definitely found it challenging to manage the scooter and the camera in terms of getting somewhere, stowing the scooter (which only involved pinning the trigger), getting out the camera, lining up the shot, taking the shot, repeating the shot – all while the current was pushing me away. I managed to take some pictures though and was just hoping they weren’t all blurry from motion.

The wreck is intact except for decking that has fallen away. There are framing and beams with holds chock full of paving stones. The bow section is the most "intact" in terms of some interior structure, where one can do a short swim through. There’s a small boiler (that would have been part of a small power plan to drive the winch) on the starboard side in this area. There are otherwise nooks and crannies all throughout the wreck, particularly on the sides of the hull where the paving stones come up and dip down. The stern section is collapsed and twisted – there’s a windlass off the starboard side in the sand. This section is where any current that’s running is most apparent.

From left to right: Scott Tomlinson on the stern section; views of the bow winch; abandoned fishing gear near the bow section; a view of the starboard side along the sand; Scott and Jeff hang on in the strong current; a view of the bow of the 703 barge.

After about 40 minutes we decided to head up. I was good with that, as I was getting tired of juggling the scooter and camera. Dave did make the neoprene dome cover that I wanted, and it’s working out great! Now I can completely let the camera go on ascents and descents without worrying about dinging the port. Anyway, we had a bit of decompression and surfaced just around 70 minutes run time.

We surfaced, had lunch, and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. Then we got ready for an evening/night dive. It wasn’t completely dark when we headed in the water, but it was down on the wreck. Dave and Pat B splashed in first again. Then Scott, Jeff and I went in for our dive. I decided not to take the camera or the scooter – of course I was going to regret not taking the camera!

Pat B relaxes between dives (left) and splashes in for an evening dive (right).

Anyway, we dropped down, made some adjustments to the mooring to make sure we’d stay tied in solid for the night, and then enjoyed the rest of the dive. It was awesome down there. This time, there was essentially no current and I think the visibility might have been better as well. We swam all through the interior spaces. Of course, I was wishing I had the camera then because there were some great shots to be had.

We enjoyed a great swim of the wreck – it really was just a perfect dive. There were lots of fish and the wreck was very colorful. I think in the dark water with just a light, there was less overwhelming green water.

We got aboard after a short decompression and Dave had the grill warming up. We got the food going – and had a great dinner out on the back deck. We had a pretty nice whale show too! The fog had cleared out and it was a beautiful night to be at sea for sure. When we finished dinner, we watched a movie and then hit the rack. We made up a schedule for anchor watches – everyone stood a 1:15 hour watch; my shift was 1:15 – 2:30 am. The fog rolled back in, but otherwise it was a quiet night.

From left to right: Dave grills up some ribs; things get a little "hot" on the grill!; Scott, Heather and Jeff enjoy dinner on the back deck.

The next morning broke with a fantastic sunrise and clear skies. Unfortunately, there was also some gusty wind arriving with it. Given that it was getting a little snotty and we had a long ride home, we opted to cut it short and get going. Dave and Pat B were ready to go, so they splashed back in to do a short dive and pull the hook. Of course, at that point, I really regretted leaving the camera behind the night before. We had a fantastic ride up the Cape – and we have never seen so many whales! Crazy! We cruised home making good time – conditions were actually pretty good in Mass Bay.

Sunrise while anchored on the 703 wreck.

Anyway, we arrived back in Salem around 1:45 pm. We unloaded the boat, headed home to clean up and went off to our respective events for the evening of the 4^th. Sunday morning our plan was to visit the Paul Palmer and Pinthis.

We had an early start time – 6 am load and 6:30 am departure – because it’s a fairly long ride to the Palmer and we had to hit the tides right. The wind was up a bit, though the forecast indicated SW 10-15 knots (which should be pretty good). Anyway, we headed out and it got sloppy fast. We traveled about 15 miles or so until it was clear we could not keep going. We were getting hammered by 20-25 knots of wind out of the west. Seas were running 3-4 feet. It wasn’t good. Given this wind direction we could not make the crossing to the Pinthis and our only option was to hobble back to the North Shore at about 10 knots, getting slammed by waves. Fun stuff.

Once we got further north, it laid down enough to cut over to the Romance. Yes, a serious downgrade in plans for sure. The Romance is a good dive, but we were expecting the worst with visibility. We did have a high tide and west wind though, so if there was any chance of good visibility, this was "it."

Dave splashed in to tie in the mooring because of course, there wasn’t one there. Scott and I were going to bail on diving altogether if we got a bad visibility report, but Dave came back and said it was about 10 feet, which for this wreck is visibility good enough to justify diving! I did decide to leave the camera behind – and doubted I would regret that decision.

Scott, Jeff and I splashed in last to pull the hook. We decided not to leave a mooring because we don’t have any immediate plans to come back and didn’t want to lose the line. When we got to the bottom, conditions were quite good – definitely better than 10 feet of visibility. I would give it a solid 20 feet actually. Scott tied off a reel and we had a great dive, mainly doing sweeps and runs out into the sand off the wreck. It was good. We did a 50 minute bottom time, pulled the hook and headed up for a short decompression. The wind had come down a bit, but it was still pretty breezy. The Halifax race was starting up off Marblehead, so the sail boaters had good conditions!

We got in around 2 pm – making it a very long ride and day to dive the Romance – but hey, it was a dive and given these weather patterns recently, I guess we were lucky to get what we got. Since we had some time in the afternoon, Dave and I took the boat over to Marblehead to re-fuel. Then we headed home to collapse into bed, exhausted! It was a fun weekend for sure, and hopefully the start of more overnight trips and great adventures!

It literally rained all week.  All week.  However, Saturday morning broke with sunny skies and light wind.  It wasn't predicted to hang around, but we would take what we could get.  Our plan for Saturday was a trip to the Pinthis, and believe it or not, conditions looked great for it.  There was hardly any wind and the seas were flat.  With any luck, the visibility would be good. I wasn't sure what to expect given that there was so much rain and at times, heavy seas, running over the course of the week.  When we arrived on the Pinthis after just under a 2 hour ride, as expected the mooring was not there.  We had heard it was gone from when we installed one earlier this season.  Dave splashed in to tie in a new line.  He actually did even better than that - he refloated the old mooring, which had just been cut at the top, and sent up the business end of the shot line... so on one lift bag, everything was attached. This made our lives easier since we didn't have to retrieve the shot line and in no time at all we were diving. 

