dive # 864 June 23 2012

Dive # 863 June 23 2012
The morning started off with a downpour. I checked the news and it was just a passing shower. It was something we needed after the oppressive heat. I packed my NZ one piece hooded dive suit rather than my dry suit. I needed to get back in the water to practice my UW skills as a refresher. I felt like I was losing my "mojo" so I needed to focus and regain my confidence. My one piece wet suit is very stream-line and comfortable. Of course, it isn't as warm as my other suits but I actually wanted to feel cold to cool my head especially after this week of being in Hades. Also by wearing this suit I could drop at least 8 lbs. off my weight-belt too.
We had Fred, Chris and Pete as crew. On board we had Lareint, who is a great help on board, Jackie k and two guys guys from RI. The sky cleared and the water was flat calm.
The water temp  at 30 feet  was 59F. We anchored at the stone garage
.I spent the entire time directly under the boat practicing my skills. I was donning and doffing my tank and vest, taking off my mask and clearing it, removing my weight belt and putting it back on, taking my regulator out of my mouth and retrieving it and taking off my fins. I did each exercise at least 3 times each. I got water up my nose while clearing my mask but continued to do it until I felt OK. I know I need to practice these skills with my dry suit on as well since the dry suit is more cumbersome with all it's knobs and such.
I noticed under the boat there were two lobsters that were an iridescent aqua blue. (*Not as completely blue as the above photo) The arm before the claws were aqua blue while the claws were more of darkish blue. I can not recall seeing lobsters looking like that before.
I stood watch on the second dive. Both Chris and Pete reported a bit of current even though we only moved the boat a few yards further down from where we were originally anchored. The current can be scary and sneaky. Everyone made it back OK without incident.
All in all it was a great day.