Nubble Light 3/10

[TimK]

Dove Nubble Light today with the bus from Aquatic Escapes. Water temps showing 37 and vis was not good at less than 10 feet. 3 of us did the dive--dive was about 35 minutes and we just did the one since it was so hard to stay together and there just wasn't a whole lot to look at. Even the vegetation seemed beaten down. Only marine life was small starfish. Did find a lot of shards of broken china but nothing worth bringing up. Not that I could have gotten my fins off and successfully negotiated the slippery rocks with hands full of broken dinnerwear anyway. I normally end up crawling out of the water there anyway, much to the amusement of the seemingly always present onlookers.

Just a side note. I ripped a three inch tear in my wetsuit while pulling on the right leg today. Didn't go all the way through but went down through the neoprene to the inner lining. It's an Xcel Tri Density semi dry that I bought at Aquatic Escapes. When we got back to the shop after the dive, I asked Ed King for some glue to repair the suit. I told him how I hamfisted a rip in the neoprene trying to pull the leg of the suit up. He looked at the tear and told me the suit was less than a year old and that it shouldn't rip like that. He is going to talk to the Xcel rep and get me an entirely new suit. Now that's customer service! I told him several times that I would be happy just gluing it since I consider it my fault, not the suits, but he insisted on getting me the new suit. If anyone lives close to Londonderry, NH and you don't already have a favorite dive shop, give Aquatic Escapes a chance, I think you'll be happy you did.

 

[Rainer]

That's great service. If I'm ever in NH, I'll make sure to stop by AE.

 

[LobstaMan]

A wetsuit this time of year? Wow, even with the semi-dry you must be part walrus or something! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

LobstaMan

 

[TimK]

I'm afraid if you looked at me and a walrus side-by-side sunning ourselves on a beach somewhere, you might see an uncanny resemblence in body shapes, minus flippers and tusks of course ; and while it hasn't happened yet, I do have fears of someone, sometime, somewhere trying to "help" me back into the sea to join the rest of my pod.
:shakehead

 

[chipwd]

I dove Nubble Light last fall. I loved it! We saw tons of crab, lobstah, starfish and sculpin. I don't get a lot of sw dives in so each one is cool for me.

Of course, the water temps were a balmy 48 degrees then and the air temp was in the 70's.

I, too, learned the safest way to exit is often crawling up on the rocks like some primordial beast escaping the grasp of the water to struggle eventually to it's feet and stagger away. as a matter of fact, the diver I was with, who is a frequent Nubble diver, wears knee pads over his wetsuit to save it from wearing on the rocks. Smart guy!

We did see a lot of broken and abandoned lobster traps or parts of traps.

I'll be back again this Sept. I'd like to make it a yearly trip.

 

[TimK]

Let the board know when your coming and maybe some of us can get a dive in with you. There's also some other spots around Cape Ann that are nice as well if you haven't been there yet.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Dove Nubble Light today with the bus from Aquatic Escapes. Water temps showing 37 and vis was not good at less than 10 feet.

I dove Nubble on Friday, you were lucky, it must have warmed up. We got a temperature of 34 degrees.



Jeff

 

[chipwd]

I haven't dove Cape Ann yet but would love to. Shore dives, right?

I found my Nubble dive buddy through SB, Green Manelishi.

I actually had offers from 3 different divers to dive Nubble but timing only worked out for one. He was a gracious host and was very cool about sharing his Nubble knowledge with me. He was also not judgemental about my skill level. I was only at 20 or so dives at that time and used my hands far too much and wasn't the best at buoyancy. Still got a TON to learn but my skills have steadily improved.

Plus my gear configuration is a never ending project. Still diving back inflate bc and a padi style reg with octo setup. Very few bp/w divers around here, most are conventional gear setups. My back inflate is even unusual for the average diver around here.

The only local bp/w divers I know of are two other SB members!

 

[TimK]

I'm not all that experienced myself. The dive yesterday was number 18 so I know where your coming from. Ummm, you can also raise the bp/w count since I dive one also. I originally bought a used bc (Rig Pro II) that had an aluminum backplate and ended up having Ed at Aquatic escapes remove most of the BC part and run DUI harness through it. Still has the original wing which may get changed out this year for an OMS or Dive Rite wing since I'm not too fond of the way this one dumps air.

 

[TimK]

I dove Nubble on Friday, you were lucky, it must have warmed up. We got a temperature of 34 degrees.

Darn it. I knew the water was going to heat up but I didn't think summer temps would be here so soon.