9-13-08 Gloria

I came back from an excellent week of backpacking in the White Mountains, NH to have my scheduled dive to the Offshore Paddlewheeler blown out by Huricane Hanna. I was really looking forward to that dive but there will be another time for it. On Saturday we woke up to sunshine and no rain and as a result, we made a last minute decision to head out for a dive on the Gloria. We didn't even leave the dock till 10 am and we had no babysitter so the kids came with us. The Gloria is a short run for us(about 30 min. from the dock) and it is a great wreck that I always enjoy. My plan for today was to practice with different swing bottles to prepare for my upcoming class this week at East Coast Divers. We arrived at the Gloria to find a boat fishing on it but they didn't mind sharing the wreck with us. I jumped in first to tie the anchor in. When I got to the bottom the anchor was neatly wrapped around a piece of the bow hull plate as is someone did it for me. I reinforced it with some sisal and I was off on my dive. Since we had the kids with us we were doing 1 long dive instead of 2 dives. The water temperature on the bottom was a balmy 60 degrees. The water was sooo comfortable that I did a 30 minute dive without even a chill. I swam to the very tip fo the bow where the two anchors were, one up high on the wreck and one below it near the sand. Then I swam into the debris field for a little digging. The visibility was only 15'-20' and it silted up easily. I didn't find any artifacts but I found some sand dollars and shells for the kids. The wreck had lots of sea bass and they were real skiddish and seemed to hang inside the bow. I really spent a lot of time just swimming around and exploring the wreck since there was no current on the bottom. I've dove this wreck many times and I feel like now I know the layout pretty well. Bill spent his dive spearing some sea bass for dinner and trying to find a legal size lobster. All of the lobsters were small. All in all, I had an awesome dive and feel prepared for my class this week. Kim Dixon