paulthenurse
Contributor
Everybody sing along... "Like a virgin,
Touched for the very first time..."
Finally!!! I was beginning to think it would never happen. I was having flashbacks to being 18 again and .... Well, you know... The weather has been against us every weekend we've had off since we bought the foolish thing. Fortunately the weather finally cooperated and we got out on a great day.
Guests for the day were old friends Kim and Don, who splashed in first just off Boston Light. As they're getting ready to submerge Kim said that the water temp was supposed to be in the 60's and it seemed a lot colder. Somebody at the weather bureau's got a busted thermometer, the temp was in the low 50's. They headed in towards shore, Don was hoping to find some artifacts tossed over the side by environmentally unaware light keepers from days of yore. No luck on the artifacts but they both were pleased to find the site to be so user friendly. It was a great dive site for beginners and a nice spot to knock the rust off.
After they came back aboard we moved ten minutes away to Outer Brewster. We anchored in 30 feet just off the old cement buildings on the eastern shore. Al and I geared up and splashed in. Nice gravelly bottom with lots of kelp and mung weed with loads of big rocks scattered around. It was perfect lobster-hunting ground. There were tons of spots where they should have been. Apparently, the bugs didn't get that memo. We pulled a half dozen 1/2 pounders out from the weeds in the 45 minutes it took us to totally freeze our asses off. And that we did because it was freakin' freezing down there. I swore to myself that I would only dive dry this summer and had every intention of doing just that until it came time to dress in fleece thermal underwear and a dry suit in 90 plus degree weather. Uhhhhhhm I don't think so. So instead I got to use my brand new 7 mil wet suit. (Well, brand new since Mrs Claus gave me a new one at Christmas.) About 1/2 hour into the dive I'm thinking "I bet everyone in the city would kill to be this temperature right about now." About five minutes after that I'm thinking, "Damn, my fingers are numb." Five more minutes and I'm thinking "We've only been down here 40 minutes, I've got over 1000 psi left, we can't bail out yet." Another 5 minutes and I look over at Al and give her the "I'm freezing my ass off" sign. She gives me the "No ****, Sherlock." sign and we pop up 30 yards from the boat. Sweet.
Kim and Don decided they wanted to explore the area closer in towards shore, splashed in and worked their way north for 15 minutes. The next thing I see they're FLYING past us headed south. I mean, they were hauling ass. They had grabbed ahold of a lobster trawl and pulled themselves along against the current. That must have been a huge trawl because the bouys were a good half mile apart. Kim said they pulled past a ton of pots. Lucky lads, the trawls NEVER seem to go the way I want to go.
Next we motored out to Martins Ledge. Our first time diving there and I really liked it. It reminded me a lot of Halfway Rock. The current was really ripping out by the time we were ready so we anchored at the far eastern edge, intending to work into the current. Alice and I pulled down the anchor line to 60 feet. We were anchored about 2/3 of the way down the face of the ledge and out of the current, but did not want to get blown past the line on the trip home so we ran a reel. Loads of lobsters there and big ones but they all were covered in Lobster Caviar. The site was nice, lots of cracks and crevasses on a steeply sloping wall. We never made it to the to of the hill, we bailed before frostbite got the best of us, maybe a 30 minute dive. Like I said, it reminded me of Halfway, only darker and muddier. Kim and Don were done for the day so we had lunch and a beer then we gave Don a tour of the Boston waterfront. It's a fantastic view of the city, especially when the other option at that time of the evening was sitting in the rush hour traffic in the 90 degree heat.
Getting back into Weymouth was an adventure. Dead low tide on an Uber Moon. The channel markers were sitting in the mud, there was NO water at the ramp, the floating docks were sitting in the mud and only the last one was afloat. High pucker factor for me, I so did not want to run LSU aground. We had to line the boat onto the trailer and I winched it the final 10 feet up the trailer. By the time we got home and got the gear washed and the boat washed we were done, done, done. I'm glad we didn't have any bugs to have to cook up.
Can't wait for the 4th of July, plans call for every day from Thursday through Tuesday.
