Video Dive Log: Diving sunken Harbor Buoy Newport's Land's End, August 3, 2015

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CT-Rich

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I took my daughters up to Newport yesterday (Monday, August 3). The plan was to get in two days of snorkeling and diving and camp overnight at Melville Camp Grounds. Dive reports I heard from my friend, Jordan, said vis was crumby on Sunday. The weather forecast looked great, but on closer inspection it was supposed to storm over night. We canned the camping but the girls wanted to make at least a day trip.

We arrived at Land's End in Newport just about the turning of the high tide. I had been wanting to get a chance to make a dive on the wreck of a iron navigation buoy I saw on my first (camera free) dive there a few weeks ago. Finding the buoy is pretty easy. Swim out to the rocks and head towards the Westerly opening. The hull sits in about 20 ft of water and the super structure is a minute or so swim south of the that. This was one of those moments when I miss my dad, he would have loved to see what type of buoy it was.

There was a low pressure system out at sea the past couple of days and the swell kicked up the bottom quite a bit. By the time I was heading in, the visibility was deteriorating and the kids were already on shore waiting for me. Because the diving was obviously not getting better, we decided to go into town for a look around (i.e. daughters looking at clothes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3m40qCBapw
[video=youtube;s3m40qCBapw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3m40qCBapw[/video]
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s3m40qCBapw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I gave it another go at five PM out at Green Bridge (I am not known for my intelligence). It was hitting dead low and I was planning on riding the current out and taking a look around and then riding the incoming back. Swimming in eel grass remains one of the least exciting dive activities. It was a very slow go on getting out and when I eventually made it past the grass, I dropped to the bottom with five foot visibility, but at least it was with out any eel grass.

Visibility never improved for the duration of the dive. I followed the contour of the bottom directly south for 30 minutes, hoping I might find some something interesting, like a 40 mm artillery shell (there are still a few of those laying around). The other thing I spent my time doing as I was swimming over the endless expanse of rocks were the sharks. While I was suiting up a local was saying that if he ever gets cut snorkeling he get out right away because of the sharks....

Because of the swell there was about a foot of seaweed on the bottom for most of the dive with some areas of boulders and others of open sand. I continued south for thirty minutes until I reached my turn around, swam west for a couple of minutes, just to see some new terrain then headed North. At least coming in I had the current at my back. When I finally surface I found that I had entered the West portion of the cove by the pier, The surface swim in wasn't bad until I reached the area near the house. I became so bogged down in eel grass I took off my fins and waded the last fifty yards. Time underwater 51 minutes and another 40 minutes getting in and out of the weeds.

Needless to say, I bagged the night dive.....

A great day with the kids and an alright first dive. Lesson learned? Don't try to swim out/in through eel grass at low tide.
 
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