Cathedral Rocks 9/23

[TimK]

Had two great dives at Cathedral Rocks yesterday morning. Met Bill, Mike and his wife Sue a little after 6 am and offloaded gear down to the rocks. After suiting and gearing up we splashed in (high tide) and had a good first dive to 78 feet. Thermocline showed up at around 45 feet and we saw a lot of lobsters and crab. What we really liked though were the thousands of fish of all sizes and shapes in the shallower waters. It was like diving in an aquarium or in the carribean. Absolutely awesome!!! First dive was about 45 minutes and water temps were 61 at the surface and 51 at depth. Mike and Bill were diving doubles so we stopped between dives for me to change tanks, take a little break and then hit the water for a second dive. It was just as nice as the first one again hitting 78 feet. I spotted a huge lobster and when I got Bill and Mikes attention we went back for closer investigation. Mike managed to catch it without losing any digits. The crusher claw was easily two hands wide and much longer that Mikes hand (could have done a whole lobster roll with just the meat from that one claw). Mike estimated that it would have been in the 4-5 pound range although it looked a whole lot bigger, even when he was holding it up and we had something to measure it against. Seemed to be lobster under almost every rock on the way back up and again tons of smaller fish in the 40-20 foot depth range. We finished the second dive and were heading out of town by 11 or so and made it home by noon. Beautiful weather and two beautiful dives. And you will NEVER, NEVER, EVER see me doing doubles there.

 

[ScubaSarus]

Im wondering if thats the same lobster we saw 2-3 yrs ago. You can catch it as its too big so I know its been living a long time and odds are.......

And yes it has crusher claws allright.

 

[TimK]

It was an old one to reach that size. We returned to a nice rock area so it can grow a little older hopefully.

 

[aparootsa]

We had a couple nice dives there, too. This was my first set of dives at Cathedral, so nothing too adventurous, but it's definitely a place I'll be returning to. Saw some pretty good lobsters (no four-pounders, though) and plenty of fish. Bottom temp was 48 and I was getting unhappily cold, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat - the dropoff warrants much more time spent on it, IMO.

 

[Mitchell]

where is the entry?

 

[TimK]

where is the entry?

Take Route 128 North through Blackburn and then through Grant Circle. At the light, take a left turn onto Route 127 into Rockport. When you come to the 5 Corner intersection, stay on 127 by turning left. Follow this road for approximately 2 miles, and turn right onto Phillips Ave. You will come to Cathedral Avenue. Unrestricted, but limited parking. Please do stay to the public area of the street, and respect the landowners' private property signs to each side of the entry area.

Once you park you'll see a couple of trails directly in front of the Emerson Inn that go through the weeds and brush. From there, you'll need to pick your way down to a flat rock that appear to jut out into the water directly in front of the Inn. It almost forms a backwards L shape with higher rock to the right of the entry point. At high tide you can giant stride off the rock. At low tide you have to work your way in to the left. If you look at the picture, where the dive flag is where you want to go in from at high tide. At low tide you'll need to go over where the guy in the blue/black and looks like white top is (check out picture #2 also) which shows it at low tide. Don't try this site if the seas aren't calm.