Any divers from Southeastern Mass??

[yak]

Matt's correct. There's plenty of good diving on SS.

And Brant Rock shore dives can be good for bugs, if you know where to look. Hint - it's not where the LDS-sponsored dive herds go.

And my buddy Jim's busy building bug condo's (with back doors, how convenient) at the inaccessible spot at the end of his street .

 

[MSilvia]

Matt's correct. There's plenty of good diving on SS.

We probably shouldn't say that too loud or often, or folks might believe it enough to show up.

 

[MSilvia]

If any of you want to charter a trip out on the South Shore, I'm going to be helping Capt. Aleks Zlobin put The Fugitive on it's mooring tomorrow, and we'll be out doing some scallop diving and cod fishing this weekend. You can contact him at (781)335-6124.

 

[joecad]

I strongly disagree.

While there isn't the abundance of shore diving you'll find on Cape Ann, there are a ton of great dive sites on the South Shore. You may need a boat to get to them, but that isn't hard to do... I can put you in touch with a Weymouth-based charter boat if you need one. Off the top of my head, and only going from Hull to Scituate, I can think of:

Kiowa wreck, Strawberry Ledge, the canyons, Gunrock, Black Rock beach, Sandy Cove, Minot's ledge, Minot rocks (the site of over 100 shipwrecks since the 1600s), Delaware wreck, Tar Pouch, Hardings Ledge, Grampuses, Pinthis wreck, Mars wreck, the now excluded Peggoty Beach, etc. There are a ton I forgot, including a bunch of good sites in and around the outer harbor islands.

The beach diving on Cape Ann is good, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I prefer it.

I'm a life-long SS resident, didn't mean to disparage the Irish Riviera. I prefer the flexiblility of shore diving, charters are just too hard to schedule, thus my preference for the North Shore. Send along the Weymouth connection, anyway. I've got a guy out of Scituate (Mary's Boat Yard), he's the guy I've done Minot Light and Tar Pouch with. Is Peggoty closed? I did one of my first dives there.

 

[MASS-Diver]

I'm a life-long SS resident, didn't mean to disparage the Irish Riviera. I prefer the flexiblility of shore diving, charters are just too hard to schedule, thus my preference for the North Shore. Send along the Weymouth connection, anyway. I've got a guy out of Scituate (Mary's Boat Yard), he's the guy I've done Minot Light and Tar Pouch with. Is Peggoty closed? I did one of my first dives there.

In regard to Pegotty I assume Matt was talking about the wreck of the Forest Queen off that beach that is closed to divers.

My problem with the SS is that (espically the area from Marsfield to Hull) is that by mid-summer the vis here is much, much worse than Cape Ann - anyone disagree? For example, if you dive Harding Ledge in July it's going to be Pea Soup.

The other problem is there is NO parking, a boat is a must.

But, like Matt listed, there are some killer places to dive. I hear 3 and 1/2 fathom ledge (for example) is a great spot.


After I take my DIR class, I'll probably hit up the Poling a few times, but, I think summer I'm going to give the Fugitive a shot and if I like it, I'm going to doing alot of diving closer to home, the NS is such a tough drive in summer and the parking on weekends is horrible.

 

[MSilvia]

In regard to Pegotty I assume Matt was talking about the wreck of the Forest Queen off that beach that is closed to divers.

Exactly, and since there's roughly a half mile exclusion zone around the wreck, you COULD run into problems diving there if one of the resident claim holders suspected you were artifact hunting (presumably for large bars of silver) or otherwise wanted to make trouble for you.

My problem with the SS is that (espically the area from Marsfield to Hull) is that by mid-summer the vis here is much, much worse than Cape Ann - anyone disagree? For example, if you dive Harding Ledge in July it's going to be Pea Soup.

I'll agree that vis can often be bad, but when it's good I've seen better vis on the south shore in summer than I've ever seen on cape ann. In fact, the two New England dives on which I've had the best vis hands down were both in exactly the area you described during summer months. I had 40-50+ on Pinthis, with rays of sunlight penetrating to 90+fsw, and a very clear 40+ at Minot, on a dive where I could see starfish on the 35fsw bottom by just sticking my face in the water at the surface.

On the flip side of that coin, I've had a number of dives on the south shore in summer where I could barely make out my hand at the end of my arm... mostly shore dives at gunrock, but occasionally also on the northern side of Outer Brewster island or at Point Allerton.

 

[MSilvia]

Send along the Weymouth connection, anyway.

That's Fugitive. See the contact info above, or pm me.

 

[Balboa]

I live on the Cape, the town of Barnstable to be exact.

 

[MSilvia]

I live on the Cape, the town of Barnstable to be exact.

The only dives I've done on the cape have been silly little ponds.

 

[Highway74]

I live in Onset, part of the so-called "Gateway to Cape Cod" and no there isn't any Highway 74 around here. lol. I haven't done much diving around here, other than a handful of shore dives. Anyone no any close by spots in Plymouth, Buzzards Bay or Sandwich area.