Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

Hunting Access, Huntington, dive 35

Dive: 35
Season Dive: 3
Date: 7/12/09
Site: Huntington Access, Huntington
Avg/Max Depth: 19/40
Temp: 63
TBT/CBT: 1:09/27:56
Buddies: Curtis & Kristen

Once again, Curtis’s rendition:

The “winter like” morning wasn’t very inviting in regards to diving. The morning air was crisp at 55 degrees. We took our time eating breakfast and drinking cabin coffee before packing the car and heading out. We first stopped at the west end of Huntington looking for a site called “Gettin’ the Shaft” which is a “must see” and I’ve never been. Trouble is the road is blocked off and is meant only for pedestrians. There is a steep goat path that can be used but isn’t exactly a dive site. We decided against the treacherous climb and headed for the Huntington Public Access. As we piled back in the car the MSD van showed up with Mark C. bringing some students out.

When we arrived at the site the cold weather was gone and it was a beautiful mid morning. We had the site to ourselves except for a fisherman dropping his boat in. I snapped a few pics while getting ready. Such fantastic scenery…

We started the dive by placing the flag and swimming to the right, following the old mining road. Holy smokes was visibility good!

We dipped down to the 40 foot mark which would be like the second spiral of a circular road. Not much to look at, no trees, no fish, just loose rocks, and weeds. We ascended a bit to another flat area with more weeds. This entire side of the pit reminds me of a giant staircase. Flat road beds separated by sharp drop offs. I think we saw at least three levels of it. There were a few suckers swimming around and I even caught a glimpse of a trout but not much else. Around 30 minutes in to the dive I dipped back down to 35 feet to cool off before heading for the shallows and turning around.

The way back had more fish life. The terrain was flat weed beds between gentle slopes. The weed beds had all sorts of small fish. Kristen and Jill got a kick out of laying down in the weeds and watching the fish at eye level with the blue abyss as a back drop.

There was one rocky area that was swarming with fish for no apparent reason. It didn’t seem to be any special structure. We stopped for a while and I was surrounded by the little devils. Making me go cross-eyed. I didn’t notice them harassing the ladies. I thought of Mike S. getting viciously attacked in the lip by a sunny at this very site. Haha!!! Further along I noticed a ledge in 3 feet of water. I creeped up and found numerous sunfish guarding their spawning beds. The sunlight beating down made it quite a sight.

Getting close to the exit we grabbed the flag and headed for shore. As we went I found another bunch of spawning beds. They look so darn pretty snuggled in their little beds.

What a turn around from the early morning. It turned out to be a perfect day. The dive was awesome, spectacular visibility, fish life, and buddies.

Source

I really must get in the habit of dive blogging right away.

Gruntenheave, Joan, dive 34

Dive: 34
Season Dive: 2
Date: 7/4/09
Site: Gruntenheave, Joan
Avg/Max Depth: 14/22
Temp: 63
TBT/CBT: 1:09/26:47
Buddies: Curtis, Kristen & Ted

What better way to spend the 4th of July than diving? And what better way to remember all about it than to blog about it 6 weeks later? Too bad my dive computer doesn’t record experiences. For your reading pleasure, please enjoy Curtis’s rendition:

Our diving plans were thwarted by my being sick on Friday morning. Saturday we gave it another go and it was a success. Jill requested we dive someplace with lots of fish so I suggested Joan for the two nice beaver piles. When we arrived at the site we were surprised it was completely empty. No divers, no campers, sweet. There was a loon swimming right by our entrance, maybe we’d see it on our dive? The four of us suited up and made the hike down the steep bank to the water. We stuck Jill with the little 63 so the rest of us air hogs would have a chance to accumulate some bottom time.

We swam to the right towards the beaver piles. Right away we noticed the horrible vis. Below 15 feet we couldn’t see more than 5 feet because of a brown haze. It was decent on top. Kristen and I both had to surface to fix a leaky mask. While fixing my mask I noticed one of my gloves needed some correcting as well. Once underway Ted and I noticed a nice northern leading the way. It kept our attention in the otherwise barren terrain. Kristen and Jill were lagging behind too far to see it. I happened to look away and missed the highlight which Ted later described. The northern pounced on a sunfish at the bottom. When I looked it was arranging the sunny in it’s mouth and choked it down. Nice.

At the first beaver pile there were quite a few sunnies, large mouth bass, and rock bass. Not nearly as many fish as expected but still enjoyable. We slowed our pace quite a bit to take it all in before continuing on to the second one. It was way farther away than I expected. I started to get nervous that Jill was getting close to half psi so I asked, 1100. Another 20 feet or so and we were at the second pile. Again plenty of fish but not like expected. We spent a short time watching the fish then swam back in high gear.

