large_diver
Contributor
Had a very enjoyable night dive in Rockport, MA on Sunday. We were diving Back Beach -- an easy entry site just north of the center of Rockport that is very popular with dive classes.
The participants -- Andrew, Mike and myself. I arrived at the site to find Mike and Andrew already there. We discussed our dive plans and began to gear up. As it was a full moon, there was a small crowd (3-4 other buddy groups)diving at Back Beach -- as a result, we chose to start our dive from the right side of the beach to avoid the "traffic".
Sea conditions were very calm. After gearing up, we made our way over the rocks and down to the beach. Sunset was at 7:15PM...we made it into the water at 7:55PM -- almost full darkness. As we floated in the shallows to don our fins, I turned around to see the moon just beginning to rise over the buildings of Rockport -- a very large, orange moon.....VERY COOL. On this dive, I would be navigating, Andrew was carrying the flag, and Mike was "along for the ride". My proposed plan was to navigate a narrow rectangle, starting on a due east/90 degree heading for the first "side" of the rectangle.
We swam out 100 yds or so on the surface before dropping down in 10 feet of water. I have to admit that night navigation is always an interesting experience for me. I always find it much easier to become disoriented on a night dive, for obvious reasons. I just keep repeating the "trust your gauges" mantra over and over in my head.....
We met briefly on the bottom before heading out -- visibility was about 10+ feet....about "normal" for New England shore diving. I swung around to the correct heading and off we went.
The bottom terrain at Back Beach is varied, with some sandy areas closer to shore and rockier areas farther out. I was immediately "greeted" by several small lobsters retreating in front of me with claws at the ready, a few skates and several small silver-sided fish (haddock or pollock). I set a pretty leisurely pace, allowing all of us time to pause frequently and get a closer look in all the nooks and crannies in the rocky reef. Not a whole lot of larger marine life....mainly lobsters, skates and small flounder. Andrew did run into a few small squid at the end of the dive, which Mike and I missed. Lots of "one-claw" lobsters for some reason -- more than I normally see. One other interesting sight was one medium sized lobster, who was retreating in front of me with the claw of another lobster firmly gripped in his own claws -- I guess I didn't realize that these guys were CANNIBALS....apparently scavengers will eat anything, even their own kind....
After 20 minutes, I made the first left turn. The second turn I made after 10 additional minutes. Shortly after making the second turn back towards shore (and after we had just passed a lobster trap/line), Mike grabbed my fin....Andrew was nowhere to be found. I was trying to keep a close eye on my buddies, who were swimming on either side of me and slightly behind....but it had been 30 seconds or so since my last "buddy check". Mike and I paused for a minute and saw no sign of Andrew's light. I gave the signal to surface (depth was about 25 feet) -- we found him waiting for us about 20 feet away once we reached the surface...everthing was fine. He had snagged the dive flag line on the lobster trap line, despite thinking he had cleared it. He had to go back and pass his line over the lobster line before proceeding, causing us to lose him.
After a quick check on our heading, we dropped back down to finish the dive. Free ascents/descents at night are EXCELLENT practice for working on your skills (although sort of a "trial by fire" if you haven't perfected them, given the reduced vis and the fact that you have a light in your hands). I did the same thing 2 weeks earlier while on a night dive with relatively poor vis with Green Manelishi up in Maine (he was using an H-valve...was practicing reg switching....went to use his back-up which he swore he had turned on....no air.....we ascended from 35 feet). On the Maine ascent, I made the mistake of trying to use my light to watch the computer while trying to manipulate my deflator hose at the same time.....not a total disaster, but certainly not graceful. Part of the problem was that to this point I hadn't really used the backlight on my Vyper much (and I still had it set to the 5 second duration position -- kind of useless for an ascent/descent). After this experience, I made sure to set it to 30 seconds.
With this longer backlight duration, my ascent was much easier, allowing me to watch the computer with only an occasional computer button push. I was also proud of my descent (always fun at night in limited vis...where the hell is the bottom?).....nice relatively horizontal "landing" 3 feet from the bottom.
After descending, we headed for shore. Nothing noteworthy to report on the way back in, although we did come across the anchor of one of the large sailboats anchored off the beach (no tangled dive flag line this time).
We emerged from the water to a bright, clear, moonlit night. Total dive time = 54 minutes. Max depth = 25 feet. Water temp = 61F at surface; 56F at depth. All in all a great dive on a beautiful night.
