By the time I had arrived at the cabin, my buddy for the night had just arrived and the Canucks were going into OT tied 2 - 2. After grabbing my over-night gear and throwing it on the couch and flipping on the TV, we were just in time to see the puck drop and Alex Burrows suck Thomas out of the net, out skate Chara, and wrap around the net depositing the puck in the back of the net taking game 2 sending the Boston "ruins" back home to lick their wounds.
Shortly after the game, the third member of our group arrived and started preparing his dinner while I walked down towards the shore to look and see what the tides were looking like for the evening and was met with this wonderful view:
The water was so calm, only a few clouds in the air, conditions we dream about!
After my walk, the last of our team had arrived for the night and we loaded our gear and headed for the shore. Taking our time to discuss the plans for the night and review any concerns we geared up and decended the stairs to start our first dive of the evening.
Surface swimming out to the first marker, the plan was to descend to the bottom, group up and move out along the fire hose exploring the darkened ocean floor. Upon reaching the bottom and forming up in our buddy teams we headed out across the bottom. Unfortunately the other group of divers turned out to be determined to move as quick as possible and since my buddy and I were looking to actually explore the under-sea world instead of watch it blast by while setting a record for how fast we could swim. It did not take long for the other group to pull well ahead of us as we watched their lights dim into the distance. Signalling to my buddy we slowed down to a complete stop, checked air, confirmed depth and started a slow patrol of the bottom moving in the general direction of the second marker. After slowly exploring and capturing a few photos we started our slow return back towards the stairs watching as the fish dashed in and out of our beams of light. Before we knew it, nearly 40 minutes had passed and we were watching as the bottom angled up and our depth drew down. By 45 minutes we were back at the base of the stairs, regs out, fins off and then the short walk back to the vehicles to switch tanks and head back.
As it turned out, the first group had returned before us and had already stripped down their gear and packed it away. One of the divers had decided to wear a wet-suit for the night, so after dive one he was uncomfortably cold and his buddy had decided one dive was enough for the night. My partner and I, however, couldn't wait to get back in the water so while our friends headed back to the cabin we headed back out into the water, this time with a slightly different plan.
With me taking the lead we surface swam out just far enough to have about 10 feet of water below us before we descended. Upon reaching bottom, we checked for neutral buoyancy, confirmed air and direction and then completely relaxed, slowly kicked and let the water move us slowly across the bottom while watching the world move around us. As we approached half air we made a slow turn and moved back towards the stairs enjoying the underwater world and the wonderful life that it revealed to us along with some interesting looking animals that I had never seen before and will have to see if I can find someone to identify.
After finding and photographing our little buddy here we made our way to the stairs and up to the vehicles to strip down our gear and head for the cabin. Back at the cabin we spread out the gear that would be needed for the following morning to allow it to dry a bit before being needed again and headed inside to join the rest of our party.
As it turned out it wasn't much of a party... inside the cabin our other two divers had already found their sleeping bags and were working on catching their zzz's. Quickly grabbing a snack and something warm to drink I headed to bed to snore away my night and dream of what the next day might bring.
No comments:
Post a Comment