| Date: | Saturday, 7/30/2005 |
| Location: | Old Garden Beach, Rockport, MA |
| Divers: | Nikolai S, Mike H, Louie C, John P, Stacy F, James W, Marta R, Victor D |
| Weather: | Sunny. Clear skies. |
| Water: | Temp - 48-58F, Vis - 5-15ft, Current - slight, Surf - low |
| Depth: | 42 ft (dive 1) 18 ft (dive 2) |
| Bottom Time: | 62 min (dive 1) 85 min (dive 2) |
After considering the weather, we narrowed down the dive site choice to Lanes Cove, Cathedral Rocks, and Old Garden Beach. Louie vetoed Cathedral, because he had done his last two dives there. Lanes Cove was deemed too risky for a group of our size -- the lobstermen there are crooks looking for a fight with out-of-towners. This was a wise decision indeed -- today I read reports of three divers' cars getting their tires stashed at Lanes over the weekend. So, we settled for Old Garden Beach.
Old Garden looks quite different from last summer. The once sandy beach is now covered with rocks - a reminder of the storms this past winter. Yet, the site still has the appeal of easy entry and exit, the convenient concrete flat, and the relatively painless parking. After reviewing the site layout we started gearing up and entering the water in teams. Louie and John went after the lobsters while Mike, Marta, and Jim went for a tour of the shallows. Stacy and I went on a little photo dive around the rocky arc starting from the right side.
As we were making our way around the arc, the water temperature dipped down to the bone-freezing mid-40s. My druisuit was perfectly capable of taking the cold water, but I had my doubts about the rental suit with a flapping knee pad Stacy was wearing. To my respect Stacy braved the chill, and we made our way 2/3 around the deep side of the arc before making our way back to the shallows in the middle. Unfortunately, the visibility wasn't too spectacular - about 5 ft or so in most places. I ended just dragging my camera around until we reached the sandy area at 15ft. The water was much warmer there and the visibility was 12ft or so. A moon snail, flounder, and a crab obligedly posed for the camera while we made our way back. The main attraction for my lens though was a big lobster trap housing two unfortunate bugs. Once I blasted my strobe in the trap and the picture appeared on my LCD, I realized (to my delight) that the trap was painted in a clean blue color, which nicely complemented the red shell of the lobster. Without the artificial light, the trap appeared grayish. I had been thinking of giving Stacy my dive light for this exact reason, but had ended up forgetting it in the car. Dive time - 62 min. Max. depth - 42 ft.
During the surface interval we met Victor who had missed the first dive but joined in for the second. Mike reported that the visibility to the right of the beach wasn't bad. Louie and John came back with one dead lobster (and no live ones). Reportedly, the bug had been crushed by a larger comrade beyond legal size (hmm). As we were preparing for the second dive, we listened to an older diver's rationale of the cold water we had encountered. According to him, the weather pattern had pushed the Gulf Stream to the south making way for the Labrador current, which had been dumping bountiful amounts of arctic water in the Gulf of Maine. Quite an interesting, if not plausible, theory, if I may say so.
For the second dive, Stacy and I decided to explore the shallows to the East of the beach. This direction proved a better choice than the rocky arc. The overgrown kelp was providing good cover for a multitude of lobsters and lesser fish. The visibility seemed better over the kelp, and the water temperature was around 56 degrees. We enjoyed a leisurely swim over the kelp, accompanied by a large striper. We ended up spending some time playing with some hermit crabs and peeking under the larger boulders to meet some good sized lobsters. We even found a swim-through of sorts between two large rocks. At some point, while trying to demo some hovering techniques, I managed to loose my lens cap (a new one is already in the mail). Stacy was looking around for it to no avail - it's mission impossible to find anything that small in the kelp between the rocks.
The highlight of the dive was an unexpected encounter with a baby seal. It all happened when I spotted a stream of bubbles coming from behind a rock. When I approached to investigate, a tiny seal shot out from behind the boulder and quickly disappeared in the kelp. From my previous trips to the Isle of Shoals, I knew that seals prefer the shallow beds near uninhabited shorelines. However, it never occurred to me that I would spot one at Old Garden Beach. On a separate note, besides the seal, we encountered a shy fat flounder, a few skates, and smaller flounders. Dive time - 85min. Max. depth - 18ft.
On the way back, we paid tribute to our club's tradition by stopping for pizza and ice cream. What a nice way to end a good day of diving!