Scott, Tim and I were planning to dive together. When Dave came up he said the visibility was decent around 15 feet. This isn't the usual great visibility the Pinthis is known for, but considering I was mentally prepared for 5 feet or less, I was pleased with this news.  We dropped in and down to the wreck.  Since the visibility outside the wreck was so-so (more like 12 feet), we decided to start the dive inside and hope the incoming tide would bring clearer water. We moved through the entire wreck and all along the way I was snapping photos.  There has definitely been some further collapse of the wreck in the stern section, but we were still able to worm our way through past that last bulkhead inside at the stern end, popping out the very end of the wreck. Some parts did seem like a tighter squeeze and I was crunching pretty good a few times.  All in all it was a great dive - and the water temperature was 50 F on the bottom believe it or not.  Strange.  We did a 45 minute bottom time and I was not cold at all.

When we surfaced, we grabbed some lunch and relaxed while the group did their second dives.  By then, however, the fog had rolled in and the wind was up, so we had a very choppy, hard ride home that wasn't the most comfortable with a near-beam sea coming at us for the 26 or so miles of the voyage.  It was still a good day though - hey, we saw sun...

Sunday we didn't get so lucky.  We had plans to head offshore, but the morning broke with winds out of the NNE around 15 knots that did not allow for distant ventures. We opted for a quick charter to the Poling and then an early day.  I did a little "experimentation" with photo-taking on the dive.  Let's just say I don't have any pictures to show...

From left to right: Scott Tomlinson inside the Pinthis; one of several remaining bulkheads to pass through while swimming the interior; Scott beneath a large pipe and valve; Tim Maxwell swims the interior; a view through to the very stern - a very tight fit!; the exterior and a view of the bow area.

An absolutely terrible weather pattern let up on us only long enough to allow for one dive on Saturday. We originally planned for a run out to Stellwagen Bank, but conditions late in the week lead us to revise these plans and eventually settle on a trip to the NYC 14-2. We hadn’t been to the NYC in a month or two, so I was looking forward to the dive. The weather actually was much nicer than predicted, which of course made me wonder if should have – or could have – made it out to Stellwagen.

Neither here nor there, we were going diving. After a difficult month of once again dealing with chronic back problems, I was finally feeling pretty good and hoping not to blow it by diving, which I was advised not to do and instead take a weekend off. No way! So, we loaded up and headed out. I tried to avoid too much heavy lifting, which is not the easiest thing to do when you think about it.

There was a mild a swell running, but there was little to no wind and things were pretty nice out there. It was a tad cool, but the sun was coming out and with any luck the visibility would be decent. We had a beach visibility report of "3 feet" from swell running most of last week so I wondered what was in store for us on this typically low/ok visibility site.

The mooring was present when we arrived so we picked up on it and got settled in. I was diving first so I splashed in with Pat B. I decided to leave the camera at home since we really, really need to make a protective cover for the dome port. I am slowly destroying it with small scratches from it making contact with me when I need to take my hand off of it, usually on descent or ascent. So, after spending some time pulling scratches out of it last week, I decided to wait for Dave to make the cover for me before taking it in the water again. Cough, cough… Dave?

Anyway, we hit the water and started our descent. It appears I have in fact solved my issue with the battery since I replaced my power cord. So that was good. We got down on the wreck – conditions were good. I would give it 15 feet with dim ambient lighting. It was definitely not bad for this wreck. Pat and I toured through the inside jamming into every nook and cranny. Then we swam the outside along the sand. There were a couple scallops, a lobster, and a few cod fish – including one that we tried to free from an abandoned lobster trap that did not seem to want to leave.

The water temperature on the bottom was 43 F – a bit chilly still. I was cold a few times. I would feel cold, and then it would pass. Things warm up in the water column though and the shallows are pretty nice. We did a 30 minute bottom time and since it was high tide and we were mucking around inside the wreck, I actually hit 125 feet on this dive, which doesn’t happen too often. All in all a nice dive considering that the weather was so uncertain. Sunday we slept in… unusual for June.

A gloomy, rainy and otherwise not-so-summer like week ended with sunshine and clearing skies. Saturday’s forecast looked pretty good and I was hopeful that we’d enjoy some sunshine and good diving for the first time after 5 days of bad weather. Saturday’s schedule called for a trip to the Chester Poling.

We loaded up bright and early and shoved off the dock just a little before 7:30 am. We enjoyed a nice ride up to the Poling. Cape Ann Divers was already on site on the sole mooring, but they were in the process of refloating the other one, which helped us out and got us quickly on station diving.

Dan, Bert and I splashed in first. Conditions were great – there was not much of a sea, not much current and the visibility was pretty good too. I’d say the visibility was 25 feet, solid. We started out with a swim out to the break. I was snapping away taking photos. I’m back to trying to shoot with manual camera settings – so all the photos were shot on 1/30 shutter, F5 and 640 ISO. I was hoping for better results compared to my last round of picture taking.

The dive was going great and then suddenly I got the dreaded low battery alarm on my heads up display. I suspected that my problem from last week was not related to a "bad" battery, but something else like a short. An intermittent alarm became persistent and soon enough my solenoid stopped firing and I was on full manual operation of the CCR. It wasn’t a big deal to operate the rig manually, but I was annoyed about this and of course this meant that I now had to spend time trouble shooting for potentially more complex problems later. Plus, with a deep dive planned for the next day, I wanted to know my rig was working 100% ahead of time.

Anyway, the dive continued and as the dive went on the visibility got better and better. There were also a lot of small fish on the wreck so it was really quite a nice dive. We hit our 40 minute bottom time and ascended. We had a short decompression and then surfaced to enjoy the great weather.

When Dave returned from his dive, we headed home and then made a quick run over to Marblehead to take on a load of fuel. While I wanted to head back out and make another dive to take advantage of the great weather, instead we went home to tinker with my rig and prepare for Sunday’s trip.

