Cape Ann Memorial Day 2006

Memorial Day weekend saw Stephan and me heading up to Cape Ann. While there we met up with Martin Weber from CT, whom I had met in Roatan, and who was with us on the San Diego trip. He too is from Deutschland, and he and Stephan have a way of jabbering in German and then looking at me like I have a clue. I did pick up some new vocabulary from them though, including keine problem, tauchen computer, okey dokey, and most of all, Ich benötige ein powernap. We also met up with my buddy Bill Hackbarth, who lives locally and has been teasing me with sketchy reports of a submarine up there.

Perhaps as penance, conditions were the polar opposite of our trip last fall, with flat seas and sunny weather. One nice thing about diving with Cape Ann Diver's is that if you are the first to sign up for the boat you get to pick the destination, so I always call weeks in advance. For the first dive Saturday morning we went to the Saturday Night Ledges. SNL is a series of long canyons, less than 10' wide but with upwards of 30' of relief, and descending from about 95' down to 130'. Viz was terrible at the surface but opened up quite nicely at the bottom, with water temps in the mid-40's. Seeing as how this was my first dive on a newly-repaired, newly re-zippered dry suit I was pleased not to be a floody mess. In fact it was the first dive in a long time I didn't emerge at least damp, so it was kind of a new experience for me. Throughout the dive I saw Northern Red Anemones of all sizes and color variations, from deep red to pale pink. There was also an amazing profusion of Spiny Sunstars, another of my New England favorites. After one pass Martin Stephan and Bill headed up, but with plenty more time I swam down the length of it again, finding new things to catch my eye.

For Dive 2 I had picked the Poling, a perennial favorite. It is the stern half of a vegetable oil tanker that went down in 1977, and all sorts of fun (for a neat film trailer see http://www.nimbusaudio.com/portfolio.html) I brought my camera down, and managed an ok shot of a sculpin, but then the siren song of penetrating made me tie the camera off on the line, fire up the HID and head in. Fortunately no one else on the boat had gone inside, so I was able to slip into it in pristine, unsilted condition. I went first into the engine room, which still had a whitish haze, and explored all about the machinery in there. Ascending to the next deck, I went through a hatch, down a long stateroom, and into the galley. Digging around I came up with several broken plates and cups, none of which were worth keeping. Above me was the cupboard, so on a lark I looked in and found a fluted glass sugar pourer, which I put in my pocket. After a few more swim-throughs I retrieved the camera and ascended for a few brief minutes of deco.

My afternoon shore dive was extremely compromised by heavy teutonic snoring. Stephan and Martin were horizontal most of the afternoon. As I had brought the Westfalia camper I took the opportunity to pull the dash off and fiddle rather aimlessly with some knobs (I did manage to maintain equilibrium, which is to say I fixed one thing but broke another.) Eventually Dornröschen (that's sleeping beauty in German) bestirred himself, and we headed out to Folly Cove for a late afternoon dive. Bill had gone home, and Martin decided to pass, which ultimately was a wise move. Hauling a prism (me) and a set of doubles (Stephan) across slick stones at low tide in the hot sun wasn't the stupidest thing we've done, but it sure wasn't the smartest either. I should have gone with my first instinct, which was to bring the sport kiss, or else dove it sidemount open circuit, but live and learn. I had hoped to see a torpedo ray, at least one of which hangs out in Folly, but twas not to be. That may be just as well, as last time it was me with the camera urging Craig Billings into electrocutable range, but this time Stephan had the camera.

Sunday morning's first dive was to Burnham Ledge, another set of minicanyons in 60'-125' of water. Stephan rather promptly got narc'd, so he and Martin turned back, but I spent 25 minutes at 125 checking out the amazing flora and fauna. I was also delighted to find a 19th century round-bottom bottle. I have a bunch of these from my check out dives in an Adirondack lake in 1987, and have always gotten a kick out of them. It was filled to the neck in muck but otherwise in great shape. It also gave Martin a chance to shake his head at me and ask what it is with Jersey wreck divers. For Dive 2 we returned to the Poling. Martin is from San Diego, and has lots of deep trimix experience but not so much wreck, so I offered to take them in where I had gone yesterday. Ultimately though the entry was a little uncomfortable for Martin, so Stephan and I took our time following my path of the day before, as well as going through the crews quarters. I've little doubt there are tons of artifacts buried in the elbow-deep silt, but after some desultory digging I decided to pass and just spend time with the wreck. I even brought back the sugar pourer that I had taken the day before, as it was cool but not neat enough to keep. I'll be curious to see if it is still in the cupboard next time I go.

I had an ulterior motive in picking these two sites as I hoped, since they are close in, that I could get away with more bottom time. We were a little late getting back to the dock for the afternoon charters, which was completely my fault as I was the last one onboard by a wide margin. They aim to please at Cape Ann Divers though. I kept expecting to be asked to shorten my run times, but never was, and all my dives over the weekend were between 53 and 60 minutes with an hour-plus surface interval.

But. But. Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD, as I'm starting to realize. I spent the boat ride back and most of the next day fairly concerned about the way my left shoulder was throbbing, and my right wasn't too happy either. I sucked down a 40 of O2 on the drive back while thinking about my decompression, whether I had taken a hit, and if so was it undeserved in the technical sense of the word. Ultimately it just wound up being strain from hauling heavy gear for a lot of dives in quick succession, especially the long march across the beach at Folly (such an appropriate name.) It got me thinking though, and I am definitely going to start padding things a little more (lengthening the haldanean tail on my gradient profile, for you fellow deco-geeks.) I share this experience with all the newly certified ccr divers I know in particular. You might want to think before doing two hour long dives to 100' separated by an hour surface interval. I've come to the conclusion that it's asking for trouble. Rather than cycle compress/decompress/compress/decompress, a friend of mine always makes it one long long dive, and I might just start following her lead. Food for thought.

I'll be back in Cape Ann for Columbus Day weekend if anyone wants to check it out, as well as before that for some quick tech dives. Its one of my favorite places. And should you ever go with these guys, remember: Keine Powernap! Powernap ist verboten!