RandomGuy1
Contributor
So normally you wound’t think of Boston as a dive destination, or at least I never would have. The reason we ended up there is that my wife has family in Mass and she could visit family while I went diving. After a bit of research, I decided to dive with Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions out of Beverly, MA. Since I would not have a dedicated dive buddy, and had newly minted cards for advanced nitrox and deco procedures I reached out to them to see about doing a wreck class while I was there. This would accomplish two things for me. Guaranteed dive buddy’s who weren’t a liability on my first post cert decompression dives, and an introduction to the local diving conditions.
I had scheduled 4 days of diving; Sunday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday again. The rest of the week was reserved for family. The first Sunday we got blown out due to weather. We did the classroom presentation on Monday and it served as a good primer on what to expect from the local conditions. In Mass, derelict fishing gear is a real concern on some dives.
On to the diving. The following Friday, Heather Knowles and I went out on Cape Ann Charters boat The Daybreaker. We were headed out to the Chester Polling, a wreck sunk in 1977. The wreck is split apart and we were diving on the stern in about 95 fsw. Conditions were great with < 2 foot seas and about 30 feet of visibility. We did a tour of the wreck that included Heather pointing out some of the features that we discussed in the classroom portion of the class. She also took the time to demonstrate some line running skills, as that is something that I haven’t had much / any practice with. We did 40 minutes on the bottom with a bottom temp of right at 45 degrees. The stern section is mostly intact but is starting to collapse.
On Saturday, we were on The Gauntlet, which is NADE’s charter boat which they run on weekends. This day was almost canceled due to heavy fog and rolling waves. We were scheduled to dive the Romance this day, but due to the weather and a recent trip to the area by NADE where the vis was terrible, it was decided to go to the Polling again. After arriving at the Polling, I was still considering calling my dive since I wasn’t looking forward to climbing the ladder in double 108’s in these conditions. I decided to go ahead and dive though and I’m glad I did. Today we would be joined by Heather’s regular dive buddy Scott and would dive as a team of three. Dave, the other owner of NADE, would dive before us and planned to run a reel out the the Gannet, a fishing boat that was sunk a few hundred feet away from the Polling. Our job would be to retrieve the reel. After dropping in and doing a quick tour of the galley and the crews quarters, we dropped over the side of the Polling to find the reel and head out to the Gannet. After a few hundred feet swim we arrived at the rubble pile that is the Gannet. There isn’t much that is left of this wreck except for rubble and the engine. A quick survey of the site and it is my turn to pull the reel going back to the Polling. This was made more interesting by the face that the current was running this way, so I had to be fairly quick to avoid fouling the reel.
Back on the Polling it was time for me to practice running a reel. This is an area that I wanted to work on, and it was at this point where the fact that I needed that work became apparent. Indecisiveness in my wraps (which direction to wrap) and lack of keeping tension on the spool caused me some issues and I fouled my reel a few times, but they were easily resolved. After the ascent it was time to climb back on the boat. Seas were still pretty sporty, and my legs hated me for the 108’s, but I made it back on the boat without incident. The ladder on the Gauntlet is a Christmas tree style ladder with fins on, and the seas were merciful on me when climbing up.
Day 3 on the water saw glass seas and beautiful sunshine. Today were were scheduled to dive the Pinthis, which is about a 2 hour run out of Beverly harbor down past Boston. Gorgeous view of the Boston skyline on the way to and from the dive site. We arrived at the site, and Dave and I were to dive together and tie in a mooring on the bow of the Pinthis. More experience for me as this was something I had never done. Dave pretty much did all the work and was an expert at this. The Pinthis sits in 105 fsw and is turtled. Heading down to the wreck we encounter a layer of bad vis that had me worried for a moment. The idea of diving a wreck that is unknown to me, in less that 5 feet of vis in 105 fsw had me ready to call the dive. Thankfully once we got below about 60 feet the visibility opened up to about 35-40 feet. Dave got the mooring tied in in record time and we were off to explore this incredible wreck. Long swim throughs with lots of interesting nooks and crannies are what this dive was all about. We spent about 40 minutes exploring the wreck with Dave pointing out different features of the wreck to me. All said and done, this was my favorite dive of the weekend.
