MRXRAY
Contributor
Well with this dive in my backyard I keep finding it more and more difficult to go anywhere else. Every dive seems to offer more to see both in terms of rubble and life. I was joined by CMUFieldHockey8, Halftime, GlenFWB, and Halftimes Friend from Italy. Our first dive had us entering the water at 5:52PM and we made a B-Line for the Bridge rubble. Nearly the first thing we came across was our old friend the giant Loggerhead, he was hiding away in one of his two turtle caves, but it wasn't long afterward that he decided to come out and play. Let me tell you that this turtle is a ham! He loves to get close to divers and makes a point to give more than just a couple good "Kodak Moments". I'm going to take the time to name him "Chunk" as he is both huge (Chunky) and has a chunk of his rear flipper missing. The sun was dropping quick from the sky and I think that this contributed to the somewhat lack of fish as most had probably made for a hiding spot. But we did see a scopionfish, some Angels, some juvenile Grouper, a couple huge grouper hiding, a remorrah, a few mackeral, some spades and a few sheepshead. No big shools of snapper. Oh and did I mention the Octopus.......They were everywhere! THey were just starting to become active and come out of hiding at the end of our first dive but we saw at least 10. We ended up with a bottom time of 70 minutes which put me on the beach at 7:01. We had a max depth of 24 feet a tmep of 78* (It's coming up slowly). And viz was upward of 20 feet although I'd put the average closer to 15.
After we hit the beach and debriefed a bit, we said goodbye to GlenFWB (He had something to do more important than diving), and we degassed and repaired and prepared for our night dive. And what a dive it was! We hit the water at 8:34PM and again headed for the rubble. ALmost right off the bat we saw another smaller turtle with a much cleaner shell. And the Octopus were everywhere. Stasia and I watched one Octopus for a long while trying to make his way into a clear plastic drink cup. The largest Octopus by far during the night was half in and out of some PVC pipe (T), and I'll tell you he was huge. We never got to see his whole mantel but he made that PVC look Tiny! We got to see Chunk again as well, and 2 different Scorpion fish as well as a ton of Scraweled Cowfish.....They were everywhere. We spooked one with our lights and in true Cow fashion he charged me and did a full on head butt into my chest. I nearly spit out my regulator with laughter!
I didn't take my camea on the night dive as the lights just add to the tangle possibilities, so it stayed on the shore:depressed: . What a mistake! The night dive was awesome, more than I could have hoped for! Lots of other fish abounded this dive including, saltwater Catfish, Grouper, sheepshead, Flounder, Mackeral, Spades, oh that reminds me we saw the biggest spade I've ever seen hanging out, must have been 16+ inches around. We also saw a massive Stingray, again it was Soooooooooo Cool
It kind of took flight off the sand and hovered around us for awhile and as if not real concerned about our presence circled around us for a while and then slowly and oh so gracefully drifted out of sight. He was massive!!! I'd have to guess over 5 foot across! What an awesome dive!!!! We ended up under water 93 minutes, at a max depth of 24 feet, and the water temp was 78*. I'd say the viz with my light was about 8-10 feet but with Stasia Torch we were easily seeing 15! Thanks to all that came out for an awesome dive!!!!
After we hit the beach and debriefed a bit, we said goodbye to GlenFWB (He had something to do more important than diving), and we degassed and repaired and prepared for our night dive. And what a dive it was! We hit the water at 8:34PM and again headed for the rubble. ALmost right off the bat we saw another smaller turtle with a much cleaner shell. And the Octopus were everywhere. Stasia and I watched one Octopus for a long while trying to make his way into a clear plastic drink cup. The largest Octopus by far during the night was half in and out of some PVC pipe (T), and I'll tell you he was huge. We never got to see his whole mantel but he made that PVC look Tiny! We got to see Chunk again as well, and 2 different Scorpion fish as well as a ton of Scraweled Cowfish.....They were everywhere. We spooked one with our lights and in true Cow fashion he charged me and did a full on head butt into my chest. I nearly spit out my regulator with laughter!
I didn't take my camea on the night dive as the lights just add to the tangle possibilities, so it stayed on the shore:depressed: . What a mistake! The night dive was awesome, more than I could have hoped for! Lots of other fish abounded this dive including, saltwater Catfish, Grouper, sheepshead, Flounder, Mackeral, Spades, oh that reminds me we saw the biggest spade I've ever seen hanging out, must have been 16+ inches around. We also saw a massive Stingray, again it was Soooooooooo Cool It kind of took flight off the sand and hovered around us for awhile and as if not real concerned about our presence circled around us for a while and then slowly and oh so gracefully drifted out of sight. He was massive!!! I'd have to guess over 5 foot across! What an awesome dive!!!! We ended up under water 93 minutes, at a max depth of 24 feet, and the water temp was 78*. I'd say the viz with my light was about 8-10 feet but with Stasia Torch we were easily seeing 15! Thanks to all that came out for an awesome dive!!!!
I'm gonna miss Halftime. One of the MIB will be MIA.
