Red Diving Hood

Folly Cove – 5 October 2020

January 29, 2021 / reddivinghood / Leave a comment

Only after a week after the first sighting of the puffer palooza I could go back to Folly cove for a night dive, hoping that I could also experience the event that was never observed here prior to this year.

The dive started slow, very early on we came across a cornetfish, which is a regular sighting in RI but I have never seen in north shore before. A closer look at the animal made me realize that it wasn’t the frequent flyer, blue spotted cornet fish, but a different variety, red cornetfish, which I have never seen before. I do not think I noticed rapid color changes on blue spotted variety but this one could add vertical stripes on its skin on demand.

Soon after we started to see the more and more puffer fish, however nothing like the numbers what people had observed the week before. It was noticeable that most puffers had significant damage on their various fins, apparently puffer palooza had turned into puffocalypse at some point, many could not survive and the ones survived suffered severely. Regardless they did not lose the positive attitude and smile on those cute faces.

The main object of the dive was to see the puffers, but other creatures were welcomed. There were plenty of baby longfin squids, a butterfish (first for me), singular pollocks, cods, tomcods, a fierce oscillate lady crab and a pipefish.

This dive I used the wide angle lens with a dome port for the first time . It was a big difference to my general point of view during the dives, I am primarily a macro life diver and photographer. I must say I did enjoy this different style and finally could get a cornetfish fully in a frame 🙂

Buddy: Bert P.

#445: 21ft, 80min, 56F. ~20ft viz with lots of particulate in the water column

Fort Wetherill – 4 October 2020

January 24, 2021 / reddivinghood / Leave a comment

It had been years that I have not dove at the left cove at Fort Wetherill. Since I primarily do night dives I find the right cove easier to navigate and I like the freedom of going back and forth to each side of the cove or just hang out in the middle. However, today I had a buddy for a pre-night dive and did a short dive in the afternoon exploring the left cove. It was a nice dive, I always enjoyed the rocky formations there with lots of life, but I like right cove much better, maybe it is just familiarity.

Yesterday I had met with my friends from New Jersey, with all the expectations of all the things I have seen here but the ocean was rough and the viz was horrible. I just wanted to share the kind of dive experience I had here with them but the conditions would not allow it 🙁

And what a difference a day makes; today the water was calm and the viz was much better and we saw lots of creatures. The squids were out sucking life out of fish, a tiny seahorse was hiding among the seaweed, a two dimensional moonfish made an appearance, there were many jellyfish getting eaten by the crabs and a cute little box crab was just being too cute. Such is life, you cannot order what you want to see, you take whatever it provides you and hope the best.

#443: 26ft, 50min, 64F. #444: 19ft, 111min, 64F.

Folly Cove – 29 September 2020

January 22, 2021 / reddivinghood / Leave a comment

A little hesitant, I took the monster camera out to Folly Cove this day. Folly Cove is one of the ankle breaker sites with never ending little slippery rocks, a big danger to weak ankles (like mine), even when you don’t carry 20 lbs delicate equipment. And, now that I am carrying this, I know that if I feel like I am losing balance I would just throw myself under it so that it lands safe 😀

We started the dive at the high tide, it wasn’t bad; but also, there were some sand brought in by the storms, which made it easier to get in and out, even for the second dive. To make it easier for the second dive I just left the camera in the water between the dives. Who does that?! 😛

We did two dives, first on the left, second on the right. Both dives were amazing. First dive started with swarming stripers in the shallows. With the sun shining down, reflecting also from the scales of the stripers it made a beautiful sight. I spent quite a bit of time playing with them. And then I noticed a cutest tiny little fish, a baby lumpfish! Such a baby! I chased it, probably too much, before I lost it and then I continued with the dive. But I was already quite happy with the dive before I even hit 6 ft. 😀

Rest of the dive we kept finding more and more lemon nudis at different size, with different colorations, some on the rocks, some squirming away on the sand. There were also a few really beautifully colored, healthy rock gunnels. At the deeper end we were pleased to see a searaven in brown coloration.

Second dive we headed to the right side, swam into the deeper parts. We started noticing the northern puffers appearing, and as we spent time taking photos, few more showed up. We spent lots of time playing with them. On the way back we came across a striking red colored young searaven.

So little did we know. We thought we saw lots of puffers in our dives and we were so happy. However, this night was the night when dozens (?) of divers experienced puffer palooza for the first time, the puffer palooza which rocked the scuba community. Maybe we should have stayed for a night dive?

Buddy: Andrea D.

