Trip Report 5.17.08

[Dive bunny]

The H2O Below left with a full boat on Saturday morning, heading to the 2nd Anniversary party on top the Oriskany. We met all our friends 23 miles off shore and dropped in the water for the party. The water temp was in the low 70s and the vis was about 30 ft. Unusually low vis for this time of year but the wind and weather has kept it stirred up. I went immediately to visit my two Octopus friends – Ofilia and Fallon. I was surprised to find a new member of the family – a small male Octopus, I quickly named Float because he wasn’t attached to anything or hiding in a hole. He was just floating near the entrance of Fallon’s lair. I left them alone and went to visit Ofilia. She had her big red nose sticking out of her window to the undersea world as if she was waiting to see me. I swam up and said hello. She put one arm out in a wave, so I put one finger up to the hole about four inches away. I always say don’t touch the wildlife but she started it!

Then she did the most amazing thing, she slowly reached over and held my finger. It scared me so bad that I pulled my hand back and scared her too! I waited a minute, caught my breathe and put my finger back up. Again she reached out and held my finger again. Her suckers on my bare finger felt weird and I laughed at her. Laughing flooded my mask and when I cleared it, I think she laughed back at me! Ofilia then reached out with another arm to get a better grip. She must have decided that I did not taste very good so she let go. I watched her for another minute and as I backed away she came out of her hiding hole a little more. I said good-bye for now and moved away so the diver behind me could visit with her.

I swam over to check again on Fallon, and Float was gone. Fallon looked fine and I was headed for the surface. We had an hour surface interval. While we were soaking up the sun and laughing at Captain Douglas’ stories, one of our group from South Carolina said “hey, what’s that?” He was pointing to a piece of saw grass that was drifting by. I said “Saw grass?” “No attached to the grass” he said. Sure enough it was a seahorse riding along with the current. A couple of minutes later another piece of grass came floating by with the slight surface current and attached was another Seahorse. “Must be the same one” I said but was quickly corrected that the current was only going one way. (Blond moment) How rare it is to see one seahorse on the surface but to see two was a real treat. Cathy, Dive Master jumped in the water with a camera and got an excellent picture of the seahorse that was about three inches long. She promised to email the picture and I’ll get it on here later.

The second dive I checked out several different spots. I spend time following a videographer from South Carolina around looking at him while he looked at my favorite spot on the planet.

The next day – Sunday 5.18.08, we got an early start at 7:00a.m. Our new friends from South Carolina had an eight hour drive that afternoon and wanted an earlier start. We were out at Pete’s Tide by 7:45. Pete’s looked great on top but when we got to around 45 feet, vis went to whale snot (Kristal owns that phrase). It cleared when you got to the wreck but only to about 20 feet. I was on an Easter eggs hunt! What’s an Easter Egg Hunt underwater? Well all our fishing boats leave lead weights on the wrecks. I swim around and collect these weights. When I get about 100 pounds, which doesn’t take as long as you would think, the Captain melts them down for me and we make dive weights that are shaped like fish. They weigh a perfect two pounds. Denise has one I made her for good luck and MBT has several. They are very cute.

The second dive was the TEX Edward. Not much to say about it. I found some more weights but the vis was CRAPOLA. We had the South Carolina crew back to the dock by 11:30 and had time for a cookout that afternoon. It was a great day on board the H2O Below.

Can’t wait for this Friday, when I get to do it all over again! Yes, I am a spoiled brat!