Got out again today, 2nd time in a week! I almost didn't go out today because I am really busy with work and have lots going on with the kids, but my daughter told me I should go so, off I went. You only live once right?
I went on the Atlantus to the Inshore Paddlewheeler and we lucked out and hooked the wreck and not the subway cars. It was a small group today, myself, Randy Moore, RichVenuti from East Coast Diving and Ken along with Brian and Andrew Larsen. On my fist dive I headed out in the sand to the remnants of the paddlewheel and looked around for some scallops. There was none to be found. So I then spent time taking photos and touring the wreck. There was a lot of plankton in the water so I knew photos wouldn't be perfect today (vis was about 30') but, since it was a shallower (about 107') wreck and it was bright on the bottom, the pictures came out much better than I expected. I took some pictures of the multiple lobster traps that had lots of bergols swimming around them and some sea anenomes too. I looked under some ribbings for lobster but did not sea any. There were a few sea bass and a few flounder. It was warmer on this wreck, I got 50 degrees on the bottom and as a result, I managed 30 minutes on the bottom before the chill set in.
Once I was on the surface the smorgasborg of fish came up with the other divers. We had sea bass, flounder, ling cod, trigger fish and even an eel pout. There was one large taug that no one could spear so they set up a plan to try and corner him and spear him on the second dive. Needless to say this did not work.
On my second dive I toured the debris field and found some areas that appear as if someone has been "digging" in. The hole was quite deep in a linear fashion and definitely was not natural. I shot some photos of this area and I also poked around looking for some artifacts. This took up the better part of my dive. I got some pictures of a toad fish that I almost missed, he was perfectly camouflaged (see the picture of him, he's hard to pick out). He didn't like the flash so he did not stick around long. I ventured out in the sand in search of scallops again but I guess someone else bagged them or they moved out to cooler water. I spent some time taking photos of the other set of paddlewheels and before I knew it I was down 28 minutes, time to head up.
I am glad my daughter gave me the push to go diving today. It was a great day and also nice to be out in the ocean away from the heat on land! Next dive is on the 22nd unless I scoot out sooner!
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