“Here lies the body of Jonathan Ground, Who was lost at sea and never found” ~ Anonymous
We were hitting the Shark River Inlet for a night dive, a 10 o’clock at night dive. Josh, Benny, Tom and myself, or at least that is how it started out.
Benny was excited, he called me from the inlet proclaiming at least 15 feet of visibility and a decent tide coming in. Sweet! The inlet dive is just east of the A Street dive. You enter east side of the Avon Bridge, where again, the rocks of the jetty form a sort of natural staircase for entry and exits.
As we were gearing up Scott pulled in to check what was going on and kept us company until we hit the water. Tom, unfortunately, did not make the dive but like the 3 Musketeers, or maybe the Stooges, Josh, Ben and I were jumping in.
I forgot my glow stick for my tank, as someone reminded me on my ride there, and so I packed on an extra flashlight just in case. My last words as we locked our cars and walked towards the jetty? “Guys…..just don’t loose me”. My two companions, in unison, assured me they would not….no….never…not them.
We entered the water and dropped down to a whole different world than last dive. The viz was excellent and all our little play friends were out. We started finning and Josh immediately grabbed my fin and pulled me back. His fins were tangled in fishing line and he was stuck. I pulled out my sheers and freed him and we were on our way. The current was exceptionally strong, so much so that ducking in behind the rocks really wasn’t helping and occasionally we had to pull ourselves along. We passed by mounds of starfish and droves of teeny blue claw crabs. The spider crabs were well represented and of course the horseshoe crabs are still mating and everywhere you look. At one point I swam over what appeared to be two horseshoe crabs in need of a room, and did a double take as I shone my light over him and realized it was just one lone crab. Godzilla sized, but one just the same.
There were small flounder which we rousted and some juvenile sea bass which I poked, prodded and chased. Then our lights hit on a lone king fish of shooting size. Benny took aim and as I illuminated the process, he removed it from his spear and put him in his bag. By the end of the night Benny’s shopping bag would include another king fish and a 19 inch flounder. Not bad for June.
We continued along, working against the current and lighting up the nooks and crannies and panning about the sandy bottom next to the rocks. This really was not too bad as I registered 26 feet and 54 degree bottom temps. There were little bitty flounder hiding in the sand which we scooted along, sea robbins of varying size and the obligatory sponges, algae and other growth on the rocks. Two lone antennae were spotted and Ben lunged for them as we watched. As it turns out…..there was one huge claw…..attached to a runt of a body…..covered in eggs…….and back she went. Oh well.
As we swam along, Josh’s light panned over a monster sized blowfish. He prodded him with his light but this was one stubborn son of a gun and he held his ground refusing to move. Unlike this fish, the current was dictating our positioning and we moved on to see what else was out.
We soon started to feel the shift in the water and at about 22 minutes, the signal to turn was passed about. Benny made a quick stop to free a young sea bass that was hooked and caught on the rocks, not unlike Josh earlier. He would have to grow a bit before he was of hunting interest to anyone and he was sent on his way.
As I made the turn, the current caught under me and I started to loose my buoyancy and grabbed onto Josh’s tank to catch myself, but I was too late and I started to float up. I signaled Josh with my light and he looked up at me. That was the last I saw of him or Benny until they exited the water at the bridge. Unbelievable.
I dropped back down and shown my light all around, but I was alone. Procedure says, up to the surface, in towards the rocks and signal with your light til you find your buddy. I was halfway back at the exit point before I saw the signaling lights of my two, never in a million years would they loose me, dive buddies. I was holding my fins and had already scrambled on up the rocks to the beach when they arrived at the exit and wanted me to come back in and head west under the bridge with them for a while. I think not. As they dropped down I realized my keys were in Bens truck….Doh! So I sat on the steps and awaited their return.
Fifteen minutes later they were back and we were on our way up to the street discussing our little misadventure of lost and found. As the story goes……Josh saw my light and saw me floating up and then he didn’t see me, and he immediately went to tell Benny who was still following our little hooked sea bass buddy. INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING ME TO SEE WHAT WAS WRONG!!!!!! Do you remember how many times I saved Josh’s butt in Rescue Diver Class? Now….does he return the favor? Noooo…..instead he goes and tells Benny they are in trouble cause they lost me. They swam into the rocks and then surfaced, but by that time the tide had put several clusters of rocks between us. We must have looked like a whack-a-mole game with heads popping up and down in the water as we swam back in, popping up to signal and then dropping down a foot or two to grip some rocks to pull along. The trip back was actually quite quick and as soon as we found each other, although some distance apart, everyone had relaxed.
We were loading our gear back into our cars and discussing our upcoming boat dive for Sunday as I took hold of my neck seal to pull it over my head……and it happened…..my heart sank and I stood there in disbelief. My neck seal, my one year old neck seal, had split completely down the middle and now looked more like an oversized Nehru collar than a watertight stretch seal. Dang!
I had a family obligation in north Jersey in the morning and I really really didn’t want to dive wet on Sunday. Good dive buddies make all the difference. Benny dropped my suit off at the shop first thing in the morning and both Ben and Josh stopped by and helped Tom get a new neck seal on my suit in record time. I am diving dry on Sunday. Thank you to everyone……all is forgiven. Really…and see you Sunday.