You never saw a fish on the wall with its mouth shut. ~ Sally Berger
I always have a good time with Cindy...we drink wine, we talk, we drink wine, we shop, we drink wine, and most importantly we dive...... and then we drink more wine.... hey ...... dont be a hater....
Cindy flew in from PA on Friday night and at 5:30AM on Saturday we were loading up the car for a trip to Venice Beach to sharktooth dive. We could have taken the afternoon boat but there were other things to fit in the day along with our diving...... and so off we went, coffee in hand, heading for the marina in Venice Beach.
This was to be Cindy's first time sharktooth hunting, and while I had been several times before I am by no means a "shark tooth afficianado".
The sun was making its way up in the sky, white puffs of clouds taking shape above us and the air working its way up the thermometer to its hot and humid summertime temperature.
It is a short trip out to the underwater river beds and the mate gives a quick lesson in underwater fossils 101 and then we are gearing up to slide beneath the warm blue waters (87F warm) and hunt us some fossils.
Now we should be outstanding fossil hunters, after all we are world class shoppers and fossil hunting is much like shopping. You have to take your time and look at everything and sort through the junk to find the real bargains and treasures. But alas we are oft times distracted by the glam and glitter of the ocean floor.
We find several whale bones and manatee ribs, some teeth shaped like rocks and many rocks shaped like teeth. There are tiny starfish and , herds of sea urchins rolling like tumbleweed across the sand, sponges grasping onto the sandy bottom trying desperately not to be swept off with the currents, and eels dug into their sandy little caves, curious at our approach but not fond of the company. We have been given a compass heading to follow and Cindy diligently leads as I straggle behind poking and prodding and picking along the black sandy streams of sand looking for whole teeth.
Cindy's forte is shells....she knows them all and can pick up the teeniest of shells out of what looks like rubble, but it is abolutely perfect and a treasure and she can tell you all manner of information about it..... I on the other hand am easily distracted by the cunner hovering inches from my mask so curious about us and our search, the large oysters sitting upright in the sand.... they open their shells to let the water and food filter through but shut so tight when you poke..... you cant coax them open, I know, I tried. And hermit crabs.... they are like little shy playmates with short memories, I can spend hours just messing with them.
Two hours later, at dives end, I have bone in all shapes and sizes, shells I need names put to, a hand full of small teeth and one small meg. Not bad. I am not disappointed.
Unfortunately, as with any group, you have "those" divers without a clue. I had stood aside when boarding and loading and gearing up and let them spread out and thrash about but as we approached the dive platform in the current there on the tagline was one diver, long out of the water and just in swim trunks hanging on the tagline buoy and swimming it out from the boat and drifting back on it oblivious to divers surfacing and in need of a line to hang on while removing their fins and waiting their turn on the ladder.
I tangle myself in the slack flagline as I wind it in and swim it over to my divebuddy for a quick helping hand before climbing back onboard. It is a quick surface interval and we are back in the water a short distance from our last dive but this time all eyes are on me to man the compass. They must be joking..... so far my compass usage has been banging it on the oyster shells and failing to get them open..... hmmmmm.
The viz is slightly less here than the first dive just 5 or 6 feet but more than enough for our task at hand and there seem to be less teeth in this area, again a small hand full is all I get but I note there are less bones here and searching is harder. I find a toadfish hiding in a sandy hole and I spend some time hanging small shells off of the sea urchins scattered across the gulfs bottom. There were shades of black ones and red ones and bright purple ones which look quite pretty with small pink shells dangling from their spines. There were some with gold colored soft spines and several ran away when I tried to play with them.... humphhh the nerve..... I was simply givig them some bling for their saturday night date..... no appreciation those little urchins...but it is funny to see them do their own little version of scurrying along.
I find my way out and back as my dive buddy floats in the current following behind me, sorting through the fine sand in search of teeth. We dont have a huge haul but there is enough to impress the kiddies if necessary and we pack up as we anticipate getting ashore and heading out to a good lunch, a cold drink and some searching, sorting and collecting of a different nature...all those little shops along the boulevard.... sweet......