A day on Cape Ann

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The Isle was cancelled due to mother nature, we did get wet though. Went out on the larger Cape Ann Divers boat. Crew was helpful and efficient.

We dove the rockport breakwater (scallops), and a spot called S&M beach (bugs) All in all was a nice day, vis was pretty good.

Have a great day tomorrow.
 
Well it looks like I'm the first to come to respond after the event, so here's my report [well, my report for the whole weekend!]

Saturday was Cape Ann Day. It was cold and rainy, the conditions were horrible, and it was a truely wonderful time! Only three of us braved the weather to get together, Shellbird, MSilvia and myself. After some discussion we decided Stage Fort Park might actually be sheltered enough to be diveable, as the nautical forecast was stating 20-25 knot winds from the NE and 6-12 foot swells. The front side of Stage Fort had some pretty large swells and breakers onto the beach, as well as quite a few divers, so we headed over to check out the left cove. The swells weren't quite as big, and there wasn't much for breakers on the beach, and we were the only ones there, so we decided to give it a go.

Visibility...well... wasn't. I could see my knees, but I couldn't see my fins. The whole dive it was rare if you could see both of the others, so we sort of kept in a line, with Shellbird and MSilvia sticking close together, and I, with the flag, skirting around them so that no one ended up tangled in the flag with the surge. We stuck to the bottom and moved really slow, found some marbles left over from a treasure hunt dive from a few weeks ago, and chased a few bugs.

Shellbird managed to come home with a souvenir... a sea urchin shell. After being a little turned around and trying to find our way back to the beach, we finally succeeded and crawled ourselves out of the water.

Given the horrible conditions, the visibility that was for not, and the rocking surge, Shellbird managed through her first non-training Open Water dive wonderfully!

Shellbird was a little stressed from the conditions, and decided against a second dive. I still had a good chunk of air left, so MSilvia went off for another tank and we decided to go try and catch us some dinner over by the rocks on the left side. Off we went bug hunting, which was one of the most enjoyable dives I've ever had, as the surge on that side was so fierce it became a drift dive with a pull up every 10 ft or so. I just relaxed and cruised around. We chased a bunch of bugs, but ended up without any keepers. I fought with one for a little while, that I suspect was a keeper, but I just couldn't get a good angle on him and couldn't coax him out. So we ended up with 6 empty beer cans and another sea urchin shell for shellbird.

After we headed over to a seafood place across from Cape Ann Marina for dinner. Picking up twin 6 packs from the liquer store next door [with 3 of us, we decided to pass on the keg] we sat down for our feast of feasts... calamari, fish chowder, MSilvia and Shellbird decided to swallow their pride and split the twin lobster special. I couldn't bring myself to accept failure, and so I went with shrimp :)

After a couple hours of conversation both in the restaurant and in the rain outside, we decided to call it an evening and headed our separate ways.

Due to the poor visibility, I didn't bring out the camera so we unfortunately don't have much for visual documentation, so if you want to see the pictures, you're gonna have to come on the next one!

Well, since this post is getting a little lengthy, I think I'll save the rest of my weekend for another post.
 
Hi All,
Congrats to Shellbird for a pretty challanging 1st dive after cert! I'm really glad mine wasn't that "interesting"...
Sorry to have missed you, maybe next time.
Happy Diving,
Scuba-sass :)
 
Thanks SCUBA-sass, I was please with my intestinal fortitude to even get in the water. Funky_monk went easy on me, I hyperventilated on the surface swim back to the beach with seemed like a football field away but in actuality was about 20 yards (not even). I really enjoy the time under the water, it is the surface swim that bothers me! Anyway, my next dive is going to be on a sunny day with calm waters, that will be a real treat for me being as my cert. dives were in similar conditions as Saturday's! Ug.

On a more personal note: MSilvia and Funky_monk were great guys and excellent dive buddies! Thanks to them for taking me under their fins and sharing this experience with me! Hope we can do it again soon!!! Perhaps "mudding" in my lake followed by an evening of Martinis!
 
We did say Margharitas! Any yes your brain was focused on tequila!! My brain is focused on a nice green Melon Martini, yum...
 
And the pond dive sounds good too! Let's pick a nice day for it this time though. :)

I had a lot of fun on saturday... We'll have to do it again before the summer is out! Anyone have thoughts on dates that would be good? How about some of you who couldn't make it this time?
 
Shell,

Congrats on making it through Dive 1 -- that's awesome. Diving in less than optimal conditions always helps to build confidence. It you can dive in low vis, high wind conditions, you'll be fine.

Look forward to getting together with you guys some time soon.

-LD
 
I started another thread with a "When can we do it again?" poll. If you're interested, select all the dates that work for you, and we'll get the board members out for another one... hopefully on a calm, sunny day!
 
I need to continue to gain experience. I am up for a dive any weekend provided no softball game and I can scrounge up the money. I posted a question on hyperventilation to the Diving Medicine board. I am really not convinced it was only my nerves. I really feel I had to pull for breath. Perhaps that was why I was so obsessed with air consumption toward the end of the dive, it felt different. I am not ruling out panic but I really just couldn't breath. I felt out of breath just upon breaking the surface of the water... Anyway, thanks again for your valiant save and composure. You are a great buddy! Can't wait to go out again.
 

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