DIVING GOOSEBERRY ISLAND TODAY!

[AfterDark]

My wife and I are going to paddle our yaks to GB this AM and do some snorkeling; then I'll make a solo scuba dive at slack. The conditions I think will be near perfect. No storms off shore, incoming tide, light WNW winds shifting to SW in the PM (that shift is not good).

The East side where the arches are and where we will snorkeling in the shallows will be sheltered from the WNW winds. No storms off shore and light winds means no to light swells.
We need to find a spot where we can beach the yaks and suit up. We'll then anchor the yaks just off the "beach" with a dive flag mounted on one. A hot sunny day perfect for being in the water. There will be a very happy (hopefully) report to follow.

 

[AfterDark]

No joy that day The wind picked up and shifted early so conditions were not very good. We almost lost the yaks because they were not brought out of the water enough. I had to swim out to the middle of the cove and bring the yaks back to shore. I lost a weight in 3’ of water. The surge was enough to notice and the vis varied from 8’ to 1’. The one good event was hooking up with CT-Rich and his newly certified daughter we made a Helen Keller dive around Green Bridge, after my wife and snorkeled around the cove a while. The water was unusually cold especially at 25-30FSW.

This Sat looks good and I will be diving the Archers and Castle Hill with the Rebel Divers Club. A day of boat diving my 2 favorite dive sites in New England! So again hopefully a happy report will follow.

 

[AfterDark]

Dive 2056 8-29-16 Castle Hill Newport RI

Sunny, clear, light north winds, light boat traffic. Cpt. Phil found a nice sheltered spot in the cove just south of the USCG cove and Steve dropped anchor. Kevin an old bold diver that hadn’t dived in 5-6 years hooked up with me for both dives. Kevin was trained 79-80 and dived here in NE for most of his diving. Doing a lot of wreck diving and penetrations when everyone was still learning how and how not. I dived with him long ago and didn’t have any second thoughts about diving with him after a lapse. I wasn’t disappointed he was a trouble free buddy.

We back rolled into 70F surface water that had about 8-10’ vis. We started out towards the small point just south of the boat but the more we traveled the stronger the current pushing us got. I’ve been in the current there at the wrong time and didn’t want to try my luck again at this late age and got Kevin to turn around into the current without him understanding why. We nav’ed north back to the anchors where there was no current; we continued north where we encountered current against us at 20fsw. The bottom there slopes down to 200FSW so a drop of 11’ to 31FSW brought us to a current going north; we drifted with that until the psi turn around and rose to 20FSw where we had no current for a minute then a slow current pushed us south back towards the boat. After finding the anchors again we still had air left so we made loops coming back to the anchors until I hit 600psi most of the dive was a SS so we followed the anchor line up non-stop and got back in the boat. We didn’t see any big fish just a lot of small fish. One lobster was spotted but was too small. The usual anemones, sea stars, crabs, and other smaller critters where everywhere doing what they do. Max depth 31FSW bot time 51min bot temp 64F. I think instead of turning we should have dropped down some to see if the current would change direction. However I sit here safe, sound and dry with 20/20 hindsight instead of having had to manage an express trip to Brenton Reef!



Dive 2057 8-29-16- Castle Hill Newport RI. After lunch and a long SI we didn’t need but enjoyed, we geared up and rolled over the side. We headed south towards the point again; this time we had to crawl along the bottom until we got to the point. The current slacked a bit there but was still hard to kick against so we dropped down the slope to 65fsw here the current was easy to swim against and the vis opened up to about 15'. This is a beautiful wall dive. It is one ledge stacked on top of another on top of another……and it is covered with life. A night dive here is a sight to behold but even during the day it can mesmerize me, we kept going south until I hit my TA psi. We rose to 30fsw drifted north until we felt the current speed up, we came up to 20FSW found the anchors waited for our PDC’s to clear and surfaced. Max depth 65 bot 49min bot temp 60F.

