Well, here's a belated trip report on my recent visit to Martha's Vineyard. It's been the summer
haven of my extended family for as long as I've been alive (been going since I was 6 - all my
folks have a bit of property up there now). Unfortunately,  I've become disenchanted with the
island's evolution over time, and I don't go as often as I used to. It has been 3 years since
my last visit (I seem to go once every 3 years now for "family" reasons).

Significance being, this was the first trip up there since being certified, so why not check out
the diving.  Apparently, for a place with lots of nice ocean and aquatic life, there isn't a whole
lot of diving going on. AFAIK, there is only one LDS on the island, a very tiny place run out
of the back of the owner's house.  The shop is small, but seems sufficiently stocked. He even
had one Steel 120 for me to rent (Air only - no Nitrox). Apparently, Nitrox is not really needed
up there. So I didn't bother to bring my tanks as they couldn't be refilled there. Not that I needed
them anyway. Before going further, let me say that all the people there (the owner, the instructor
and the DM) were all very nice and gracious, so that wasn't an issue at all.

The issue was, for being the only LDS around, they really don't do a whole lot of diving, and seem
to "avoid it."  Sad to say, I got in only one dive the whole week I was there, albeit a first for me -
my first night dive. The area was called "Hart Haven" (for those who know the Vineyard). We began
at the base of the seawall in Oak Bluffs. To reach the shore line, we had to climb onto a huge
jetty of rocks which were quite treacherous (especially when humping a steel 120 on the back of
your BC), and quite slippery with seaweed etc.  I went with a family of 4 who had recently been
OW'ed by the instructor of the LDS. I buddied with the DM and we kind of went on our own, but we
had to stay close to the others as they were carrying the "Divers Down" flag buoy (a legal requirement
in Mass. and well enforced by the authorities, according to the LDS owner).  There wasn't much to
see ( a lot of sand, few fish, some growth on the jetties etc.), but a "dive is a dive," no? And I guess
it was good to play around in the dark for the first time and remember the navigation skills etc. One
issue was that our point of embarkation was near a pipe that runs between the open sea and a
pond across the street. As it was big enough (more like a water main pipe) to trap a human inside
of it, we were warned by the instructor to stay 20ft. away from it at all times, especially at "flood tide."

Which brings me to the key point of this post (other than the trip report). They do have quite a few
wrecks available for diving in those waters, but because of the geography of the area and therefore
the wild ripping currents encountered, most of those wreck dives come with the a stern warning:
"Dive only at Slack Tide."  For those unfamiliar, "slack tide" or "slack water" is the point at which
the current is stationary (i.e. not flowing in either direction), as opposed to "Flood Tide" when it's
flowing inbound, and "ebb tide" when flowing outbound, usually up to some given speed. On the
day before I left the Vineyard, the LDS had planned to take me out to their "Wreck du Jour," one
called the "Port Hunter":  

http://www.wreckhunter.net/DataPages/porthunter-dat.htm

http://www.mass.gov/czm/buar/shipwrecks/ua-porth.htm

Conveniently located next to "Hedge Fence Shoal" It's in 70-80fsw, but right in the path of one of
the nastiest currents around. Definitely a "Slack Tide only" dive.  My trusty "Electronic Navigation
Chart" software (really nice as the charts come from NOAA itself) tells me that full flood/ebb tide
speed is about 2kts at the East Chop Tide Station (about 1.2 miles away from the wrecksite).

Well, that morning, slack tide was at 9:02am EDT (and again at 15:14).  But, as luck would have
it, the winds were forecast as "out of the north at 15kts with 1-2ft seas." The boat owner called
the dive the night before..... Damn!

I woke up that morning to a really nice sunny day, great surface visibility (could see Hyannis
from Vineyard Haven) and yes, it was breezy but only 1-2ft seas and few if any whitecaps.
Even in my young dive career, I've seen worse than that.  Oh well.

Later in the day, I went to settle the bill with the LDS owner, who BTW, did not charge me for
anything until that point, and never made me fill out one waiver or medical form, not one!!!
They do things differently up there!!!  Anyway, he said that the viz would have been horrible
(normally around 20ft) so the boat owner called it. I tend to believe it may also have been due
to insufficient ridership (just me) but that's my theory. He charged me $25.00 for the previous
night dive (including the 120 rental and fill). I wish I could have done more with them, but I
think his profit model is to be there to support independent divers who dive on their own boats.
My dad has one, and I could have gone diving on his, but sadly, no buddy and no one else in my
family dives. <sigh>  If I had a buddy, I could have done some other things as well (i.e. more
shore stuff). Apparently, one thing they also do is dive the Oak Bluffs Ferry pier (about 23fsw
to the sand - it was dreged for the big SSA car ferries). But you have to do it at the crack of
dawn and well before the first ferry arrives from Woods Hole. I saw no interest in it anyway.
Just my luck some DHS frogman would shoot me as a "terrorist threat" :^)

So that's the report.  The question I have is, has anyone else encountered dive sites or live
near sites in their area where one must truly pay attention to currents etc. to the point where
they must time their dives and do so "only at slack tide" etc.?  This is the only area I've seen
so far that actually comes with said warning. Popeye, have you done any of those Mass. wrecks
(since growing up around there)?


____________________________________________
Regards,

Arnold