Category: Nudibranchs

Dive #3 on new rebreather at Pierce Island

macado

I wanted to get another dive in on the rebreather this weekend after making some adjustments however the thought of driving down to Hathaway’s on the Cape or driving 7 hours (roundtrip) up to Vermont did not really appeal to me so I opted to check the tides for Peirce Island in Portsmouth, NH. Peirce Island Peirce Island is a dive site on the Piscataqua River which a 12-mile-long (19 km) tidal river forming the boundary New Hampshire and Maine. Due to the strong currents and tidal flow in the river…

Nudibranchs and Beer: Shore diving Folly Cove & Back Beach

macado

I decided to get some open circuit “practice” in on Sunday and Monday and left the rebreather at home. Me and Annie dove Folly Cove on Sunday while Lewis joined us on Monday (Patriot’s Day) at Back Beach.  As much as I hate shore diving I didn’t really want to pay for another two days of charter fees.  It was also pretty windy so I didn’t want to end up getting blown out and then go to a less than optimal dive site.  4 days of diving in row in…

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

macado

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

macado

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…

Diving Canoe Beach in Nahant, MA

macado

This morning I got a nice early dive in before work with a few friends at Canoe Beach in Nahant, MA.     Canoe Beach is one of my old favorite haunts;  It’s a fairly shallow dive with an easy entry and has some very nice underwater topography compared to most shore dives in New England.    A prominent attraction is a rock formation called the “chimneys” which you can enter from the right side and literally go through them and come out the top.  There is also another small…

Easter Dive at Nubble Light

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diving nubble light

Not too much to report for the last few weeks since my weekends and weeknights have been busy studying for the USCG captain’s course. Thankfully on Sunday I got a break from class because of the Easter holiday and decided to dive Nubble Light (aka Cape Neddick Light). I’m not a huge fan of chocolate bunnies, color-dyed chicken eggs or zombie resurrected carpenters so I decided to go diving instead.  Diving Nubble Light is always great without the crowds, especially in the winter when the parking lot is not usually completely…

Do you even work? Peirce Island double dip

macado

Just how many times can one dive the same dive site before you get bored?  Lots.   It’s no secret that I’ve been diving Peirce Island practically every other weekend this winter.   Unfortunately with most dive charters getting blown out or not enough people to run, boat diving can be challenging in New England winters.   Since one of my goals this year was so do more macro photography and practice with my camera I’ve been relegated to shore diving and Peirce Island provides endless subjects to photograph and is very…

Frozen dog shit, mud & Peirce Island nudibranchs

macado

The weather in Boston this weekend rivaled the arctic with air temperatures of -9F (-22C) and with strong winds making it feel closer to almost -20F (-28C!).   Not a great weekend for diving as you might imagine but few of us decided to brave it anyway and go diving on Monday (President’s Day) since it was holiday.  Unfortunately the air temperature on Monday wasn’t that much better than Saturday or Sunday; It was around 14F (-10c) when we entered the water if I remember but I think it finally…

Diving Peirce Island & nudibranchs

macado

One of my favorite shore dives in New England is a site in Portsmouth, New Hampshire called Peirce Island on the Piscataqua River.  The Piscataqua River is technically not a river at all but a tidal estuary that has some of the fastest moving currents in the United States (around 4 knots 7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph according to Wikipedia) at it’s full force. As such this dive site can only be dove at slack tide after carefully evaluating currents.  You typically can only do one dive here before the currents are too strong.…