Harry, Jan, and I were fortunate to secure the remaining spots for a charter on Saturday, November 26th, to the wreck of the Alma EA Holmes with Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions.

We were treated to a day of fair weather, good diving, and above all; professional, experienced, and friendly attentive service aboard one of the finest dive charter boats plying East Coast waters. Upon our arrival at the Gauntlet, NADE's dive vessel docked in Salem MA, we were greeted by Captains Heather Knowles and David Caldwell and given a rundown about where to stow our gear, their policies and procedures, and perhaps most importantly, where the head was located!

Once underway we settled into the spacious heated cabin and enjoyed the friendly banter among the divers. On this day the divers included well known and experienced diver as well as our "third" Captain Eric Takakjian; a friendly and knowledgeable gentleman named Pete who was diving with a Re-breather; and a graduating tri-mix student named Kathy.

Upon arriving at the wreck site a shot line was dropped, and Eric and Pete splashed to tie in the line. Once the bag appeared to signal that the tie-in was made, it was retrieved and the boat was secured to the mooring. In minutes Harry and I where seated at the staging table while countless hands made themselves busy assisting us in donning our gear. Unfortunately, one of those persons helping us was Jan as he was not diving due to a problem with his dry-suit. In record time Harry and I where on our way to the Holmes 160 feet below us.

The Alma EA Holmes was a wooden four-masted schooner that sank after being rammed by the steamer Belfast in October of 1914. For a comprehensive historical background and description of the wreck, checkout NADE's website.

As the darkness enveloped us we fired up our lights and cautiously checked for netting that could possibly be lurking about. Once on the wreck I decided to run a line as the visibility and the darkness would make it challenging to navigate around this site that was new to us. Running a line, however, does carry certain risks that one must be aware of. Entanglement may be a problem if a diver is not careful how the line is paid out, either tangling the line in wreckage or around him/herself or dive partner. The added task can also distract a diver from paying attention to his or her surroundings or buddy.

For me, I tend to not pay as much attention to the direction that I am heading in as I should because I am secure in the knowledge that I will get back to where I started. I typically head in the direction in which my beam of light finds something that looks interesting. And so, in the first six minutes of the dive I ended up simply exploring a circle about the size of the average living room and ended up back at my line which was affixed to the hook! Harry must have wondered what I was doing. I quickly retrieved my line and headed off along the remnants of the hull in what we were later told was the stern section of the schooner. There were frames resembling ribs sticking out of the bottom with hull planking affixed horizontally across them. large timbers and iron fittings, as well as shards of broken pottery where scattered about the site. Periodically we would encounter a balled up hunk of net, or some cobweb-like strands of monofilament line. As our midway point of our planned bottom time drew near we turned and followed the now familiar wreckage back to the hook. With stops starting at 80 feet we had another "dive" ahead of us to get to the surface safely. While hanging at the 20 and 10 foot stops I enviously watched Pete, the re-breather diver, silently and serenely glide about at his stop depths.

Back on the boat, again I was aided by "all hands" and before I knew it I was stepping out of my suit into the warm confines of the vessel's cabin in order to change.

A short and enjoyable cruise back to the dock, along with a convenient place to unload our gear and pack the truck, ended a very pleasant day of diving and meeting new and interesting people. After our traditional stop at Burger King a perfect day was complete!

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