The details of Sunday’s mission are still classified. J

From left to right: Bert Foster and Dan Cullaty swim up the starboard side of the Poling; a giant bundle of derelict line hangs in a corridor; Dan enters the crew's quarters; Dan swims along the sand line; Dan and Bert moving up from the stern end.

A family wedding on Sunday left us with only one day to log a few dives.  Being that we had a wedding, my brother was in town and wanted to do a little New England wreck diving himself. So, we arranged to get him out on the Chester Poling on Saturday morning.  This would be his first dive actually on this wreck; which is somewhat surprising since this dive is pretty much a rite of passage for just about every diver Massachusetts, I think.  Anyway, I set him up with my open circuit rig and he actually fit quite perfectly in Dave's old drysuit.  When we left for the Poling on Saturday morning, the sea conditions weren't ideal - it was a little snotty with an NE-E swell and a lingering SE wind.  This made the sea state a bit confused and a little uncomfortable.  When we arrived on the Poling, surprisingly both moorings were gone. This was a bit annoying, but Dave jumped in and tied in a new line.  The current also seemed to be running - so my brother wasn't going to get perfect conditions on the wreck; though overall it was not too bad at all out there.

When Dave returned, Scott, my brother Brian and I splashed in.  I had the camera, with explicit instructions to document this dive so Brian would have bragging rights back on the left coast in California with co-workers.  Once we reached the wreck the current dropped out and the conditions were quite nice - visibility was about 15-20 feet, which is pretty respectable. We stuck to the exterior of the wreck and did a few laps around it before we hit our 30 minute bottom time and ascended.  Of course, it always happens this way, but when I wanted to be devoting all my attention to keeping an eye on my brother (per instructions from Mom), my CCR decided to misbehave.  I had proactively changed the battery and sure enough on the dive, I got a battery alarm.  A new battery was showing low voltage, which either meant I had a bad battery or I had a short. Either way, the issue was such that my solenoid would no longer fire and I had to fly manually.  I confirmed this by letting my PO2 dip below setpoint and when the solenoid did not fire, I knew that my battery was powering only my primary, the HUD, which did still appear to be functioning.  It was not a big deal, but not ideal either since the Prism does not have any continuous flow of O2 addition system, and therefore I had to be on the O2 pretty consistently, especially during ascent. 

Nevertheless we had a good dive and snapped a few pictures as well.  For the afternoon we headed to the USS NH.  I popped a new 9 volt battery in the rig and did another dive to try and rule out the possibility a short that was causing my low battery issues.  Given that I had just changed a battery and then this occurred, I was leaning towards battery issue over a short, but you can't be sure with these things.  I replaced the battery and all went fine on this dive; though I believe one more dive is necessary to rule out other possibilities entirely.  The joys of rebreathers.

Here are a few pics:

From left to right: Brian Knowles suits up; Heather and Brian are ready to splash in on the Poling.

From left to right: Nick Lewis diving the Poling side-mount style; Scott Tomlinson checks out the recently cut stern mooring line; Brian Knowles looking in the break.

This is a short dive report - because I wasn't diving this weekend!  This weekend work got in the way, and I was in Orlando, FL for a meeting.  Sounds like I missed some good dives!

We had a packed weekend lined up for Memorial Day weekend. The first three-day weekend of the (almost) summer always seems to inspire a diving frenzy for us. Saturday we were booked with 2 charters; Sunday we were booked with 2 charters; and Monday we were taking the day "off" and going down to CT to dive off Block Island with our good friend Jeff Anderson.

Saturday kicked off with a trip to the Bone wreck. I was optimistic that we might have decent visibility and good conditions. That was somewhat thrown into question when I got up and looked at the forecast – NE winds 10-15 knots. Hmm, that wasn’t ideal. The wind was still light around 5 knots at the time, but it looked like it was going to pick up. We decided we’d just head out and if it got too snotty on the way, we’d stop at a wreck a little closer. Fortunately, despite being a little choppy, we did make it to the Bone wreck.

We picked up the mooring and got settled in. I was diving with Al and Dave, and once again hoping to redeem myself with better photos on this dive. We suited up and splashed in. When we first got in, the water was a bit murky – no surprise there, but then below 20 feet it cleared up nicely. We passed through 50-70 feet without encountering a "nasty layer" and suddenly I began to realize the visibility was simply awesome. I could see Al a good 30 feet below me. And then we were on the wreck! Nice. The skies were overcast, so it would have been a lot brighter down there had the sun been shining, but there was ambient light and the visibility was on the order of 30 feet or so. I was excited about this.

The only thing that gave me some pause to dampen my excitement was the fact the mooring wasn’t looking so good. The seas were running a little bit and the hull plank that the chain is tied into has come loose and was bouncing up and down. I looked it over and it seemed "ok," but we definitely need to move the mooring. On a nice day this isn’t an issue, but with any seas running, it could pull out – the whole section that is. We set a strobe and took off heading aft. I starting shooting photos and immediately could tell it wasn’t going well.

As we swam aft I was simply amazed at how cool this wreck is. We swam right down the middle of the wreck, all the way to the stern (the length is ~187 feet). All along the way we observed huge beams, plenty of nets and lines – of course lots of pieces of whale skeleton – and holds full of coal. I have personally have never seen such good visibility and at the same time, had the opportunity to swim the whole wreck like this. I could only hope the pictures were coming out good. There was so much I wanted to see and really check out, but at the other end of the wreck, at 170’ there was not a lot of time to play around.

On the swim out we had spread out as a trio moving right down the center of the hull. On the way back we thought we were doing the same. Then I got this "I have no idea where I am on this wreck" feeling. I wasn’t sure if we were in fact swimming back up the middle. I thought about this for a moment – what was strange to me was that I was seeing wreck both to my left and to my right. Al was off to my right and clearly he was on wreck, but this didn’t look the same. Then I saw a cleat and knew that I was swimming on the starboard rail. This made me wonder what was off to my right. I had been told there’s another wreck adjacent to the Bone wreck for years, but having never seen it for myself, I wasn’t sure where it was or how it looked.

