Well, do I have a story to tell you. Saturday and Sunday both I went diving. Saturdays dive was a salvage dive to find a SS prop that was lost in the river here. (Sunday was a totally different experience.) The was a balmy 82 degrees and the viz was 0. You could barely read your gauges with them directly in front of you mask. We did search and recovery nav skills for over an hour hovering inches above the ground to try to find this very expensive prop that was lost a couple weeks ago. The tide was low and because of the full moon, this meant that the tides were extremely low and extremely high. We were diving in about seven to 10 feet of water because the tide was so low.
My buddy held the spool while I did circular patters to cover the area where the owner thought he had lost the prop. The current was moving at about 3-4 knots according to the marine weather report that morning. As we felt around on the bottom I felt something off to my right, I tried to feel it to see what it was and IT decided to get about from me fast. By the way it moved I thought it was a fish or perhaps a small shark. When we surfaced at the end of the dive, the guys topside said they were catching baby hammerheads about two to three feet long. If figured that was my mystery fish, but honestly, I never saw it. I did catch a crab or well I think it kinda caught me. : ) I wrapped its claws around my arm when I did a sweep movement and as I moved my arm from the right to cross in front of my it took a right. Even though I am not afraid of them it still mad me jump a little (and gave a little ahuh LOL). Then I laughed at myself because it was a silly crab.
After we got in the boat and headed up the channel, we stopped when the water got really shallow and there was a pretty little shark cruising around in the water. He/she was feeding on the small fish there. The sun was strong and after playing in the water I decided to take a little nap on the bow while we waited for the tide to come in a little in order to proceed to the other dive site. I was pooped out and it felt good to lie in the sun.
The tide was too low to dive when we got to the other site. We saw some friends and made some new friends while we waited ashore for the tide to come in. The landscape was beautiful on the private family island. The sand was very white and the beach bled into marshland. The marsh grass led to the trees that went as far as the eye could see. The channel twisted and wound around to the ocean and you could see a huge shrimp boat off in the not so distant waters that looked beached as the ocean water was hidden behind the beach dunes directly in front of us. We stood on the beach and chatted about the flounder that flourishes in that channel and watched the tides ride in so fast that it resembled rapids in a river. The tide began raise and we decided to head back to the dock.
Unfortunately, we did not find the prop. We combed the entire area where the boat captain thought he lost it and I am sorry to say that it was not there. I think perhaps he is mistaken as to where he lost it. But at least I got to so some diving. I will admit though I wanted to come up and say I found it and be the hero. But that will have to come another day.
That night I went to Myrtle Beach and I dove on Sunday about 18 20 miles off shore. This is a hair-raising story about a double regulator failure in the open ocean. Stay tuned for details. R
My buddy held the spool while I did circular patters to cover the area where the owner thought he had lost the prop. The current was moving at about 3-4 knots according to the marine weather report that morning. As we felt around on the bottom I felt something off to my right, I tried to feel it to see what it was and IT decided to get about from me fast. By the way it moved I thought it was a fish or perhaps a small shark. When we surfaced at the end of the dive, the guys topside said they were catching baby hammerheads about two to three feet long. If figured that was my mystery fish, but honestly, I never saw it. I did catch a crab or well I think it kinda caught me. : ) I wrapped its claws around my arm when I did a sweep movement and as I moved my arm from the right to cross in front of my it took a right. Even though I am not afraid of them it still mad me jump a little (and gave a little ahuh LOL). Then I laughed at myself because it was a silly crab.
After we got in the boat and headed up the channel, we stopped when the water got really shallow and there was a pretty little shark cruising around in the water. He/she was feeding on the small fish there. The sun was strong and after playing in the water I decided to take a little nap on the bow while we waited for the tide to come in a little in order to proceed to the other dive site. I was pooped out and it felt good to lie in the sun.
The tide was too low to dive when we got to the other site. We saw some friends and made some new friends while we waited ashore for the tide to come in. The landscape was beautiful on the private family island. The sand was very white and the beach bled into marshland. The marsh grass led to the trees that went as far as the eye could see. The channel twisted and wound around to the ocean and you could see a huge shrimp boat off in the not so distant waters that looked beached as the ocean water was hidden behind the beach dunes directly in front of us. We stood on the beach and chatted about the flounder that flourishes in that channel and watched the tides ride in so fast that it resembled rapids in a river. The tide began raise and we decided to head back to the dock.
Unfortunately, we did not find the prop. We combed the entire area where the boat captain thought he lost it and I am sorry to say that it was not there. I think perhaps he is mistaken as to where he lost it. But at least I got to so some diving. I will admit though I wanted to come up and say I found it and be the hero. But that will have to come another day.
That night I went to Myrtle Beach and I dove on Sunday about 18 20 miles off shore. This is a hair-raising story about a double regulator failure in the open ocean. Stay tuned for details. R
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