Diving — Page 14

Arco Point, North Alstead, dive 33

June 18, 2009

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

December 6, 2008

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

December 6, 2008

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.

Spanish Anchor, dive 30

December 4, 2008

Dive: 30
Cayman Dive: 6
Date: 12/4/08
Site: Spanish Anchor, Grand Cayman
Avg/Max Depth: 36/52
Temp: 79
TBT/CBT: 0:47/23:20
Buddies: Kristen, Curtis, Ted

After a surface interval filled with Matty’s jokes, we quickly geared up for our second dive. The site was aptly named because of an Spanish anchor almost completely overgrown with coral (I missed it, apparently Curtis got a photo). Matty said it carbon dated back to the 1500s. Kristen and I were the first ones in today and we immediately descended. None of this bobbing on the surface nonsense.

The fish were plentiful on the coral fingers. The stoplight parrotfish are my favorites here and there were lots of them. I also got what I think will be a quite stunning picture of a French Angelfish.

Curtis and Kristen headed back to the boat a littler early. Ted and I continued exploring. After about 10 minutes we decided to head back to the boat. We spotted the boat almost effortlessly and did our safety stop. Right about the time my stop was complete, I looked at Ted. He was shaking his head and pointing at the boat. I turned to look and saw the boat was now surrounded by divers. What was wrong? Why were all these strange divers at our boat? Oh, it wasn’t our boat. Woops. We headed in another direction. Our 40 minute time limit had passed, and I was afraid that they would think we were a couple of rogue divers like the one from Tuesday. Since I was only at 13 feet I decided to surface and have a look around to make sure we were going in the right direction. I spotted the boat up top and descended again, pointing the direction to Ted. That was the first time I longed for a compass. At least we were close, a couple hundred feet away at the most. It was then my ear started acting up again, so I hovered at about 8 feet, shallow enough not to hurt, but deep enough to not struggle against the current. We saw a barracuda, and as much as I wanted to swim closer for a picture, my ears weren’t having it. Probably a good thing anyhow.

We got to the boat quickly and we weren’t even the last ones on. On the drive back Matty came on the CB and asked if Frank was donating his camera to him. Crap, I realized it was my camera. I left it in the freshwater bucket. I tried telling the driver, Nicole, that it was my camera and I was with the Lahr party. Somehow she misinterpreted it to be “the misses of Frank”‘s camera. Matty came back on and said, “that’s not Frank’s misses, but I know who you mean.” He said he’d leave it at the dive shop for me to pick up tomorrow. I was only disappointed because I’m quite positive I had some rockin’ pictures on there and now I have to wait a day. Pooey.

Sand Chute, dive 29

December 4, 2008

Dive: 29
Cayman Dive: 5
Date: 12/4/08
Site: Sand Chute, Grand Cayman
Avg/Max Depth: 60/100
Temp: 79
TBT/CBT: 0:35/22:33
Buddies: Kristen, Curtis, Ted

Kristen and I were disappointed to learn Dreamy Jonny *swoon* would not be accompanying us today. Instead we had Matty. What he lacked in looks, he made up with personality. He was a very animated character, complete with a rolodex of [bad] jokes.

We drove down the street from our hotel to a public beach area where some boats were pulled on shore. Hmmm… boarding a boat sans dock, that was a new diving experience for me. There were the four of us, as well as two gentlemen (not together) we dove with before (Frank and an older gentleman) and an unfamiliar couple.

Our first dive site was Sand Chute, a short boat ride from the shore. Kristen and I were the first ones in the water, followed quickly by Curtis and Ted. Personally, I was sick of waiting up top for the other slowbies to get in.

This dive was lots of fun. We started through a short canyon that plunked us out near 100 feet deep. Matty pointed out a giant wall of coral to our left, he wanted us to see how insignificant we are. We also spotted a turtle in the distance and saw a massive starfish. Since the four of us had computers we got about 10 minutes at the end of the dive to ourselves. There was a jelly fish waiting to greet us at the ladder and I scurried out of the water as quick as I could, fully expecting a wave to push me into it. It got Curtis instead.