CT-Rich
Contributor
I was diving in Newport today. I had misread the tide tables and showed up near dead low at Green Bridge. I surface swam out to just where the channel opens out and submerged in 15fsw. Headed south until I reached sand and then headed west until I hit my turn around pressure. When I came to breaks in the rocks, I kept goin across open sand until I hit more rocks. Max depth was around 34 fsw. Visibility started out a disappointing 5' at first, but as I got farther away from the channel, it opened up to a respectable 10'+
One of my objectives was to see if I came across any tropicals. They are usually around this time of year, normally close to shore where the water is protected and warm. Sadly, none were to be found. I did come across what I believe is the wreck of a fiberglass boat wedge into the rocks. I have seen other chunks of it partly buried in the sand in that area. As I moved up the crevice, I found a hand-held marine radio. I have know idea if the radio came from the boat or was lost by a fisherman. It looks as though it had been in the water for several years.
Continuing my reverse course back I found a bed of gravel with a 40 mm AAA shell laying partly buried. As I proceeded into shallower waters, I saw a piece of stainless steel on the bottom. Immediately realizing it was spear, I picked it up, wondering if there was a gun attached to it. Not this time. I assume its line snapped and it continued on into infinity...
Overall, a great dive.
My second dive was a solo excursion from King's Beach to Price Neck. I left king's Beach, submerged and compass navigated to Bird island. I realized my Air2 was leaking gas, so I stayed shallow, mostly at 15-20 fsw. My computer calculates minutes left based on usage, so I knew it wasn't a serious amount of air, just annoying (in a spilt beer sort of way). The visibility was was terrible at first and I debated scrubbing the dive.
Once I rounded the island, the water cleared up. I kept going at about twenty fsw heading east until I came up on top of the rock plateau. The bottom was a mixture of glacially smoothed bedrock and boulders, with patches of sand. I was swimming along, keeping an eye out for 20 mm AAA shells and tropicals. Neither were seen. By the time I reached my turnaround pressure, I surfaced and saw that I was within twenty yards of the concrete gun mounts that cut across Price Neck. Seeing how close I was, I continued for another two minutes on the bottom. Close to the Neck there are more rocks and terrain for fish to hide and shells to be (possibly) trapped. My fish spotting luck continued to be negative, but there were plenty of good sized tautaug and black fish in the area for both dives.
For the return swim I headed north and west, planning on cutting between the island and the mainland. Ran into shallow water because I steared to much north and not enough west. I then proceeded west until I ran out of gas just at the northern tip of the island. Snorkeling across the shallows, I had to surface swim back to the exit in the lee of the rocks.
Both were excellent dives, each with bottom times of about an hour.
On our way home, I made a brief night dive in the sandy cove at Wetherill. Plenty of squid, young and old, several small eels, scup, taug, blackfish and lobster.
One of my objectives was to see if I came across any tropicals. They are usually around this time of year, normally close to shore where the water is protected and warm. Sadly, none were to be found. I did come across what I believe is the wreck of a fiberglass boat wedge into the rocks. I have seen other chunks of it partly buried in the sand in that area. As I moved up the crevice, I found a hand-held marine radio. I have know idea if the radio came from the boat or was lost by a fisherman. It looks as though it had been in the water for several years.
Continuing my reverse course back I found a bed of gravel with a 40 mm AAA shell laying partly buried. As I proceeded into shallower waters, I saw a piece of stainless steel on the bottom. Immediately realizing it was spear, I picked it up, wondering if there was a gun attached to it. Not this time. I assume its line snapped and it continued on into infinity...
Overall, a great dive.
My second dive was a solo excursion from King's Beach to Price Neck. I left king's Beach, submerged and compass navigated to Bird island. I realized my Air2 was leaking gas, so I stayed shallow, mostly at 15-20 fsw. My computer calculates minutes left based on usage, so I knew it wasn't a serious amount of air, just annoying (in a spilt beer sort of way). The visibility was was terrible at first and I debated scrubbing the dive.
Once I rounded the island, the water cleared up. I kept going at about twenty fsw heading east until I came up on top of the rock plateau. The bottom was a mixture of glacially smoothed bedrock and boulders, with patches of sand. I was swimming along, keeping an eye out for 20 mm AAA shells and tropicals. Neither were seen. By the time I reached my turnaround pressure, I surfaced and saw that I was within twenty yards of the concrete gun mounts that cut across Price Neck. Seeing how close I was, I continued for another two minutes on the bottom. Close to the Neck there are more rocks and terrain for fish to hide and shells to be (possibly) trapped. My fish spotting luck continued to be negative, but there were plenty of good sized tautaug and black fish in the area for both dives.
For the return swim I headed north and west, planning on cutting between the island and the mainland. Ran into shallow water because I steared to much north and not enough west. I then proceeded west until I ran out of gas just at the northern tip of the island. Snorkeling across the shallows, I had to surface swim back to the exit in the lee of the rocks.
Both were excellent dives, each with bottom times of about an hour.
On our way home, I made a brief night dive in the sandy cove at Wetherill. Plenty of squid, young and old, several small eels, scup, taug, blackfish and lobster.
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