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!