BabyDuck
Contributor
i was so tired when i got to discovery diving in beaufort saturday around noon. i had worked 11p-7a the night before then hopped in the car & drove. yay coffee! i checked in at the desk and put my gear bag together and took a little nap in the hammocks they have strung under the trees (very nice!) while waiting for my buddies on the morning boat. the morning boat came in while i was dozing. thank goodness i had to wake up & 'visit the facilities', because i found mike (mike loyco) & ken (kwickert) inside! the afternoon boat went to the indra. the guys were very good making me & each other comfortable with planning, discussing signals, turn-arounds, etc. it was my longest dive, at 52 min. it was also my first dive off the ndl charts since it wasn't square but started around the boat and spiraled up and through. i went to check it on the tables after & was surprised! i was *very* careful not to touch anything since i didn't have on gloves and there were urchins everywhere. into & through the holds, lots of fish, kept up with each other well. ken was disgusted at the somersaults and barrel rolls i was doing because i was so happy 
. clear, warm, just lovely. we got back to the dock about 7:15 and unloaded stuff, and i called marc (my instructor, if anyone recalls.) he and jo were home and invited us over, so we went for 30 or so min. he gave us the skinny on all the wrecks in the area so we could have a knowledgeable vote on the boat the next morning. i didn't really care - it's all good to me, since i've never been on any of them. back to the dorm, showered, & went looking for food. the boys looked much better than i did! a polo & a button-down, and there's me in a crappy tshirt. oh well. lots of places were still open for drinks, but only raps still had an open kitchen, so that's where we ended up after stopping 3 other places. good food & conversation, though i was so tired. didn't hook up with gerry (under h2o), then, though - we thought maybe he was already at the dorm for the night & got to chat with him a bit the next morning.
to bed at 11. 5am came very quickly. nobody in the whole place snored enough to wake me up! in the shop, i got some thin gloves with suede palms. then ken & i walked to hardee's so i could get a ham biscuit & some coffee. on the boat, the vote came down to the 352 and the spar. nice enough ride out, a few whitecaps but not rough. ick, put on the wet wetsuit. it started raining. eh, just gonna get wet one way or the other. spash, jump in. still so clear and warm. my deepest dive, 110ft. i didn't notice a thing narc-wise, kept a close eye on the time since i was on air. we stuck our heads in the holes. in my opinion, not much to see, but i think at least mike thought all the places we could see were cool because he could figure out what they used to do. unless they had signs, i wouldn't know a torpedo room from a storage room, so except for the 'ooh, it's the 352' thing, it didn't matter to me which part was which. maybe it's a girl thing? there were these really teeny bright glowy blue fish, and some fish that was blue-purple on bottom and gold on top i made ken take pictures of. (as an aside, ken showed us the pics from the sat morning dive and they were SPECTACULAR! i really think they could be published.) then my time was over though i had plenty of air. waved bye to the guys (this was our plan) and went up the line. i could see everyone as i went up. 5-ish minutes at 15 and back into the boat. the ladder hit me on the head while i was grabbing it, but didn't really hurt, just knocked my mask cockeyed. (actually, after 2 boat trips this weekend, i have an interesting bruise collection.) the captain motored to the spar during a 90 min si while i had some water and a candy bar. i didn't get quite as deep that time (by like a foot) but had a much longer dive. it had lots of open passageways to go through and wasn't as encrusted yet with stuff, though there were lots & lots of little fish and quite a few big spadefish. i forget which wreck had a queen angel, but i saw one of those, too. after i went through my deep time, i went up to about 35 feet for 20 or so minutes (had lots of time left per computer at that depth). i could see everyone on the wreck, and was hanging with quite a few barracuda. one was watching me pretty closely & i was glad i didn't have any shiny jewelry on! ken & mike started coming up & i asked ken to try to get a shot of me & the cuda, but he couldn't get a good one framed. i went on up, did my stop, and got on the boat. very tired. it was hard to do the last big knee-up step to get my fins on board. i don't know if that's using air, lots of dive time, or just not a whole lot of sleep over 3 days. probably a combo! rinsed, read, yummy water & chex mix, laid down for about 15 min but by the time i did, we were nearly back. i put my gear in the car & went to settle up. the boat was nice, well run, the mates were helpful and the captain was funny. i really enjoyed mike & ken's company. i think it was a good team for the dives we were doing & we had fun.
