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 fishing vessel that sank in 1997 with the unfortunate loss of two lives. It’s a tragic story that reminds us the weather and seas can be unforgiving and that not every fisherman makes it home. The Fisherman’s Memorial in Gloucester is a stark reminder of this fact.
A few years earlier (2012) the vessel even moved with winter storms. We actually “lost” it for half a season until it’s new location was found about 900ft away from it’s original coordinates. It’s finally buried and dug deep enough into the bottom sand that it probably isn’t going anywhere until some large scallop dragger damages the wreck about a thousands beyond what any diver can manage. Because we all know that has NEVER happened in Stellwagen Bank..
If you haven’t guessed I’m not very sympathetic to NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary. In the past they have purposely tried to obfuscate the location of several shipwrecks under the false pretenses that divers would ruin and pillage these wrecks. Ironically the wreck of the North Star was damaged beyond all recognition by a scallop dragger, not divers. Lots of wrecks in Stellwagen show damage from ghost fishing nets or draggers.
Anyway, back to the Patriot. It’s not the biggest or most interesting wreck but then again that is not the reason you go to Stellwagen Bank. One typically goes to Stellwagen Bank for the sheer variety of marine life you can encounter.
The diving in Stellwagen Bank can be absolutely fantastic. Since the bank is largely a sandy bottom far offshore the visibility can be exceptional by New England standards. By that I mean 40ft+ with ambient light on the bottom.
You can see everything from humpback whales on diver (it’s happened multiple times), dolphins, mola molas, schools of hundreds of spiny dogfish, and carpets of thousands of sculpin and hake. It doesn’t stop there. Large 15-20lb lobsters are not uncommon to see nor are multiple wolf fish, goosefish or even large bait balls of sand lance on every dive.
Anyway, that’s why you go to Stellwagen Bank. Epic chance encounters with marine life and usually good visibility.
We motored out to the wreck with pretty flat, calm seas and no wind. Unfortunately we were heavily fogged in for most of the ride out to the dive site which meant driving by instrument and carefully watching the radar. Thankfully the fog did let up a little bit when we got to the dive site but it would not have been a great day for the whale watch boats.
The dive itself was good; Not great but still fun nevertheless. We were lucky to have about 30-35ft of visibility on the bottom and no current. Because of the fog and overcast it was not very bright on the bottom.
I didn’t have time to re-pack my scrubber or fill rebreather tanks so I decided to dive my trusty LP85 doubles. To be honest LP85s doubles are my favorite tanks. Sometimes open circuit is just easier than building or diving a rebreathers. In the past 3-4 years I have found myself diving open circuit more and more, especially for 100ft dives or shallower. There is something to be said about simplicity.
Not too much new to report on the wreck. The dead seal that was caught in the net earlier this year has finally been eaten and/or completely decomposed. All that is left of the seal is it’s skull. Interesting enough I’ve seen a lot more cod this year on the wreck than I have seen in a long time. Maybe cod is making a come back? One can only hope. Despite that it’s still about 90% the amount of cod we used to see on the wreck in previous years. No schools of dogfish this trip but there were 2 lone dogfish circling the wreck out in the sand.
This is a picture of the seal from last month. 
