Category: Wreck Diving

Trip Report: Wreck of Patriot with Gauntlet (Stellwagen Bank)

macado

My gear is barely dry and rinsed from two weeks of Great Lakes diving but I had almost forgot that Annie and I were scheduled for a Gauntlet charter this Sunday on the wreck of F/V Patriot which sits in about 105′ of water in NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Massachusetts. If I can be completely honest the F/V Patriot is kind of a small and uninteresting shipwreck. By that I mean it’s not a historical, very large or unique wreck. It is a 60′ modern…

Trip Report: Roy A. Jodrey on Dec 11-12

macado

I decided to get one last trip on the wreck of the Roy A. Jodrey before the end of the season. “End of the season” is of course a bit of a misnomer. There is still plenty of diving to be done in the St Lawrence river in the winter but most charter boats are out of the water by mid-December and the ice starts to become an issue by February. If you get really desperate you can shore dive at the Islander or Bonnie Castle but you may have…

U853 with Canned Air Dive Charters

macado

It just so happens that Tom let me know that Red from Giant Stride Dive Shop was putting together one last U853 charter of the season.  I jumped on it since it was Capt Wayne’s last charter of season before he pulls his boat out and I haven’t been on the U853 at all this year. I awoke at 4am to do the drive from Boston to Wakefield, RI for a 6:15am load time.  It was me, Tom, Sang, Brie, and a couple guys from Virginia Beach that drove down.  Red…

Trip Report: Wreck of the Baleen with Daybreaker

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Wreck of Baleen

I crewed on both the morning and afternoon charters this Saturday for Matt.  On the morning charter we went to Halfway Rock and Southeast Breakers with a group from East Coast Divers. On the afternoon charter we made it out to the wreck of the Baleen. In the morning we had a bit of an incoming swell but otherwise topside conditions were great. Divers reported approximately 10-20ft of visibility. They said it varied depending on depth.  We spotted harbor seals on the surface and a whale off in the distance.…

Trip Report: F/V Patriot Wreck with Cape Ann Charters (Daybreaker)

macado
F/V Patriot

Quick Trip Report We managed to sneak out and get two great dives in this morning on the F/V Patriot in Stellwagen Bank.   East Coast Divers had booked a full charter and we had great group of divers on-board the Daybreaker. Managing to get out to Stellwagen Bank in the fall is always a risk especially in October but nevertheless we had good conditions on the way out.  Flat calm seas and very little swell. Unfortunately things picked up a bit (as the marine forecast predicted) in the afternoon as…

Trip Report: St. Lawrence River with Blue Foot Diving

macado

EDIT: This blog post is about a month after the trip. I finally got around to posting a trip report so it’s missing a bunch of details. I decided to head up to the St. Lawrence River for a long weekend of “warm” fresh water diving with a group of friends.    For those who aren’t in the know, diving in the St Lawrence River is often called the “Caribbean of the North.”  The warm top layer of water from Lake Ontario feeds into the St Lawrence River Seaway, combined…

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

macado
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…

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…

Braille dive on the City of Salisbury

macado

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

macado

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…