Woke up to the chiming of my phone telling me it was 05:30. We were getting up early this morning to light out for the West end of the island. I was participating in a pier clean up dive and my bride was helping with the on land piece of it. We arrived on time and immediately set in to each of our own activities….. me getting my gear ready for the dive and Angie getting paperwork for everybody in line and handing out diddy bags (mesh bags to put trash in). We all gathered at the pier with our assignments and away we went. I had been assigned the shallower end of the pier and I dutifully set out scouring the ocean floor for items discarded by careless human beings. A big part of the clean up effort is picking up fishing line strewn all over the place. Lines that were broken and irretrievable by the fishermen. I personally brought in what I can only guesstimate was several hundred yards of fishing line. It also included so many hooks I lost count, and what I estimated was probably 2 lbs or better of sinker weights. Also found several small lures. On one particularly long stretch of line I was pulling in, I actually kneeled down on the sea floor and was pulling the line in hand over hand. As it got closer, I could see there were 2 small spinner bait type lures on the end of it and actually had a hand full of small fish chasing after them. It was probably the first time in my life I hoped a fish didn’t ‘hit’ my lures~! I feel like I did my part in the clean up. The other ‘fun’ thing I found was a dive computer. They look like a wrist watch, but also have functions for SCUBA diving that can be invaluable. I have wanted one almost since I started diving. This one was functioning perfectly. Knowing someone probably dropped it, I tucked it into a pocket on my BCD (Buoyancy Compensating Device). After everyone got out of the water – we all gathered at a nearby bar/restaurant for a brunch prepared for us. There were many raffles going to raise money for a local charity with a lot of prizes…. including a new dive computer. I bought my fair share of tickets, got a cold beer and a bite to eat and waited for the raffle to “win” my computer. While we were waiting for the raffle- the owner of the computer I found showed up ( I had spread the word I found one) — gratefully relieved to have his computer back – he bought our table a round of drinks. Brunch finished, the raffles started. 20 minutes into the raffle – there were only 2 items left — a really nice spear gun and “my” computer…… numbers called for the spear gun…… and I had those numbers…… Yes — I won a spear gun~!! Next was the dive computer….. numbers called….. and none of them were mine 🙁 Dammit Emmit~! But hey!! I have a spear gun now…… The event wrapped up and I headed down to the local dive shop that was having a 23% off sale…… so I picked up a couple of things I needed…. a new pair of dive boots, a weight bag, a new rash guard……. oh…. and a new dive computer…… 😉 I’m so spoiled…….. Now I just have to learn how to use it.
We came home and spent the rest of the afternoon with drinks and talking about the day….. a really, really nice day….. OOOH… we also had new tracks and a dig this morning when we got up — # 21 ….. not completely convinced she laid eggs – but we’ll know for sure in about 60 days~!
Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!