As I looked down I could see the up-turn of the hull that was the Bone wreck and beams jutting out – this was clearly the starboard side. But adjacent to it, was almost a mirror image of this with a smaller structure, also having the appearance of framing and hull with an upturn next to it. This appeared to me to be another wreck. Later when we discussed the dive, Al thought the same thing. This other wreckage starts around just aft of mid-ship I would guess and tapers off just short of the bow section.

When we reached the bow, we were tempted to swim up around it since the visibility was so good it was easy to see the mess of suspended derelict fishing gear and trawl lines, but the dive was getting on and the mooring was bouncing pretty good, so we decided not to tempt fate and head up at that time. We decompressed uneventfully and surfaced. The seas had picked up to a good 3 feet with occasional larger waves, so we definitely did get that NE 10-15.

Left to right: Not good quality, but the first two photos show whale bones; at far right, the starboard bow of the Bone Wreck.

We cruised in and got ready for the afternoon trip to the USS NH. I was doing a DPV class so I offloaded my CCR and dragged out my OC rig. God knows we need to finish up these classes because my back can’t take much more OC diving! It really does make a difference for me (the weight). Anyway, we loaded up and headed off. The conditions had improved some – the sun was coming out and the wind was getting lighter. When we got to the wreck of the NH, Dave splashed in with this year’s Scalli intern, Dan, to do some drysuit skills. When he came up I splashed in to do the skills portion of the DPV class.

Dave with this year's Boston Sea Rovers Scalli Intern, Dan Turner.

The visibility was OK – maybe 10-15’ and a little murky. This made it a bit challenging when doing skills, but we managed. We did all the usual skills such as push-backs, fast turns, controlled crashes/stalls, de-propping, air sharing / diver tows and of course, loop-de-loops. We wrapped things up around 5 pm and headed back to the marina. When I got home I opened up the camera, downloaded my pictures and came to grips with the quite simply horrendous results of my attempts at photography on the Bone wreck. ‘Nuff said.

Sunday’s line up consisted of two trips to the Chester Poling stern. The weather looked pretty good – the wind was light, the sun was out and the seas were flat. Nice combo! We cruised up to the Poling and upon arrival took the break mooring, as Cape Ann Divers was already on station using the stern mooring. I was finishing the DPV class today so we suited up with scooters and splashed in. The plan was to review the basic skills and execute a dive using the scooter to descend, manage the scooter on ascent, through gas switches, etc. Plus, have some fun cruising around.

We got down on the wreck and the lighting was a bit dim – visibility was probably 15 feet, so it was pretty good, but a little murky. We did a few laps around the wreck, and then we used the side of the hull for some skills work. We repeated this cycle until it was time to go up. I was a bit colder on this dive even though the water temperature was about 45 F – sometimes scootering will do that. When we finished up, we headed back to Salem to reload and return to the Poling.

I decided to skip the afternoon dive as I was a little tired, and one dive on the Poling in average conditions was enough for me. When we got back on the Poling for the afternoon we had the wreck to ourselves. I thought I would kick back and catch some sun, relaxing on the back deck while everyone was off diving, but as soon as everyone was off the boat and I grabbed my deck chair, the sun went away, the sky clouded over and it began to pour and thunder. So much for that idea! Anyway, the group enjoyed their dives and we were back at the marina finished up by around 5 pm. This concluded our weekend of charters. For Monday, our plan was to head south and be guests on someone else’s boat. I was looking forward to this!

Our good friend Jeff Anderson recently finished construction on a 38 foot Beals – the Joy Ride – configured mainly for cruising, but definitely set-up for diving in small groups as well. We’ve been trying to get down to CT to check out his boat since December, and finally weather and availability aligned to make it happen for Monday. Our plan was to dive the wreck of the Grecian, a steam freighter sunk off Block Island in about 90 feet of water. I had never been on the wreck, but had been told it was a nice dive, so this seemed like a great opportunity to check it out.

We met at the Brewer’s yard in Mystic, CT where we loaded up the boat. The skies were slightly overcast, but the wind was very light and the seas were flat. We made our way out of the marina and enjoyed some very interesting and colorful conversation for the 1.5 hour ride to the Grecian. Jeff’s boat is simply fabulous – it’s a rugged, comfortable and spacious boat. Anyway, the boat was great and the weather was great, so we were really going to have a blast.

When we got to the Grecian, a mooring was present so we got tied in and deployed the lines. We brought our granny line along and got that set up. Jeff, Peter and Dave splashed first, while Scott, Roman and I hung out topside. The sun had finally come out and so we soaked that up along with some music while we waited for our turn. When everyone returned, they said the visibility was great. I was hoping to take lots of pictures – good ones, that is – so this was nice to hear.

We suited up and splashed. By the time we hit the water though, the current was running pretty hard so we had to pull ourselves down and even on the bottom we were drifting around quite a bit depending on where we were on the wreck. The Grecian is mostly broken up – like the Romance, but with possibly even less contiguous wreckage – on a bright sand bottom. The visibility was about 30 feet, and there was plenty of ambient light. We still elected to run a reel, so Scott tied off and we headed off to the stern.  I was taking as many pictures as I could. There were some really spectacular views around and in between the boilers as well as off the bow. The water temperature was pretty mild too, so it was quite a nice dive and we banged out a nearly 60 minute bottom time no problem. When it was time to ascend, we had to fight the current a little bit, which made things a little annoying hanging onto the camera.

When we surfaced, we climbed aboard, stowed gear and got underway. We made sandwiches, kicked back and relaxed. It was great. Fortunately we managed to miss any Memorial Day traffic on the way home. It was a long weekend of diving for sure, and the complete exhaustion that I experienced on Monday night was certainly a testament to that! This coming weekend I am off working in Florida – no diving – so I guess I will have a chance to recover from all this fun. Check out some pictures below!

From left to ride: the Joy Ride; Dave suits up.

From left to right: Roman Ptashka swims along the wreck; Scott Tomlinson runs out the reel; swimming between the boilers; Scott swims past boilers; a view of the bow; Roman next to the port side bow; another view of the bow.

