12-31-01

We headed out late, the sun was high on the horizon. The waves were coming in short but tight and the Mako handled them well. We were almost at the first spot when we noticed a boat sitting in the area. We altered course to another ledge nearby and marked it with a jug. The bubbles were moving south at a high rate of speed, and I followed close. That dive covered over a third of a mile, I knew the current was rippin.

We moved offshore to a little rock I marked one day last summer and decided to go see what it was. It was a rock, no doubt. It was about 200 ft across the top to the other side. It rose two to three ft from the sand and there was no under cuts at all. What a bummer. However, there is beauty everywhere on the reef. This rock was covered with scallops. They were dancing all around us and staring with those purple eyes. We made it to the safety stop and I looked in a circle around, just in case, you know, sharks. I thought I saw a ghost. I did a double take, and sure enough behind me about thirty ft was a WAHOO. It looked to be around 50-60 lbs. I love my teak A.B. Biller too much to chance it on that rocket. 

That was something I have never seen before.

My next dive was on a reef we know and it was a little inshore of the rock earlier. When we hit the sand,  I noticed a big stingray in the sand off the deep side of the reef. I turned around to see what was all around, and three cobia swam toward me from the top of the reef.  Somehow I turned too fast and spooked them. I looked at Billy to see if he was laughing, but he was facing the other way. Good. I started to follow Billy, and I pulled a lobster from a hole. I looked back up to where Billy was last heading and a cobia came from nowhere. I lined up for the kill and let the shaft fly. I saw the shaft three quarters of the way through the fish, so I felt good about it not pulling out. The fish wasn’t moving too much and I thought I had a good shot. Then I pulled the string and the fish went wild. The fish went up, I started dumping air. Then the fish went down, I started clearing my ears. It pulled me upside down, my head dragging in the sand. It pulled me past a nice looking Penn level wind reel, but I didn’t have a free hand. Finally I pushed the stringer through his eyes and felt like looking for more lobster.

That was my last dive of the year 2001. What a great world we live in.

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