Diving Peirce Island Wall

Diving Peirce Island

The Return of Diving Peirce Island The weather and tides finally cooperated enough for me to try diving Peirce Island again but this time we wanted to enter at the original entry point.  From my research a couple weeks ago I knew it would be about a 10 minute walk in full SCUBA gear to get to the old entry point for Peirce Island.   This area is unique because there is wall that drops off to ~70ft. The entire wall / rock face is covered in frilled anemones, making it…

Great Lakes Diving: A week of diving in Presque Isle & Whitefish Point

SS Comet

I wanted to do a quick recap of my Great Lakes diving trip to Presque Isle (Lake Huron) and Whitefish Point (Lake Superior).  This was my 2nd time diving up in this area. I went last year in July for the first time with my friend Shawn and was blown away by the diving up here.  This year we planned to do 4 days in Presque Isle, MI (Lake Huron) and 3 days in Whitefish Point (Lake Superior). What can I say? First of all, it was truly awesome diving with…

Morning and afternoon charters aboard Daybreaker

Daybreaker

I was scheduled to crew for both the morning and afternoon charters this Saturday aboard the Daybreaker with Matt.    The morning charter was scheduled to go to the Big Fantastic Wall (BFW) and Diver’s Choice and the afternoon charter was scheduled to go to Halfway Rock and then back to Big Fantastic Wall (BFW) again. On the morning charter we had a full boat combined with an advanced nitrox/deco procedures class being taught in sidemount. Knowing full well the amount of gear and tanks that typically ends up on…

Fantastic visibility on wreck of Pinthis

Tied into the Pinthis, seas were glass

I had nothing on my schedule for Sunday and no definitive dive plans. This is one of those rare times when it pays off to keep your last minute options open. I was talking to Heather about something unrelated and she mentioned she had a last minute cancellation on her Sunday trip to the Pinthis.   Of course I immediately jumped on the spot. The Pinthis is one of my favorite New England wreck dives. The Pinthis was a steel coastal oil tanker that that collided with the steamer Fairfax…

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

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…

Trip Report: Halfway Rock & Brace Cove with Cape Ann Divers

Dave on Cape Ann Diver II

On Sunday I went out with Sang on an afternoon charter with Cape Ann Divers.   Nate, Josh and a few other acquaintances were also scheduled on the same charter.  We had a good group of divers on board. We were originally scheduled to go to the New York Central 14-2 (Pug) but unfortunately the wind was howling out of the west at something like 20-25kts.  Not very fun although the seas we’re too bad at all. We quickly nixed going to the Pug and Capt. Steve decided to tuck behind…

Diving the wreck of Alma E.A. Holmes

Wreck of Alma E.A. Holmes

It was a beautiful March day for diving. We finally had a nice break in bad New England weather.  Heather emailed everyone the night before reminding us that departure times had changed back to the summer schedule and that we were going to try to dive the Alma E.A. Holmes. I had almost forgotten that I had booked a trip on the the Gauntlet which is a charter boat run by North Atlantic Dive Expeditions. They cater to mostly technical divers and run the boat year round. I believe this…

Trip Report: Wreck of the Northern Light & Duane with Horizon Divers

Stern of Northern Light

Arrived at Horizon Divers in the morning at 8am to check-in for Northern Light dive and grab my rental tanks.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend Doug at dive shop; He was completing his open circuit trimix class with Dan at Horizon Divers.  Since I was unfamiliar with this wreck I would be tagging along with his group while they did their class. As such it was a shorter runtime. We planned a 25 minute or so bottom time with a total runtime of around 65 minutes due some gas constraints…

Why is my skin burning when I put my clothes on? Spilled sorb in suitcase

rEvo in airport

I made it to Key Largo, Florida in mostly one piece with one small exception, one of the containers of Sofnolime (sorb) that I packed had somehow cracked and split open spilling sorb all over most of my clothes and towel that I used to pack them.  Not a huge issue but I had to mostly dump a couple pounds of sorb out of my suitcase and clean off all the dust from my clothing. Since I was flying Southwest I had two checked bags for free. I packed a…

Adding more video lights to your GoPro tray

I’ve been using a Snake River Prototyping Tray with my GoPro tray setup for the last few years and it has worked pretty well however I found myself wanting more light coverage without necessarily spending the money on more expensive lights. Their boomerang tray is beautifully constructed and the bundle they sell comes with two loc-line 1/2″ arms and light mounts.   So far I’ve found that this setup has worked well enough in warm water with good visibility. I’ve even had acceptable to good results diving in New England…