Category: Rebreather

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

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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…

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

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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…

Weekend report (CAD and Gauntlet)

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Last weekend I decided to forgo the camera and GoPro and just do a few days of diving.   With the wind and rain for most of the week I wasn’t really predicting good visibility. On Saturday I went out with Cape Ann Divers.  We dove the Burnham Rock and then decided to dive the Poling on the way back in.  A lot of regulars were on the boat, including a group from the Metrowest Dive Club. Great charter.  Conditions at Burnham Rock were surprisingly good. We had about 20-25ft of…

Diving the wreck of the SS Romance

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On Saturday we had great weather and managed to dive the wreck of S.S. Romance.   The S.S. Romance was a passenger steamship that sank in September 9, 1936 approximately a mile north of Graves Light after she was rammed by the vessel S.S. New York in heavy fog. Miraculously all aboard were saved thanks to the quick thinking and professionalism of the captains and crew of both vessels: Captain Adelbert Wickins of the Romance, and Captain Roland Litchfield of the New York (source). Today the S.S. Romance sits in approximately 80′…

Diving the wreck of Alma E.A. Holmes

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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: USCGC Duane & Molasses Reef with Rainbow Reef

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So I had been having multiple conversations back and forth with the Rainbow Reef staff about whether or not they could rent me rebreather cylinders and a bailout bottle.  I even tried using words like “small tanks” and “pony bottles” to no avail. Unfortunately I couldn’t get anywhere with them.  It was a little disappointing since my other interactions with the staff and experience on the boat was fine so I don’t want to paint them in a bad light but just give a little constructive criticism. The email response…

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

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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

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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…

Caustic kitty litter: Bringing your rebreather to Cozumel redux

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I decided to bring my rebreather down to Cozumel again since I was going to be there a month and wanted to get some deeper dives in. You can see my August trip report for more thorough information. As per usual I brought my rebreather on the plane as carry-on. I dive a rEvo II Mini which is about as travel friendly as any 45lb rebreather can be. After removing the tanks and stand I wrapped the entire unit in a grill cover to make unit look like a backpack…

Bringing your rebreather to Cozumel

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As someone who just recently switched to a rebreather this year I had not had the opportunity to fly on a plane with mine yet although I’ve taken it on plenty of other trips that involved driving. Nevertheless I decided to bring my rebreather down to Cozumel for this trip to see how much of a pain it would be since I frequently visit Cozumel 4-5 times a year. I wanted to see if it is worth lugging down for most trips. This will be a long post so I…