So,
Friday night Jim, Dan, and Jeff set out for Hull, planning to run across in the early evening. I was at home watching the radar, and called Jeff a few times to report on the storm cells that were passing through the area. I told him that it looked like a clear area would pass through around 7 for about 2 hours, and that's when they made their move. They cooked up a little feast under Jeff's screen house and called it a night.
Jeff met Jimmie and me at the A street pier at about 9:30, and we made the quick shot across to the island. While Jimmie and I set up our camp, Jeff cooked up some awesome hot pastrami sandwiches, then it was off to the boats - Jim and Dan on Jim's boat and Jeff, Jimmie and I on Jeff's. Just as we were leaving we saw Bobby and his crew, and told him that we were heading for the Graves.
There was a pretty good swell causing lots of surge on the south side, so we anchored on the north side and planned the dive. Jim and Dan would work the rocks for lobster, while the three on our boat would head east into the flats looking for scallops. I set a compass heading at 150 and we set out in about 10-12 feet of viz at about 35 feet. The water was in the low 60's as we worked our way east, and as I turned to check on Jefff and Jimmie, I felt a trickle of water down the back of my neck. My drysuit seal was folded, and continued to trickle in water every time I moved my head.
We worked our way out until I turned the dive at about 2000 lbs for the return sweep. We were in about 52 feet of water that had cooled off to 52 degrees, and I was getting cold. I set a heading at 330 and we worked our way back. Jimmie and Jeff were finding a few scallops and chasing a bug or two, but I couldn't move my head to search without getting a cold blast down the back, so I tried to just navigate them toward the boat as we made our way back through the 5-7 foot viz. After a few more minutes, I told them I was getting the hell out of there, and left them to search for dinner and started to beeline back to the boat.
At about 1000 lbs in my tank, I decided to pop up and check on my heading, so I came up to 18 feet and did my ss as I continued to motor on my heading. Once my computer cleared me I popped up and saw that the boat was a good distance away, and that I was a lot further northeast than I expected. I reset my heading and proceeded back to about 20 feet to make up some distance. When I was down to 300 lbs, I did another check and found myself still northeast of the boat by about 100 yards, and saw an inflatable dingy about 50 yards away. As I swam toward it I noticed a diver hanging onto it. It was Jeff. As I paddled like hell on my back I realized the reason we were so far northeast, there was a steady current moving us in that direction. When I reached the dingy we both tried to kick behind it while one of the two guys manned the oars, but we were only able to make it to the northern edge of the Graves.
Meanwhile, Jimmie (who won the navigation award) makes it back to the boat and figures out where we are and starts to come get us. Then up pops Jim and Dan who had abandoned the rocks due to the surge and were also a bit away from their boat. After boarding them he grabbed us, and we towed our saviors back to their sailboat which was moored nearby.
Lesson learned. I was going to use my reel, but I figured it wouldn't be long enough to be worthwhile. Next time I'll bring two.
Bobby arrived just as we were heading back to dry out a bit, and on our way back the EP spotted us and came by to check us out, checking our licenses event though we didn't have a single bug onboard (which they verified by opening hatches). After doing the same to Jim, we anchored the boats and set up all the wet gear to dry in the sun (Jim's drysuit had also sprung a leak). I noticed the big wind turbine in Hull with the wind blowing from the south.
We spent some time gathering firewood for the evening blaze, and I checked out the radar on my iPhone before we headed back down to the boat around 4. Bobby was heading in as we headed out with a storm system passing north of Boston and a good breeze kicking up from the north. As we cleared the island's north point we felt the full effect of the northeast breeze, with some sporty seas and saw the huge thunderheads in the north start to swing southeast. We called it a day and turned back to the beach.
When we arrived at the campsite, the wind was howling and everything that wasn't tied down (and some things that were tied down) was blown over. As everyone arrived, we found that our lobster and scallop count was too low to feed our group. Luckily we had brought backup supplies, and soon we had the tuna steaks seared and a pile of sashimi disappeared in a pool of soy and wasabi. We watched as the storm that had passed to our north actually turned and ran due south (off to our east) and eventually wreaked havoc on the south shore (waterspouts were reported in Plymouth).
After a beautiful sunset over Boston (as Bobby's pictures vividly illustrate) the moon rose over the water, and we made our way down to the beach with a few cold ones to enjoy the fire, then called it a night to the sounds of the bellbuoy ringing in the distance.
Sunday was a gorgeous day, and we awoke to the sounds of jets taking off and one determined seagull picking through the trash. We soon got news from Bobby and Bill that Jeff's boat was high & dry - d'oh! So, while Jeff and I had breakfast and waited for high tide, Jim, Jimmie, and Dan went diving for lunch. They managed to find a decent amount of scallops in the channel NE of calf island, and a few bugs on a second dive at the Brewsters. Meanwhile, Jeff's buddy John showed up and the 3 of us managed to float Jeff's boat, then took a run across to Hull with some tanks and gear. When we returned, we had a nice lobster and scallop feast at the campsite, then packed it up and made the run across the bay.
No problems getting the boats out on A street, and we called it another awesome weekend. From our humble beginning of one boat and three divers last year, we grew to three boats and eight divers this year. I hope next year we'll continue to grow this event.
