I am not so much into wreck diving nor deep diving. I would rather brag about the duration of the dive than the max depth of the dive :). However, some wrecks are exceptional, like the Patriot, which I can’t wait to go back. That’s because of all the life we get to observe around.
So this week I was tricked into Chester Poling dive, because of a resident wolf fish and possibility of seeing a big lumpfish. Also the visibility has been quite good for that site recently. So why not?
We got 32% nitrox, which added around 15 mins to our dive at the Poling. After a short boat ride from the dock we got to the site and jumped in. The visibility was less than what I was hoping for but I would say average for the New England waters.
Due to my ears it took a while to get down. When I finally got down I felt so disoriented. I followed my buddies around, looked around but I really could not enjoy he dive as much. Finally I got myself together, saw a few big doto nudis and I was told by Bert that it was time to go up. Oh well, next time maybe. During the dive I was feeling disappointment on myself for being a rookie and getting all messed up at a deep dive, but then the relief came from my much more experienced diver buddies. They told me that they were highly disoriented during the dive, as well. So, I guess it happens to everyone.
Next we hit the Kettle Island (of course after Dave’s delicious PBJ sandwiches!). That site is one beautiful site. I wished it was shore dive, I would dive it everyday. I think we anchored on the south side of the island. The island forms a wall on the south side with big boulders around. There were many big crevices and tiny caves to look under and the ceilings and walls are covered with lined and frilled anemone. Captain Steve told us about a swim through nobody ever found. We could not find, either. But we found bunch of lobsters, illegal, gunnels, a radiated shanny, and many nudibranchs.
The bad moment of the day was when I found a doto nudibranch stuck to my BCD. I put it back to water but I think I was to late 🙁
Even with much disorientation I could still appreciate the number of fish around in Chester Poling. Maybe I will give another chance to that wreck. Kettle Island was one of the better sites I saw around, I wished the skirts of the wall was not covered with kelp. Kelp is all over the place last two seasons. We need to get some urchins to take care of those.
