New England Wreck Day #1 (Block Island, RI) Trip Report
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New England Wreck Day #1 (Block Island, RI) Trip Report
The short version? Dive the Idene with Spectre, Raxafarian, and Norteastwrecks on a beautiful weekend with flat calm seas...you will have fun...there will be post-dive beers.
Yeah, I thought you might like the somewhat longer version too.
The four of us met in Charlestown, RI at around 7:30 AM to begin a great day of adventuring. We were diving off a six-pack, the Tresta, captained by Jim Beardsley.
The first dive was the Idene. After a nice long ride out to the wreck (about 4 miles SE of Block Island, RI), we did some dive planning, agreed on a couple of critical numbers and began to suit up. Spectre and I were buddied. Rax and Northeast were buddied.
Beginning the descent, there is little/no current...but I still got a few butterflies in my stomach. I have never done a New England wreck, and I haven't dove to 90 feet in a while and never in New England. The worst moment comes at about 50 feet. You can't see the surface and you can't see the ocean floor...
And then...a little better visibility, better still, and...there she is...a beautiful fishing vessel sitting completely upright in the sand, totally intact. Total tranquility (partially nitrogen-induced ) sets in. This is why we dive...
Spectre and my air consumption rates are pretty dang similar. We both were diving air in LP 80s which gave us enough gas for all the bottom time we could have at 90 fsw without breaking NDL. We did a complete tour of the boat...a swimthrough of the stern hold, and a descent into the main cargo hold (open) in the center of the vessel. We still had enough gas for a very slow ascent and a good long safety stop in the 20-15 fsw range. Final profile looked something like 31 min total dive time @ max depth of 90 fsw.
We planned our dive, and we dove our plan...thanks to Jeff for giving a great tour and being a great buddy for a wreck newbie.
After almost two hours surface interval, we started gearing up for our second dive, the Mary Arnold and Progress (a tug and barge collided in 1940 - both sank within 150 ft of one another).
The tide was well on its way out, giving us a little bit of current to work with. The visibility wasn't as good as on the Idene, and the age of the wreck meant that the boat wasn't nearly as intact as the Idene, but it was still a great dive.
Spectre and I spent a good portion of the dive trying to match wits with a lobster that had clearly seen more than a couple of divers in his day. He was not falling for any of our tricks...without the tickle stick, we had to go our separate ways.
Final profile was something like 35-40 mins (my computer is not within reach) at a max depth of 55 fsw.
Dang it...I think I want to be a wreck diver when I grow up!
As always, I will let the rest of the guys tell their stories. Thanks again to Jeff, Ken, and Dan. Today was the best.
I personally got to show King Kong Matt truely what this board is all about. The 4 of us diving today all met here. Matt was a Warm Water Weenie before he ending up in sunny o' New England. He had only ever done one wreck dive before... in the BVI [doesn't count in my book ].
We got him on a scuttled [in the early 90s] fishing trawler, perfectly intact, in 90 fsw today. Talk about the perfect dive for someone to catch wreck fever on. Bottom ended up being 64 degrees. 40+ vis. Rax and Northeastwrecks were futzing with tying in [one benefit of air... the nitrox divers have to do all the work!]. I led Matt along the starboard side, where we watched a couple sea robins cruising around. We worked our way up to the bow, and then down to the sand when we got there. I saw a couple bugs, but they would have been a challenge, and KKMatt's watched me chase 'em plenty before. We circled around to the port side, up to the deck around midships, and continued along the edge to the stern. We dropped down and went in the swim through there, Matt stayed outside while I swam through, I came out, looked back, and he looked at me, signaled ok, and came on through. His mask was leaking a little due to the s**t eating grin on his face, but he soon subsided from his narcosis enduced joy. He cleared, and off we went to continue the tour.
We headed down to the sand at the stern, chased a few more bugs, then around the port side, up onto the deck and dropped down into the big hold. I started chasing another bug under some plates in the corner of the hold... I probably could have gotten him, but nearing the end of the dive I wasn't going to go wedging myself under some pipes for a lousy lobster.
We came up out of the hold, and checked out down some of the hatches. I called Matt over at one point and pointed at a conger eel sticking his head out of a pipe. Now Matt's mask was flooding big time due to his grin. We hung around on the deck for a bit more, and hit the anchor line right on plan.. 19 minutes. We played around on our hang for a while, Matt exiting at 31 minutes, myself at 34.
If there was ever a perfect dive for someone to catch wreck fever... it'd be this one!
I have little to add to the descriptions previously posted, except to say that the dive conditions were nearly perfect for New England.
The Idene is a particularly nice wreck. Lots of interesting structure and, due to its relatively recent demise, very little in the way of deterioration.
The Mary Arnold is another interesting wreck. Its blown open, which means that you can see the internal structure.
Overall, we had a great time. We need to do this again.
We all met at the boat around 7:30am. The 1-3 ft seas were around 1, maybe a couple of 2ft swells. Doesn't get any better. It was about a 1 1/2 to 2 hour boat ride to the Idene (approx. 4 miles south of Block). We hooked the wreck first try. Got suited up and proceeded to dive!
Dan and I paired up since we both had EAN32. Dive plan was 90ft. max with 34 min. max bottom time, with 1 minute stops at 40 and 30ft., and 3 minutes at 20. Visiblity was good at around 30ft or so. Dan tied the grappling hook into the wreck while I started looking for photo ops (see my post above for links to some pics). We basically just poked around looking into some of the openings... bridge, hatches, hold. Lots of growth on the wreck, considering how new it is. Tons of starfish.
I think we maxed out at around 86ft with 33 minutes of BT. Dan untied the hook, and we had a nice slow ascent with our planned stops... plus we extended the 20ft stop a couple of minutes.
The Mary Arnold was our next dive... almost all the way back toward Charlestown RI, so we had at least an 1 1/2 surface interval... maybe 2 hours by the time we hit the water.
Visibility decreased to about 15-20ft. The current had picked up but was still manageable. Plan was 55ft for 50 min. Most of the ship is burried in the sand... parts of the engine are sticking up 15 ft or so... along with some other misc. parts. Wooden timbers are also seen.
I think we had about 40 min. at 52ft.
Saw a flounder. Lots of other fish that I don't know the names for.
Couldn't have asked for a better day. Looking forward to the next wreck trip.
Sounds great. While I have never been to 90 fsw, I have been to 75 fsw in like 2ft of vis, so I'd feel relatively comfortable going the extra 15 ft with 10+ ft of vis.
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New England Wreck Day #1 (Block Island, RI) Trip Report
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