. clear, warm, just lovely. we got back to the dock about 7:15 and unloaded stuff, and i called marc (my instructor, if anyone recalls.) he and jo were home and invited us over, so we went for 30 or so min. he gave us the skinny on all the wrecks in the area so we could have a knowledgeable vote on the boat the next morning. i didn't really care - it's all good to me, since i've never been on any of them. back to the dorm, showered, & went looking for food. the boys looked much better than i did! a polo & a button-down, and there's me in a crappy tshirt. oh well. lots of places were still open for drinks, but only raps still had an open kitchen, so that's where we ended up after stopping 3 other places. good food & conversation, though i was so tired. didn't hook up with gerry (under h2o), then, though - we thought maybe he was already at the dorm for the night & got to chat with him a bit the next morning.to bed at 11. 5am came very quickly. nobody in the whole place snored enough to wake me up! in the shop, i got some thin gloves with suede palms. then ken & i walked to hardee's so i could get a ham biscuit & some coffee. on the boat, the vote came down to the 352 and the spar. nice enough ride out, a few whitecaps but not rough. ick, put on the wet wetsuit. it started raining. eh, just gonna get wet one way or the other. spash, jump in. still so clear and warm. my deepest dive, 110ft. i didn't notice a thing narc-wise, kept a close eye on the time since i was on air. we stuck our heads in the holes. in my opinion, not much to see, but i think at least mike thought all the places we could see were cool because he could figure out what they used to do. unless they had signs, i wouldn't know a torpedo room from a storage room, so except for the 'ooh, it's the 352' thing, it didn't matter to me which part was which. maybe it's a girl thing? there were these really teeny bright glowy blue fish, and some fish that was blue-purple on bottom and gold on top i made ken take pictures of. (as an aside, ken showed us the pics from the sat morning dive and they were SPECTACULAR! i really think they could be published.) then my time was over though i had plenty of air. waved bye to the guys (this was our plan) and went up the line. i could see everyone as i went up. 5-ish minutes at 15 and back into the boat. the ladder hit me on the head while i was grabbing it, but didn't really hurt, just knocked my mask cockeyed. (actually, after 2 boat trips this weekend, i have an interesting bruise collection.) the captain motored to the spar during a 90 min si while i had some water and a candy bar. i didn't get quite as deep that time (by like a foot) but had a much longer dive. it had lots of open passageways to go through and wasn't as encrusted yet with stuff, though there were lots & lots of little fish and quite a few big spadefish. i forget which wreck had a queen angel, but i saw one of those, too. after i went through my deep time, i went up to about 35 feet for 20 or so minutes (had lots of time left per computer at that depth). i could see everyone on the wreck, and was hanging with quite a few barracuda. one was watching me pretty closely & i was glad i didn't have any shiny jewelry on! ken & mike started coming up & i asked ken to try to get a shot of me & the cuda, but he couldn't get a good one framed. i went on up, did my stop, and got on the boat. very tired. it was hard to do the last big knee-up step to get my fins on board. i don't know if that's using air, lots of dive time, or just not a whole lot of sleep over 3 days. probably a combo! rinsed, read, yummy water & chex mix, laid down for about 15 min but by the time i did, we were nearly back. i put my gear in the car & went to settle up. the boat was nice, well run, the mates were helpful and the captain was funny. i really enjoyed mike & ken's company. i think it was a good team for the dives we were doing & we had fun.