May 16-17 2009:

This weekend we were wrapping up a class and trying to get a few regular charters in as well.  Overall the weather was a mixed bag, but for sure, the visibility is pretty much back.  This is good news!  Saturday morning we headed out to the Poling.  Since I was diving with a tech class in the afternoon, I decided not to lug my CCR and OC rigs around and just dive OC all day.  So, I had my doubles plus a bottom stage of nitrox. I figured this would give me 3 dives no problem.  Of course, this meant I had to put up with the blood-curdling sounds of bubbles for 3 dives, but we do what we must!  Anyway, this dive was shaping up to be somewhat of a camera equipment shake-down.  Roman just bought a nice Gates HD video set up and was getting it wet (hopefully only on the outside) for the first time.  Somewhere along the way I suddenly started thinking I knew something about photography, and decided I would shoot all my photos for the day operating the camera completely manually.  You'll note, there are no pictures associated with this dive report.  I'll come back to that.  We enjoyed a relatively smooth ride up to the Poling - the seas were a bit confused as the wind was mostly light, but there was a bit of small swell running.  There was also some patchy fog.  It also wasn't that warm out. We got on-site and picked up the mooring.  Scott, Roman and I suited up and hit the water.  Surface visibility was pretty good - and it stayed good all the way down!  I was happy.  We had about 20 feet of visibility and not much current.  We got set up and I was banging off pictures trying to get the exposure right (uh huh).  When I thought I got it and Roman was done twiddling with his camera, we got going.  We headed in the wreck right away and did a tour through the crew's quarters.  I thought I was getting some really nice pictures!  Ha!  We exited the wreck and continued out to the break, then returned down the port side of the wreck.  Things are really picking up with the conditions -- the water is warming up for sure (41 F on the bottom), the visibility was pretty good and there were a few schools of fish hanging around too.  I'd say we're over the spring hump and into some increasingly good dive conditions.  Anyway, we finished up, did a short hang and got aboard.  For the afternoon we headed back out for a couple of more dives to wrap up a class.  By then the weather was getting a little crummy.  It got colder, we were occasionally socked in with pretty thick fog and the wind picked up to around 15 knots out of the SE.  But later the sun came back out - so go figure.  Sunday we scrubbed our mission in the early AM, as we had an early departure, long ride, deep dive with some less than ideal conditions that didn't add up right.  The weather forecast and actual conditions didn't entirely synch throughout the day, but that's the way it goes.  On a final note, I basically managed to shoot about 60 blurry pictures on the Poling due to the fact I still do not know what I am doing when it comes to operating this camera!  It seems I set the shutter speed a tad bit too slow and this lead to blurred pictures.  Up until now I had been shooting on aperture priority, but decided I'd go full manual.  Bad move!  They looked good on the little screen on the back of the housing - but not so good at home.  Learning curve!

May 9-10, 2009:

From left to right: the starboard side rail of the Bone wreck and our mooring point; a whale vertebrae laying inside the wreck with and without strobe; a couple of rose fish hiding amidst bow deck equipment; a whale vertebrae; Scott Tomlinson carefully swims up to the bow through derelict fishing gear; Scott on ascent - reminding us all of the advantages of a CCR!

May 2-3, 2009:

For the most part, it looked like it was going to be a somewhat decent weekend. I guess.  Friday was of course beautiful - but that was Friday and by the time Saturday rolled around, it was growing overcast and looking like rain was headed our way.  The wind was light, so the ocean was calm and the seas were flat.  Below the surface was likely going to be another story.  The marina had that murky pea green water present, and the tide was outgoing. I expected the same visibility more or less as last week, but I wasn't so sure given the overall weather pattern over the week.  I might be worse, I thought.  Our destination for Saturday was the Poling.  We considered the Romance, but given expected visibility - low, basically - we thought the Romance might actually have negative numbers, and therefore we decided the Poling would be an overall better choice. 

The ride up was smooth and fast.  When we arrived both moorings were present, so we grabbed the stern line.  Dave splashed in first, trying out his new drysuit.  The surface visibility actually looked better than last week, but I had my doubts about the bottom conditions.  I was ready to go with the camera - and Pat B and were planning to dive together so I'd have a diver to help frame some of the pictures.  We got everyone ready and by the time we finished splashing divers, some were returning. Apparently, the visibility was real bad - like 3 feet ... heavy particulate kind of bad.  Great.  I asked Dave and a few others if I should leave the camera behind.  And while no one wanted to "officially" go on record as advising me against taking the camera (to avoid the obvious repercussions if the visibility turned out to be better and I didn't have the camera), it was suggested that I not bother.  I decided not to take it.  Turns out, it was a good choice. 

Pat B and I splashed in and dropped down.  Visibility in the water column was actually better than last week - I'd say 10-12' in some places.  For a moment I thought about the camera and grumbled a bit, but by the time I was passing 70 feet I started thinking to myself, "I really should see the wreck by now" - and of course, I wasn't seeing anything.  In fact, I didn't see the wreck until I sailed past it, dropping down outside the hull as it were.  OK, it was bad!  And definitely, I was glad to have left the camera behind because I could barely see at all let alone think about taking pictures.  Pat and I set off forward.  Fortunately, knowing this wreck so well makes it easy to fumble around in bad visibility. 

I had asked about interior visibility - and was told it was just as bad there too.  Nevertheless we decided to go inside.  We did a quick tour through the crew's quarters and as described, visibility was just as terrible inside the wreck.  Looking out through the portholes towards the outside, there was pretty much no light - conditions were definitely like a night dive with nearly no ambient light.  That wouldn't have been so bad if not for the blinding snow-storm effect of the particulate in the water.  This was even more pronounced as we reached the catwalk and swam to the break. Not only was there a decent current running, but you couldn't see a thing - absolutely terrible!  A few times I thought I might be swimming in circles.  We got to the break and I was pretty much done with this dive so I pointed to the other end of the wreck, got the nod, and we headed back to the stern.  When we got there, we called it a dive and headed up.  We haven't seen visibility this bad since last April - and so, while it wasn't a thrilling dive, it was a dive and sometimes that's all you need!

