Two tanks for me!

August 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Well here it is another Saturday, and another dive day. Well this week is as good as it gets.

We decided on doing a two tank dive this week. The weather was perfect at the beach. 75 degree’s a slight breeze and sunny. What better time for the shore support team to enjoy the beach right? Our shore support team consists of my wife Amy A.K.A. Goobs as we call her, my 2 daughters Amber and Ansley, and my Newest edition to the clan, Grady, our 1 year old son. Granted he don’t offer much in the way of support, but he sure is cute all full of sand walking around the beach. Our goal this week was simple, 1st round up some nice Fillet of Tautog, then on to some Buffahogs. The Tautog fillets are pretty straight forward, but the Buffahogs need a little explaining. You see, my Son and dive buddy Greg II is a fanatic for Hot Sauce, much as many boys in the age group of 10 – 16 seem to be lately. Everyone I talk to with a son in this age group says the same thing, that their kid has an unexplained desire to drink it straight from the bottle. We were beginning to wonder if he was “normal” or if he had something wrong with him. Well turns out he is normal, so if your son suddenly is sneaking around with a bottle in his pocket, as long as it’s good ole’ hot sauce, he’s normal. If he is not, you need to buy some and let him try it, you never know. Well anyway on to what a Buffahogs is. You take a medium sized Quahog, steam it until it is nice and open, then while it is on a half shell, use a butter knife to totally separate it from its shell, put a pat of some real butter under the clam meat so it melts, add a good splash of Hot Sauce, and just a dab of lemon juice freshly squeezed onto it, and slurp it from the shell. You can also add things such as some fresh chopped Cilantro or whatever herb you like best. Let me tell you, this is an addicting little treat, so much so that even my daughters are starting to cut into our supplies.

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Just Another Day at the Beach

July 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Well here is another dive day. This Saturday we figured we would head down to a little place called King’s Beach in Newport RI. We figured we would head here for some Spearfishing action since this is the spot where the U.S. Championship Freediving Spearfishing Tournament is going to be held. I mean how could you lose at a spot where the Championships are held right?

Well here is how. First what you need to do is wait until the perfect hurricane forms off the Florida coast, then wait till it kicks up a notch or 2, then head down to your favorite spot and watch visibility drop from 0 feet to a negative number. I know it seems impossible, but trust me, been in New England all my life, good visibility here is a myth. Yea yea, we sometimes get 10 – 15 feet and once in 2 years now I seen visibility hit 20 – 30 feet. Was the best dive I ever had too, but on average, you’re lucky if visibility hits 5 – 10 feet on good days. Some dive spots are notorious around here for poor visibility in the summer months, like Fort Wetherill, King’s beach, our coastline in general.

You see, a lot of people don’t realize a few things about Rhode Island (not an Island, it’s just its Name) for instance that here, we get the Gulf Stream just about touching our shore line. This means that yes we have warmer water then the two states next door on average, but it also means we have less visibility. You see, when a hurricane or tropical storm forms on the Atlantic Ocean, the gulfstream is always in its wake. This kicks up debris in the water and that fast moving, warm current, Gulf Stream pushes all the debris right into our shoreline. So if we even hear of a storm of any type “forming” in the ocean, we know we’re in for a tough time.

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Tautog Hunting or Swept away!!!

July 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Man oh Man I love Mother Nature and the way she toys with man. The Blackfish season is open again here in Rhode Island. I love hunting for Black Fish. They are actually called Tautog but their common name is Black Fish. Whatever you call them, they’re delicious. Nice thick fillets, tender mild flesh, no matter how ya slice em, they’re good for everything from Fish and Chip’s (my favorite), to some good old fashioned Fish Chowder. We love to hunt them in one of their favorite haunts in this area. Sure you can find them at Fort Wetherill, along the cliff walls that drop down to 50 feet or so and are littered with boulders everywhere, But The breakers at Point Judith are tops.

That long strip heading southeast, is about a mile long, made of boulders, and all of them are covered in Tautog food. Mussels, Lobsters, Crabs, heck you name it, it lives in the boulders here. We start at the beach you can see in the picture above, on the eastern side of this wall. We swim all the way out to almost the tip of these breakers. At high tide it’s about 25’ – 35’ deep, and loaded with fresh food for everyone. We tend to descend about 25 – 50 feet from the tip, due to the fact that the current at the tip can be some of the worst Rhode Island has to offer. To explain this area better, to the east is another breaker, not much chance of being able to miss them if you tried, to the west is Europe.


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