Arundo 10-17-10

As I left my house this morning I looked up into the sky to see so many stars and then, I saw a shooting star! This would be good luck!!! I have not been in the water for 3 weeks because I kept on getting blown out. I knew the wind was going to blow again today but I had faith that we'd get out somewhere. As I was loading the boat Capt. Jim of the Gypsy Blood said "oh know, I saw you were on the list of divers and I hope you don't bring us bad luck since you's been blown out so much!!" Well, we got out and went to the Arundo. This was my best two dives of the year!! Thanks Capt. Jim for not canceling!!!

We were diving with Diversion group today and we had 13 divers aboard. Our leader, Helen Bilinski was not well today and was forced to stay home but she did send her peorogies and salsa dip and chips for us all to enjoy. She was with us in spirit and I hope she gets well soon!

The Arundo is a freighter that was sunk via torpedo in April 1942. She was carrying supplies for the troops in N. Africa. The supplies included Canadian beer bottles, jeeps and 10 wheeled army trucks.

Bart tied us into the wreck after a choppy ride out and the pool was open. Once I splashed, the vis was not very good, lots of particulate matter in the water, but once you got down about 50' it cleared right up and we had an easy 30'-40' of vis. I left my camera on board by mistake, I forgot to grab it when I jumped in and boy was I sorry that I forgot it. We were hooked in the stern right next to the propeller's and rudder gear mechanism. I swam quite a distance away from the anchor to an area with a tall stack and lots of ribbing. It was so cool to see this with such great visibility. I followed along part of the hull with lots of windows and came to an opening and underneath the sheeting was big truck tires. If I had my camera this would have been a great shot. The wreck was loaded with large sea bass and black fish. This dive was so great that I didn't want to leave but all great dives come to an end and up I went. The bottom temp. was 58 degrees and the surface temp was 61, I was nice and warm!.

During the surface there was lots of scallop shucking, there were a ton of scallops brought up. The seagulls were dive bombing the boat to get the scallop guts, it was quite the show. Also, Shawn the mate said he saw a black tipped shark during his dive, he said it was about 5' long. I was definitely bringing my camera in for the second dive in case I see the shark.

During my second dive, the vis seemed to open up even more. I could see the bottom from pretty far up the anchor line. This was my first dive with my new camera so I spent a long time trying to figure out all the menu's and which option was best for the conditions that I had. As a result, I didn't take too many pictures and also didn't travel too far. Bill took off with the scooter and I went in the opposite direction of my first dive. I came to some large pipe like openings that you could swim into and tried to photograph it. They didn't come out too well. I then came upon a toad fish and he was my model for quite a while. 30 minutes went by in a blink and it was time to head for the surface. Bill and Shelly saw two sunfish on the bottom of the wreck. They were not large ones but they were all the way down on the bottom at 120'. Pretty cool, I wish I saw them. I never saw the shark and neither did anyone else.


My Friend the Toad Fish









I think that shooting star this morning definitely brought me good luck and thank god my blow out streak has been broken! Its not often that you have such great conditions on the Arundo since it is in the mud hole. I'll be back out diving next weekend!! Look for me then...