August 15, 2018 w/ Dan Merry

20min |  69ºF (min) 76ºF (max) | 14.7ft (avg) 17.0ft (max) | 16/50 dives for the year

44min |  70ºF (min) 75ºF (max) | 13.4ft (avg) 16.0ft (max) | 17/50 dives for the year

Home again, home again, jiggity jig! After 35 days of working 6pm to 6am, it took me a solid four days to shift back to a “normal” sleeping pattern. It took one more day for me to go visit the sweet loving arms of the underwater world. I ventured to Stonington Point with a newer diver out of RI. My goal was to find the second geocache we have there and we did! Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it open so we took it with us and surfaced. It cut our dive short, but I had also forgotten an SD card for my camera (you’d think I’d have learned my lesson to have a spare on hand…) so we decided to go for a second dive after I made a quick dash to CVS. And yes, I walked into the store in my wet wetsuit and kinda sandy booties. The casher didn’t even bat an eye, so I can’t help but wonder what she sees on the reg. haha.

The first dive was relatively uneventful if you ignore the fact that we had to remove the geocache. But I was excited for the second dive, one because I had an empty SD card and two because it was a night dive which are my absolute favorite. It’s the time of year for all the juvenile fishes to be out and about, aka bait balls GALORE. Almost as soon as we entered the water and turned our lights on we could feel the small hits from hundreds of small Menhaden and Silversides. Once we moved beyond the eelgrass beds and into the depths, the bait balls stayed up above us and stopped ping-pinging into our sides and gear. Below them, but still above us, were lots of small squid darting in and out of the baitballs. They were only a couple inches long and super cute. Many were successful, clutching a fish that almost rivaled them in size within their tentacles. We stumbled upon a couple slumbering Porgy who were sporting their pj colors…super pretty! We also found THE CUTEST juvenile Northern Puffer…as a general rule, I don’t squeal over things. But you can ask any number of my dive buddies…I do it A LOT under the water. Haha.

We saw the usual suspects of Fluke, Spider crabs, Blue crabs and Northern Pipefish. As we surfaced at the end of the dive, we were once more surrounded by the bait balls. Dan and I were chatting about the dive when one of the fish jumped RIGHT INTO MY MOUTH. Lesson learned…don’t try to talk when you’re in the middle of ball of crazy fish. The dumb little critters managed to swim right into me and my gear over and over again, but miraculously, I didn’t end up with any fish in my gear the next day…

Another great dive in the books!