When we passed the first beaver pile I swam on the shallow side and notice some huge sunfish spawning in a ‘hole’. There was also a cluster of big ones around some old tree trunks.

The rest of the dive was just a quick swim back. At the exit Ted and I did some rings. We were both hitting them like a couple of pros. I had quite a few doubles go up and after I snapped a pic of one set I noticed Ted hitting all kinds of good ones.

Source

Actually, I’m about 87% positive that I had a write-up of this dive, but I can’t seem to find it on my laptop anywhere.

Arco Point, North Alstead, dive 33

Dive: 33
Season Dive: 1
Date: 6/13/09
Site: Arco Point, North Alstead
Avg/Max Depth: 16/24
Temp: 59
TBT/CBT: 0:55/25:38
Buddies: Curtis & Kristen (& Nick, Mike & Adam)

The long awaited first dive of the season finally came last weekend!! In attendance were Nick, Curtis, Blog Reader Kristen, Mike, Adam and myself. Our desired dive location was Arco Point located in North Alstead. Dumbheadedness ensued the moment we entered the pits. Wrong turns, backward hookups, forgotten hookups, forgotten weights, gloves stuck to heads. Fortunately non of these errors were executed by me. For my first dive all went quite smoothly.

Our group got divided in half almost immediately. Kristen tagged along with Curtis and since (for the record) Kristen and I were officially buddies I tagged along with her. Besides, I like being in Curtis’s group, his frog swim is very calming to follow.

It was refreshing to be back in the water. We stayed around 20′ for the majority of the dive and the temp stayed at about 59 degrees, not too chilly. We made friends with a rock bass, but other than that there weren’t too many fishes spotted. Except for the Mega Eelpout which Curtis somehow commanded to attack me. I narrowly escaped.

Because of the landscape we bobbed from 20′ to 10′ and back a few times. That always seems to take a toll on one of my ears. For the return trip I tried to stay above 15′ which wasn’t a problem, especially when we neared our exit and the depth decreased to one foot. I wanted to stand up, but since I was virtually laying on my stomach from swimming it was much too late to get any type of footing. Curtis was smart enough to go around the rocky sandbaresque obstruction. Nick asked why us girls were surface swimming, probably hoping that we ran out of air before he did for once (psssht, yeah right, I finished with 1800psi).

Good dive buddies, good dive.

Bonnie’s Arch, dive 32

Dive: 32
Cayman Dive: 8
Date: 12/6/08
Site: Bonnie’s Arch, Grand Cayman
Avg/Max Depth: 43/69
Temp: 81
TBT/CBT: 0:47/24:43
Buddies: Nick, Curtis

I remember absolutely nothing about this dive, so I’m just going to quote Curtis:

Bonnie’s Arch was the last dive of our trip. It’s right on the northwest point making it a rare stop for most dive shops because the current can really get ripping. Jenny did the first half of the dive with us to make sure it was safe. The site is aptly named for the big arch at 70 feet right below the mooring line.

After the arch we followed a small wall heading north. It was maybe the most colorful dive of the trip. The sun was bright, and rarely seeing divers, the reef was in great shape. We didn’t see any big stuff but the reef itself was pleasant to take in. After 19 minutes we headed back to the anchor line. At first we had to buck the current a bit but the closer we got to the boat the easier it was.

This was a nice dive to end the trip but it’s too bad we’re done. Can’t wait until next time…

In Between/Big Tunnels, dive 31

Dive: 31
Cayman Dive: 7
Date: 12/6/08
Site: In Between/Big Tunnels, Grand Cayman
Avg/Max Depth: 66/106
Temp: 81°
TBT/CBT: 0:36/23:56
Buddies: Nick, Curtis

I remember this being an exciting dive for a couple reasons. First off there were three barracudas scoping out Nick as a meal while he was none the wiser. He was off swimming by himself and they slowly closed in on him. One was above him completely vertical while the other two were tailing him. I didn’t have any sort of noise maker to get Nick’s attention and as his life flashed before my eyes I scurried over to Curtis and yanked on his fin, not knowing quite what I thought he would do. He made some noise, Nick looked around and by then the barracudas had dispersed.

Near the end of our dive a sea turtle swam through the group. It looked at me then swam gracefully toward me. He was eye level with me and came within a couple feet of my face before slowly turning and continuing on his way. Of course I didn’t have my camera with at the time. Probably for the better since I would have been fiddling with it instead of fully enjoying the experience. That experience is second only to the nurse sharks in Belize.

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