Maine lighthouses dive series
During the last few days I had some out of state guests (Allan, Rob, and Barb) who wanted to go diving and do some sightseeing in Maine. So I decided to make it a series of dives with a theme: dive sites near light houses.
On Wednesday we did Two Lights dive site in Cape Elizabeth.
The dive was at high tide (we have 10 foot tides here) which makes for a much easier entry and it was a decent dive, but the visibility was less than average (about 10 ft max). We normally don’t have great visibility, but this was worse than average.
Here is a description of the site:
http://home.gwi.net/~spectrum/scubasite_2lights.html
Two Lights
On Thursday we did Ships Cove at Fort Williams, Cape Elizabeth. Portland Head Light is in the Fort Williams Park.
I always enjoy this dive, but again the visibility this day was very poor.
Here is a description of the site:
http://home.gwi.net/~spectrum/scubasite_shipscove.html
Portland Head Light
On Friday we went up to Rachel Carson Salt Pond, Bristol. This is one of the best dives in Maine.
In this dive you can swim a short distance to go down to 90 ft deep (or more) and see at least three very different zones of marine life. There is some kelp on the shallow, rocky ledges with fish, crabs, lobsters, and lots of sea stars. On the deep section there are normally some great looking anemones.
The entry is through a cove that becomes a pond at low tide. To be able to swim out (and back in) you have to enter around high tide. If you don’t time the tides right it becomes a messy walk back over seaweeds.
This was a great dive, but only three of us were able to go down to check out the anemones. One of the divers had problems equalizing his ears due to a cold. The visibility was variable, but it was not too bad.
The dive site is very close to the Pemaquid Point lighthouse. This is the light house on the Maine state quarter.
Pemaquid Point lighthouse is a beautiful sight with a nice restaurant next to it where we had a great lunch.
Pemaquid Point lighthouse
Our friends were not able to stay for the dive we had planned for Saturday.
The Saturday dive was at Nubble light, which is a great dive. We get many divers that come up from New Hampshire and Massachusetts to dive at Nubble. I even know a dive master in Cozumel that came up to Nubble light to dive. He has dove it several times. I was surprised. It is a great dive, but it is still cold water.
This was the best dive of the week. The visibility was good and there was plentiful marine life.
We had three other divers join Christine and me: my neighbor (Paul), Chrissie and Dave.
The lighthouse is actually on an island right in front of the park.
Here is a description of the site:
http://home.gwi.net/~spectrum/scubasite_nubble.html
Nubble light
The lighthouse pictures above are from the web, but I hope to see some more pictures.