Heading over to Boston for a tradeshow

[Slamfire]

I was considering the possibility of taking my diving gear with me and setting apart a day for diving. With that in mind I came over here to post some questions for the locals:

1. Are there any decent shore dive sites around Boston?
2. What is the underwater topography like? Are shore dives usually very shallow? Any wall dives? Do I need to get on a dive boat in order to get some depth?
3. Can you please provide some dive boat operations that you'd recommend?
4. Can you recommend a place where I could rent doubles and weights? Maybe even a backplate with a hog harness? Or am I better off just taking my jacket BC instead of the wing and diving singles? I much rather prefer the redundancy of doubles.
5. Is it a problem getting tanks with DIN valves?
6. What are the typical mid-August water temperatures and visibilities?
7. What are currents and tides like around Boston dive sites?

The responses to the questions above will greatly help me decided what to take with me on the trip. Thanks in advance for your time, knowledge and responses?

 

[macado]

Will try to answer questions as best I can but I'm sure someone else can give you more detailed information.

1. Tons of shore diving though not directly in Boston. (That I am aware of). Gloucester and Rockport (45 minutes from Boston are two popular areas with great shore diving. Decent amount of wrecks.

2. Some are shallow. Some 30-40ft. (9.1m-12.1m) Cathedral Rocks is one really nice but challenging shore dive. Depths of 80ft (~24m) can be reached but it is very tricky entry and should only be done in high tide.

3. Boston Harbor Diving Company has a very nice setup. Boston Harbor Diving -SCUBA Classes, Dive Charters, Boston Harbor Tours & Diver Services Check their schedule for what sites they're going to. They tend to do lobster dives which you must have a license for or some wreck dives. Cape Ann Divers in Gloucester is also a good choice. Everyone has their own favorites and these are two I use frequently.

4. Not too sure where to rent doubles with manifolds or backplate. United Divers in Somerville, MA(close to Boston, Mass Diving in Natick, MA, Cape Ann Divers in Gloucester. Undersea Divers in Beveryly all rent equipment/tanks

5. No problem getting DIN.

6. It was ~60 degrees surface today. I think I hit 54 (~13c?) degrees F at 40ft. So mid 50s low 60s in mid August.

7. Not really very knowledgeable on this question, sorry. I guess it depends on weather. I dove Boston Harbor and Nahant today via boat. Had no current at all.

 

[Slamfire]

Thanks a lot macado. This helps.

 

[Slamfire]

Double post

 

[Slamfire]

Triple post... Damn Blackberry

 

[MSilvia]

Not much to add, except that I agree with pretty much everything macado said.

 

[Rainer]

I posted this quite some time ago on a different board when asked about diving around Boston. Not directly applicable to all your questions, but might help some:

Diving around Boston?

 

[Slamfire]

It's a quick trip and I basically only have Sat Aug 14 available. So here's what I was thinking of doing, at least before I read Rainer's post. According to their website Cape Ann divers has free shore dives every Sat and Sun. Apparently divers just show up at the shop and then pair up for whatever local site they want. Out of the sites I was reading about, Cathedral Rocks looks very interesting. So I was planning on showing up at the shop and, if I'm lucky enough, finding a local diver who'd want to act as a tour guide or at least point me in the right direction.

In addition to Cape Ann Divers, Mass Divers, has a planned shore dive to Cathedral Rocks on Aug 14th. A dive shop staff member will be leading the dive. That is another option if somebody is willing to bring me tanks and weights from Natick since it seems to be in the opposite direction from Cape Ann when you start in Boston.

I was thinking about doing 2 dives with single tanks (Al 80's would suffice). For a Cathedral Rocks dive I was planning on taking my 7mm + 7mm wetsuit, a Bare Arctic, and my BC jacket with my recreational yoke reg setup. I'm thinking of phoning both Cape Ann Divers and Mass Diving tomorrow to ask them further questions.

But then I read Rainer's post and went to the Northern Atlantic site. They have a boat dive to the wreck of the Poling on the 14th. The Poling does look interesting. It can be a single gas dive with double Al 80's -- if I can rent doubles somewhere. For this I would take my hogarthian reg setup, my shell drysuit with undergarment, and my BP/W. If weight allows, I could even take the P-weight for the plate. But if I can rent a plate somewhere, I would leave my heavy steel plate here.

Guys, thanks a lot for the info. This gives me a good range of options for the time I have available.

 

[Rainer]

Cathedral Rocks is a great dive site, but one of the "least friendly" ones on Cape Ann. There was a recent thread about the site here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/new-england-lobsta-divahs/342532-cathedral-rocks.html. Not trying to talk you out of it, but you might have a *much* easier time at Folly Cove (my second favorite up there).

The Chester Poling (http://www.northernatlanticdive.com/shipwrecks/chester_poling/chester_poling.htm) is a *great* dive. If you're looking to do it off the Gauntlet, give Heather a call and (1) make sure there's space, and (2) see if she doesn't have a suggestion for where to rent/borrow doubles. She's seriously kind and helpful. You might want to ring Fran (508-873-8339) as well to see if he has anything going on that day.

 

[paulthenurse]

I second Fran. I bet if you gave him a shout he can set you up with whatever you need equipment wise. He is without a doubt THE class operation on Cape Ann. (I can't speak about Dave and Heather since I've never been on their boat but I've never heard a bad thing about them.) If for some reason Fran can't help you then Cape Ann Divers does rent equipment but they have hours that can be difficult if you are on an afternoon boat (Anyone's boat, including theirs. The shop will be closed when the boat gets back to the dock and they don't let you leave the gear with the boat crew.)

While you can dive Cape Ann from the shore the boat options are FAR superior, but if you can only do a shore dive then Cathedral Rocks is a very nice dive, even if the exit can be an aquired taste. I haven't been to Folly in a few years and I understand that the entrance/exit is much nicer than it was when I was there last. It used to be a broken leg waiting to happen but I've heard that the sand has filled in a lot of the ankle wrecking potholes. Also be VERY aware of where you park. The town budget's of both Rockport and Glocester are fed a steady diet of parking ticket revenue. Forewarned is forearmed. If you park illegally you WILL get a ticket and you might well get towed.

PTN