Delaware April 6 2007

Good Friday lived up to its name.

The Belmar marina was an empty wasteland as loaded up the Stingray. Onboard was Carl Bayer (xjae), Sunny Longardo (trukdiver), Jim Wood, as well John from here at WV (sorry I forget your tag) and Patrick, who is training in as mate. In addition to Captain Henrik we also had two small dogs, which showed uncommonly good dog-sense by keeping out from underfoot. The Stingray is looking sharp, with new paint, a new transmission, and sundry other improvements. It even shows, dare I say, a woman's touch: the head now sports the loveliest little seahorse stencils, in pastel shades no less!

Our planned trip to the Stolt was scotched by 15-20 knot winds, but as every NJ diver knows, West is Best. So, despite the horizon being a ragged sawtooth, and even fluffy little whitecaps inshore, we were able to have very nice conditions just a mile offshore on the Delaware. Jim's ears have been tetchy, so I dropped first to set the hook. The grapnel was fouled in some decking to the east, so after a few minutes of orienting myself I tied it into the prop shaft. Viz was very nice, 20', going to 30' when the sun peeked out of the clouds. Unfortunately in the rough conditions the bottle I sent up was missed, so I had the wreck to myself for rather longer than I expected.

After a winter of recuperation the Delaware is ready for another season of divers. The sands have shifted quite a bit, and I was able to find a very nice piece of brass near the stern. There were plenty of bugs, with several 3, 4, 5#ers, and even a 7# one near the bow. Unfortunately most of them had ideal little hidey holes. I brought down my collapsible pole spear, but even with its 6' reach I had a hard time coaxing them out of their holes. By the end I had two smallish ones in the bag to keep my brass company. I had gone a little light on the undies since I wanted to make sure I was good and negative, and paid for it by being chilled by the end. Still, I made it 90 minutes, so I guess that should be expected.

Hot food never tasted so good, and I had the guilty pleasure of enjoying it fully in front of two slavering begging curs. For dive 2 I added another top. There is no consensus as to the warmest drysuit underwear, with some folks preferring the Weezle Extreme Plus, others the 4th Element Arctic. Since February I've been using the 4th Element, and then putting the Weezle over top. Oh Man is that good. Properly kitted I made 90 minutes on dive two with nary a shiver. The bug that had flirted with me at the stern went right into my bag, a nice 3#er. An even bigger one just barely escaped the same fate. I had him, had him bang to rights, chased out and pinned under my pole spear. The problem was, so was I, wedged 3" too far away under a rib. I even tried calling for Carl, who even did hear me, but of course had no idea where I was. Pity, that. I did manage to find the little rubber cap for my trident tip, which had fallen off on dive one when I assembled it. I revisited the 7#er, who again laughed at me, before putting the paralyzer tip on my pole spear and getting down to business. This was my first time taking it underwater, so beyond a rudimentary understanding of the mechanics I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Bah, nothing to it, in five minutes it had drawn 1st blood, then 2nd and 3rd (though #2 slipped from my rookie fingers and sped off to be a crabby feast.) I took the hint when I heard Henrik started the engines, still warm, still in my ndls, and with plenty of things to do. Back onboard I found out Carl had found a very pretty little piece of China, a 2½ finger bowl with the gold leaf still around the rim. He was much less impressed by my recovery of the 2 cent plastic cap for my pole spear, as his reel disappeared - I guess he'll be able to join Stephan in having a halcyon reel marked #2.

I may be a lapsed Catholic, but it was still mighty good to eat fish on Friday.