Part 3 – The night dive … and the real reason we went to Greenport …
The Night Dive …
What do you add to freezing air temps and frigid water temps to make it even better … of course … DARKNESS ….
The night dive went off quite well. By now my nephew was a pro at getting me geared up, Stephen had gotten his weight right, and I had finally sealed the leak in my dry glove. We had two brand new IST tank light sticks – these puppies are like little light sabers. The do eat batteries though. We did discover that the rechargeable that is included was pretty much worthless – only lasting 30 minutes – so if you’re interested in these lights, skip the rechargeable option and get better batteries from Radio Shack.
Dressed in full black ninja dive gear, we slipped into the water and descended into a whole other world. There was a whole lot more life in the water – most of it very small, but a lot of it. We finally found a small lobster tucked into a crevice – OK – all we saw was the claw, but it was there. We found a few lobster fry, several amazing little puffer fish – apparently they’re being reintroduced to the Sound by some state program - and dozens of very tiny squid just darting all over.
We did about 40 minutes before our finger tips once again froze solid. Coming up out of the water, we noticed we had attracted a little crowd on the beach. While it’s apparently quite easy to slip unnoticed onto a dark beach when dressed in full black gear – the sight of a large green light pool in the water does attract attention. Several of the condo owners had noticed the little light show and come out to watch our progress as we traversed up and down the shoreline. I think they were all hoping for some alien UFO kind of event, but they were all happy to see us crawl out of the surf none the less.
And now – The real reason we went to Greenport … (This is the sappy part …
My parents were married in November of 1958, and immediately moved to a small trailer in Clarksville Tennessee where my Dad was stationed as a paratrooper with the 101st Army airborne. Six weeks later, on their first Christmas, he went out and got a small, pink plastic Christmas tree and a set of little frosted blue bells. It was their first tree.
Over the years, the got tree bigger and fancier, they moved back to Long Island, and had two kids, but those same blue frosted bells were hung on our tree every Christmas. Twenty five years later, I married my college sweetheart and Mom and Dad gave us 8 of those original blue frosted bells for our own tree. When my sister got married a few years later, she got 8 too.
For the next 25 years, the tradition of the blue frosted bells continued, 8 bells in Connecticut, 8 bells in Texas, and the rest of them back home on Long Island with Mom and Dad.
This year marked the 50th time those bells got hung. Just before we left Texas my Dad called me and asked me to bring our bells with us. He asked my sister to do the same. Then he went out and bought a little plastic Christmas tree and had it spray painted pink.
On January 2nd he surprised Mom with a little bit of family history - for the first time in 25 years, all the bells were back together, and for the first time in 50 years, the blue frosted bells hung on a little pink Christmas tree …
Those of you who read my September trip report should remember my Mom – she’s the one who hosed me down after each dive.
Thanks Mom and Dad for making it all possible – and we really do enjoy diving off your beach.
