AfterDark
Contributor
Dive 2039: Solo dive 8-29-14 Friday Jamestown RI West Cove, surface conditions were clear and pleasant; air and water temps were about the same 68F; tide was low, incoming; surface was flat, no swells, no chop, start time 6:20PM end time 6:50PM 20min BT 39 min total dive time. Max depth 27fsw bt temp 65F vis 5’ lots of bait fish, blue crabs, spider crabs, black sea bass. Short dive to burn some air in my 50 ID’s before I refill them and to scope out conditions for dive 2040 which proved an interesting and for me humbling dive, with a few lessons learned and relearned.
Dive 2040: Night dive 8-29-14 Friday Jamestown RI West Cove Selchie in LB and I picked a great night for a dive! Conditions were the same as dive 2039 with the exception of darkness which brought many small fish and tons of small “flashing” jelly fish. We started in West cove, after a short surface swim we submerged into 10fsw and proceeded SE along the wall. We surfaced right at the start of the shallow cut leading to Fort cove and decided to take the cut. There was a spectacular view of the final rays of sunset shining on some wispy clouds and a crescent moon!
We submerged, and at this point the dive started to go south though neither of us knew it yet, worse was, I would be the last to know. Knowing this site like my living room I didn’t use my compass to swim though the cut so at some point I turned 180deg and proceeded back into West cove thinking I was entering Fort cove! At this point I used my compass to head to shore as if I were in Fort cove but because I was in West cove I was heading for the west side of West cove a long swim from any egress. The more I swam along the “right” course the less familiar the terrain looked, which of course would be the case because I never swam the mouth of West cove underwater before!
If things don’t look right and more important if things don’t feel right, they ain’t right
With that in mind I signaled to Selchie in LB I was going up to look around. I had forty feet of line out, instead of winding it round the reel I ascended long the line pulling it down after me so I’d surfaced right at the flag. Looking around things looked less right but, convinced I was in Fort cove, I looked around for my buddy or her light and saw neither. I continued to look around to try and put my finger on what was wrong. After what seemed like a few minutes but probably was less I remembered my buddy was still underwater. Thinking I would go back down to find her, I instead found that the current had pretty much got 40’ of line around me several times. I wasn’t going anywhere. I regretted now not signaling her to surface too. Just as I started to think about cutting up the line into bite sized pieces my buddy surfaced.
Always be clear in signaling saves a ton work and could save a dive.
We got me untangled and the line rolled up and under control; at this point I was pretty disgusted with myself and still disoriented but still didn’t know how disoriented. Back to the 1st bold sentence…... I called the dive. We surface swam a long way all the time I’m thinking this looks like West cove but I had convinced myself it was Fort cove and so I continued to be baffled by what I could see. Even when a light was shined on shore I saw what I expected to see the top of the hill at Fort cove! When we were almost at shore my buddy shined her light on shore again and lit up the boat ramp!?!? The boat ramp?!??! WTF!?? The boat ramp is in West cove and so are we!
You never know a site well enough to not pay attention to detail all the time!!!
Start time 7:45PM end time 9:00PM BT 20mins total time 1:15min max depth 30fsw.
A humbling and interesting dive; thanks for hanging in there Selchie in LB and getting me untangled. I promise I’ll do better next time! This was my 1st night dive this year but that's no excuse for getting lost!
Dive 2040: Night dive 8-29-14 Friday Jamestown RI West Cove Selchie in LB and I picked a great night for a dive! Conditions were the same as dive 2039 with the exception of darkness which brought many small fish and tons of small “flashing” jelly fish. We started in West cove, after a short surface swim we submerged into 10fsw and proceeded SE along the wall. We surfaced right at the start of the shallow cut leading to Fort cove and decided to take the cut. There was a spectacular view of the final rays of sunset shining on some wispy clouds and a crescent moon!
We submerged, and at this point the dive started to go south though neither of us knew it yet, worse was, I would be the last to know. Knowing this site like my living room I didn’t use my compass to swim though the cut so at some point I turned 180deg and proceeded back into West cove thinking I was entering Fort cove! At this point I used my compass to head to shore as if I were in Fort cove but because I was in West cove I was heading for the west side of West cove a long swim from any egress. The more I swam along the “right” course the less familiar the terrain looked, which of course would be the case because I never swam the mouth of West cove underwater before!
If things don’t look right and more important if things don’t feel right, they ain’t right
With that in mind I signaled to Selchie in LB I was going up to look around. I had forty feet of line out, instead of winding it round the reel I ascended long the line pulling it down after me so I’d surfaced right at the flag. Looking around things looked less right but, convinced I was in Fort cove, I looked around for my buddy or her light and saw neither. I continued to look around to try and put my finger on what was wrong. After what seemed like a few minutes but probably was less I remembered my buddy was still underwater. Thinking I would go back down to find her, I instead found that the current had pretty much got 40’ of line around me several times. I wasn’t going anywhere. I regretted now not signaling her to surface too. Just as I started to think about cutting up the line into bite sized pieces my buddy surfaced.
Always be clear in signaling saves a ton work and could save a dive.
We got me untangled and the line rolled up and under control; at this point I was pretty disgusted with myself and still disoriented but still didn’t know how disoriented. Back to the 1st bold sentence…... I called the dive. We surface swam a long way all the time I’m thinking this looks like West cove but I had convinced myself it was Fort cove and so I continued to be baffled by what I could see. Even when a light was shined on shore I saw what I expected to see the top of the hill at Fort cove! When we were almost at shore my buddy shined her light on shore again and lit up the boat ramp!?!? The boat ramp?!??! WTF!?? The boat ramp is in West cove and so are we!
You never know a site well enough to not pay attention to detail all the time!!!
Start time 7:45PM end time 9:00PM BT 20mins total time 1:15min max depth 30fsw.
A humbling and interesting dive; thanks for hanging in there Selchie in LB and getting me untangled. I promise I’ll do better next time! This was my 1st night dive this year but that's no excuse for getting lost!
Maybe I should stick to solo diving.