No one opted for a second dive, and so we were headed home a bit earlier and that was just fine with me.  We prepped for the next day, which looked OK-ish despite a predicted NE 10-15 knot wind. And, if that's what we actually got, it probably would have been fine, except we got NE 20-25 knots instead that quashed our plans completely.  On top of that, the freshwater got shut off for some reason on Sunday and there was no bath for Gauntlet, as we had been planning.

From left to right: Dave hangs out with Dillon - dockside vessel inspector - before we shoved off; Dave sporting his new DUI drysuit.

No diving due to weather.

Beneath the Sea dive show in NJ.

No diving due to weather.

No diving due to weather.

From left to right: Al splashes in; a view down the starboard side looking forward; Joel and Roman swim the deck; Heather over the break; Joel, Roman and Al swim down the port side; Inside the wreck; Joel looks through debris; Joel and Roman swim around the stern; the crew topside waiting for us to return!

February 7, 2009:

Once again erratic forecasts painted an uncertain picture of the upcoming weekend’s weather. Saturday called for SW wind 5-10 knots, picking up 15-20 knots in the afternoon, but that wind actually came sooner. Still though, the air temperatures were "warm" – or at least they were supposed to be – and the overall conditions were OK to go. We departed at 9 am for the New York Central No. 14 II (aka NYC14-2) with the hope that our streak of excellent visibility would be continuing, as this is another one of those wrecks that is rarely seen in spectacular visibility, but is a really great dive when it is good. The sea conditions were a little lumpy – seas maybe around 2 feet, but overall it was not bad. When we arrived on site, it appeared there was no mooring, but amazingly, Al spotted the mooring awash just at/below the surface. We had a higher than normal high tide and that plus the sea conditions resulted in the mooring just barely reaching the surface. We were able to snag it and pick up on the first try though, and with a little line added from our pick-up line, we were good. Dave and Eric splashed in first and I was bringing up the rear with Al Anzouni and Dave Cangiano once the others returned. We helped everyone suit up and quickly everyone splashed. When Dave and Eric returned, they confirmed that the visibility was spectacular – around 70 feet – and that the diving was excellent. I had previously begged them not to "trash it" digging around inside and they kindly obliged so the interior was still clear for picture taking. I hit the water with Al and Dave, neither of whom had been on this wreck before. They are getting all the lucky breaks on "first dives" between this wreck and the Romance! Anyway, we dropped down and I began knocking off pictures as quick as I could. I could see at least half of the wreck – and I think more like three-quarters actually. We swam off the stern and I just kept swimming off into the sand a distance before turning around and looking back at the wreck. It was so cool. I settled down in the sand for some photos from a distance. It was amazing how far we could see out into the sand. We then swam back onto the wreck and dropped through the aft hatch to the interior. On days like this with so much ambient light, everything is visible inside with light filtering through the openings. This allows observation of detail and areas not normally visible due to light and visibility conditions. I was just taking it all in! I dropped the aperture on the camera to a lower setting – I’m starting to "get" a few things about the settings and am slowly learning what to do or not to do – and so some of the interior shots were coming out OK. We popped out of the wreck and went to the bow. I did the same thing there and shot a bunch of pictures off the bow before we swam down the portside and back to the middle of the wreck. At 25 minutes bottom time we were getting cold (lost another degree off the water temp, which is now 36 F) so we headed up and did a short decompression. My hands were getting a little cold, but it wasn’t bad at all since I found new gloves last week. After a thorough search, I discovered that my favorite glove – the Xcel 5 mm Titanium glove – has been re-incarnated as a Blue Reef 5 mm Titanium glove. They are literally the same glove with a different label on them. So, I stockpiled on these last week. I’m happy. Anyway, since the mooring line was short when we pulled up on it and the buoy was essentially at the surface, it was necessary for me to release the ring for the granny line off the mooring as we were ascending since it wouldn’t be easy to pull the ring up and over the buoy in the water. I released the ring, but when I did this we had a minor miscommunication that lead to me separating from Al and Dave – they remained on the mooring and I drifted back with the granny as it dropped out to a vertical orientation. With this kind of visibility, I figured it was no problem since the visibility was so good we could see one end of the boat to the other and we’d just regroup, but precisely at this moment, the boat dropped all the lines in the water on tuna balls to chase down and pick up a diver that had gotten off the line and drifted away from the wreck. Suddenly I realized that I was alone and adrift with the entire granny system. I didn’t have much to take pictures of anymore! Anyway, it was a minor snag – everyone was fine and Dave collected us all as we surfaced. I did get a chance to snap a few photos of the boat coming to pick me up, but since it was a little choppy it was hard to get a good view and I didn’t as many pictures as I would have liked. Once we were all back on board we packed it up and headed in. The temperature was finally warming up too. Sunday we decided to cancel the night before since some folks were traveling a ways to get up here and the forecast looked grim with gale force winds predicted. It didn’t seem bad in the early AM, but the wind sure did show up about mid-morning. And while I wished we were out soaking up that great visibility, given how windy and rough it got right when we would have been in the middle of dives, bagging it was a good choice for us that day. Next weekend, here we come. Check out some photos below.

From left to right: The NYC 14-2 looking aft with the engine exposed; Dave Cangiano swims over the boiler; a stern view; Al Anzuoni peaks into a hatch in the bow; a view of the bow; looking down the portside; inside the wreck looking at the engine; a view of the boiler; Heather's ride shows up.

February 1, 2009:

New month, new weather – that’s the philosophy we’re going with. Sunday turned out to be the perfect day, that is, perfect for February. It started out somewhat overcast, but the winds were moderate around 15 knots out of the SW and the predicted high temperature was looking to be in the mid 30s to low 40s. Pretty good, I say. Pretty, pretty good. We loaded up with a group of very eager divers. Our destination was the wreck believed to be the Holmes. The water in the marina was gin clear and with any luck it would be the same way out on the wreck as well. The ride out was a little bumpy – the seas weren’t too rough, but there was a little bit of chop around 2 feet that made things bouncy. Fortunately when we arrived, our mooring was there.

