Got home a while ago from a great dive on the Clinton off Pompano.. This was a lucky dive for me since I was supposed to dive on this wreck last week and missed it.. then our original dive plan today called for the Hydro Atlantic but due to the weather it was changed to the closer wreck. I arrived at the park way early (an opposite to last week) and quietly set up my gear in the car ready for the others. Soon enough more divers rolled up, including Al and Cindy all the way from N. Carolina. The general discussion was the state of the weather, which had been advertized as 25knot winds.. Yikes.. It seemed to us that the wind which was supposed to be out of the north was in fact blowing directly offshore.. a happy mischance..

Regardless of the wind we packed up the boat and set off for the deeps, 6 divers and what seemed like 200 tanks.. Sea conditions were pretty bumpy but heck I've seen worse... Due to the conditions we decided to all dive as a single team and drop down to the wreck with a grapple and float ball. As I dropped in the water I saw the line already ahead of me as I was about number 5 of our 6 person team. The water was delightfully warm, as opposed to the surface temps which were telling us winter is really coming. I dropped down and pretty soon I saw other divers just arriving at at the wreck.

The Clinton is a sunken dredge at about 175fsw, it's very square in shape, and really interesting with lots of machinery to look at on board. For the more biologically/environmentally inclined, it has quite alot of growth marine growth and fish on it. To see some great pics of it taken last weekend by Z, go to www.deeperstuff.com.  We swam around the perimeter of the wreck then up through the middle. I had smaller tanks than the others so I hovered above quite a bit not wanting to cut their dive short by reaching my turn pressure before time was up. This proved to be a good strategy as I could get a great view of the others poking around an enjoying their visit, plus got to check out the schooling fish in the area. The visibility was not quite as good as last week but was still pretty nice, and made for a nice dive. Bottom temp was still in the 80's <big smile>.

 After a short BT of 20 mins we unhooked and drifted for Deco. This was a really pleasant experience until I arrived at 50ft and noticed my primary reg freeflowing a little, and it still kept on doing it even after I had shut it down as far as possible. Fortunately after monitoring it I realized I was only losing a tiny amount of gas and was already on my deco tank anyhow.. so I elected not to shut down the tank valve which would have resulted in the loss of my inflator hose too. I suppose for some people who do lots of it all the time, deco is a boring chore, and people can't wait to get it over with.. but for me it's still all part of the dive and I'm still having fun watching everything I can see, and everybody else. The plankton you see are fascinating, as they float by each one with their own weird mode of moving around. and they float right up to your mask almost. Needless to say, I was reluctant to finish and come up. While we were down, the wind began to shift direction and the captain was anxious to get back.. Unfortunately the pm: trip was called off as we looked at the ocean and the ever increasing waves..

I hat lots of fun, great dive and great dive buddies. I can't help thinking how lucky I am to live in such a wonderful part of the world, almost exactly equidistant between these wrecks and the keys with Miami beach wrecks right there in the middle.. I can't wait to go again.

Oh yes.. and one last thing.. NO large pelagics if you know what I mean. :-)..