Category: Trip Reports

Braille dive on the City of Salisbury

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I was originally scheduled to dive the Pinthis on the Gauntlet but unfortunately the winds were not cooperative at all this weekend.  It was a nice ride out but the forecast was predicting that winds were going to gust up to 25-30kts SW in the afternoon which would have made for a not-so-great boat ride back from Scituate so Heather opted to stay local and we dove the City of Salisbury which “can” at times have decent visibility.  Keyword here being….can. Dave and Tim splashed in first to set a…

Wreck of the Herbert with NADE

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I was originally scheduled to dive the Coyote (~175ft) with Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions (Gauntlet) but the offshore forecast wasn’t looking so hot with 3-4ft swells and heavy fog predicted so Heather opted to run to the wreck of the Herbert instead (~100ft) . Not a huge deal. At least with rebreathers you have nobody wasting a 150 dollar trimix fill on a 100ft dive. I was just happy to be on a boat and not blown out for a change. Since I had already packed my car for the…

Trip Report: Big Fantastic Wall (BFW) & Poling with CAD

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We decided to continue the trend of good weather and booked a Saturday morning charter with Cape Ann Divers to the Big Fantastic Wall (BFW) and the Chester Poling. Myself, Matt H., Lea H. and Sang were signed up for the charter. Visibility not as good as yesterday but still decent. It was ~20ft on the Poling in some areas.  On Big Fantastic Wall it definitely seemed less but then again I had my nose up against the wall for the entire dive so it could have been a lot…

Trip Report: Burnham Rock & Poling with CAD

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I ended up jumping on a early Friday afternoon charter with Cape Ann Divers (CAD) to Burnham Rock and the Chester Poling with my friend Matt H. and Sang.  I had not been on a dive boat since January due to weather and my rebreather was drying up since my trip to Florida in March. The water was a brisk 38f (~3.3c) on the bottom but otherwise conditions were great.  We had a little excitement on our first dive at Burnham Rock when the mooring broke right at the beginning…

My CCR Cave Diving Course with Paul Heinerth

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A little background information first.  It was a while ago that I started my “full cave” journey.  In March 2012 I took Cavern/Intro/Apprentice with German Yanez in Cozumel, Mexico.   He was a great instructor and I really enjoyed class with him but this was all on open circuit and to be perfectly honest I haven’t dove doubles frequently enough in the last two years to want to complete my full cave on open circuit.  I still dive OC but I just prefer to be on a rebreather for most dives…

London Calling: Onward to Inverness, Scotland and almost missing my flight.

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Some last minute packing for Scapa Flow forced me to switch suitcases. The zipper on my big suitcase broke completely and I was going to have to split up into multiple smaller bags. Luckily I had a friend who let me borrow one of their large suitcases. Problem solved.  I am still bringing the same amount of checked bags but thankfully I have a little more wiggle room for souvenirs and a shitty re-packing job that I usually do.  It’s amazing how hard it is to re-pack bags exactly how…

Weekend of diving on Cozumel’s East Side with Aldora Divers

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Me and Annie hopped down to Cozumel for a long Columbus Day weekend to do some diving and lionfish hunting in Cozumel with Aldora Divers.   Because it was such a short trip I didn’t bother bringing my rebreather.  Back to single-tank open circuit for me I guess. 🙁     Even still that’s one of the primary reasons I like diving with Aldora.  With access to steel HP120s and HP100s (+ nitrox) and an experienced group of divers you can get some LONG single tank dives in. For 3…

Review of DeepBlu COSMIQ dive computer

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Deepblu COSMIQ on safety stop with a ceiling (deco stop)

I wanted to write a short review of the new DeepBlu COSMIQ dive computer since there is really not a whole lot of information about this computer on the Internet. A month ago I signed up to be a DeepBlu Ambassador so that I could evaluate this dive computer. The retail price of $299 puts it at a very competitive price point compared to other dive computers with color screens on the market.   It is also pretty small, slightly larger than most Android or Apple watches.  I could see…

Trip report: World-class wreck diving in Presque Isle, MI with Shipwreck Explorers

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Molly V

I will just start by saying it’s been a really busy summer and I haven’t updated this blog as much as I had hoped but I wanted to write a trip report as I just got back from 4 days of diving in Presque Isle, Michigan.  It was some of the best and well preserved wreck diving that I’ve ever done. Seriously the diving up in Presque Isle, MI and in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is so worth the trip that I’m already thinking of skipping a warm water vacation…

New York Central 14-II & Chester Poling with Daybreaker

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Matt on Chester Poling

I had two nice dives today on the Daybreaker.  We dove the Pug and the Chester Poling since Matt was doing a helitrox class with Sang and Eric on their rebreathers.  I think John may have been tagging along for Advanced Nitrox/Deco Procedures training as well. We had surprisingly decent visibility on the New York Central 14-II which tends to have crappier visibility in the summer.   The good thing about the New York Central 14-II aka Pug wreck is that the hull is largely intact so it’s an extremely…