Goosefish on the wreck of Patriot in Stellwagen Bank

Wreck of F/V Patriot

The trend of good weather continued on Sunday for our charter out to the wreck of the Patriot.  East Coast Divers chartered the boat to dive the wreck of the F/V Patriot in Stellwagen Bank. The Patriot was a 62ft steel-hulled western rig dragger that sank on January 3 2009 with the loss of her two crew members. Today she sits in approximately 100ft of water in Stellwagen Bank off the coast of Massachusetts.  A Coast Guard investigation found the cause of sinking to be the result of a rapid…

Braille dive on the City of Salisbury

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

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: Burnham Rock & Poling with CAD

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…

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

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…

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…

New York Central 14-II & Chester Poling with Daybreaker

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…

Brenton Reef Lightship (LV39) or bust with Daybreaker..

I had a great dive today on the Brenton Reef Lightship (LV39). Matt and Marissa nailed the shotline drop and we were right on it. Since Matt was having some slight technical difficulties I decided to join Josh and Nate on their dive.  Diving with them is always great because that means you’re almost guarantied entertainment and some good pictures especially with Nate 🙂  It’s like having your own personal photographer. Visibility was at least 25ft in some spots judging from horizontal distance from strobes. Brenton Reef Lightship (LV39) Max…

Of wrecks, ledges and botched mooring jobs: City of Salisbury, Jeffrey’s Ledge and the Nina T clusterfuck

I started the weekend a little early by taking a half day on Friday to crew.  We were scheduled to dive Graves Light and the City of Salisbury wreck with a good group of divers from Maine that chartered the boat.    The weather was perfect and I believe this was the first charter that I’ve worked this season that we had a majority of people in wetsuits.  **Brr** Since I’m a “warm water wimp” I stuck to my drysuit. Capt. Chris was running the boat with me as crew…

A weekend of tech diving: From Alma Holmes to the USS Bass

I had a great weekend of tech diving though I didn’t take a camera or GoPro since I just figured I would enjoy the dives without looking at life through a viewfinder.  The water temperatures are finally beginning to warm up into the 50s signaling to me that at least summer is finally here. On Saturday I went out with the Gauntlet (North Atlantic Dive Expeditions). It was literally a last minute split second decision since my car was loaded from the night before and I wanted to dive. I…