Date: Sat. 4/23/05

Time: 10:57 am

Dive Length: 51 Mins

Max Depth: 134 ft.

Temp at Depth: A Bone-Chilling 50 F.Temp at Surface: 61 F [What a thermocline!]

Viz at Depth 20-25 ft.Viz in Shallows 8-10 ft.
Mix: 26% Nitrox

Critters: Sheephead, Rockfish, Navanaxes and Juvenile Sheepcrabs

Well, Saturday was the day after the official Dive Into Earth Day [basically Underwater Trash Pickup Day], but because some of us have to work for a living, we rescheduled it for Saturday, instead of Friday; so, while Barbara was DMing, Adam, Scott and I suited up, grabbed our goody bags and jumped into the water just South of Vallecitos, hoping against hope to actually find the Cabezon Cruiser this time. Surf was negligible, but there was a little bit of surface chop on the swim out, the kind where you have to be careful talking to your buddies, for fear of getting the occasional mouth full of water, causing you to cough and sputter in mid-sentence and otherwise feel like an idiot on the way out. We swam out to just past the orange ball and dropped down, hoping for the best. We dropped down to the bottom in about 42 ft. of water, got our bearings and headed down into the Deep, goody bags at the ready.

As we descended, I got the usual ‘ice cream headache,’ giving me advance warning that it was going a ‘bone chiller.’ I also noticed that we were in the draw just South of the cruiser, so that gave me hope. We continued on down to 130 ft., then made our course correction to North and began gliding up and down, over the two ridges I remembered as being on the way to the Cruiser. Finally, after passing over the second ‘hump,’ we saw a vague and familiar shape just below and to our left: the Cruiser–we had made it! After a little bit of fist pumping and self-congratulations, we made our way over to it. On the way, I happen to glance down and saw what seemed to be a vaguely familiar object sticking out of the sand. Weirdly, it had my name printed on it in Magic Marker, so burning with curiosity, I wiggled it out of the sand and to my astonishment, it was the original dive slate that Barbara and I had placed on the Cruiser well over 9 months ago, for people to write graffiti on. It had come off a while back and disappeared, so I never expected to see it lying in the sand just a few yards from the boat; I was sure the ocean currents had carried it off. So: that was the first item of trash I picked up: my own!

Then, glancing up, I noticed that Scott and Adam had made their way over to the Cruiser and I remembered there was a new slate placed there, which I knew we had to sign, so I swam over and struggling against Mr. Narcosis to remember the correct date, I signed Scott’s, Adam’s and my name onto the slate for posterity and returned to inspect the area for marine life. There were the usual tagged Red Rockfish and large Sheephead under the slates and outboard engine.We spent a couple minutes hovering around, then our computers signaled that it was time to come up and we began our slow ascent to the surface, doing a deep stop at around 70 feet while Scott pointed out a strange little critter we have yet to identify, that looked like a worm with bluish-purple stripes on it, about 2 inches long, hanging out on a piece of kelp. It wasn’t a nudibranch, we’re pretty sure.

Then, we headed back into the shallows where we practiced some ‘out of air’ drills with our long hoses and cruised along, playing with the juvenile Sheep Crabs, who were all out in force out on the sand, before surfacing and calling it an Extremely Successful and Worthwhile Dive, having found the Cruiser and redeemed our fragile egoes, practiced drills AND picked up trash along the way–it doesn’t get too much better than that. Oh: and the viz was great at depth.

Shortly after my father died in 2001, I received his ashes along with a permit to scatter them at a location of my choosing and so, for some God-unknown reason, I thought the Cabezon Cruiser [a small motor boat sunk in 135 ft. off the Marine Room Restaurant in La Jolla] might be a nice place, as he’d always supported my diving and expressed an interest in having his ashes scattered at sea.
So, one night, around 8 pm, Barbara and I made our way down to the Cruiser, our underwater lights blazing ahead in the dark, with my father’s ashes in tow–actually, in a cardboard box [my first mistake] that had been placed in my goody bag. As we start down the sandy slope towards the cruiser, I thought I must be over weighted because I kept sinking further and further towards the sand until I could barely move. Finally, I figure out that it is the cardboard box my father’s ashes are in: it has become completely water logged and turned into an increasingly heavy anchor, dragging me to the bottom. So, finally after we made our way to the Cruiser, by clawing along the bottom, dragging this now cement-heavy box with me, I decide that I’d better get this over with before it drowns me. So, with great difficulty, I reach down and pick it the goody bag, preparing to undo the clasp and set my father free. Unfortunately, I had neglected to allow for Mr. Narcosis and this took a bit longer than it should have, as I couldn’t seem to figure out how to undo it, as it had been a bit tricky to close. I must have spent 5 minutes fumbling with the damn thing.

