A windy day at the chimneys

[Lursxt]

My buddy and I braved the strong winds today and headed to Nahant to visit the chimneys. Surface conditions were good with only a slight chop as the wind was basically blowing from the west-north west i think. We arrived in Nahant around 8am and checked in at the police station They had no issue with both our vehicles parking at the beach. While we were gearing up, we were visited by both the environmental police and the Nahant police. The EP asked us if we had lobster licenses and if we were going to hunt. We do have licenses, but decided not to look for bugs. The EPs were friendly and didn't give us a hard time. Viz was not great. I would say about 10' or so. I lost my buddy a few times, but our procedures worked well as we both headed to the surface after about 2min of searching. It's nice to see your buddy waiting for you when you reach the surface! We didn't see much life at all. I saw one snail and a crab. Temp at depth was 37deg. Total dive time was 61 minutes.
We're both using the si-tek mounts with the smurf gloves. I'm finding the only way to get them off is to have my buddy turn the ring for me while I rotate my wrist in the opposite direction. Does anyone have a tips for making them easier to remove? I've got about 8 dives on them.

 

[dave4868]

We're both using the si-tek mounts with the smurf gloves. I'm finding the only way to get them off is to have my buddy turn the ring for me while I rotate my wrist in the opposite direction. Does anyone have a tips for making them easier to remove? I've got about 8 dives on them.

Nice dive report, thanks. It's perfect timing as I'm thinking about going to Cape Ann Sunday. Might have about the same vis, but I'm getting the fever....

Since I'm able to easily unscrew my SI TECH un-docking rings by myself, I'm wondering if I'm doing something different, such as lubing the o-rings real well with saliva prior to docking.

Otherwise, I just reach around far enough and keep turning until the suit ring finally gets anchored when the suit material can twist no more.

Since I've heard others have the same difficulty as you, I wonder if SI TECH changed to a fatter or softer o-ring.

I picked up some generic o-rings for spares that are a little softer and about 5% thicker (0.004"thicker) and they definitely make the rings stick.

Try really slobbering on the o-rings....

Hope this helps.

Dave C

 

[603doug]

We were part of a dive club Moray Wheels and Rusty Murray lived there on Nahant and we would do check out dives at canoe beach and if you were not from Nahant the local cops would ticket you even if you were just dropping off gear.
But the dives there were always great and it was fun showing the new students the chimneys.
Seas have been up so the shore dives probably be pretty poor vis. Hope to go out to the shoals, the vis is generally better

 

[Mike W]

I was at a beach clean-up at 40 steps one summer with the NEADC. During the dive we noticed the vis dropped really fast as we entered the chimney area and heard a boat around the area but finished the dive. After the dive we were bringing the trash up the 4000 steps up to the street and noticed people at the top and I caught eyes with one guy and noticed he had tears coming down his cheeks. I asked him if he was all right. He explained that he taught his brother to dive at the chimneys and that his brother died recently and the family just spread his ashes over the chimneys. I suddenly realized why the vis went bad. We were diving on Tom's last dive. The funny part was someone from our dive club was meeting us there after a morning of boat diving so his friends were dropping him off by boat and this family asked the owner of the boat if they would take them out over the chimney to do the deed. What could he say! Just as they let go of the ashes, a gust of wind blew bits of Tom back all over the boat and everyone!
The owner couldn't wait to wash down that boat and himself !!!!!

 

[bennsarrow]

OK, I'm glad I heard this story AFTER we were out yesterday ;-) I would never have gotten it out of my mind as Lursxt and I tried to keep track of one another in the poor vis at the Chimneys.

I echo Lursxt's comments...we had a nice dive yesterday. The bottom topography is very interesting here and I look forward to doing some more exploring this summer. We were already strategising about bringing a bike, dropping off the gear, parking in the lot at Lynn beach and riding back to the site. Might solve the parking problem at alot of dive sites on the Cape as well.

Lursxt and I both got our Si-Techs at the same time and both are difficult to doff and donn. However, I'll try a lilttle more slobber next time and see if that helps.

 

[MSilvia]

I had trouble with my Si-Techs until I trimmed the gloves.

 

[Lursxt]

I've put a very small amount of zipper wax on the outside edge of the glove mount (male end). I can now don and doff the gloves by myself as the ring is much easier to turn. Hopefully they're not too lubed now and won't slip off.