We tied off and got ready. The water was so blue around the boat that it just looked awesome. I suited up first with Dan and Roman as my diving partners for the day. I grabbed the camera and splashed. The visibility was indeed spectacular – at least 60-70 feet. This is truly what winter diving is supposed to be like and I am taking in as much of it as possible because in a few short months, this kind of visibility will be a distant memory around here. We reached the wreck and headed off to the bow. I was firing off pictures as quickly as I could. There really have only been a few times I have seen this wreck with such visibility. We were able to take pretty wide passes out into the sand without risk for getting lost. In fact, the visibility was so good that not only could you see clear across the wreck (~40 feet), but well past it on either side. With the visibility this good, we could get an excellent view of all the wreck’s features. What I still do not seem to see are all the masts and rigging that go with a 4-masted schooner or a bow sprit that a schooner (as opposed to a schooner barge) might have. Nevertheless, regardless of whether this wreck really is the Holmes or not, I enjoy this wreck quite a bit and on this day, that was not hard to do.

I was trying some different settings on the camera and of course, this always has the potential to be a disaster with nothing but terrible pictures resulting. Things were mostly going well, but I was getting a lot of pictures that were blurring either partially or completely. I was able to stay pretty still, but if there was a diver in the photo moving at all, this blurred. Since I was shooting on aperture priority I suspected the shutter speed had something to do with it, but I didn’t really know what to adjust at the time. I just hoped that some of the pictures were coming out. The water was pretty cold and my hands were hurting bad. These gloves I am using must go. They seem to squeeze my fingers so tight at depth (they are 6.5 mm gold core gloves) that it restricts blood flow. This gets pretty painful and about 15 minutes into the dive I couldn’t feel 2 of my fingers anymore. The water temperature is now a solid 37F. I wasn’t leaving so soon though with these conditions, and I just pushed through until our 20 minutes had elapsed. Interestingly, as we ascended the pain abated and my hands felt better, so I know it’s an issue with these gloves. Yes, I ordered something new to try today! Anyway, we had an uneventful and pleasant decompression, marveling at the amazing visibility. When we surfaced, Dave & Eric headed in for a dive. We changed the camera settings to shutter priority, but ultimately while this solved the blurring problem, most of the pictures were very dark (even with a flash) since the setting we chose was too fast (and didn’t let enough light in). Oh well, learning curve. Hopefully next weekend we’ll get another try at it.

After some great dives we cruised back in "spring-like" weather. The wind had dropped out almost completely and it was so mild I could actually stand to be outside without a hat or gloves on! I was just hoping some of that ice mountain in our driveway at home was melting…

From left to right: Roman arrives on the wreck; the bow stem looking forward; Roman and Dan swim down the portside heading aft; a view looking forward and across the wreck; the auxiliary anchor in the stern; wreckage in the mid portion of the wreck; Eric Takakjian swims over the anchor chain in the bow; Roman Ptashka and Dan Cullaty on deco; Peter Piemonte on deco.

The persistent bad weather we have been dealing with pretty much since October resulted in another not too surprising cancelation for our dive on Saturday. Sunday looked like a possibility with a forecast of 10-15 knots out of the West, but it was hard to be sure what would actually happen. Plus, the air temperature was predicted to be quite low. Either way, Sunday was our best shot, the best shot we’ve had in a few weeks. Sunday morning we woke up at 5:30 am for our usual weather check, which lately has resulted in getting on the phone to make cancelations. The conditions looked "okay" – the wind was around 15 knots out of the WNW and the seas were less than 2 feet. I thought this looked good for either the Romance or Poling (we were scheduled for the Romance). The forecast was now calling for 15-20 knots out of the WNW with gusts to 25 knots and seas 3-5’, so this was a little bit windier than initially predicted, but still reasonable given the wind direction. The only glitch was that the air temperature was 4 below zero. Well, we can’t have it all – right? We decided to go and met at the boat to begin loading with the hope of actually diving. Everyone was eager to dive and we decided that given the west wind that was now blowing, we would go the Romance. We had all the right ingredients for excellent visibility. The wind had been blowing hard out of the WNW for who knows how long, the water was definitely cold and the tide was incoming. The air temperature was slightly above zero once the sun came up and I think the high was predicted to be about 14 F, but with the wind chill we were still looking at near zero temperatures. Yes, it was damn cold out. There was a lot of ice too. In fact, the alley leading out of the marina was frozen over – not terribly thick, but there was ice. None of the fishing boats seemed to be going out (hmm…) so the ice hadn’t been broken up yet. We would have to do it.

We departed at 9 am and made a path out the door, heading to the Romance. It was a bit snotty out, seas were between 2-3 feet actually and we were getting a fair amount of freezing spray. The ice accretion rate was about 0.24" per hour, which is on the border of light to moderate icing, but these are numbers to pay attention to when you’re on a boat in low air temps with spray involved. Things were going to be slippery that much was for sure. When we arrived on the Romance, we spotted the mooring, but it was hung up on something and about 5 or so feet below the surface. We tried to snag it a few times, but it wasn’t happening. We dropped a shot line in next to the mooring and put Dave in the water. He freed up the line and we tied off to the mooring. Things were pretty icy on the boat, so we took our time in getting things cleaned off and secured. When Dave came back, I planned to splash in with Al and Dave. In the meantime, we kept stuff warm. My rebreather was out on the back deck – and had been for about 3 hours at this point. It was covered with a trash bag to keep it clean and dry, but there was no question that things were cold. This is a concern with scrubber temperature, among other things. I brought my hood and gloves inside to keep them warm, and my drysuit was already in the cabin. When Dave came back he said the visibility was incredible – that you did not even need a line to navigate the wreck, which even when the visibility is good, is usually a good idea. We suited up and hit the water. I gave the rebreather a good pre-breathe and did not stop once I started. I did not want the mushroom valves freezing after getting wet from my breath.

