Category: Trip Reports

Goosefish on the wreck of Patriot in Stellwagen Bank

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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…

Wreck of the Northern Voyager

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Mooring on Northern Voyager

The weather looked much better on Saturday but the winds were “predicted” to be a little dicey on Saturday morning so instead of motoring out to the wreck of the Coyote we opted to dive the wreck of Northern Voyager which sits behind Thatcher Island and is a much closer run. Thankfully the weather and the marine forecast were completely wrong. There was not a ripple in Lake Atlantic this morning.   It was an absolutely fantastic morning. The Northern Voyager was 144ft factory fishing ship that sunk in 180′…

Morning and afternoon charters aboard Daybreaker

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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

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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…

2 Hour 15 Minute Shore Dive at Old Garden Beach

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rEvo rebreathers at Old Garden Beach

Because the marine forecast called for high winds 20-25kts SW with gusts up to 30kts Matt decided to bag the charters for Saturday. Instead I met up with Brie and Scott on their rebreathers to do a nice long shore dive at Old Garden Beach.  Me and Matt were originally supposed to drive the Daybreaker down to Scituate to dive the Pinthis but that would have not been a fun ride in a 10kt boat in those conditions. In fact it would have been long and miserable. Anyway, not wanting to…

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…