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01-31-03
We
made way due east at sunrise, and it was beautiful.
Not just the spectacular sunrise, but the chance to
spend the day offshore with friends. After such a long
span of jet setting, it was nice to be in my most
comfortable environment. The ride out was smooth and
quick, we made thirty five knots the entire trip.
My
first dive was on a reef I used to dive a lot. It
holds a lot of old memories, and a few shafts were
donated over the years too. I hit the water and rolled
head down, the water was a light blue in the upper
third of the column. As I neared the bottom, I noticed
a little chill - 62F
degrees showing on the computer. The vis
was around 5 ft, give or
take a couple feet. I saw plenty of fish, but they
were running for cover. I did see one lobster, and
watched him crawl into my goodie bag (with a little
coaching).
My
second dive was on another rock near the first one, I
figured why not take a look around the old stomping
grounds. I made my way to the reef, and it was alive.
There were fish everywhere, except grouper. Snappers
were the kings of this rock. They were big and moving
in and out of the cracks at a pretty good speed. I
turned to swim up the ledge and felt uneasy, something
made me look over my shoulder. From behind and 5 ft to
my right came a big tiger shark,
well over 10 ft long. I moved up the water column, and
let him pass beneath me. I watched him swim out of
sight quickly, and now I began to let my mind play
tricks on me.
The
shark appeared twice again, only passing me while
swimming in a straight line. I felt a little helpless
when I was next to the shark, but with my 357
powerhead, I felt that I had a great chance for
survival. After a while, I noticed he was gone, so I
decided to shoot a snapper for the grill. Soon as the
fish was on the stringer, the shark appeared again.
This time he was looking for a handout. The shaft was
in the gun, but the bullet was spent. He came
for the fish, and I whacked him in the head with the
shaft end of my gun. He shot off, and was back in a
second or two, this time moving a little quicker and
erratic. I whacked him again and ascended to see what
came next. I never saw him again, and I was watching
pretty good for him at this point.
We
headed in after the diving, only to find dense fog
from 10 miles offshore all the way to 10 miles inland.
We were lucky to have a good chart, I can imagine
there will be people hunting for the inlet for hours.
We were lucky to have 50 ft vis in the fog.
This was
the best birthday present ever.
MOOSE
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