“This is the Ocean silly, we're not the only two in here“ .......Dory ~ Finding Nemo
Little things add up during the week. Not a horrible time but enough that you just would like to have a few relaxing moments. That is why I love diving.
The tides were off just that little bit, so an inlet dive was out, my suit leaked, I wasn’t looking forward to an ocean dive, a nice relaxing bay dive ...... that’s what I needed ..... Yea ..... The railroad bridge ...... That was it.
There were two little boys on the shore with their parents and they asked if there were any starfish. A quick dunk down retrieved one for them and then we were on our way. The bait fish were jumping all about on the surface. Something had to be down there.
We weren’t exactly organized. A few items had been forgotten but we had the basics, all we really needed, so in we went.
As we headed out there was the usual assortment of starfish and crabs, both blue claw and spider, and one spider crab was particularly upset with our intrusion into his world and followed after me for several feet waving his claws and snipping at me menacingly. Gotta love that spunk.
The bait fish, killies, blenny and other small fish were in abundance and there was no shortage of flounder in the 3 to 4 inch range. I love how still they can stay, slightly buried in the sand, holding their breath and whispering “you can see me...you cant see me....” I see them and just a little nudge and they take flight. I can amuse myself a long time doing this but there is more to see.
We moved along peeking in among the mussels to see who was hiding. The tiny hermit crabs are still walking along, making good headway for such short little legs. Crabs are making themselves at home in small and large crevices and with the help of a few mussels cracked open with a dive knife, the fish swarmed us swimming about first for a snack and then it seemed some were just plain curious. Or maybe waiting for seconds?
Then we saw one ..... A “quality” sized striped bass, swimming tantalizingly close. We hovered in place and looked about to see if we would catch another glimpse. And we did. I quick cracking open of a few more mussels and we waited. Hey, you never know.
Just a few of the smaller fish showed .... Hmmm. Then we saw them, swimming around us. It must have been a school of stripers, there were several we could make out, and they were circling us, slowly and just outside of our reach. They never came in for a snack but we watched for several minutes until they moved out of sight.
There were a few horseshoe crabs still making whoopee. Isn’t that season come and gone yet? And, after some effort, a washing machine agitator was set free. And one decent sized fluke was startled.
We were deterred a few times by the commotion of a water rescue drill by the Brielle Fire Department but still had a leisurely 40 minutes before we headed up.
Just enough to make the trials and tribulations of the day ebb away. I’ll do it again.