The participants -- Andrew, Mike and myself. I arrived at the site to find Mike and Andrew already there. We discussed our dive plans and began to gear up. As it was a full moon, there was a small crowd (3-4 other buddy groups)diving at Back Beach -- as a result, we chose to start our dive from the right side of the beach to avoid the "traffic".
Sea conditions were very calm. After gearing up, we made our way over the rocks and down to the beach. Sunset was at 7:15PM...we made it into the water at 7:55PM -- almost full darkness. As we floated in the shallows to don our fins, I turned around to see the moon just beginning to rise over the buildings of Rockport -- a very large, orange moon.....VERY COOL. On this dive, I would be navigating, Andrew was carrying the flag, and Mike was "along for the ride". My proposed plan was to navigate a narrow rectangle, starting on a due east/90 degree heading for the first "side" of the rectangle.
We swam out 100 yds or so on the surface before dropping down in 10 feet of water. I have to admit that night navigation is always an interesting experience for me. I always find it much easier to become disoriented on a night dive, for obvious reasons. I just keep repeating the "trust your gauges" mantra over and over in my head.....
We met briefly on the bottom before heading out -- visibility was about 10+ feet....about "normal" for New England shore diving. I swung around to the correct heading and off we went.
The bottom terrain at Back Beach is varied, with some sandy areas closer to shore and rockier areas farther out. I was immediately "greeted" by several small lobsters retreating in front of me with claws at the ready, a few skates and several small silver-sided fish (haddock or pollock). I set a pretty leisurely pace, allowing all of us time to pause frequently and get a closer look in all the nooks and crannies in the rocky reef. Not a whole lot of larger marine life....mainly lobsters, skates and small flounder. Andrew did run into a few small squid at the end of the dive, which Mike and I missed. Lots of "one-claw" lobsters for some reason -- more than I normally see. One other interesting sight was one medium sized lobster, who was retreating in front of me with the claw of another lobster firmly gripped in his own claws -- I guess I didn't realize that these guys were CANNIBALS....apparently scavengers will eat anything, even their own kind....
After 20 minutes, I made the first left turn. The second turn I made after 10 additional minutes. Shortly after making the second turn back towards shore (and after we had just passed a lobster trap/line), Mike grabbed my fin....Andrew was nowhere to be found. I was trying to keep a close eye on my buddies, who were swimming on either side of me and slightly behind....but it had been 30 seconds or so since my last "buddy check". Mike and I paused for a minute and saw no sign of Andrew's light. I gave the signal to surface (depth was about 25 feet) -- we found him waiting for us about 20 feet away once we reached the surface...everthing was fine. He had snagged the dive flag line on the lobster trap line, despite thinking he had cleared it. He had to go back and pass his line over the lobster line before proceeding, causing us to lose him.
After a quick check on our heading, we dropped back down to finish the dive. Free ascents/descents at night are EXCELLENT practice for working on your skills (although sort of a "trial by fire" if you haven't perfected them, given the reduced vis and the fact that you have a light in your hands). I did the same thing 2 weeks earlier while on a night dive with relatively poor vis with Green Manelishi up in Maine (he was using an H-valve...was practicing reg switching....went to use his back-up which he swore he had turned on....no air.....we ascended from 35 feet). On the Maine ascent, I made the mistake of trying to use my light to watch the computer while trying to manipulate my deflator hose at the same time.....not a total disaster, but certainly not graceful. Part of the problem was that to this point I hadn't really used the backlight on my Vyper much (and I still had it set to the 5 second duration position -- kind of useless for an ascent/descent). After this experience, I made sure to set it to 30 seconds.
With this longer backlight duration, my ascent was much easier, allowing me to watch the computer with only an occasional computer button push. I was also proud of my descent (always fun at night in limited vis...where the hell is the bottom?).....nice relatively horizontal "landing" 3 feet from the bottom.
After descending, we headed for shore. Nothing noteworthy to report on the way back in, although we did come across the anchor of one of the large sailboats anchored off the beach (no tangled dive flag line this time).
We emerged from the water to a bright, clear, moonlit night. Total dive time = 54 minutes. Max depth = 25 feet. Water temp = 61F at surface; 56F at depth. All in all a great dive on a beautiful night.
