Gloria

I got out to the Gloria yesterday after a traumatic few days. My dog, Kenai died on Friday and for any of you whom have dogs, it was devastating to me. He was a Golden Retriever and he came everywhere with me, driving around town, hiking, crabbing and fishing. I miss him so much. Anyway, I decided I needed to get away for at least part of a day to relax and reflect. Bill and I played hookey from work so that we could get out on this pristine day. After mixed reports on visibility, I figured since Capt. Dave Pfeifer dove the Flour on Monday and the vis was good that we should be ok with going to the Gloria. We only had enough time to do one dive today so we wanted to go somewhere close and the Gloria is just about an hour ride from our dock.

The Gloria is a steel wreck in about 70' of water and it is thought to be the remains of the Kennebec or Lake Frampton. No one has positively identified it as of yet. Once the anchor was dropped, I took the plunge to tie in the anchor. The visibility on the surface was good but not as good as I expected, lots of particulate matter was in the water column and lots of jellyfish. Once I got on the bottom the visibility cleared up to about 35'-40' and there were schools of tropical fish. However, the anchor was not in the wreck, it was hooked on a small piece about 40' from the wreck. I sat for a moment debating what to do and observed these schools of fish, they were swimming all around me. I decided to tie in the anchor on this small piece and to swim to the wreck instead of going up and trying again to anchor into the wreck. I ran a line from the anchor to the boilers of the Gloria.



I swam around the boilers and took some photos and was in awe with all of the fish. There seemed to be sooo many on them. I saw quite a few triggerfish and a lone butterfly fish. I swam towards the stern and found the prop shaft and eventually made it to the end where the giant rudder and prop was. I saw a picture of the Lake Frampton somewhere and it shows a rudder just like the one I saw on the Gloria today.

I was planning on doing one long dive, so I really swam slowly and took in the sights and took lots of photos. I saw a few lobsters and noted their location so Bill could get them on his dive and I saw a monk fish, I left him alone and took his picture. Monk fish are creepy looking and they always manage to spook me.





Once I got home and looked at my pictures, I concluded that the camera I have is ideal for shallower dives. There is a lot more available light and the pictures come out better. I need to invest in a better camera for deeper dives. Also, that monkfish, well when I showed Bill the picture he said it wasn't a monkfish it was part of the wreck out in the sand (silly me, what was I thinking?), the photo is below.

Monkfish???




This was a really nice day to be out diving and I feel better emotionally after going. I hope to get back out over the weekend if the weather permits otherwise, I know I'll be out the following week. Make sure you click on the pictures to enlarge them!! Safe Diving!

Southern Lilian

I left early this morning under a beautiful moonlit sky for the Southern Lilian on Atlantus Charters. We had such an awesome dive on this wreck a few weeks ago that Geoff Graham, whom chartered the boat decided to head back for a second time. The forecast was for rough seas but when we broke into the Atlantic it was suprisingly calm and there was little or no wind. We were off for our 2 hour ride to the Southern Lilian. Once we arrived on the wreck the wind and the seas started to pick up but not enough to deter us. My dive buddy for today was John Priestly. I told him I was going to take photos and he wanted to look for artifacts. He offered to be my model for my pictures but at the last minute I opted to leave the camera on board (turned out to be a wise decision).

Once I hit the water I was awestruck by the great vis and deep blue water. I saw the first jellies of the season and they were so graceful and pretty to look at. Once we hit the bottom the vis wasn't as grand until you got away from the anchor a bit. I'd say the vis was about 20-25'. We were hooked into the debris field and I spent the dive lobster hunting and poking around. There was noticeably less ling cod on this dive. I saw a sea bass and the ever present conger eels. There was some large gear mechanism that was cool to check out. I was trying to locate the boilers but was unsuccessful. I ended my dive a little short (25 min.) in order to keep down my decompression time. I knew it would be rough hanging on the anchor line and I didn't have my John Line with me. Boy was I right, the hang was brutal and I couldn't even hang longer than a few minutes shallower than 20'. The anchor line would just rip out of your hands and you'd be swimming trying to reconnect with it. All during my hang I was thinking how am I going to get on the boat, the ladder was doing a big dance on the back of the boat.

When I surfaced I tried and tried and couldn't get onto the ladder. I was getting very discouraged and banged up (I was already banged up from a recent fall rock climbing on Mount Washington but that is another entertaining story). Finally I got on with my knees and the guys held on to me while I went for a ride until a lul came and I was able to climb up a step or two. I was so exhausted when I got to the top I didn't have the strength to swing my leg over the transom. Somehow I did it and it was not pretty. Geoff said I did a great job and I didn't panic. I was really embarrassed but not for long. Now it was time for the rest of the men to try and get on the ladder. They had a much harder time than I did so I no longer felt bad. The seas at this point was a full 6-8' and no wonder why I had a hard time climbing on board. We all made a decision to abort the 2nd dive and to head in.

On the way home we all had a few cold ones and told lots of dive stories of which kept us all entertained. Today was an adventure that I will not forget. It kind of reminded me of another trip like this years ago aboard the Down Deep and when we returned to the dock Lynn Delcorio got on his knees and kissed the dock, "we made it home alive", he said. Thanks to Geoff Graham, Jeff Heim, Jenn Washco, Dann, John Thomas, John Priestly, Steve, Brian Laresen and Shaner for sharing the adventure with me. In the end, I was proud of myself today and like I said in my earlier Diving Safely post, my training and experience helped me to stay calm during adversity and be safe today. I know I will feel the pain tomorrow, my arms and legs are already sore, but I'm ready to do it all over again!

I hope to be out diving on my own boat over the next few weeks, there have been reports that there is lots of fish on the Gloria, so I'll have to try and get out there. I also hope to be diving with Atlantus Charters in a few weeks to an awesome wreck, you'll have to wait to find out where we go!