BabyDuck
Contributor
wednesday i got back offshore after a hiatus of over 2 years! it was also my first singles dive in 2 years. i had a blast! went with olympus on the midnight express.
tuesday afternoon found me trying to put together a set of gear. a friend had serviced my singles regs, but they were still in the baggies so i had to assemble them. another buddy very graciously met me halfway sunday with the steel plate i had lent her, but of course it had been adjusted for her slenderificness, so all that had to be messed with & tweaked. i had to reattach boltsnaps and pockets, move my knife and can light over, and fiddle with pretty much everything. it was fun! so i packed my little duffel with dry undies and towel and sunscreen and snacks, and a tiny cooler with some frozen waters and cool diet dr pepper, and tried & tried to make jameson go to sleep.
i would say 4am came suddenly, but i really started waking up at 2 because i was so excited. mama came in at 4 to nap in my bed (baby sleeps in a co-sleeper attached to the bed) & i got dressed & grabbed my charged can light battery & went out to wait for joe. he's my aunt's husband & likes to dive a lot, too. anyway, off we went to morehead. smooth trip. i wet-pressure-tested my regs in the dunk tank before loading them onto the boat, which i thought was a good thing to do. captain - bobby, dms - john and mark.
trip out was a bit choppy. not enough to be 'rough', but unsettling. i was doing a lot of horizon gazing.
stopped at the former papoose, dm hooked in, we're all dressing...and i had to go to the stern. bye-bye, little ham biscuit. ok after that, though. joe was worried about his ears, i was worried about my weighting (based on al80 2 years and 25lbs ago, diving al100 - yeah, i succumbed to peer pressure...everyone else was diving 100's). so we met up at the hang line & checked ourselves out. all clear, and we're off! i run immediately into a long jellyfish stinger stuck to the line. caught me, of course, across the upper lip between mask & reg.
the dive was wonderful. ok, the vis wasn't anything to write home about - about 30ft or so. but 73 degrees, no current, *lots* of fish. queen angels, fairy basslets, fireworms, baitfish of different kinds everywhere, bigger generic fish, lots of squirrel fish, little thimble jellies, FOUR LARGE SAND TIGERS, and LION FISH! yep, i've seen my first nc lion fish!! the sand tigers were kinda under the stern. i sorta floated softly through the swim-through on top and in front of them to get closer. wow...
we swam fairly slowly over the whole stern section. the other time i was there i think we were on the more forward bits. anyway, as an aside, i think i'm (finally!) getting comfortable enough with the diving mechanics that other things can take up some bandwidth. i found both here and on the sub that the wrecks just made more cohesive sense. maybe caves will, now, too.
didn't eat much on the 2 hr si. felt ok, but didn't want to risk it. we stayed on the top of the sub since we didn't have a lot of ndl. not a sacrifice, since there was a lot going on there! queen angels again, those bright yellow fish-shaped fish (not tang shaped), little not-arrow crabs, lots of conch-y type things or larger hermit crabs, and TWO MORAYS! the ecu-fan ones, purple and gold.
i felt great on the return trip. it wasn't hot, i was in the shade on deck, the breeze was cool, i dozed sitting up pretty much the whole time. got on well with diving the single, my back kick was working to go backwards instead of up, felt really really good. a great reintroduction to our wonderful offshore waters! of course, the crew & staff at olympus were pleasant & chatty. i like the new (to me) shop folks that i met. just a fine, fine day.
tuesday afternoon found me trying to put together a set of gear. a friend had serviced my singles regs, but they were still in the baggies so i had to assemble them. another buddy very graciously met me halfway sunday with the steel plate i had lent her, but of course it had been adjusted for her slenderificness, so all that had to be messed with & tweaked. i had to reattach boltsnaps and pockets, move my knife and can light over, and fiddle with pretty much everything. it was fun! so i packed my little duffel with dry undies and towel and sunscreen and snacks, and a tiny cooler with some frozen waters and cool diet dr pepper, and tried & tried to make jameson go to sleep.
i would say 4am came suddenly, but i really started waking up at 2 because i was so excited. mama came in at 4 to nap in my bed (baby sleeps in a co-sleeper attached to the bed) & i got dressed & grabbed my charged can light battery & went out to wait for joe. he's my aunt's husband & likes to dive a lot, too. anyway, off we went to morehead. smooth trip. i wet-pressure-tested my regs in the dunk tank before loading them onto the boat, which i thought was a good thing to do. captain - bobby, dms - john and mark.
trip out was a bit choppy. not enough to be 'rough', but unsettling. i was doing a lot of horizon gazing.
stopped at the former papoose, dm hooked in, we're all dressing...and i had to go to the stern. bye-bye, little ham biscuit. ok after that, though. joe was worried about his ears, i was worried about my weighting (based on al80 2 years and 25lbs ago, diving al100 - yeah, i succumbed to peer pressure...everyone else was diving 100's). so we met up at the hang line & checked ourselves out. all clear, and we're off! i run immediately into a long jellyfish stinger stuck to the line. caught me, of course, across the upper lip between mask & reg.
the dive was wonderful. ok, the vis wasn't anything to write home about - about 30ft or so. but 73 degrees, no current, *lots* of fish. queen angels, fairy basslets, fireworms, baitfish of different kinds everywhere, bigger generic fish, lots of squirrel fish, little thimble jellies, FOUR LARGE SAND TIGERS, and LION FISH! yep, i've seen my first nc lion fish!! the sand tigers were kinda under the stern. i sorta floated softly through the swim-through on top and in front of them to get closer. wow...
we swam fairly slowly over the whole stern section. the other time i was there i think we were on the more forward bits. anyway, as an aside, i think i'm (finally!) getting comfortable enough with the diving mechanics that other things can take up some bandwidth. i found both here and on the sub that the wrecks just made more cohesive sense. maybe caves will, now, too.
didn't eat much on the 2 hr si. felt ok, but didn't want to risk it. we stayed on the top of the sub since we didn't have a lot of ndl. not a sacrifice, since there was a lot going on there! queen angels again, those bright yellow fish-shaped fish (not tang shaped), little not-arrow crabs, lots of conch-y type things or larger hermit crabs, and TWO MORAYS! the ecu-fan ones, purple and gold.
i felt great on the return trip. it wasn't hot, i was in the shade on deck, the breeze was cool, i dozed sitting up pretty much the whole time. got on well with diving the single, my back kick was working to go backwards instead of up, felt really really good. a great reintroduction to our wonderful offshore waters! of course, the crew & staff at olympus were pleasant & chatty. i like the new (to me) shop folks that i met. just a fine, fine day.
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