Vexatious Visibility

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Bubblesong

Contributor
Messages
2,865
Reaction score
2,637
Location
Massachusetts
# of dives
50 - 99
please post your strategy for finding best visibility in New England, if you have any tips.
Rain runoff is a culprit, but not the only factor.
It may be coincidence, but I seem to see better viz at low tide than high tide.
I could do a full statistical analysis, if someone wants to let me stay at their beach house for a month or two.
 
please post your strategy for finding best visibility in New England, if you have any tips.
Rain runoff is a culprit, but not the only factor.
It may be coincidence, but I seem to see better viz at low tide than high tide.
I could do a full statistical analysis, if someone wants to let me stay at their beach house for a month or two.

It's very site dependent, in Newport and most of the south facing shoreline (Narragansett, Westerly) generally a north wind is a good indicator especially if it's been like that a few days. Newport seems to be best at high tide where FTW seems better during the low tide. FTW has a lot of fine silt covering the bottom and when that gets moved around by surge or tide changes the vis drops to a few feet, it maybe why the vis seems better at low tide there, the suspended silt has been drawn away from the site. Depth at FTW can make a big difference 20FSW can be zero while 80FSW maybe 10' 15+' and of course there are the other divers stirring things up.

I usually look for waves 2 feet or less on the RI sound as an indicator also. If a strong north wind is causing 5' swells on the sound then the vis is mostly likely shot in Newport and probably FTW.

Off shore diving is a different animal and can sometimes be more than 20' vis around Block Island for example. Divers have seen the entire U853 from a depth of 80FSW during the descent, a rare event but it does happen. When the Gulf Stream gets close it dumps warm clear water close to our shores, if you go diving on one of those days you'll be in vis heaven! When do those days happen?
Guess. Aug. Sept. is the closest I can get it.

Our waters here are very rich in plankton and others tiny critters suspended in the water that are changed by water temp which affects vis also. A year during the 1980's some God awful algae bloomed in the Bay and ruined diving for most of the year. It was suspected it came from the ballast tank of a ship.

During the winter when the water gets cold vis can get really good probably less critters suspended in the water or different kinds that don't ruin the vis.

It is all a guessing game really, logging diving conditions can help over time as you'll have data to relate to and may you even find a pattern like FTW low tide vis.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom