Soggy
Contributor
I went out to Old Garden Beach on Saturday monring with a couple friends. What a great way to spend my b-day!
This Saturday the seas were supposed to be 4-8 feet and mostly cloudy around Gloucester...we woke up at 6 am, checked the weather report and it was not good for diving. Oh well...we'll drive up to Cape Ann, check it out, and turn around if need-be. I had considered going to Nubble, but the report wasn't much better there. At least Cape Ann has a variety of sites, so if we have to call a site, we can go somewhere else.
We get to Old Garden and there isn't a cloud in the sky. I look at the water...it's choppy, but not bad at all! We decided to give it a try, unloaded the car and geared up. I was in a dry suit, they had two piece 7 mm wet suits on. Chris, my roommate and friend from college, broke the bottom of his zipper on the two piece 7 mm and it wouldn't stay closed. At this point we were thinking we'd have to call the dive, but Ed (a college friend visiting from Pittsburg), had a 1.5mm shorty on underneath his suit. He took that off and Chris put it over his entire suit and all was good! Next, after putting our regs on our tanks, my friends let me know that they only have like 2300-2400psi fills. After cursing the dive shop's name for a bit, I examined the tanks and realized they were LP 72 cft steels, not HP. All is good.
There were three of us...two friends from college were with me and neither had dived in this area, so it was quite exciting for them. We got in the water and swam out on the surface for quite a while. There was a fair amount of current and some big waves, but it wasn't so bad if you can tolerate clearing your snorkel every so often.
On the surface Chris signals to me because he is seeing the millions of comb jellies we are swimming through and is a bit concerned. I told him not to worry...they don't sting...all is good.
We decended, swam out for a while on the rocks near the east side of the beach. Crabs, lobsters, starfish, more of the same...vis was good...around 20 feet. Ed was dragging the flag and having a bit of trouble since it had been a long time since he had been diving. I was navigating for the first time ever (we got back!) and Chris was fooling around trying to grab every lobster and crab he saw. About halfway into the dive, I check everyones gauges for air when Chris grabs my slate and writes, "Gauge not working...bad?" At first I thought he meant his air gauge, but we sorted it out and I realized that it was just his depth gauge that was broken. No biggy...two people with depth gauges when the surface is only 30 ft away...we continued.
First dive, 36 minutes, 40 fsw. 1:27 min surface interval
On the second dive, we swam out more toward the center, and turned around early so we wouldn't have as much of a surface swim back to shore. Much more time was spent in the sand. They got all excited when they saw some skates and skate eggs. I used natural navigation to get us back to shore...we ended up pretty close to where I thought we were, too!
Second dive, 42 minutes, 40fsw.
We loaded up and were gone by 1pm. Wonderful day. Then my beautiful, wonderful, sweet girlfriend took me out to Legal Seafood for dinner. Mmmmm...............I ate all the things that I had seen earlier in the day.
On the first dive we went out on a 30-40 degree heading and I came across a huge, mostly symmetrical "pyramid" underwater that looked somewhat man-made. It even had a bit of a dug moat around it. Anyone seen it or have any idea what it is?
Sorry for such a long trip report, but it was a fun day and my first time ever leading a dive.
This Saturday the seas were supposed to be 4-8 feet and mostly cloudy around Gloucester...we woke up at 6 am, checked the weather report and it was not good for diving. Oh well...we'll drive up to Cape Ann, check it out, and turn around if need-be. I had considered going to Nubble, but the report wasn't much better there. At least Cape Ann has a variety of sites, so if we have to call a site, we can go somewhere else.
We get to Old Garden and there isn't a cloud in the sky. I look at the water...it's choppy, but not bad at all! We decided to give it a try, unloaded the car and geared up. I was in a dry suit, they had two piece 7 mm wet suits on. Chris, my roommate and friend from college, broke the bottom of his zipper on the two piece 7 mm and it wouldn't stay closed. At this point we were thinking we'd have to call the dive, but Ed (a college friend visiting from Pittsburg), had a 1.5mm shorty on underneath his suit. He took that off and Chris put it over his entire suit and all was good! Next, after putting our regs on our tanks, my friends let me know that they only have like 2300-2400psi fills. After cursing the dive shop's name for a bit, I examined the tanks and realized they were LP 72 cft steels, not HP. All is good.
There were three of us...two friends from college were with me and neither had dived in this area, so it was quite exciting for them. We got in the water and swam out on the surface for quite a while. There was a fair amount of current and some big waves, but it wasn't so bad if you can tolerate clearing your snorkel every so often.
On the surface Chris signals to me because he is seeing the millions of comb jellies we are swimming through and is a bit concerned. I told him not to worry...they don't sting...all is good.
We decended, swam out for a while on the rocks near the east side of the beach. Crabs, lobsters, starfish, more of the same...vis was good...around 20 feet. Ed was dragging the flag and having a bit of trouble since it had been a long time since he had been diving. I was navigating for the first time ever (we got back!) and Chris was fooling around trying to grab every lobster and crab he saw. About halfway into the dive, I check everyones gauges for air when Chris grabs my slate and writes, "Gauge not working...bad?" At first I thought he meant his air gauge, but we sorted it out and I realized that it was just his depth gauge that was broken. No biggy...two people with depth gauges when the surface is only 30 ft away...we continued.
First dive, 36 minutes, 40 fsw. 1:27 min surface interval
On the second dive, we swam out more toward the center, and turned around early so we wouldn't have as much of a surface swim back to shore. Much more time was spent in the sand. They got all excited when they saw some skates and skate eggs. I used natural navigation to get us back to shore...we ended up pretty close to where I thought we were, too!
Second dive, 42 minutes, 40fsw.
We loaded up and were gone by 1pm. Wonderful day. Then my beautiful, wonderful, sweet girlfriend took me out to Legal Seafood for dinner. Mmmmm...............I ate all the things that I had seen earlier in the day.
On the first dive we went out on a 30-40 degree heading and I came across a huge, mostly symmetrical "pyramid" underwater that looked somewhat man-made. It even had a bit of a dug moat around it. Anyone seen it or have any idea what it is?
Sorry for such a long trip report, but it was a fun day and my first time ever leading a dive.
