Up and at ’em bright and early this a.m. to ready for my morning of diving. Looks like the rain has finally cleared out for a little bit. Got everything loaded into my truck. That poor old thing. The floor boards have standing water in them because the truck leaks so bad…… especially during those driving rains. I’m hoping a new wind shield will stop at least some of that. I need to see how much of my ‘Bondo’ molding days that I remember. I used to be pretty durn good at rebuilding auto body parts that were crunched or just plain ole rotted away. The salt air here is awfully hard on everything. Throwed the floor mats into the bed of the truck to let them drain a bit and hopefully dry out a little bit. Everything loaded and away I went. Wind had swung around out of the North and picked up a mite….. maybe a little more than a mite….. it was down right sporty out there on the water. It was so sporty [[how sporty was it ??]] — that for the first time in my photography career here on the island…… I did not bail in for ‘in the water’ off the end of the boat exits. I have bobbed around out there in some pretty aggressive seas and came out relatively unscathed…. but something told me today, don’t do it. I don’t know if it is age, wisdom, gut instinct……. whatever it was, I listened to it. Pretty happy I did too. It was rough enough, that I did not let the Captain hand my my camera rig after I got in….. I took it with me, on both dives. This involves walking rapidly to the back of the boat, bending over far enough the camera goes into the water and then doing a somersault in with it. That way the camera does not take the impact of entry. Not a smooth or graceful entry, but it works. Safer for the Captain as well. I learned it watching another photographer last year, that did not trust the Captain to handle his camera [at all]. Under the water, it is so much calmer…. hard to believe sometimes…. unfortunately, with water that rough, the visibility tends to suffer most of the times, but we still managed 70′-80′ on both dives. Not great but not bad. Small group of divers made for a fairly quick day. I’m not complaining a bit. Back here, showered, pictures edited and posted by 3:30. I’ll take it.
Joining a large group of divers tomorrow for a mass underwater clean up of the Pier sponsored by a local band, doing it now for the third year in a row. There are normally 2-3 of these clean ups a year, but COVID crap has kept them all cancelled. Hopefully it doesn’t interfere with tomorrows efforts. I have no idea what section I am being assigned to- so I will not have my [big] camera with me, although I might drag my little GoPro with me. Not sure I know how to dive without a camera in my hands. 😉
Good Night Ya’ll + + + + + + + + + + + + +Thankx for stopping in~!
