Serching for Tropical at Ft Wetherill Sat. 9-7-07
- Thread starter ScubaSarus
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Haha!! 3 dives (well, 2 1/2) yesterday and I'm wiped out too!
Here's one of my tropicals from yesterday....
Snipped the retouched photo.
Whad'ya Photoshop that thing? That's three cunners morphed into one, isn't it?
Dave C
OP
ScubaSarus
Guest
wOW a genetic mutation. Do I see 2 tails.
amajamar
Contributor
I don't find that towing the flag is all that difficult. Entangling yourself is the greatest risk! I have the smaller yellow float type, not too much drag.
Ft Wetherill was really a nice dive for us new divers! The wall was really beautiful, I had a wonderfull quiet moment at one rock where all the fish were schooling around my head! Man, it was just great!
We will definately be back there, hopefully this season.
There is another dive site that I read about at the point of Jamestown, I can't recall the name of it just now. It got a great writeup.
Dave, your pics are nice, those juvi sea bass (?) were plentiful.
Two questions for you also. When you swim out of West Cove, where do you find that 80' depth? Is it following the wall on the right around to the other cove or by swimming to left side of West Cove? Also, what size is that pony and where you using it to increase bottom time?
PS-Is there ScubaBoard bumper stickers???
Ft Wetherill was really a nice dive for us new divers! The wall was really beautiful, I had a wonderfull quiet moment at one rock where all the fish were schooling around my head! Man, it was just great!
We will definately be back there, hopefully this season.
There is another dive site that I read about at the point of Jamestown, I can't recall the name of it just now. It got a great writeup.
Dave, your pics are nice, those juvi sea bass (?) were plentiful.
Two questions for you also. When you swim out of West Cove, where do you find that 80' depth? Is it following the wall on the right around to the other cove or by swimming to left side of West Cove? Also, what size is that pony and where you using it to increase bottom time?
PS-Is there ScubaBoard bumper stickers???
Thanks! That was my first guess, but what about that one with the yellow and black band on the base of it's tail? Any idea? That's the one I thought might be a tropical.
amajamar:
From the beach on the left cove, we descended and headed on a 150 heading almost directly across the cove to the base of the rocky shore to the east.
(Take a look at Google's satellite image of the coves and subtract about 15 degrees for magnetic declination and you can get a good sense of the dive.)
Then we followed the base of the rocks where it meets the sand/mud, generally heading south in depths less than 25'.
Our plan was to follow the base around the end of the point, as judged by compass heading, until we reached the expected steeper walls and deeper water, and then decide if air supply (greater than half) and conditions (current) would allow a quick descent to 80'.
As we rounded the point and the compass began to read less than 150, we found the steeper walls or slope dropping the base pretty quickly to about 65'. We checked our gauges and found we had greater than half our air remaining. Water temp was still 64. Vis probably 5-7'. The current was manageable. (The tide was still ebbing, but near slack.)
We both agreed to do a quick descent to 80', which we did. Conditions were similar to those at 65', except a little darker.
I was interested to see how much ambient light there was compared to similar depths in Cape Ann. It was darker, but not as much as I thought it would be. I didn't bother to use my light. I could still see my gauges and computer.
We then turned the dive and, to conserve air as planned, ascended almost directly upslope to roughly 20', then swam a return route around the point along the rocky slope back to the cove.
Surge was moderate there, but surface current was soon assisting our return.
After a few minutes, we gradually swam upward and then leveled off at 10'.
With the wind-driven surface current significantly speeding our return trip into the cove, we quickly reached the recognizable shallow sandy end of the cove and popped up to find ourselves directly across from the exit. We descended and swam along the bottom to the south end of the beach which had less crashing surf and surge.
We exited at the entry point.
My buddy was using an al80 and I was using a HP steel 120. I didn't plan or need to use the al30 pony I had with me.
We both had about 400 psi left in our tanks after the 60-minute dive.
I think my buddy's air consumption is better than average, mine is probably only average. He's young and quite fit, I'm 56 and not particularly fit.
Plus, I was pulling the flag against a strong wind and surface current and it was a significant workload. As I said before, it felt like about a 5 to 10 pound pull most of the time.
I was happy everything worked as planned and we got to see what we wanted to see.
amajamar:
We'll have to make our own bumper stickers, I think!
Dave C
Johnnyseko, you are hearby charged with fourteen counts of aggravated warm water diving, two counts of aiding and abetting warm water divers, and two counts of conspiring to dive in visibility unbecoming a New Englander.
Conviction on these offenses carries a maximum penalty of being forced to dive Hazard Avenue in February on a day with sustained SW winds exceeding 25 kts and air temperatures no greater than 25 degrees F.
Seriously though, nice pictures.
OP
ScubaSarus
Guest
"Conviction on these offenses carries a maximum penalty of being forced to dive Hazard Avenue in February on a day with sustained SW winds exceeding 25 kts and air temperatures no greater than 25 degrees F."
Let me know if you need a buddy; I have the ultimate dive plan allowing for an easy exit that doesn't require much energy on our part.
Let me know if you need a buddy; I have the ultimate dive plan allowing for an easy exit that doesn't require much energy on our part.
OP
ScubaSarus
Guest
Hey it worked so so ; just needs a little refinement.
johnnyseko
Contributor
Gosh, did I mention I was at Wetherill last weekend??
I wasn't aware of the serious consequences for my actions! If I must dive the frigid cold white north waters in February, so be it. As long as I can dive with my 15mm of neoprene I think I will survive. It's those damn slippery rocks that scare me!:11:
BTW, thanks, it was the first time I've seen a batfish. It was too cool....just posing for pics.
Similar threads
