Crane and Halfway Rock today (7/3/05)

[matt_unique]

The current on the Crane was RIPPING. As fast as any current I have experienced. My buddy rolled in but did not grab a trail line fast enough - he was gone - had to drop the mooring to pick him up. I finally roll in to discover a small tear in my suit. Ha ha - so we splashed on the Crane but could go no farther and this particular buddy was not comfortable with a solo dive.

Fortunately I had glue aboard but I had to wait for my suit to dry to make the repair. So we decided to cruise to Halfway. I dried my suit and applied the glue on the way. She was good to go by the time we arrived. My buddies dropped in for 40 minutes first. I dropped in for a nice 1hr and 4 min dive solo dive when they returned. Ahhhhh....finally a great dive today. Current was minimal, vis was excellent, tons of sea life. I was buggin' but found several eggers and a few with what I believe is the shell disease we have been reading about. I spotted a few and decided not to go after them. I hope this situation corrects itself....or some solution is found. I could be mistaken but the shells did not look good and it was enough to want to pass on even going for them.

Great day to get out.

--Matt

 

[mello-yellow]

From what I read, this shell disease does not affect lobster's eatability in any way. I had caught such lobsters, and can confirm they taste just the same If anything, we should probably take shell-diseased lobsters in preference to healthy ones, to slow down the infection.

 

[Soggy]

What depth is the Crane Wreck at? I'm planning on hitting it in a couple weeks and wasn't sure what depths to plan for and I haven't had much success googling...

 

[matt_unique]

What depth is the Crane Wreck at? I'm planning on hitting it in a couple weeks and wasn't sure what depths to plan for and I haven't had much success googling...

I have done it twice at this point. First dive max depth was 150' to the sand, my second dive (2 weeks ago) was 142' max to the sand. The structure comes off the sand to around 135'. Dark and cold both times I have visited. Last time we had awful vis (8' almost no ambient light). Plan for a night dive and perhaps you will be lucky with better vis.

--Matt

 

[LobstaMan]

I saw ULD numerous times last summer, but nothing this year so far. I can also confirm that ULD doesn't affect the taste.

LobstaMan

 

[Diesel298]

whats this crane wreck?
info please

 

[matt_unique]

I have read (and heard from others) that the lobster disease does not affect the taste of the meat. It's not visually appealing so I go ahead and pass. Since they know very little about this disease I would assume they don't know very much about the potential impact of consuming them. Perhaps they have done more tests but I have not read about it.

The Crane wreck is an entry level tech dive off the coast of Thatcher Island at a max depth of 150'. This crane fell off a barge (though I am not sure of the year). To say a "crane" is almost inaccurate - the structure is huge - it looks more like the leg of an oil platform. You can swim through the crane structure it's so large.

--Matt

 

[Diesel298]

cool. thanks
how big is it. what the minn depth typical viz.. blah blah blah.
im always lookin for a new cool dive

 

[matt_unique]

cool. thanks
how big is it. what the minn depth typical viz.. blah blah blah.
im always lookin for a new cool dive

It's 136' give or take a few feet to hit metal. I have only done it twice - dive 1 was about 10' of vis, dive 2 was 8' tops, temps 2 weeks ago were still low 40's. This is a decompression dive unless you bounce deep.

--Matt

 

[Diesel298]

cool thanks again