Beth, Moray Eel
Beth, Octopus
Beth, Moray Eel |
Beth, Octopus |
Beth's high-pressure seat failed last night after the night dive while I was testing her airfill. (I pulled the 10:30 PM "fill" duty, which I love, because it's nice and quiet.) I tried everything but it obviously needed a full rebuild, which I'm not trained to do.
Melonie and Frank, our wonderful friends and Captains, loaned me Melonie's Atomics T1 regulator and I loaned Beth my Apeks. Beth used my Cobra and I used my Data Plus computer (it was our first dive of the day, our Nitrogen levels were zero on both units). Since I was diving unfamiliar gear, I followed my normal practice of leaving my camera behind. What an awesome breathing reg! Many thanks Melonie and Frank for the loan, and for keeping us from losing the Stetson dives. What a loss that would be!
We found a small Octopus, and went out to the flats instead of the pinnacles at Frank's suggestion. A pair of large French Angel Juveniles, many other juvenile species, a big Southern Stingray, a tiny Green Moray Eel, and many other fish. There's just no place to hide in the rocky world of Stetson!
We saw a Barracuda cleaning station, with a Juvenile Spanish
Hogfish running over the B's body and teeth. Beth saw the Barracuda
eat one of its cleaners - talk about an occupational hazard!
A strong squall whipped up at the end of the dive which tossed the boat around fast. We were on the sideline during our safety stop, and the boat moved so quickly it was like standing in a 50 mph wind. Wheeee! Since I wasn't dragging a camera, and was using the Atomics, I used less air than Beth - which very rarely happens.
On the way out I noticed that I'd forgotten to re-set the Nitrox
mix on the Data Plus, so the !@#$% thing reset to 50% nitrogen. Stupid
computer - what kind of idiot designed this "feature"? (This is why
the DP is my backup and not my primary!)
