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

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…

Fantastic visibility on wreck of Pinthis

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…

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…

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…

Weekend report (CAD and Gauntlet)

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 Alma E.A. Holmes

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…