I had the opportunity to do a day of fun diving with Ricky on Saturday July 6th. We met at Cape Ann Divers in Gloucester at 7am and headed out on the water shortly thereafter. Our first dive was on the Chester Polling. The polling is a beautiful wreck whose deck sits in about 80-90ft of water. Once in the water I quickly learned I had not put my DUI Zipseals in correctly (a mistake I’m sure not to make again!). I was almost about to call the dive on the descent, but decided to keep going once I was down there. The water was certainly cold (low 50Fs, but the polar-tec undergarments worked and I managed to finish the dive. I was really amazed at how insulative the undergarments were, even when wet. I did about a 12min tour of the deck where I saw plenty of marine life and I experienced my first wreck (I don’t count the other one I’ve done in Mexico, just didn’t give me the same feeling). Something about peering down into the ship and down the ladders gave me a feeling I don’t think I’ll forget anytime soon.
Our second dive was a more casual dive that we spent mostly in about 30ft of water. The dive was riddled with cool rock features, including interesting “cracks” in the rock that lead down past 60ft. I was responsible for running the reel on this dive, and I think I did pretty well until the end where I tangled it a little bit and had a slightly difficult time communicating with Ricky. Other than that it was a great, dry dive!