dive #793 & #794 June 26 2010

Dive #793

A decent day today. Jackie K was the only customer aboard Easy Diver today. She had been on the WW program and she looked great!

Chris wanted to do some UW filming so it was off to Cathedral rocks. As like last time we were there it was cold and murky. I'm not real fond of this sight because of fuzzy viz. It's a bit unnerving not seeing anything until you hit the bottom at 45 feet where it is pretty damn cold. I hit 50 feet and I got a temp reading of 41F. I was getting that 'feeling" in the back of my neck (that a migraine was creeping up on me) so no matter what, I wanted to get my head submerged in the icy brine.

I was wearing my dry suit so my body was fairly warm. I kept yanking on my hood so the cold water washed my head. Schools of pollack were all over the place.

I figured one dive was good enough for the day.

The boat anchored for the second dive at "naked man beach" (or you could call it "balliky beach") There is usually a naked man sun bathing on the rocks at this secuded sight. Pat pulled out the binoculars to "make sure we were at the right spot". Yup, there was a naked guy holding his swim trunks climbing up the rocks.

I got out of my dry suit and went for a quick "Hampton beach" dip off the back of the boat. Just as I was climbing back onto the boat. Pete poked his head out of the water and exclaimed, "dogfish! They are everywhere!"

I read in the daily news "fish report" that dogfish were out in full force. This is extremely early for them. You usually see them in August. Dogfish are small sharks that usually travel in packs.

I knew since I was wet I could not get back into my dry suit so either I swim out to the sharks carrying a tank with just my bathing suit on (because I HAD to see them) or....

Pat grabbed her Mares suit for me to wear and helped me into it. It was a mad rush. I threw on Fred's booties which were probably a size 13. I looked like a circus clown but I didn't care. I HAD to see those sharks.

Dive# 794

I spotted Chris with her UW camera at about 25 feet deep and then soon the sharks appeared.

It was GREAT!

I'm not sure how many there were but there was a lot of them. Some of them were pretty big. I'd say, 4 feet or so. One came right up to my mask to get a good look. Chris's eyes were the size of grapefruits. Hopefully, she got a good shot of them for her film footage.

Yup, it WAS a great day of diving!

Thanks again to Pat for letting me borrow her wetsuit!

*photo of dogfish was found on an internet search