Take me to a quiet place,
Throw me in the water.
Watch the bubbles surface
as I'm slowly sinking under
The Eurythmics, Aqua
High tide was at 9:25PM and after so much time out of the water, I was apprehensive about carrying my tanks and climbing up and down the rocks, but I do love these dives and so I met Jay at the Avon bridge, and along with several other hearty souls, we geared up to dive. With the assurances of “we’ll get you in and out” I set out for the inlet. Did I mention I love these dives?
We climbed down the rocks and slid into the water. It was a little colder than I expected. I had heard it was in the mid 70’s recently, but not tonite. It was still warm enough to go without a hood at 64F and so with a quiet swoosh of air from our wings we dropped down to the sand. We were pleasantly surprised to find about 10 feet of visibility and pleasant currents and barely detectable surge. This was going to be nice…very nice.
I began to look around and was immediately greeted by a large eel curiously nosing out of his hole to see what was going on. As I moved along, Jay, who has a habit of wedging himself in every crevice to check things out, jammed himself in a space right next door to my eel friend, but as luck would have it, they did not meet.
The crabs were large and active, scurrying all about and the starfish are getting huge. Most much larger than my hand. The rocks were covered in a world of color with sponges and soft corals and hydroids and aneomes and plants of every kind.
As we moved along, Jay squeezed himself into every dent and opening and I poked and prodded the various crabs and grabbed and scooted the smaller fish. I came across 2 tropicals which looked like trigger fish and several small white ones I didn’t recognize. There was one lone flounder, or is it a fluke, I can’t tell the difference, just the size of my hand hiding among some discarded shells in the sand. I can’t help myself, he wasn’t happy and he took off for parts unknown.
But too soon I could feel the change in current and gave Jay the signal it was time to turn back.
The sea bass were abundant although most were not of gathering size. As we went along one particularly large one was spotted hiding just under the outcropping of a rock, staying still and hoping we would just move along. Jay opened up his bag and carefully lined it up before rousting him from his hiding place. Like something in a movie, this fish swam right into the bag……..unfortunately……. he must have seen this movie and not liked the ending as he immediately darted out slipping past the handles just as Jay snapped the bag shut.
The surge and current picked up a little as we came back and the water hazed slightly in spots, natures way of readying us for the end of our dive I guess.
As we made our way back along the rocks there were large crabs both blue claw and spider carrying smaller versions of themselves off to where ever it is that crabs scurry and small fish that didn’t learn their lesson the last time I passed by to be poked once more. Sea Robbins were swimming about and if you were close to the sand they swam right up to your mask. At one outcropping we came upon what I thought was a large blowfish and gave him a poke. He didn’t seem fazed and we moved on with Jay burying himself waist deep in an opening in the rocks. While I awaited his return I looked about the sand and there was what I now know to be a large blowfish. He too was unfazed at being handled and he was so big I held him with two hands.
As we moved farther along I looked up, watching for lights and our exit point and there above me was a small red squid, almost a foot long just swimming above me. I have never seen squid in the inlet and just sat and watched him move along. He took his time and I appreciate that.
Just a little farther along we spotted a light shining n the water above, a friendly signal from another diver just leaving the water that we had arrived.
I climbed on out and although there were offers of assistance, I slowly picked my way up the rocks on my own and walked on up the stairs and on to my car. Like a little wagon train of divers we were all parked one after the other along the curb, and as we began to shed our gear….it happened….
With the speed of light we were descended upon by our local game warden, shining his flashlight over everyones gear and in their cars, looking for illegal catch. I know he is doing his job, but ………. lets just say, he did seem a bit aggressive in his approach ……. and a hair short lobster did receive a ticket ……..
I have heard this year, the ticketing for dive flag and catch violations started early and happened often. True story.
Anyway, a really comfortable and relaxing dive, a great welcome back to the water. Thanks Jay, we will do this again.