Lanes Cove Rockport, 4/17

I made an impromtu treck to Gloucester. I was able to play hookie from work and it was buddy's day off so we schlepped down to Cape Ann. On paper, a good idea.. Warm air temps, light winds from West, South/west. You would think conditions would be ideal.

It was my buddies first dive to Lanes as he had read a lot about the site and heard me talk about it. It's by far one of my more commonly dove sites because of easy parking, entry and exist. It's divable regardless of the tide. We were going in at lowest point of low tide. You just have to be careful entering, like when entering at low tide at Nubble. What's cool about the site is the mini wall and neat terrain.

There is still the sign (Gloucester ordinance, flag for each diver..) What a bunch of bull... Don't get me started..

As I got in the water (12:14) I heard a clunk behind me and saw that buddyhad slipped on the moss/sea weed. No injuries, he moved on.

I also decided to change over to dive wet. I figured the warm air temps would make the difference. As soon as I entered, I thought to myself, what was I thinking. Too early to change back to wet. I'll go back to diving dry for a couple more mos.

The water looked clear from the surface but the moment we decended, the vis was terrible. We couldn't explain the poor vis. The winds were light and the seas were flat calm, there weren't storms the past few days. We could barely see each other but we trudged on towards the wall.

The plan was to plant the flag at the start of the wall and follow the wall until turn point, go back to the flag and head back in. When we found the wall, I started to plant the flag but then realized we probably wouldn't be able to see or find it on the way back so I carried it with me.

A few minutes later, I lost buddy. After a quick search, I surfaced, found his bubbles and then decended back down on top of him. He was surprised I found him. We putzed around a bit more and headed back.

I was starting to get cold (water temps 39-49)

Max depth I got was 51, bottom time 40 min. I still had plenty of gas left (1260) but had enough because of the poor vis. (5-10 feet?)

We optimistically thought would find a site with better vis on the cape. We drove to Folly, saw a diver emerging and he too said the same, Poor vis. Incidently, his buddy was topside and had to scrub the dive becuase he forgot his dry hood. He had suited up, ready to go in and couldn't find the hood. He told us he did try to dive anyway without the hood. He quickly got out. I don't know if I would have even tried it.


We headed back around 3 to beat the traffic


So what's up with the water vis? Alge bloom?

There haven't been any storms but there have been significant north northeast winds for most of the past week.

reefseal:

So what's up with the water vis? Alge bloom?

Click to expand...

Steve's right. Storms have stirred things up. I've been waiting for a more extended period of winds coming off the land to clear things up.

I couldn't wait any longer, so I dove Front Beach yesterday, the 18th, expecting really poor vis, but was pleasantly surprised to have about 10 to 15' mostly. At one point, a little further from shore, I measured 25'.

Thanks for humorous dive report! I got a kick out of how you decided to go back to diving dry for a "couple" more months. This has been a cold year, it seems.

Boy, it sounded very familiar to hear your buddy took a flop on those slippery rocks! Lane's Cove is one of the most treacherous at low tide, in my opinion. There's something about the way the rocks form downward sloping, smooth and narrow creases that messes me up every time!

Dave C

I just did my cert. dives for OW at Niles beach and Plum Cove... At Niles Beach we had about 5 feet but once we got about 150 feet out and dropped down we were in an algal bloom and couldn't see more than about a foot (so we swam back in to finish our skills). At Plum Cove we had about 8-10 feet of vis all about.

Where's RI Oceanographer to weigh in on this? Is there such a thing as Alge bloom? I know there is but not in open ocean right? It's mostly caused by high bacteria counts isn't it? This must just be seas stirred up right?