The crew had a great night’s sleep…they were on the dock with air conditioning and no anchor watch. They even got to sleep in a bit. We had a great cooked breakfast; chocolate chip pancakes, sausage and eggs. The sun was hot so everyone squeezed into the shade to eat.
We headed out after breakfast to go lobstering back at Pelican Shoals. The wind had come up a little so we put up the aft mainsail and the jib. This was the first time we had put up the sails so it was something new for the crew. With the wind came a little roll on the ocean. This was another first since it had been flat all week. By the time we arrived at Pelican Shoals the wind had died down again and the water had started to flatten out. The visibility was great and there were few jellies. It looked like great conditions for lobstering. The only thing missing were the lobsters. The area had been picked over so the only ‘bugs’ to be found were either undersized or egg bearing females. The crew still gave it their best effort and stayed at it for over an hour. Once on the boat all they wanted to do was get back off the boat…they started diving in off of the side doing flips and turns and swimming, using ‘jelly spotters’ to avoid the nasty creatures.
After lobstering we headed for our next dive site. We went via the deep water to do a little fishing, fill tanks and have lunch along the way. By now the sea had flattened out so the ride was once again smooth. We were headed for a site called Angelfish Alley; a name Denny, Holley and I came up with after diving it and see a lot of angelfish. Upon arrival we observed a little too much current for a comfortable dive so we moved on to Toppino’s Buoy. At Toppino’s there was no current and the visibility was the best it had been so far. The jellies were still around but nowhere as bad as prior days.
After the dive the crew had to decide on options for their night dive. They could stay out on the reef and deal with the jellies in the dark or go back to the dock and check out all of the creatures living in the walls of the marina. The choice was the marina, a bonus being another night on the dock with another night of air conditioning and no anchor watch. We headed back in to the dock, had a dinner of bratwurst and prepared for the night dive.
The preparations for the dive consisted of a briefing, issuing lights and splitting the crew into teams. The dive was led by Megan, Holley and Denny. I stayed on deck to keep an eye on things. There’s always at least one person on deck during every dive. The crew really enjoyed the dive, even though it freaked them out a bit. The big hit was the octopuses. Each group saw at least 5 of them.
The evening ended with everyone taking showers then bedding down for the night…in air conditioning.
A note on the tropical weather forecast. The are no storms expected during the rest of the trip. Invest 93L, an unnamed low, is headed for Mexico and will not affect us.
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