We had another great weekend of diving aboard my friend Earl's trusty boat Sharkbait. The Marine forecast off of RI looked a little bumpy Saturday, but Massachusetts Bay looked great (1 ft seas) so Earl, Ed and I along with my wife Becky as a bubble watcher decided to head up to the Pinthis for 2 dives. I mentioned that we were diving the Pinthis to my friend John and he and Al joined us in Al's boat.
Both crews launched from the ramp in Marshfield. The sea conditions were perfect. What was not perfect was my memory, I'd managed to leave my mask at home! Luckily Earl and Ed both offered to loan me a mask so I didn't have stay in the boat.
Ed and I were the only two drysuit divers, Earl, Al and John all dove wet so they win the tough guy awards. My computer saw a minimum temp of 45 degrees F, others reported 47. Whichever number you go with it was pretty cold for a wetsuit. I left my doubles rig at home this week and did a pair of no deco single tank dives as did John and Al. Earl just did one dive. Ed dove his double 120s and did a longer deco dive. Ed shot video so hopefully he'll post it later.
The Pinthis looks like it may have collapsed a bit more since last year. She's definitely aging. We saw pollock, hake, sunstars, one of the bigger sea ravens I have ever seen and lots of big winter flounder. Visibility was probably in the 25 ft range. It is definitely one of my favorite wreck dives.
On Sunday the forecast looked really good (1ft mostly sunny) for the warm waters of Nantucket Sound and the wreck of the Port Hunter off of Martha's Vineyard. There was a slack tide at 936am and the forecast for RI sound looked less promising (fog 3ft seas) so Earl, Matt, Brian and I decided to check another "P" wreck off of our summer to-do list. Becky joined us again as a bubble watcher.
We launched out of Falmouth and found that the conditions weren't as good as had been advertised the night before. It was choppy, windy and fairly overcast most of the day. We arrived on the wreck and found that another boat was tied into the mooring so we hooked in further down the wreck. Luckily the Port Hunter is huge so there was plenty of room for everyone.
Earl sat the first dive out so it was just Matt, Brian and I. Visibility was 10-15 ft. The currents didn't really slack, essentially it just slowed down then changed direction without much of a pause between. The tides limited us to about a 40 min runtime on the wreck. It was a nice dive, though there were fewer fish (scup, tautog, cunner and black sea bass) than I have seen in the past on that wreck. The water temperatures were a nice contrast to the Pinthis, I had 71 degrees on my computer and wore a 3mm farmer john without getting even slightly chilled. To bad all of New England isn't as warm as the waters in Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds. Matt and Brian both wore drysuits so they must have been sweating! I noticed the hull plating up on the starboard bow is really starting to peel away dramatically now, much more than I remember last year. It is amazing how much the wreck has fallen apart since the first time I dove it as a teenager in 1990. This wreck always has a bit of nostalgia for me because it was the first wreck I ever dove after I was certified.
For dive 2 we decided to do a drift dive since the tides really limit the other diving options in this area. We'd never really tried that in this area so it was a bit of an experiment. We started the dive off of State Beach in Oak Bluffs in about 20-25 ft of water and just drifted under the boat in a 1+ kt current. We had a line running from the divers to the boat so that we all stayed together and with the boat. It was a very relaxing, effortless and toasty warm dive. The bottom was sand and shell covered in algae with lots of invertebrate life including bay scallops, horseshoe crabs, spider crabs, very large hermit crabs, whelks and slipper shells. We didn't see many fish. It was definitely a nice change of pace, though the bottom terrain did get a bit repetitive after a while. Definitely something we'd do a again the next time we dive the area.
Overall, not a bad way to spend a weekend!
Both crews launched from the ramp in Marshfield. The sea conditions were perfect. What was not perfect was my memory, I'd managed to leave my mask at home! Luckily Earl and Ed both offered to loan me a mask so I didn't have stay in the boat.
Ed and I were the only two drysuit divers, Earl, Al and John all dove wet so they win the tough guy awards. My computer saw a minimum temp of 45 degrees F, others reported 47. Whichever number you go with it was pretty cold for a wetsuit. I left my doubles rig at home this week and did a pair of no deco single tank dives as did John and Al. Earl just did one dive. Ed dove his double 120s and did a longer deco dive. Ed shot video so hopefully he'll post it later.
The Pinthis looks like it may have collapsed a bit more since last year. She's definitely aging. We saw pollock, hake, sunstars, one of the bigger sea ravens I have ever seen and lots of big winter flounder. Visibility was probably in the 25 ft range. It is definitely one of my favorite wreck dives.
On Sunday the forecast looked really good (1ft mostly sunny) for the warm waters of Nantucket Sound and the wreck of the Port Hunter off of Martha's Vineyard. There was a slack tide at 936am and the forecast for RI sound looked less promising (fog 3ft seas) so Earl, Matt, Brian and I decided to check another "P" wreck off of our summer to-do list. Becky joined us again as a bubble watcher.
We launched out of Falmouth and found that the conditions weren't as good as had been advertised the night before. It was choppy, windy and fairly overcast most of the day. We arrived on the wreck and found that another boat was tied into the mooring so we hooked in further down the wreck. Luckily the Port Hunter is huge so there was plenty of room for everyone.
Earl sat the first dive out so it was just Matt, Brian and I. Visibility was 10-15 ft. The currents didn't really slack, essentially it just slowed down then changed direction without much of a pause between. The tides limited us to about a 40 min runtime on the wreck. It was a nice dive, though there were fewer fish (scup, tautog, cunner and black sea bass) than I have seen in the past on that wreck. The water temperatures were a nice contrast to the Pinthis, I had 71 degrees on my computer and wore a 3mm farmer john without getting even slightly chilled. To bad all of New England isn't as warm as the waters in Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds. Matt and Brian both wore drysuits so they must have been sweating! I noticed the hull plating up on the starboard bow is really starting to peel away dramatically now, much more than I remember last year. It is amazing how much the wreck has fallen apart since the first time I dove it as a teenager in 1990. This wreck always has a bit of nostalgia for me because it was the first wreck I ever dove after I was certified.
For dive 2 we decided to do a drift dive since the tides really limit the other diving options in this area. We'd never really tried that in this area so it was a bit of an experiment. We started the dive off of State Beach in Oak Bluffs in about 20-25 ft of water and just drifted under the boat in a 1+ kt current. We had a line running from the divers to the boat so that we all stayed together and with the boat. It was a very relaxing, effortless and toasty warm dive. The bottom was sand and shell covered in algae with lots of invertebrate life including bay scallops, horseshoe crabs, spider crabs, very large hermit crabs, whelks and slipper shells. We didn't see many fish. It was definitely a nice change of pace, though the bottom terrain did get a bit repetitive after a while. Definitely something we'd do a again the next time we dive the area.
Overall, not a bad way to spend a weekend!
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