DIVING THE LITTLE SARA
Pictures are below the dive report.....
I always like to start with the thank you’s! So, thanks to Tim, Brian and Kenji for driving the boat and keeping us all safe while diving on the Little Sara on Saturday, 22 May. Once again American Diving looked after me well….except Kenji soaking me on the drive back to shore, but I guess that will teach me to stand on the bow!
The Little Sara looks like a baby oil rig, I understand that she is a manned pumping station about 9 miles offshore so her max depth is 100 ft….if you dig a hole and put your computer in it. As it was, none of us bothered to head to the bottom because the viz was not good at depth. So I chose to hang out with my camera at between 30 and 80 feet just enjoying the life on the legs and risers. The rig has been in the water for 7 years and has plenty of life on her as you will see from the pictures.
The most unusual fish by far is the Lookdown. These fish are like silver slivers, wafer thin, angular, silver and about the size of a dinner plate from the side (albeit a broken plate!). Along with the lookdowns are schools of snapper of all types, and there are getting to be some ‘tropical’ fish out there now including Damsels and Butterfly fish. There are several different types of blennies in the old barnacles and life almost everywhere you look, but I do miss the nudibranchs that we see in the CA waters.
One other huge difference from CA is the water temp. I was more than warm enough in a 5mm. Most people wore a 3mm, and it is not the ‘warm time’ yet! I miss the cold water and my drysuit!!! As we move into June/July, the water quality moves from green to blue with the effect of the gulf stream, and we should start to see whale sharks, hammerhead sharks, barracuda and more tropical fish. I am looking forward to my first dives in the Flower Gardens, but that will be another dive for another day.
I did get a bit of a jump on my second dive. I had promised to take pictures of Lance with his spear gun. Lance comes from Florida and is an underwater hunting, killing and Bud drinking machine! Anyway, I got some shots of Brian, another spear fisherman, on the first dive so I planned to get the shots of Lance on the second. He and I were one and two in the ‘jump’ roster so we descended together and headed for the first set of risers (actually they go horizontally between the legs) where he planned to sit and shoot snapper and sheepsheads.
As we headed down I got behind as I was taking a few shots of things, and as I approached him I looked at the camera and saw water in the case….aaaarrrrrggghh!! I already have one camera in a water filled jar in my living room to remind me to do the catches up on the underwater case, and I did not want another to join it. I turned the camera lens down to keep the water away from the electrical parts of the camera and swam to the surface. Kenji took the camera and kept it in the same position, and I dropped back down again.
That is when I learned two things…(1) fish that are hard to take pictures of swim right up to you when you do not have a camera in hand and (2) it is hard to concentrate and enjoy a dive when you are worried about a camera. So I aborted the dive, did a good long safety stop and went back to check on my baby. I am glad to report that she was just fine. I will clean and check all the seals as something as small as sand or a hair can cause a leak.
Another good day....and a long drive home :-)
