The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead—There were no birds to fly. - Lewis Carroll
There are no bad dives, just some dives that are better than others. I have had better dives but there are still things to report.
We were going to dive the Bluffs Wreck tonight. We walked down to the shore and there were about a dozen surfers in chest high waves, enjoying the surf to the north of the jetty. The wreck lay to the south, about 300-400 feet out under those 4 foot crashers. While there was an occasional lull in the sets there was also a good strong current, pounding waves almost as tall as I was and the sets started right where we wanted to be. I was not sure about this. We were going to take a pounding.
I thought our alternate site would be in order. I’m sorry but I just wasn’t confident about it.
We headed over to the Railroad Bridge. I haven’t been there since October and I always enjoyed these dives. Timing is everything and we were off a bit. We were dead center between Low and the incoming high tide. But looking in the water we were going to have some decent visibility.
Now we just needed something to see. It was warm, about 75 F on land but the big news is the temperature of the water. A whopping 68F with the incoming tide no less. The Back Bay was only 57F on Thursday. This is crazy.
We put on our fins and walked out and dropped down. Visibility for me was about 15 foot maybe a bit more.
While not anywhere near as plentiful as Thursday at the Back Bay, there were a few horseshoe crabs still going at it hot and heavy. And all the large starfish were here, hundreds and hundreds of them. Hermit crabs were not in abundance but I did find one and held on to it to bring home to my cousin for his saltwater tank. My dive buddy found a dead fish. He poked it but it wouldn’t move.
We headed out under the bridge and the current was ripping and we were swept along and out the far side. The bottom was blanketed with a thick layer of mussels and many blue claw and rock crabs were hiding in among them.
There were quite a few small fish under the bridge and we did see a few pole spear size ones also. I only saw one flounder and that was in the mid sized range. This time Mark found a dead crab.
The ride though the bridge pilings caused me to loose my hermit crab but I did find a second one and stuck it in my dry suit pocket for safekeeping.
As we looked about I found the tiniest baby crab I have ever seen, smaller than my fingernail but absolutely perfect. I picked him up and played a minute or two but we were moving on already.
We came back through the bridge the current still making it a challenge, especially with the dive flag, but we made it. With the visibility you could look up and see the sun shining on things at the surface of the water. The bridge, the dive flag. It was kind of nice to look at and would take you by surprise a little at first.
Back near the bulkhead we looked around a bit more and Mark found several graduates of the local fishing boats Fillet and Release Program. Again he poked them and they didn’t want to move.
We surfaced and paddled back in. There was definitely not a great deal to see here tonite so we were calling it a dive. Things are taking their time coming back to life in this area.
I was traveling on my way home and at about Lavallette when I remembered the hermit crab in my dry suit pocket...............Ooooooohhhhh..............I headed straight to my cousins and pulled him out of the pocket and dropped him in the tank. He had made it alive, barely, but he had made it.