It was a beautiful morning. My first of the trip. Alarm went off at 5:30, slammed my forehead into the bunk 12 inches above my head, drop phone, hit head a second time retrieve phone from floor… okay, I’m up.
We all rush into our dive clothes and head to the dock for the first dive of the day, the Pappoose. Apparently, a number of our group became rather ill yesterday on the rough boat ride and chummed the fish. So, with the help of a couple of Dr. friends, we armed ourselves with scopolamine patches and set out.
High seas and rough currents foiled our plans once again to reach the Neaco, so the Captain diverted to the Papoose. a little over 2 hours after leaving the dock, we arrive and hit the water.
The visibility was fair at about 50 feet and a cool thermo cline around the 80 foot mark. The ship rests on it’s top, so penetration is a little tricky, with stairs that go the wrong direction and floors and ceilings reversed. Still, all in all, it was a nice dive. One that quickly got better when I cam across a group of about 20-12 full grown sand tiger sharks. These magnificent creatures ranged in size small(4-6) to large at about 12 feet long. Bodies big around oil drums and teeth sticking askew, these gentle behemoths are very curious about divers. It’s one thing to know that they rarely pester divers and another to remember that they could eat you in seconds if they wanted to. Collected some teeth and then it was time to go up.
Our next stop was the USCG Cutter, Spar. This was an intentionally scuttled ship that lies upright in about 90 feet of water. Mostly intact still, this is a great penetration dive, where you can go all the way to the hold in the bottom of the ship. Once again we were treated to a large group of sand tigers. These guys were REALLY big and I got to pet and stroke their humongous sides.
Long trip back to shoe with a group of tired divers. The scopolamine patches are doing their job, though I still decided to forgo any lunch.
Our afternoon was spent downtown again, look at all the tourist shops and having a late lunch.
Last night we did an amazing night dive where we were treated to a double drift dive . We entered the water at just the right time to be carried along the shore and then back to our starting point when the tide shifted. We saw rays (one played with us like a big puppy, snuggling up to us and running itself along our arms looking for food. Also, a few octopuses… octopi? Then about a ton of crabs, toad fish and more moon jellies then I have ever seen.
Some very tired divers hit the rack early. Tomorrow, the U-352! Woohoo!
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