Note: We didn’t go to the Arches due to electronics failure on the boat. Two dives at Castle Hill ain't bad!

 

[AfterDark]

Dive 2058 8-8-16 Kings Beach Newport Sunny calm day winds nw changed to sw after noon. Attempted to dive Price’s Neck .3 of a mile E of Kings Beach. Paddled the yak there but couldn’t find a spot to beach the yak to gear up. Didn’t want the 1st time yak diving to end bad with lost gear and who knows what so I went back to Kings beach and did a shore dive. The diving at PN looked good. I was in about 8’ of water and could see the bottom from my seat in the yak, the vis must have been good.

The shore dive was 53 mins bot time max depth of 30FSW in 10’ vis water 70F surface temp and 65F bottom temp. Lots of small fish, a big school of Pogies swimming in sync, small stripers and Togs, small jellyfish. No tropicals however.

Anybody with a boat want to dive Price's Neck with me?

 

[CT-Rich]

Last time I was I was at Kings Beach, I've made it out most of the way to Price Neck. The visibility once I got past the rock was great easily 15 feet. Not really sure how close I came, because I didn't do a pop up. But I imagine I was pretty close.

 

[AfterDark]

Rich I’ve taken 6 days off, some those days are predicted to have NE, NNE, or N winds which makes the West side of the point sheltered. Those days are dedicated to diving Price’s Neck. The days are: 8-29 / 8-30 / 9-6 / 9-7 / 9-8 / 9-9 if you can get free any of those days (rain or shine by the way) you are welcome to accompany me. I will dive Prices Neck at least once this year!

 

[AfterDark]

Dive 2059 8-27-16 Price’s neck Newport RI- First dive from a yak. A beautiful sunny day, light ENE winds, almost flat calm, no white caps, small rollers, a perfect day! Saw plenty of divers some were speros on yaks others shore diving. Got the yak loaded and me geared up; launched the yak and after a short paddle I was floating in front of the concrete abutment that was the base for the gun emplacements. After about 15 min. to finish gearing up and anchoring the yak I slipped off the yak and into 70F clear New England water. The “AfterDark roll” works great to remove the kit from the yak. Got my kit on, checked that everything was secured, rolled the yak back upright.

The water was about 10’ deep where I anchored; the bottom was visible from my seat in the yak. The vis was easily 15’ until going pass 20fsw where it was reduced to about 8’. Max depth I found was 30FSW this was west of the point. The surge was surprisingly strong so I didn’t go to the outside of the point figuring the vis would be worse there; the depth at the point I would guess may go to 40FSW. The rollers picked up a little during the dive and the surge got stronger especially in the shallows where I looked in vain for 20MM or 40MM shells. The bottom is gorgeous, huge rocks form what is almost a wall running parallel to the point, that is N > S, swimming in a straight line was very difficult unless one wanted to get within a few feet of the surface and then go back down. I did a lot of zig zagging. There were carpets of loose seaweed covering the bottom in spots, mostly in the shallows, that moved with the motion of the surge. Fish were everywhere, small fish, larger fish, togs, stripers, scup, black sea bass, cunners, small fish that looked native, nothing that looked tropical. After 70 mins and a max depth of 30 FSW I decided to end the dive with 900psi remaining. I tried the “AfterDark roll” to get the kit back in the well, much to my disappointment I couldn’t get it to work. The problem was when I tried to get the line in place the kit would float out from underneath the yak. I need a third hand (or a buddy) to hold the kit in place; looks like another learning trip to Beach Pond is in the works. I think if I put the lines thru the holes in the sides of my B/P I may be able to use one hand to set the lines holding the kit with the other; we’ll see. After 3 attempts to get the damned kit in the yak upright I finally did it and didn’t fall out this time! I headed back letting the wind take me back paddling just enough to keep the yak straight.

All in all it was a nice dive in a place I’ve never dived before on a rare day from a kayak for the 1st time. Now who says an old sea dog can’t learn new tricks! That reminds me, I think a sidemount kit would work really well from a yak.