To finish off an amazing week with Rick Simon, I got to join him and a number of experienced divers on a trip to the Grecian! The Grecian was a 263 ft long freighter that sank a few miles of the coast of Block Island in the 1930’s. The entire crew met at Ricks boat, loaded up, and then headed off for the ride. On the boat was a ton of super experienced divers who I could learn so much from, so I took every opportunity to listen and observe everything they did and told me. the ride out to Block Island was super calm, and the water looked like glass. I couldn’t have asked for a better day on the water!
On the previous day, Rick an I had gone through the entire process of planing the dive, including comprehensive gas planning, as well as the missions for each dive. Once we arrived at the site, Rick and his father Eric were able to anchor the boat perfectly in place on the wreck, and it was time to get suited up! Most of my diving has been shore diving of the coast of Jamestown, RI, so boat diving on such a unique site was really exciting. Rick and I got in the water, and descended down a line until we reached the wreck of the Grecian. The visibility at the bottom was at least 25ft, and I was impressed to say the least. Before swimming around and exploring, we placed strobes on the anchor line as a method of communicating who was still diving on the wreck in the event anyone got separated. Then it was time to explore! Rick has me practice running a line with the wreck reel he had given me, and we began to swim around. The wreck itself was no longer intact, but instead splayed out with some note-able features such as the large boilers or the props still discernible. While swimming, Rick was able to find an artifact from the wreck, however it was concreted in, so he was unable to recover it on this dive. After exploring for a while, we returned to the line and ascended to do our safety stop. This was such a cool first dive, and I couldn’t wait to get back in for number two.
During our surface interval we enjoyed lunch cooked by Rick on the grill, as well as snacks brought by everyone else. After a little over an hour, we got ready to go in for our second dive. On this dive, the plan was to install a new mooring on the wreck in order to make it more accessible for other divers!
Once we descended on our second dive, Rick brought the mooring over to a sturdy central section of the wreck, and bolted the mooring around so that it would not move or break free from the wreck. After this was done we swam around to explore the wreck some more, this time swimming between the boilers, and eventually swimming over to the propeller which was mostly buried in the sand. Rick was able to take some photos on this dive; after over 30 minutes at the bottom, it was time to end the dive. These two dives were super cool learning opportunities, and I was super comfortable throughout both dives thanks to my Fourth Element Hydra. Thank you so much to both Rick, Shoreline Diving, the Boston Sea Rovers, and everyone else on the boat for making this such an exciting first week!
