My November Underwater

I did 3 dives this month, but the last one was very short because my housing leaked, ruining my camera, lens, and the electronics in the housing. I also got to drive my buddy’s underwater drone around, so we got to explore the stern of Chester Poling from the comfort of the boat cabin.

November 7 - Folly Cove (Gloucester, Massachusetts)

Gear configuration: GoPro Hero 13 Black + video lights

We had ambitions of doing a long dive, but both of us entered the water only to discover we hadn’t pulled the drysuit zipper all the way closed, so we were both a bit damp to start. We cruised the left side, not finding a ton. We made it out to the northern red, I found a frilled anemone planted on a rock in front of the northern red’s cave and then we headed back. There were still some sand lance around, which was nice. This was a chill dive, but not a ton to see.

November 14 - Drone dive on the Chester Poling (outside of Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts)

Gear configuration: BlueROV

We headed out of Gloucester Harbor to go do a drone dive on the Chester Poling, a familiar wreck to local divers. We had a bit of an adventure getting moored up, but once there, we dropped the drone over the side and descended down the anchor line like we would do if we were diving ourselves. Once there, we explored around the deck, checked out some holes that opened up in the hull, and took a look in the spot where a wolffish has been sighted previously. If the wolffish had been there, I would have strongly considered hopping in for some pictures, but nobody was home there. We did, however, have a nearly continuous flow of cunner staring at their reflections in the camera dome port, producing some very funny videos and images. After our initial exploration, we started wandering around out in the sand off the wreck. We found a modern boot, some assorted valves and things, lots of entangled fishing nets, but the coolest find was a ceramic pot. We decided to grab it with the drone’s arm and pull it up. It appears to be a shipping pot for seeds or oil from the 1600-1700s! It’s clearly not associated directly with the Poling wreck (which sank in 1977), but Gloucester has been an active port for 200 years. This was a fun adventure!

November 14 - Pebble Beach (Rockport, Massachusetts)

Gear Configuration: Olympus TG-5

After a fun day out on the boat with the ROV, we headed to shore to do an actual dive. We looked at OGB, but it was bumpy and unpleasant looking, so we headed over to Pebble. Per usual, we swam for awhile out to the reef and then cruised along the rocks. It was remarkably empty - we saw moon snails and crabs, but only a couple fish and shrimp. The only real interesting find was a tiny lumpfish right near the end of the dive. We exited around sunset and headed home after an overall fun day.

November 20 - Dog Bar Breakwater (Gloucester, Massachusetts)

Gear configuration: Olympus E-PL9 + Olympus 60mm macro lens

We drove around looking for a site and everything was looking pretty bumpy. Pebble was doable, but we decided to head over to Dog Bar instead. Conditions were good, so we geared up and started swimming. We didn’t see much for the first bit, but I finally found a colony of lined anemones to photograph. I pulled the camera up to take a picture only to find the moisture full red and the housing half full of water. I ended the dive and surface swam back hoping to salvage something from the housing, but nope. The camera, lens, and housing electronics were all ruined.

Pictures