Date: 2-3-10

Time: 6:45 pm-ish

Dive Length: 43 mins

Max Depth: 113 ft.

Viz: not great: 2-5 ft

Mix: 31%

Dive Buddy: Jim R.

Marine Life Observed: a 3 ft. adult Horn Shark,  Scorpion fish, Cusk Eels, Swimming crabs, a huge Sheepcrab….

Video: pending upload by Jim

Highlights:

–this was my first dive in over a month, so it was great to get back in the water—so much so, that what might have been a rather stressful dive ended up being rather enjoyable.

–kicking out to the drop zone, I thought I noticed water coming in my left sleeve, which was odd, given that I had just replaced the neck seal  and that was the one I had been worried about—but, no worries, I told myself: I can dive with a wet left sleeve…..

–as we dropped into the canyon, I thought I noticed water coming into my right sleeve—but, no worries, I told myself: I can dive with a wet right sleeve…..

–at around 90 or so [my best guess], on the South Wall of the Canyon, we bumped into a fairly large adult Horn Shark—or, rather, he bumped into us.

–blinded by our lights, as Horn Sharks often do, he ricocheted around from  the canyon wall to bouncing off Jim, then to bouncing off me, back and around again, as Jim’s video camera rolled. Hey, this was fun!

–as he headed towards me for about the 4th time, I gently tickled him under the chin and stroked his tail, trying to lessen his stress and get him to relax a bit and, so that he would not feel cornered, I moved out of the way to give him an escape route: one thing you never want to do is make an  animal feel ‘cornered.’

–finally, he found his escape route and took leave of us, leaving Jim satisfied at having gotten some excellent video…..right about this time, I started noticing that my  chest was  becoming wet…..no worries, I told myself: I can dive with a wet chest….and we went turned around and began heading back.

–as we came up over the lip of the canyon, I noticed my legs and feet were becoming wet, but no worries, I told myself: we’re heading in anyway….I can dive with wet feet.

–right about the time we broke the surface in the surface zone, I became aware that the amount of water in my dry suit was actually causing drag and making me negatively buoyant…….it’s just as well we’re ending this dive, I told myself….and added more air to my BC and we continued kicking in.

–as we walked back towards our vehicles, chatting about the dive and the Horn Shark and the Sheepcrab, I became aware that I had more than just ‘sloshy feet,’ I actually had water up past my knees inside my dry suit….

–reaching my truck, I had Jim unzip me and stepping out of my suit, I must have poured out  over a gallon of sea water  from each leg!

–OK, so, I’m a lousy neck seal repairer: at least we got in a dive before the next storm, due to arrive this weekend—that’s the main thing.