Algol November 2005

I went out on the Stingray to the Algol. Onboard was Charles, Stephan, Ernie, Jim, and me, plus of course Captain Henrik. Water temps are still in the mid-50's, viz not too bad, a little dark. Air temps were very reasonable, I had thought we'd be chilled on the SI but not a concern. Seemed much darker when something big swam past me in the gloom, it was like being in a playground and all of a sudden realizing it is dark, you are all alone, and the swings are creaking in the wind. Fortunately it was just a 4' striped bass (ok nethers unclench now). I furthered my love affair with the rebreather by having a combined 90 minutes of bottom time (20 at 120, the balance 100-110), with 31 minutes of deco. Swam the whole way around it (which I believe is 500 feet long), did a bunch of penetration. On dive one I dove with Stephan until he went up, then continued by myself. On dive two we did the reverse: I splashed early so I could have 20 minutes to go look for scallops in the sand, then we hooked up (like clockwork - good job stephan!) to continue the dive. I got a kick out of the look on Stephan's face when I swam him over to a dark hallway and told him he was first I was second. I had swam it dive one, so I knew it was a long straight shot, no turns, but definitely waaayyy out of the light zone. As he explained later the look was part Ohhh God and part consternation that I would be in prime position to observe his buoyancy and technique. And for those wondering, it was spot on.

The only blot on the day was that Charles had a ccr equipment malfunction, which prevented his making the dives. Perhaps it was bad mojo from his son, who told him if he didn't come back he had dibs on the laptop. Big bummer as it was time for its salt baptism too.

No scallops or keeper bugs, but lots of mussels came up, and Henrik found a spool and double-ender buried in a clump.