rjens:
rjens, I rescued your boots about 2 AM Sunday morning when leaving from our night dive. I was afraid they wouldn't be there in the morning. (I also thought I knew who owned them and was supposed to dive with him the next morning. Wrong.) After asking around to find their owner, I left them with DSW and Virus deciding who would take custody of them and post their randsom. Hahaha. Gibbon may be correct in that Ken has them. I know they were discussing what type of description was necessary for the owner to reclaim them. Hahahaha.
Great time everybody. Gotta run for now. I'll post more shortly.
R
We arrive at the hotel late needless to say. Saturday morning we headed to EE. Needed to get fills, pick up the twins -- I was so excited - what 'til you see them, and SeaJay needed new spring straps. We arrived at Ginnie at almost 2 PM. It was great seeing everyone, those we already had meet before and many we had not met. Of course we got the initial riving for being last. Hahahaha. We arrived, said a few hellos and there was a group gearing up to do a drift dive from Little Devil all the way around and of course we geared right up. I will say that my rushing for this trip began on Thursday and besides the feeling of not being in control or organized enough the trip went well considering. But, this was a crazy trip for me. First issue, I left my boots and gloves at the dive shop when sorting through my gear so I had to purchase a new set of boots. That wasnt so bad as I needed new boots anyway. I just thought I was going to miss the first dive. I sent the group on to Little Devil without me and raced to the shop to grab a set of boots. All my other gear was setup and I was dressed. I came back and grabbed my gear, tossed it in the trunk and managed to get to Little Devil just before everyone got in the water. Shuuhh
I was really lucky and so very glad to make it. There were two groups of divers total I think 11 in all. The group I was with SeaJay, 8Buck, Unruly wench (I think sorry), and Virus. BTW, thanks to Virus for tugging the dive float. We started the dive with several swimmers and rafters overhead. It was nice to get to the deeper areas where we didnt have to worry about being clobbered by those having fun above. The viz was remarkable considering all the people in the water. Once we passed over into the river section the water became dark and the bottom was brown and green. Not really thinking, I began my usual clean up as I went along and quickly realized I didnt have enough hands to clean up the stuff down there. We saw several turtles and quit a few little flounder along with the typical fish. I was surprised to see a very light colored catfish. Not an albino, just a light one. Usually they are dark in coloration and this one was almost transparent. I hit it with my light and it looked slightly iridescent. It just hung out near and old log as if they were having a conversation about all the large black sea creatures with one big eye in the water that day. Most of the turtles we saw were large but there was one tiny little guy near the end of the dive who was adorable. Only approximately three inches from the tip of his out stretched nose to the tip of his stiff little tail. His little legs were kicking so fast in order to keep out of our way. I found a pair of goggles, two baseball hats, a bandana, two shirts, two masks - one with a snorkel attached that someone later brought to the pavilion, and a fin. BUT the best most valuable find was my very own depth gauge. At one point we were all together and then suddenly two from our group were not with us. SeaJay and I stopped to wait. We had met up with the second group and sent them ahead. After a couple minutes, we decided to surface and found that one in our group was having leg cramps and needed to end the dive sooner so she and her buddy were headed to the main ballroom. SeaJay, Virus and I told them we would stay with them in case they needed assistance. We took a bearing and descended to the bottom to swim over to them. On the way I was exploring the bottom which really helped me later. When we reach the other two, we surfaced. I immediately told 8Buck I just lost my wrist gauge. How frustrating. Four of us began searching the bottom for the gauge. Luckily a very short time later I was able to dive a reverse pattern and back track my path. I found my gauge and was so excited. I surfaced waving it back and forth hollering, I found it. I dove down to the bottom again to rejoin my group. I was so happy. As we swam closer to the main ballroom the water began to get so much clearer. Not at all like the greenish brown muck my gauge was lost in. The bottom became covered the in white sand and the number of people in on the surface began to increase. We reached the ballroom to find a slew of divers, snorkelers, and swimmers. I exited the water having had a great dive and feeling good about finding my wrist gauge. Oh Happy Day! Hahaha
