Soggy
Contributor
A buddy of mine visited me this weekend from South Carolina and we decided to do a dive in Rockport Sunday afternoon.
Everything pre-dive was a complete CF. First, back at my house, his SeaQuest AirSource was malfunctioning when we did our gear check (it was continuously freeflowing). So, I called several dive shops only to discover that there was nothing we could do about it today. So, we rented him a BC and reg from Cape Ann Divers, which worked out pretty well.
We finally got to Old Garden Beach around noon and discovered that the buckle on his fin strap was coming loose. After a couple trips to the car with different tools, we discovered that a 2 lb lead weight worked much better as a hammer than a leatherman's tool! Problem 2 solved!
We geared up and hobbled our way to the water around 1pm and surface-swam out to the first rock reef. We discussed the dive on the surface a bit and checked our SPGs. I had a 2800 psi in a 130 cft tank and he had about the same in a 94.6 cft tank. All ready, now...nope. I clipped my SPG off and see bubbles pouring from my waist. An o-ring on my SPG pin had blown...ugh. After having Ed turn off my air, we swam back into shore. My girlfriend (Katie) was our surface support for the day and she made some smart comments about the "U" in SCUBA being for Underwater.
Luckily, I had brought my old SPG hose and computer, which meant I had all the necessary parts to fix my problem. Five minutes on shore and we were back in the water. Problem three solved! By now it was around 1:30pm. We swam out to the reef and this time were able to descend!
We anchored the flag around a rock because of all the lobster traps around and proceded to explore the reef keeping an eye out for bugs. Ed...having never dived for lobster before...pointed out several bugs that could have passed for crayfish, but he got better as the dive went on! He spotted one for me that I spent 10 minutes wrestling out of a hole only to discover it was a hanger...I put it back, begrudgingly, and flipped it "the bird."
During the first half of the dive, we had several stripers (not strippers) following us around, clearly looking for a free meal. We also saw a very very small jellyfish that I've never seen before. The rest of the dive was a typical NE dive...crabs, skate, flounder, etc. I caught a flounder by cajoling it into my bag, but proceded to let it go when I realized that I didn't know how to clean flounder and wasn't interested in figuring it out that day. Ed gave me a, "what the heck are you doing" look when I caught him, but understood when I explained on a slate that it was a flounder.
We turned around when Ed reached 1400 psi. Due to either my prowess as an underwater navigator (right
) or dumb luck, we came across the flag and dragged it in closer to shore. We surfaced when we were in 8 ft of water to see how close shore was only to find out that a thick fog had come in. Luckily, we could still see shore, though, and swam on the surface the remaining 100 ft in. The thunderstorms started shortly thereafter and unfortunately, I had to drive through the traffic that was stopped on I-93 rubbernecking the 40 car pileup in the Northbound lane.
All and all, it was a beautiful dive with great vis and water water!
Bottom time: 70 minutes
Max depth: 22 fsw
Ave depth: 17 fsw
Water temp: 57 degrees
Everything pre-dive was a complete CF. First, back at my house, his SeaQuest AirSource was malfunctioning when we did our gear check (it was continuously freeflowing). So, I called several dive shops only to discover that there was nothing we could do about it today. So, we rented him a BC and reg from Cape Ann Divers, which worked out pretty well.
We finally got to Old Garden Beach around noon and discovered that the buckle on his fin strap was coming loose. After a couple trips to the car with different tools, we discovered that a 2 lb lead weight worked much better as a hammer than a leatherman's tool! Problem 2 solved!
We geared up and hobbled our way to the water around 1pm and surface-swam out to the first rock reef. We discussed the dive on the surface a bit and checked our SPGs. I had a 2800 psi in a 130 cft tank and he had about the same in a 94.6 cft tank. All ready, now...nope. I clipped my SPG off and see bubbles pouring from my waist. An o-ring on my SPG pin had blown...ugh. After having Ed turn off my air, we swam back into shore. My girlfriend (Katie) was our surface support for the day and she made some smart comments about the "U" in SCUBA being for Underwater.
Luckily, I had brought my old SPG hose and computer, which meant I had all the necessary parts to fix my problem. Five minutes on shore and we were back in the water. Problem three solved! By now it was around 1:30pm. We swam out to the reef and this time were able to descend!
We anchored the flag around a rock because of all the lobster traps around and proceded to explore the reef keeping an eye out for bugs. Ed...having never dived for lobster before...pointed out several bugs that could have passed for crayfish, but he got better as the dive went on! He spotted one for me that I spent 10 minutes wrestling out of a hole only to discover it was a hanger...I put it back, begrudgingly, and flipped it "the bird."
During the first half of the dive, we had several stripers (not strippers) following us around, clearly looking for a free meal. We also saw a very very small jellyfish that I've never seen before. The rest of the dive was a typical NE dive...crabs, skate, flounder, etc. I caught a flounder by cajoling it into my bag, but proceded to let it go when I realized that I didn't know how to clean flounder and wasn't interested in figuring it out that day. Ed gave me a, "what the heck are you doing" look when I caught him, but understood when I explained on a slate that it was a flounder.
We turned around when Ed reached 1400 psi. Due to either my prowess as an underwater navigator (right
) or dumb luck, we came across the flag and dragged it in closer to shore. We surfaced when we were in 8 ft of water to see how close shore was only to find out that a thick fog had come in. Luckily, we could still see shore, though, and swam on the surface the remaining 100 ft in. The thunderstorms started shortly thereafter and unfortunately, I had to drive through the traffic that was stopped on I-93 rubbernecking the 40 car pileup in the Northbound lane.All and all, it was a beautiful dive with great vis and water water!
Bottom time: 70 minutes
Max depth: 22 fsw
Ave depth: 17 fsw
Water temp: 57 degrees
