AfterDark
Contributor
Friday 7-1-11
The channel at Galilee was my choice for a solo night dive, entering from the Jerusalem side. It was still light outside but dark underwater. The water was clear and warm visibility was about 15’-20’ surface temp of 65F bottom temp 63F. Surprisingly I didn’t see many keeper bugs, maybe it was too early because towards the end of the dive was when I saw the keepers I did see.
I was missing my camera. There were a lot of colorful sponges and other life hanging from the overhead of the big boulders making up the breakwater. I saw a couple of Conger eels, some small togs and lots of blue crabs. Also mussels, hundreds of millions of seedling mussels clinging to the rocks and anything else that doesn’t move. Later in the fall after they get bigger there will be so many a diver will be able to swim through “caverns” of mussels. I’ve never seen this anywhere else. The mussels cling to each other when they run out of other structure and make a structure of themselves. Very cool to swim through especially at night, of course that means Fall so I can wait! Max depth was 28’ new moon tide cut the dive to 33 minutes.
Sunday 7-3-11
Gooseberry Island, Newport. Scootered out to Gooseberry Island with my dive partner Rich. What a beautiful dive. The surge was strong and the surface rough but at 40FSW the visibility was 20’ -25’. Fish were everywhere, at one point we were surrounded by a school of schoolie stripers, they just kept swimming by for what seems like a minute. I followed a large school of tougs around the arches, they all scattered on the other side of the arch when they saw me. Bait fish of all sizes were buzzing around. I found a 40MM anti-aircraft case in 30fsw just lying there like it fell off the ship yesterday instead of 50+ years ago. The head stampings indicate a 1942 date of manufacture CARTRIDGE MK 3 inspector marking #8, it was made into a practice round the primer removed (stakes cut) 4 holes drilled through the case and DUMMY stamped on the head. The water temp was 67F surface and 65F bottom max depth 40fsw total dive time 1hr 30 minutes total trip time 2hr 45 minutes in the water. Lost the top of half of the flag pole with my flag and marker light attached in the cove at Green Bridge my starting point.
Monday 7-4-11 GOD BLESS AMERICA HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Took my lovely wife Donna snorkeling to Green Bridge cove. She had snorkeled there the day before while I dived. She wanted to try and find the flag I lost and she enjoyed it the day before. What’s not to like? So I took the float half and anchored in the area where I thought I lost it, my intention was to use the float as the center of a circular search pattern. While I rigged it up Donna swam around and found the flag! So much for orderly and organized searches!
The visibility was a clear 20’ with a little surge at the mouth of the cove. We dove the incoming tide so the surge what there was of it pushed us back into the cove. Lots a minnows, crabs, eels, star fish, small, like quarter size flatfish, also small togs eating crabs. After 2 hours in the water I got cold in my ill- fitting 3mm jump suit with a 2mm hooded vest. Donna stayed in another 15 minutes with her form fitting 5mm jump suit.
The channel at Galilee was my choice for a solo night dive, entering from the Jerusalem side. It was still light outside but dark underwater. The water was clear and warm visibility was about 15’-20’ surface temp of 65F bottom temp 63F. Surprisingly I didn’t see many keeper bugs, maybe it was too early because towards the end of the dive was when I saw the keepers I did see.
I was missing my camera. There were a lot of colorful sponges and other life hanging from the overhead of the big boulders making up the breakwater. I saw a couple of Conger eels, some small togs and lots of blue crabs. Also mussels, hundreds of millions of seedling mussels clinging to the rocks and anything else that doesn’t move. Later in the fall after they get bigger there will be so many a diver will be able to swim through “caverns” of mussels. I’ve never seen this anywhere else. The mussels cling to each other when they run out of other structure and make a structure of themselves. Very cool to swim through especially at night, of course that means Fall so I can wait! Max depth was 28’ new moon tide cut the dive to 33 minutes.
Sunday 7-3-11
Gooseberry Island, Newport. Scootered out to Gooseberry Island with my dive partner Rich. What a beautiful dive. The surge was strong and the surface rough but at 40FSW the visibility was 20’ -25’. Fish were everywhere, at one point we were surrounded by a school of schoolie stripers, they just kept swimming by for what seems like a minute. I followed a large school of tougs around the arches, they all scattered on the other side of the arch when they saw me. Bait fish of all sizes were buzzing around. I found a 40MM anti-aircraft case in 30fsw just lying there like it fell off the ship yesterday instead of 50+ years ago. The head stampings indicate a 1942 date of manufacture CARTRIDGE MK 3 inspector marking #8, it was made into a practice round the primer removed (stakes cut) 4 holes drilled through the case and DUMMY stamped on the head. The water temp was 67F surface and 65F bottom max depth 40fsw total dive time 1hr 30 minutes total trip time 2hr 45 minutes in the water. Lost the top of half of the flag pole with my flag and marker light attached in the cove at Green Bridge my starting point.
Monday 7-4-11 GOD BLESS AMERICA HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Took my lovely wife Donna snorkeling to Green Bridge cove. She had snorkeled there the day before while I dived. She wanted to try and find the flag I lost and she enjoyed it the day before. What’s not to like? So I took the float half and anchored in the area where I thought I lost it, my intention was to use the float as the center of a circular search pattern. While I rigged it up Donna swam around and found the flag! So much for orderly and organized searches!
The visibility was a clear 20’ with a little surge at the mouth of the cove. We dove the incoming tide so the surge what there was of it pushed us back into the cove. Lots a minnows, crabs, eels, star fish, small, like quarter size flatfish, also small togs eating crabs. After 2 hours in the water I got cold in my ill- fitting 3mm jump suit with a 2mm hooded vest. Donna stayed in another 15 minutes with her form fitting 5mm jump suit.
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