We splashed in and started our descent. I had the camera and was hoping to get some good photos. I was a bit disappointed with my pictures last time and had made a few adjustments to attempt a better set this time. At about 40 feet, I could see the bottom at 80 feet. Wow! Al and Dave hadn’t been on the Romance before, so I knew this kind of visibility would facilitate the perfect first dive and a complete tour of the wreck. While the visibility was incredible, I have seen it change significantly over the course of a single dive and so I decided we would still run a line – but there’s no doubt about it, even I could navigate the wreck without a line today, and usually I don’t like to. When we arrived on the bottom we had to send the shot line up since it fouled on wreckage (almost always happens) when we tried to haul it up after Dave freed up the existing mooring, so Dave Cangiano took care of that while Al tied off a reel. I led the route out to the bow and since the visibility was so amazing, we could spread out and I could blast away taking photos. We swam out to the bow and I couldn’t believe how much we could see. It truly is amazing how visibility "changes" a wreck and how you dive it. Anyway, we went to the bow, back through the boilers and engine machinery, then out along the props to the stern, then back heading forward. I was hoping that my photos were coming out good, because I thought I was getting some nice shots. It’s hard to tell on the small screen on the housing. We had a great dive and headed up after all 3 of us starting making the "my hands hurt" signal – the water temperature is now 37 F. Upon surfacing the wind had picked up some and seemed to be blowing 15-20 out of the WSW now. The seas were a bit choppier and the wind chill brought the temperature down to about 3 F. Everything that was wet pretty much froze within minutes. We got out of our gear and headed into the cabin. One diver did 2 dives – yeah, that is hardcore! I was good with one. Anyway, we headed back, arriving around 2 pm. The marina was frozen up again, so we had to make another path back. It was cold, real cold. We unloaded and went home. People looked at us like we were crazy. Well, I guess we are crazy. Trying to wash gear was a bit of a trick. We had to take a blow-torch to the faucet outside to get water flowing out of it, and stuff froze instantly as we washed it. No doubt a day with a lot of work involved in making a dive – it was cold and borderline "insane" by any standards – but the pay off was great visibility. On a final note, we did not have any equipment malfunctions or freeze-ups of any kind. Everyone was prepared for the conditions and had a great time. Check out some pics from the day below.

After a series of disappointing cancellations over the holiday period due to persistent bad weather, we finally appeared to be catching a break. However, Friday night you wouldn’t have thought so. The wind was out of the Northwest around 25-30 knots and the seas were running between 4-5 feet. It was cold too. The forecast was all over the place, but it appeared the wind was going to diminish some overnight and then drop out in the mid-late morning on Sat, that is, before the snow storm hit. I was just hoping for a small window of opportunity to get out. At 5:30 am the alarm went off and we did our standard weather check. If we are going to issue a cancellation, this is the time we normally do it. Since I got an iPod iTouch, I don’t actually have to get out bed anymore to do this – which is nice. I checked the weather. The wind was around 20 knots and seas were around 3 feet. The forecast was still calling for the wind to drop out. We decided to wait and see with the hope of going. When I woke up again around 6:30 am I had a few text messages on my cell phone asking if we were going. It was still breezy and damn cold outside, but I said yes, we were. We met at the dock and began loading. The air temperature was about 17 F and there was definitely going to be some icing concerns both with the boat and dive gear. As usual, we covered up everything with trash bags. We already were dealing with a few issues from cold regulators that had frozen up from being outside during transport to the boat, but we got them in the cabin warming up. We headed out and towards Gloucester. Our scheduled destination was the Romance, but given the wind direction and the fact it was still blowing around 15-20 knots out of the WNW, we decided we’d be better off on the Poling. We took some freezing spray that iced up the portside of the boat a little bit until we turned more easterly with the WNW wind mainly behind us. When we arrived on the Poling, only one mooring was present, so that made the decision as to which one to choose easy. There was some ice and slush to deal with, which made the deck slippery, but a few buckets of sea water over stuff kept things wet. Dave and Pat B suited up to head in first while Scott and I helped the others and waited to splash in later. We again had a few issues with cold gear, one which required dipping a quick disconnect inflator in hot coffee to get the ice off it (yes, it worked great!). Once everyone was off, we waited for Dave and the visibility report. As I suspected, the visibility was very good. Dave was raving about the visibility – he had the D70s camera with him and had taken lots of pictures. I was planning to take the camera as well – in addition to my scooter, which hasn’t seen much action since Halifax. I was planning to "bring it all" since I haven’t been able to play much lately and you need to make it count when you can! We splashed and it was spectacular. The visibility was easily 60 feet, maybe more. I love it when it’s like this – bright with lots of ambient light, no current – it was awesome. We decided to make a visit out to the Gannett first to take a few pictures, so Scott tied off a reel and we scootered out to the wreck. Scootering with the camera was a little difficult. For one, the buoyancy isn’t quite dialed in yet and two, I am a little uneasy clipping it off and letting it ride in my slipstream while scootering. I want to use a different attachment point on the housing, but mainly I am worried about dinging the large 8" dome port that is largely unprotected. Anyway, I gave it a shot. We got out to the Gannett and snapped photos, and then Scott reeled us back to the Poling where we took a tour inside. It was awesome, and I took as many pictures as possible with the hope that some of them might actually come out decently. Although I had aspirations to do a fairly long dive, at 40 minutes bottom time my hands were hurting quite badly from the cold 39F water. Since the Xcel gloves I used to wear got discontinued, I am having difficulty finding a new pair of gloves that I like and that are warm enough, and as much as I don’t want to, I may have to go back to dry gloves. My hands were burning from the cold so we headed up and did a short decompression, breaking the surface around 55 minutes. The visibility was so good I wanted to stay a lot longer, but that’s the trade-off – the nice vis comes with cold water! Anyway, we got out of our cold, wet gear and into a warm cabin drinking hot coffee all the way home. It was a great day of diving! The wind did drop out and it was gorgeous. If we were leaving later in the day, we could have gone anywhere. Unfortunately Sunday did arrive with a snowstorm, 20-25 knots winds out of the NE and 5-6 foot seas, so there was no diving for us. Below are a few pics from our dives – unfortunately out of 113 pictures, only about 20 are even remotely OK. We are discovering the learning curve with a camera like this is steep, and frustrating – and nothing is straightforward.