Ripsnortin’

It started with a breath of cool air from the northwest.  It ended in a “reverse wind” docking with gusts to 26 mph.  Such a strange variety of wind conditions.  We had John Maren and Christopher from Detroit for a trip to the USF New Hampshire. 

The day’s adventures started with us sneaking under the Blynman bridge with about 1 foot to spare.  Pete heard from the bridge tender that there was 10 1/2 feet from the middle of the span to the water surface.  We only need 9 1/2 feet to clear it without having to have it opened for us.  Here’s a shot of how it looks as it opens:

We arrived at the wreck site to find the wind blowing briskly from the northwest.  We slipped our bow line through the loop at the marker buoy’s top and had an easy peasey mooring.  The visibility was about 10 feet on the wreck in high 50s water.   John and I toured the wreckage and jiggled all the copper drift pins that were exposed.  We found two wigglers that teased you into thinking that they might come loose if you tried hard enough.  All looked golden underwater.  Copper can trick you like that.

I saw several juvenile black sea bass.  I’ve seen more of them this year than I ever have before.

I also saw lots of salps.  They look like jelly fish, but are actually an animal all unto themselves.  They typically herald colder water in the fall.

We were looking for a second dive site as the wind started picking up even more.  Nothing looked good enough.

We called it “one and done” and made our way back to Cape Ann Marina.

By this time, the wind had freshened so much that I couldn’t even back down the slip to the finger dock without it taking hold of the Easy Diver and pushing me sideways.  Lots of jockeying and backing and forthing landed us safely at the J dock address.  Whew!

Fall is definitely on the way.