I can’t say enough good things about NADE and this dive trip. Everyone on the boat was extremely friendly, and Dave and Heather run a tight ship. I will definitely use them in the future on trips to the area. Anyone who has an interest in diving the cold waters around Boston would be doing themselves a favor in contacting them.
I had scheduled 4 days of diving; Sunday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday again. The rest of the week was reserved for family. The first Sunday we got blown out due to weather. We did the classroom presentation on Monday and it served as a good primer on what to expect from the local conditions. In Mass, derelict fishing gear is a real concern on some dives.
On to the diving. The following Friday, Heather Knowles and I went out on Cape Ann Charters boat The Daybreaker. We were headed out to the Chester Polling, a wreck sunk in 1977. The wreck is split apart and we were diving on the stern in about 95 fsw. Conditions were great with < 2 foot seas and about 30 feet of visibility. We did a tour of the wreck that included Heather pointing out some of the features that we discussed in the classroom portion of the class. She also took the time to demonstrate some line running skills, as that is something that I haven’t had much / any practice with. We did 40 minutes on the bottom with a bottom temp of right at 45 degrees. The stern section is mostly intact but is starting to collapse.
On Saturday, we were on The Gauntlet, which is NADE’s charter boat which they run on weekends. This day was almost canceled due to heavy fog and rolling waves. We were scheduled to dive the Romance this day, but due to the weather and a recent trip to the area by NADE where the vis was terrible, it was decided to go to the Polling again. After arriving at the Polling, I was still considering calling my dive since I wasn’t looking forward to climbing the ladder in double 108’s in these conditions. I decided to go ahead and dive though and I’m glad I did. Today we would be joined by Heather’s regular dive buddy Scott and would dive as a team of three. Dave, the other owner of NADE, would dive before us and planned to run a reel out the the Gannet, a fishing boat that was sunk a few hundred feet away from the Polling. Our job would be to retrieve the reel. After dropping in and doing a quick tour of the galley and the crews quarters, we dropped over the side of the Polling to find the reel and head out to the Gannet. After a few hundred feet swim we arrived at the rubble pile that is the Gannet. There isn’t much that is left of this wreck except for rubble and the engine. A quick survey of the site and it is my turn to pull the reel going back to the Polling. This was made more interesting by the face that the current was running this way, so I had to be fairly quick to avoid fouling the reel.
Back on the Polling it was time for me to practice running a reel. This is an area that I wanted to work on, and it was at this point where the fact that I needed that work became apparent. Indecisiveness in my wraps (which direction to wrap) and lack of keeping tension on the spool caused me some issues and I fouled my reel a few times, but they were easily resolved. After the ascent it was time to climb back on the boat. Seas were still pretty sporty, and my legs hated me for the 108’s, but I made it back on the boat without incident. The ladder on the Gauntlet is a Christmas tree style ladder with fins on, and the seas were merciful on me when climbing up.
Day 3 on the water saw glass seas and beautiful sunshine. Today were were scheduled to dive the Pinthis, which is about a 2 hour run out of Beverly harbor down past Boston. Gorgeous view of the Boston skyline on the way to and from the dive site. We arrived at the site, and Dave and I were to dive together and tie in a mooring on the bow of the Pinthis. More experience for me as this was something I had never done. Dave pretty much did all the work and was an expert at this. The Pinthis sits in 105 fsw and is turtled. Heading down to the wreck we encounter a layer of bad vis that had me worried for a moment. The idea of diving a wreck that is unknown to me, in less that 5 feet of vis in 105 fsw had me ready to call the dive. Thankfully once we got below about 60 feet the visibility opened up to about 35-40 feet. Dave got the mooring tied in in record time and we were off to explore this incredible wreck. Long swim throughs with lots of interesting nooks and crannies are what this dive was all about. We spent about 40 minutes exploring the wreck with Dave pointing out different features of the wreck to me. All said and done, this was my favorite dive of the weekend.
I can’t say enough good things about NADE and this dive trip. Everyone on the boat was extremely friendly, and Dave and Heather run a tight ship. I will definitely use them in the future on trips to the area. Anyone who has an interest in diving the cold waters around Boston would be doing themselves a favor in contacting them.