FINALLY, I get the box out of the goody bag and it’s sagging with water and weight and by now I just want to get this over with–all my earlier grand plans for a reverent little ceremony now completely forgotten–I just want to get this albatross from around my neck….I get the box out of the goody bag and now discover that I can’t seem to get it open, no matter how much I fumble and claw at it, it won’t open.

By now, I’m getting a bit exasperated, so I just grab a corner and let ‘er rip, with all my strength…..and lo and behold, the box comes flying open, engulfing me and Barbara in this HUGE, grey cloud of my father’s ashes! Viz was immediately reduced to zero, and the Cruiser disappears entirely, as Barbara and I attempt to gain our bearings in the middle of this giant cloud of ash that has engulfed us both…….By this time, I’m cold, narced and completely fed up with the entire project and by now, slightly panicked at being unable to see anything, so I drop the box and kick upward to get out of the Giant Cloud, unable to believe that this has become such a fiasco….Barbara, bless her heart, shakes the box free of the rest of the ash, and, reaching up and grabs my goody bag and stuffs what remains of the cardboard box back into the bag for me, so we don’t leave any ‘litter’ in the deep and we both begin heading up, out of the Ash Cloud, towards the canyon wall.

We completed the dive as if nothing unusual had happened and I surfaced feeling quite chagrined both for myself and my father at the rather undignified way I had disposed of his remains, but mercifully, Barbara, who could have REALLY razzed me about it, never said a word about my incompetence in the Deep–just like nothing had happened.
In the end, however, I recovered sufficiently to get a huge chuckle out of the whole thing, if, for no other reason that I knew my father would have too, because he had a good sense of humor about situations like that, in fact, knowing him, he probably would have laughed even harder than I did ……

Mikey on the ‘Hilda Hooker’ Bonaire [100 ft.] 3-9-05
© B. Lloyd

This was an amazing dive, where I had a close encounter wiith a 6 ft. Spotted Cornetfish.

Kathy and I jumped off the pier at Buddy’s Reef and swam out a short distance to where the pleasure boats were anchored, about 50 ft. out.

We had dropped down to the bottom of the reef at about 120 ft. and were coming up from the bottom , at around 95 ft., when I noticed this HUGE greenish tube, about 6 ft. long and 5 inches around, gliding towards me: it was an extremely long Cornetfish, which had become curious about me.

It came right up to me and began swimming around in a close circle. It was so close, I could look right into eyes, which I could have sworn had long eyelashes which it batted at me, so Kathy and I later joked it had to have been a ‘she.’

We left her at about 90 ft. and ascended further up to around 70, where a little while later, lo and behold, we came across her again, slightly below us.

She approached again, and I had to do this elaborate dance to avoid either knocking into the fragile coral all around us, or the Giant Cornetfish. She cruised around us again for a couple minutes, while Kathy snapped photos, before leisurely swimming away, apparently having satisfied her curiosity about me.

[See Photo Below]

Giant Cornetfish Encountered at Buddy’s Reef Pier in Bonaire, Mar. 9, ’05

DIR vs The Rest of the Tech World:

I’m just going to say one thing [I promise] on the Great DIR Debate:

Since the debate sometimes degenerates into a quasi-religious one, let me just say I think DIR has some excellent ideas, most of which come from lessons learned in cave diving, so let’s give them credit for that, OK?

What makes me uncomforable about the DIR philosophy is the: “We’re Right and [Everyone Else] is Wrong,” mentality. It sounds disturbingly like what new converts to some religions say and I don’t think that religion has a place in dive training.

OK: end of rant. On with life….

Spotted Eel in Bonaire

© B. Lloyd

Ahhh….the pains of finding a Tech Instructor!

After a bad experience last November with a TDI instructor who had us doing questionable things at very questionable depths, my dive buddy Dave and I have begun the long trek of finding an instructor who won’t empty our bank accounts OR send us prematurely to Davey Jones’ locker!

Stay tuned!