Fort Wetherill 5/7/04

[gfisher4792]

Barely a soul around, slight wind, bright sun and a bit of a wind from the SSW. Great vis (10-20') and still on the cool side (43 deg at depth). Saw a lot of the usual suspects, just a lot of them! Spider crabs, hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, a lobster, urchins, anemones and lion's mane jellies. Not many fish out and about, just a single flounder. All in all, a good couple of dives. Quite a vis turnaround from last year, that's for sure!

 

[Soggy]

Good to hear that Ft. W has cleared up a bit. We hit Hathaway Pond yesterday and had 2 good dives there. Water clarity was excellent and we had at least 30 ft of vis with temperatures ranging from 55 at the surface to 48 at 20 ft to 43 at 50 ft.

 

[LobstaMan]

Sounds like great conditions(viz especially) at Hathaway. I'll be at the pond this Friday for my first dive there. I've read up on the pond and the u/w terrain. Any suggestions?

LobstaMan

 

[Soggy]

Sounds like great conditions(viz especially) at Hathaway. I'll be at the pond this Friday for my first dive there. I've read up on the pond and the u/w terrain. Any suggestions?

LobstaMan

Cool. It's a good place for keeping you honest with regards to silting since the bottom is several feet of muck. There are 2 sites to see in the pond, a sunken 35 ft cabin cruiser in 30 ffw and an old Saab, also in about 30 ffw. The cabin cruiser is marked with a lobster buoy about 50 degrees from the beach, but navigating all the way across the middle of the pond is next to impossible. My suggestion is swim out and drop down the edge to around 30 ft and swim to the right along the edge of where the silty areas meets the sea-grass and other flora. Hopefully, in about 15 minutes, you'll come across the thing. You'll start to see patches of sand mixed in with the silt when you are getting close. When you take your return trip, follow the same path back and eventually you'll come across the Saab.

 

[mer]

Cool. It's a good place for keeping you honest with regards to silting since the bottom is several feet of muck. There are 2 sites to see in the pond, a sunken 35 ft cabin cruiser in 30 ffw and an old Saab, also in about 30 ffw. The cabin cruiser is marked with a lobster buoy about 50 degrees from the beach, but navigating all the way across the middle of the pond is next to impossible. My suggestion is swim out and drop down the edge to around 30 ft and swim to the right along the edge of where the silty areas meets the sea-grass and other flora. Hopefully, in about 15 minutes, you'll come across the thing. You'll start to see patches of sand mixed in with the silt when you are getting close. When you take your return trip, follow the same path back and eventually you'll come across the Saab.

Yeah, Sog's navigating was slick. Spectre was bowing and worshipping underwater at Sog's job well done. I don't know what happened after that cause I flooded my mask laughing so hard.

 

[Soggy]

Yeah, Sog's navigating was slick. Spectre was bowing and worshipping underwater at Sog's job well done. I don't know what happened after that cause I flooded my mask laughing so hard.

It was the first time that I'd ever found that damn boat without having to surface and swim to the buoy. Now I know...follow the contour.

 

[LobstaMan]

My brother and I had two nice dives at Hathaway Pond yesterday. Our first time in fresh water and I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent viz, probably 30+ feet. Brother was trying out some new gear, so we took it easy, found the Saab and the large dive platform and practiced skills -- mainly u/w navigation. Only saw a couple of small fish, though. Diving wet so the temps were nice until we hit about 35 feet when it got chilly...48F or so. We'll be back to dive on the boat and the smaller platform.

I'd higly recommend it for those who want an early season tune-up with great viz and easy entry/exit/parking.

LobstaMan