Only Us

We drove around the cape, looking for good conditions.  It was a surprise to see no one at Cathedral Rocks and no one at Folly Cove at 9 AM on a warm, almost windless, May 22nd morning.  There was a small class at Back Beach, but scuba divers weren’t evident on Cape Ann this morning.

As we drove up the Annisquam River, we didn’t pass many boats.  Everyone must be sleeping late.  We anchored in about 35 feet off the north side of the rocks at the Lobster Pool restaurant at Folly Cove.  The water was flat calm.  We were shielded from the freshening southeasterly breeze.  We had Veronica, Pat Walsh, Peter Donahue, and LD aboard along with The Captain and me.

We were all going to be doing video, so the conditions were perfect.  It was 48 degrees on the bottom with about 20 feet of visibility.  I saw a horseshoe crab and a northern red anemone, along with several magnificently festooned decorator crabs.  Here’s a frame from the video LD shot of the critter:

Peter Checks His Air while Videoing the Horseshoe Crab

Pete found a scarlet psolus and filmed it feeding by sucking food off its limbs, one by one.  Veronica and I wrangled a decorator crab in an abandoned trap.  She described seeing a bluish fish with teeth (bluefish?) and I saw a striped bass.  There was lots going on down there.

The ride home was enlivened when we ran aground on the sand bank underneath the A. Piatt Andrew bridge.  This location had been made famous by Lynn Colletti years ago when we “nudged” the sand.  This time it was Pat Walsh’s turn.  We were able to power our way off with everyone standing in the bow and Pete gunning the engine.  Pete suggested calling it Pat’s Place, I think.  Or maybe it will be Walshie’s Bar.  We’ll think of something appropriate.

Thanks to Veronica for the “legal” spinach sandwiches and all the goodies for after the dive.

The boat is now blue side down in the slip at the Marina.

It was a fun day.