#439: 45ft, 120min, 52F; #440: 35ft, 78min, 53F

Fort Wetherill – 26 September 2020

January 9, 2021 / reddivinghood / Leave a comment

Oh, yeah, after last dives ego boost with the new camera, I got deflated significantly after this dive.

I did struggle to get the shots I wanted, struggled with the lighting, the angles and the intensity control with TTL, etc. Realizing that there is an ocean of knowledge out there is humbling and good, I have lots of time to improve and learn more. If you could do anything great out of the box what is left in life to look forward to?

#438: 19ft, 91min, 63F

Fort Wetherill – 19 September 2020

January 6, 2021 / reddivinghood / 2 Comments

This is the dive when I finally I gathered courage to put together the monster camera set up and bring it along with me for a night dive.

Last winter, before the Covid times, I bought the full set up Andy (A. Martinez) was selling for his friend. The setup included Nikon D700 camera and Subal housing, with lenses and all accessories for macro and wide angle photography.

I was very excited about the set up but scared to put it underwater, as all of New England divers know, I am pretty good at flooding the cameras, I really cannot give the right care my stuff needs. However, I did get a lot of help from Andy, when I picked up the set up, and Tom, as he was quite familiar with the Subal systems. And finally, just to be sure, I got a vacuum seal system and put it together for a dive.

Since my passion is macro photography underwater, I installed my 55mm macro lens on the camera for its first dive. Throughout the dive I was playing with the camera for different subjects that I was familiar to see through my old Canon G16 set up.

There were more stagnant subjects, flounders and puffers, there were squid vibrating through the water sucking the life out of the fish they just caught, and there were floating larval stuff in the water column, like the eve cartwheeling mantis shrimp. I clicked them all. I really was not expecting much from these photos, as I was warned repeatedly not to be discouraged by the first few sets because there was a learning curve.

The dive was finally over, I flew home, transferred the photos to my computer, and oh boy, I was happy. I was in love with the camera at the first dive. I loved the sharpness but I loved how easily I could get a sharp photo of a floating larval mantis shrimp the most! Getting a decent photo on a larval creature in the water column has been a huge challenge and it has been frustrating me a lot because I really want to do a blackwater dive, eventually. And this night, only a few clicks and I could get a photo of a larval mantis in mid-cartwheel.

That night I went to sleep, feeling quite cocky about my photos, thinking if I really want to take that camera to all the dives I love to do in New England, I should start working out. Because she is a monster!

#437: 17ft, 123min, 63F

Fort Wetherill – 18 September 2020

January 4, 2021 / reddivinghood / Leave a comment

Oh, this dive broke records. For the first time I had 3+ hrs of a dive in New England, usually we run out of air around 2-2:30 hrs or the body cannot handle the cold anymore. But Fort Wetherill in September is just perfect, the water is so warm, and there is so much stuff in the shallows before you know it you have been breathing underwater for over 3 hours.

The dive was full of critters. One of my buddies wanted to see a seahorse, since I am lucky to find one or two in a dive I feel I need to find one for them and until I find one I can’t get peace during the dive. And, luckily, I have been finding them quite early in the dive so I enjoy the rest of the dive.

This dive there were so many cool creature. I swear I have been thinking about the scallops and how I haven’t seen one for a while there and there it was with its bazillion eyes, looking at me. I try to get some photos, but you need patience as they are very shy. Little movement and they closeup and you have to wait motionless for them to get back their confidence and open their eyes. But once they open up it is one of the prettiest photo subjects with the electric blue eyes, flashy lashes and variegated mantle.

From then on the dive kept getting better. The squids all around but there were better excitements. There was a mud shrimp. Funny how you see something for the first time and soon again you see it again, after all those years of diving and not seeing any.

There was a moon fish. This is one of the tropical fish we get to see here, but I rarely see them, maybe because they are two dimensional. They are so thin, that if you are looking from the wrong angle you would totally miss them. When you want to chase them for a photo-op they keep rising in the water column and if you do not pay attention you may find yourself on the surface.

And then there was the sea spider trying to swim in the water column. It was small and it really had no drag in the water, it was frantically moving its legs but i am not sure if it as getting anywhere. It was so cool to see one, I have seen one of these things maybe the first time I dove at Fort Wetherill years ago and I don’t think any ever since. So, it was a totally cool find.

And finally there was a hermit crab which made a home out of something different, maybe a worm casing? It looked like a cone made out of perfectly lined sand particles. It was just resting on an eel grass.

A whole group of amazing creatures and lots of bottom time. Now that’s worth the drive.

#436: 180+min, 18ft, 65F.

Buddies: Tom G., Kim M.