- Messages
- 93,492
- Reaction score
- 91,872
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Sund Rock ... today was to be dives # 699 and 700 for Cheng, and 1,999 and 2,000 for me. Weather was awesome ... we arrived along with a half-dozen friends, set up our canopy, tables, and BBQ, and geared up for some diving.
Dive 1 - dropped down in about 23 feet of water ... almost right on top of the largest octopus I've seen in a long time ... I'd guesstimate this animal to be about 10 feet tip-to-tip and weigh maybe 75-80 lbs. He had apparently just finished a Happy Meal, because although we could tell from his eyes that he was watching us, he was pretty lethargic. We took a few pictues and moved on. The lower part of the Canal's still covered in silt from the winter floods, but viz wasn't bad ... maybe 15-20 feet. We made our way along the bottom of the wall, getting a few pictures. At 23 minutes into the dive ... almost at our turnaround point, Cheng got my attention and signaled she was having a problem, and gave me a hand signal that I could only interpret to mean her drysuit was flooding. She signaled turnaround and so we headed back toward the entry cove. Along the way she got me to understand that her left wrist seal had sprung a leak, and through "progress reports" let me know how far the water had traveled up her arm, down her torso, and finally indicating that she was wet all the way to her feet. We got out of the water, and she she pulled off her dry glove, water just poured out of her sleeve.
Things were not looking good for the "century" dive.
We'd brought along fixings for a BBQ, and one of our friends had made a cake (with little icing Jet fins, no less). So we spread her wet things out in the wind and sun, hoping they'd dry in time for us to get in a second dive. I figured a little duct tape on the wrist seal and she'd be good to go.
As we were eating, the tide went out ... a lot. The wind picked up ... from the north ... kicking up some serious chop. We watched in dismay as the water turned a sickly brown from all the silt getting kicked up.
Things were REALLY not looking good for the second dive.
After the BBQ and cake I was messing about with Cheng's suit ... thinking this was not really gonna work ... when Loogpla suddenly said she had a headache and didn't want to do the second dive. "Cheng, you're about my size. Why don't you just wear my suit and you and Bob can go diving."
A headache of convenience, perhaps? Loogpla's such a nice person ... I tend to think so.
So we got all geared up. Linda ... Loogpla's dive buddy ... joined Cheng and I for the dive. We got in the water ... which along the shore looked like maybe six inches or so of vis ... geared up, and kicked out to the buoy that marks the Fish Bowl. Dropping down I realized vis wasn't going to get any better. At the bottom ... about 25 feet down ... vis was maybe 3 feet. Hmmm ... braille dive with a 3-person buddy team, and one of them with a little eLED light. This is gonna be fun. I took a compass heading and headed for the north wall.
We did eventually find the wall ... but mostly because we swam down to 70 feet, turned north to about where I thought it should be, then turned west till we hit it ... literally. You couldn't see it till the wall was about a foot from your mask. We swam around a bit ... amazingly, even found a few things to take pictures of ... then decided to head up to the top of the wall and back toward the fish bowl. Vis was so bad you literally had to keep touch contact with your dive buddy. Forget seeing Linda's little LED light ... she told us late she couldn't even see our HID's. At 23 feet I signaled a direct ascent ... and we did an instrument ascent, staying within arm's reach of each other so we could at least make out silhouettes as the ambient light got a little better.
Once we hit the surface, Linda said something about what a great dive it was and we just broke out laughing. I pointed out that we'd managed to find the wall and not lose each other, and that was worth some points.
Overall a great day, despite less than optimal conditions. Shared it with some great friends. And I promised Cheng that when she hit 1,000 dives we'd go someplace where the vis was a little better.
A coupla pics ...
Mr. Big
700 + 2,000
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Dive 1 - dropped down in about 23 feet of water ... almost right on top of the largest octopus I've seen in a long time ... I'd guesstimate this animal to be about 10 feet tip-to-tip and weigh maybe 75-80 lbs. He had apparently just finished a Happy Meal, because although we could tell from his eyes that he was watching us, he was pretty lethargic. We took a few pictues and moved on. The lower part of the Canal's still covered in silt from the winter floods, but viz wasn't bad ... maybe 15-20 feet. We made our way along the bottom of the wall, getting a few pictures. At 23 minutes into the dive ... almost at our turnaround point, Cheng got my attention and signaled she was having a problem, and gave me a hand signal that I could only interpret to mean her drysuit was flooding. She signaled turnaround and so we headed back toward the entry cove. Along the way she got me to understand that her left wrist seal had sprung a leak, and through "progress reports" let me know how far the water had traveled up her arm, down her torso, and finally indicating that she was wet all the way to her feet. We got out of the water, and she she pulled off her dry glove, water just poured out of her sleeve.
Things were not looking good for the "century" dive.
We'd brought along fixings for a BBQ, and one of our friends had made a cake (with little icing Jet fins, no less). So we spread her wet things out in the wind and sun, hoping they'd dry in time for us to get in a second dive. I figured a little duct tape on the wrist seal and she'd be good to go.
As we were eating, the tide went out ... a lot. The wind picked up ... from the north ... kicking up some serious chop. We watched in dismay as the water turned a sickly brown from all the silt getting kicked up.
Things were REALLY not looking good for the second dive.
After the BBQ and cake I was messing about with Cheng's suit ... thinking this was not really gonna work ... when Loogpla suddenly said she had a headache and didn't want to do the second dive. "Cheng, you're about my size. Why don't you just wear my suit and you and Bob can go diving."
A headache of convenience, perhaps? Loogpla's such a nice person ... I tend to think so.
So we got all geared up. Linda ... Loogpla's dive buddy ... joined Cheng and I for the dive. We got in the water ... which along the shore looked like maybe six inches or so of vis ... geared up, and kicked out to the buoy that marks the Fish Bowl. Dropping down I realized vis wasn't going to get any better. At the bottom ... about 25 feet down ... vis was maybe 3 feet. Hmmm ... braille dive with a 3-person buddy team, and one of them with a little eLED light. This is gonna be fun. I took a compass heading and headed for the north wall.
We did eventually find the wall ... but mostly because we swam down to 70 feet, turned north to about where I thought it should be, then turned west till we hit it ... literally. You couldn't see it till the wall was about a foot from your mask. We swam around a bit ... amazingly, even found a few things to take pictures of ... then decided to head up to the top of the wall and back toward the fish bowl. Vis was so bad you literally had to keep touch contact with your dive buddy. Forget seeing Linda's little LED light ... she told us late she couldn't even see our HID's. At 23 feet I signaled a direct ascent ... and we did an instrument ascent, staying within arm's reach of each other so we could at least make out silhouettes as the ambient light got a little better.
Once we hit the surface, Linda said something about what a great dive it was and we just broke out laughing. I pointed out that we'd managed to find the wall and not lose each other, and that was worth some points.
Overall a great day, despite less than optimal conditions. Shared it with some great friends. And I promised Cheng that when she hit 1,000 dives we'd go someplace where the vis was a little better.
A coupla pics ...
Mr. Big
700 + 2,000
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Stories like that really remind me how spoiled I am most of the time!
