 |
Hole In The Wall -
Jupiter Florida Friday December 14th 2001 |
 Z and ScubaDave (post dive cookie session)  ScubaDave at the entrance (Picture by Z)  Marty  Scooter Klaus Catching a few Z's on the way out.  The nurse sharks (picture by Z) |
I had heard
from Z and Dave that where was a dive to the hole in the wall on Friday.
"Nope..".. I said, "I have to work".. but then!!! I
see e mail flying back and forth on Thursday, talking of lobster hunting,
having a 45min runtime on the wall, seeing big fishes. finally I could
stand it no longer and I had to sign up. Was I ever glad that I
did!!!.. The seas were less than 3ft, the water was blue and the sun was
shining. I arrived in good time at Jupiter where I met up with the others,
Marty, Z, ScubaDave and Scooter Klaus. The dive was spectacular, and the current not too fierce. I think everyone thought it was a race to the bottom. A piece of cake for me with my PST 104, I passed several divers on the way down ;-). I was surpised to see a sandy bottom when I arrived..I suspect the vis was closing in on 100ft <big smile> so it was easy to keep track of each other.. I had imagined the hole to be in the side of a sheer drop, kind of like devils throat in Cozumel.. in fact it's a sort of ledge. It is a HUGE cavern, everyone on the boat fitted in there all at once. We spent some 7-10 minutes at and around the hole, I circled through a couple of times. Checking my computer found I had a max depth of 140. I was a little disappointed not to find it full of huge fishies, but then that's hardly surprising. To a bottom dwelling fish, our dive group probably resembled something like those huge groups of Bikers you see on US1 in the keys on Sundays. After everyone had fully inspected the hole, we continued on and drifted the ledge until our bottom time was up.. Along the drift we saw two very large nurse sharks sleeping quietly under a ledge. Our deco was nice and relaxed and I enjoyed every minute of it. When we popped up.. Yes! the boat was right there :-). Our second dive was to be a lobster dive on the ledge. I had dug my lobster stick and net out from the bottom of the closet where it had been since Meanie Season.. We plopped off the boat onto a ledge which spanned the 80-90ft range.. I had a max of 87fsw on this dive. It was so awesome just drifting along with nothing to worry about except enjoy the dive. It feels so free in the water without all that gear clipped on you. After a little while I saw Z stopping and fiddling with his lobster bag.. then right behind where he was I saw two lobsters.. One was really big, the other was only possibly legal. I scoped out the big one and swooped down.. To my surprise I found I still had the knack and he was in the net pretty sharply. Happily it was a boy lobster so no eggs to worry about either. All this time in my mind I'm thinking.. this guy needs two hands.. and my gloves are worn out in the finger tips.. OUCH!!.. then disaster struck.. and somehow I managed to drop him on the transfer. A rookie mistake, I was really disappointed and mortified. I had been having ideas of taking lobsters up to Debbie's for dinner (my next stop in Gainesville)..alas it was not to be. It's a good job I was underwater because you wouldn't really want to hear or ever repeat what I said at that point.. We didn't see many lobsters on the rest of the dive and those we saw were all shorts. However the reef was really pretty and I found a spotted moray too. During the dive the Vis began to close in, and by the end we were down to a mere few feet.. Fortunately Z had chosen to use his big light for lobster hunting and I could see the light wandering around in the gloom. I had taken the minimum gear approach and left mine on the boat. Regardless of losing the lobster I had a completely awesome dive. I had forgotten how much fun these types of dives are and I felt as though I have been neglecting this side of my diving life and need to get back to it a little bit. It was FUN and I'm planning a repeat visit as soon as I have found some $$ under the christmas tree.. (ever hopeful ya know).. |