I actually wrote a huge post but my entire draft did not save so I guess I’m fucking writing this entire post all over again. It’s honestly been a real struggle to want to jump back into sub-40 degree water after diving in Mexico. A few weeks ago during my first foray back into New England diving I went up to West Rutland where I was greeted with 39 degrees (4c), less than 4-5ft of visibility, a leaky drysuit boot and ripped dry glove. Welcome to New England diving.. 🙁
Two weeks ago I managed to jump out on a Gauntlet charter and dive the Chester Poling. Conditions were much better. A balmy 45 degrees and 10-15ft of visibility. The wreck is really starting to deteriorate, tons of new holes on the port and starboard sides and new openings in the deck. It makes it really easy to go in and out of the wreck on the port and starboard sides now.
Unfortunately with the ocean forecast looking grim again I opted to drive up to Alexandria Bay, New York for the prospect of good visibility and dive conditions. This time of the year is usually prime visibility provided it has not rained heavily. I drove up Thursday night after work so I could dive Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Blue Foot Diving (Andrew Driver) to make a longer weekend out of it.
My buddy John had the weekend off so he planned on joining me. On Friday I was solo which was great, sometimes it’s just really nice to just be able to do your own thing without having to keep track or watch/worry anyone else. I can get geared up and dive at my own pace. Without turning this into a fierce political or huge philosophical debate I always enjoy solo diving. It’s relaxing to me. Ultimately I do enjoy diving with reliable and competent buddies but that is sometimes not always an option. If I always had to depend on a buddy then I would not dive nearly as much as I do.
We dove the wreck of the A.E. Vickery. The conditions were excellent. 60-70ft+ of visibility with bright sunny skies. I scootered around the wreck and upstream for about 75 minutes until I had enough. The water temperature was 46-47 degrees. It doesn’t seem like much but it’s amazing how much the difference between 40 degrees and 46 degrees water is. Once you hit mid-40s things become much more comfortable and manageable. No issues at all with the exception of a still leaky drysuit boot and a neck seal that is just about ready to be retired. All in all, it was good shakedown dive. It’s really valuable to be able to verify everything is in working order (drysuit, heater, rebreather, lights, scooter) before jumping on the Jodrey.
On Saturday John arrived and my friend Shannon from across the river in Canada joined us for the dive. I made the ultimate sacrifice and opted to swim since John’s scooter was having technical issues and Shannon was DPV-less. In reality I need the exercise and swimming in current is good practice. DPVs can often mask trim and buoyancy issues. We opted to go back to the Vickery again since Shannon dove the Keystorm and the America the previous week. To be honest I really find the Keystorm boring. All 3 wrecks are a bit monotonous but I enjoy the Vickery much more. The Vickery always reminds me of a ghost pirate ship. I enjoy scootering or swimming up to the bow and drifting back to the stern. I always forget how annoying the Vickery is on a CCR because of the depth changes between the bow and the stern but it is a very good shakedown dive before the Jodrey.
John thought the current was pretty strong but truthfully I’ve had way more current on the Vickery before. We had the same conditions as Friday although I think the visibility was slightly less because we had overcast/cloudy skies instead of sunny weather. I would say the visibility was 50-60-ft as opposed to the 60-70ft+ yesterday but it’s all purely subjective. Ask 5 divers what the visibility and conditions were you will get 5 completely different answers.
To put things in perspective the A.E. Vickery was a wooden three-masted schooner built in 1861. It was 136ft long with a beam of 26.2ft. I could see mid-ship from the bow or the stern and I could easily see completely across the beam. Hence my estimate of ~60-70ft of visibility.
Sadly my drysuit issues continued on Saturday with a more leaky boot than before and a neck seal that is really on it’s last legs. I managed to aquaseal the beginning of a small tear/rip in my neck seal on Saturday night. Unfortunately this suit has a glued-in latex neck seal and it did not arrive in time for me to replace. I do have a backup drysuit in the truck however the zipper on that suit (although dry) is pretty questionable so I opted continue diving my current suit.
On Sunday everyone unfortunately left so it was only John and I on the charter. Andrew was gracious enough to let me borrow an Apollo Bioseal to help with my neck issues. For those that have never used one Apollo Bioseals are a great solution when you have a a neck seal or wrist seal that is very loose. I also used the old plastic grocery bag trick in right drysuit boot to keep my socks from getting completely socked.
The weather on Sunday kind of sucked. It was a raw and rainy day with completely overcast skies. Thankfully the Jodrey is quite literally only a 5 minute boat ride from the marina where Andrew keeps his boat. We quickly geared up into our drysuits in the pouring rain before heading over the the Jodrey.
The dive itself was uneventful but we had very good conditions. The visibility was about 50-60ft. We were hoping for more ambient light on the boat but the dark skies and rain did not help however the stern definitely had more ambient light because it’s shallower.
John and I scootered to the stern and took some video of the prop. We scootered along the outside port-side gunnel all the way to the stern. On the way back to the bow we stayed tucked inside the port railing as much as possible to avoid the current. We arrived back at the bow section at approximately 38 minutes and begin our ascent up the wall at 40 minutes. Our total runtime was 100 minutes. Interesting enough, both of my computers also read 48 degrees on the bottom.
I was also almost completely dry with the exception of a slightly wet right foot thanks to my aquaseal neck patch and Andrew’s Apollo neck bioseal.
It was a great weekend of diving and despite my complaints of having to drive 7 hours each way. It was totally worth it for good conditions. Best of all, no having to rinse salt water off my gear. Hopefully conditions hold like this for a while. I’d like to get back up to Jodrey one more time this spring while visibility is good.
Nice report, thank you for sharing