PTN
Touched for the very first time..."
Finally!!! I was beginning to think it would never happen. I was having flashbacks to being 18 again and .... Well, you know... The weather has been against us every weekend we've had off since we bought the foolish thing. Fortunately the weather finally cooperated and we got out on a great day.
Guests for the day were old friends Kim and Don, who splashed in first just off Boston Light. As they're getting ready to submerge Kim said that the water temp was supposed to be in the 60's and it seemed a lot colder. Somebody at the weather bureau's got a busted thermometer, the temp was in the low 50's. They headed in towards shore, Don was hoping to find some artifacts tossed over the side by environmentally unaware light keepers from days of yore. No luck on the artifacts but they both were pleased to find the site to be so user friendly. It was a great dive site for beginners and a nice spot to knock the rust off.
After they came back aboard we moved ten minutes away to Outer Brewster. We anchored in 30 feet just off the old cement buildings on the eastern shore. Al and I geared up and splashed in. Nice gravelly bottom with lots of kelp and mung weed with loads of big rocks scattered around. It was perfect lobster-hunting ground. There were tons of spots where they should have been. Apparently, the bugs didn't get that memo. We pulled a half dozen 1/2 pounders out from the weeds in the 45 minutes it took us to totally freeze our asses off. And that we did because it was freakin' freezing down there. I swore to myself that I would only dive dry this summer and had every intention of doing just that until it came time to dress in fleece thermal underwear and a dry suit in 90 plus degree weather. Uhhhhhhm I don't think so. So instead I got to use my brand new 7 mil wet suit. (Well, brand new since Mrs Claus gave me a new one at Christmas.) About 1/2 hour into the dive I'm thinking "I bet everyone in the city would kill to be this temperature right about now." About five minutes after that I'm thinking, "Damn, my fingers are numb." Five more minutes and I'm thinking "We've only been down here 40 minutes, I've got over 1000 psi left, we can't bail out yet." Another 5 minutes and I look over at Al and give her the "I'm freezing my ass off" sign. She gives me the "No ****, Sherlock." sign and we pop up 30 yards from the boat. Sweet.
Kim and Don decided they wanted to explore the area closer in towards shore, splashed in and worked their way north for 15 minutes. The next thing I see they're FLYING past us headed south. I mean, they were hauling ass. They had grabbed ahold of a lobster trawl and pulled themselves along against the current. That must have been a huge trawl because the bouys were a good half mile apart. Kim said they pulled past a ton of pots. Lucky lads, the trawls NEVER seem to go the way I want to go.
Next we motored out to Martins Ledge. Our first time diving there and I really liked it. It reminded me a lot of Halfway Rock. The current was really ripping out by the time we were ready so we anchored at the far eastern edge, intending to work into the current. Alice and I pulled down the anchor line to 60 feet. We were anchored about 2/3 of the way down the face of the ledge and out of the current, but did not want to get blown past the line on the trip home so we ran a reel. Loads of lobsters there and big ones but they all were covered in Lobster Caviar. The site was nice, lots of cracks and crevasses on a steeply sloping wall. We never made it to the to of the hill, we bailed before frostbite got the best of us, maybe a 30 minute dive. Like I said, it reminded me of Halfway, only darker and muddier. Kim and Don were done for the day so we had lunch and a beer then we gave Don a tour of the Boston waterfront. It's a fantastic view of the city, especially when the other option at that time of the evening was sitting in the rush hour traffic in the 90 degree heat.
Getting back into Weymouth was an adventure. Dead low tide on an Uber Moon. The channel markers were sitting in the mud, there was NO water at the ramp, the floating docks were sitting in the mud and only the last one was afloat. High pucker factor for me, I so did not want to run LSU aground. We had to line the boat onto the trailer and I winched it the final 10 feet up the trailer. By the time we got home and got the gear washed and the boat washed we were done, done, done. I'm glad we didn't have any bugs to have to cook up.
Can't wait for the 4th of July, plans call for every day from Thursday through Tuesday.
PTN
