Saturday the Independence II headed out to the Stolt. The ride out was a little rough, but the forecast was calling for the wind and waves to calm down, and then pick up again latter in the day. With the wind behind us, it was not a real issue. The report came up from wreck that there was 30 ft of vis, and large Flounder covering the bottom. Most of the divers were already in the water, but unfortunately their spear guns were still on the deck. By the time they returned the wind had dropped off, and the white caps were gone.
A couple lobster came up on the first bouncy castle for sale dive, and a few scallops. Dive two was much more productive with more lobster, seabass, flounder, and a few dozen scallops.
On a personal note, I finally got into the water just for the fun of it. Most of the winter I’ve spent in training, or training others. My other dives have been blown out. I hit the water after the other divers were up. Most of the lobsters I saw were on the small side. The flounder were everywhere on the bottom. Some were so big you had to look twice to make sure they were not fluke. I was more content to poke around on the inside of the wreck. The vis here was still good, and I wanted to check out my new 35 watt HID. It did a great job, even though the wreck now has enough holes for light to penetrate.
As I was ascending over the hull of the ship, I noticed a huge claw laying among the anemones. On closer inspection, there was a hole in the wreck just big enough for this monster claw to fit through. The body of the beast was much too large to fit through. There was no other access to the inside anywhere in sight. I’m not sure if this monster was just torturing us, or if he was trying to get out, but apparently the bigger lobsters are inside the wreck. After a few moments of searching for access, I gave up and continued up for my deco. With the bottom around 48 and the surface around 50, the dive was quite comfortable. On the surface the conditions were down to 2-4 ft which made for a comfortable ride home.