seadoggirl
Guest
I know that I say this all the time but it was an amazing day on the Oriskany on Saturday. The trip out was a little bumpy but not bad. The trip back was an A$$ kickin one. Thank goodness we were on board the H2O Below because it is big enough to take the waves!
The basics - the seas were 3-5, the vis was 60-75 feet, the water temp is still mid seventies. The air temp was actually better than we thought because it was sunny. I had a red face coming in.
What did we see? We saw, tons of very friendly barracuba and some rather large grouper down deep. The tropicals continue to multiply. But the big news of course is the Octopus. We found a small one on the first dive and I was able to get her to take a piece of crab from me. She was shy and wouldn't come out of her pipe but she was glad to get the crab. On the second dive we went into flight control and I saw something moving down the wall. I put my light on it and found another larger Octopus. She was red and seemed to be working at something. I couldn't get her to take a piece of crab from me but while I was trying to give it to her. Somebody tapped me on the head and I looked up to see Sleppy (Dive Master) above me with his head in the window. I looked again and something had his regulator pulling on it. I got closer and another Octopus was pulling his regulator and not letting go!
Sleppy gave the regulator to the Octopus and put his backup in his mouth. We watched as she played with it, putting her arms inside the mouth piece and turning it over and over. I was laughing so hard, my mask was full of water and I was clearing as fast as I could. I was waiting for her to push the purge valve and blow her to the other side of the room. I've watched too many cartoons. Finally my computer starting beeping at me that it was time to go and I gave the piece of crab I had left to Sleppy. He handed the crab to his new BFF and she gave him back his regulator in trade.
The minutes we surfaced we were all laughing so hard that all I could say to the Captain was "Octopus" ha ha ha...
That night Captain Douglas and I met Captain Dave at the Fish House and Dave said that one of his divers surfaced with a baby Octopus attached to him. A stow-away! They got it back in the water but that just adds to our unofficial conclusion that they are a bunch of young Octopus on the Oriskany.
Anyway - another great day of diving on the Mighty "O".
The basics - the seas were 3-5, the vis was 60-75 feet, the water temp is still mid seventies. The air temp was actually better than we thought because it was sunny. I had a red face coming in.
What did we see? We saw, tons of very friendly barracuba and some rather large grouper down deep. The tropicals continue to multiply. But the big news of course is the Octopus. We found a small one on the first dive and I was able to get her to take a piece of crab from me. She was shy and wouldn't come out of her pipe but she was glad to get the crab. On the second dive we went into flight control and I saw something moving down the wall. I put my light on it and found another larger Octopus. She was red and seemed to be working at something. I couldn't get her to take a piece of crab from me but while I was trying to give it to her. Somebody tapped me on the head and I looked up to see Sleppy (Dive Master) above me with his head in the window. I looked again and something had his regulator pulling on it. I got closer and another Octopus was pulling his regulator and not letting go!
Sleppy gave the regulator to the Octopus and put his backup in his mouth. We watched as she played with it, putting her arms inside the mouth piece and turning it over and over. I was laughing so hard, my mask was full of water and I was clearing as fast as I could. I was waiting for her to push the purge valve and blow her to the other side of the room. I've watched too many cartoons. Finally my computer starting beeping at me that it was time to go and I gave the piece of crab I had left to Sleppy. He handed the crab to his new BFF and she gave him back his regulator in trade.
The minutes we surfaced we were all laughing so hard that all I could say to the Captain was "Octopus" ha ha ha...
That night Captain Douglas and I met Captain Dave at the Fish House and Dave said that one of his divers surfaced with a baby Octopus attached to him. A stow-away! They got it back in the water but that just adds to our unofficial conclusion that they are a bunch of young Octopus on the Oriskany.
Anyway - another great day of diving on the Mighty "O".
