Another great trip to the Texas Clipper and rigs with AMERICAN DIVERS.  Lots of pics below, but they are actually in no particular order between the two dives on the Clipper and one on a rig.  The story of a crazy drive, catching cockroaches in the hotel and almost missing the boat in the morning are below the pics in the dive log :-)

 

 

I am a master of the mad dash.  I love to get in my truck and drive, preferably late at night with Pink Floyd and VERY strong coffee to keep me going.  I used to live in Portland, Oregon and that meant that I had a short 3 hour drive to the most amazing diving in the Hood Canal, Puget Sound and Straights - I mean - almost anywhere was a good beach dive and lots of boats to choose from.  So work moved me to Arizona!  Hmmmm...not a diving mecca, but I did get to teach in the local and unfortunately named Lake Pleasant.   But it did allow me to take mad ass drives to San Diego late at night and sleep in my truck for the last couple of hours before I needed to be on the boat (check out La Jolla Christmas and other displays of my driving-diving-sleeping in my truck madness). 

 

It was six hours to San Diego from Phoenix, and it is six hours from Austin to South Padre Island and the home of American Divers.  I actually took off in good time from Austin on Friday and loaded up with coffee at the last Starbucks (evil empire) in San Antonio prior to heading out on the coffee-less I-37 or 281. 

 

As it looked like I was going to arrive before 10 pm, I decided that maybe I should stay at a cheap 'dive' hotel and so I called my long suffering friend Margo, and she booked me into the Island Hotel.  On arrival I checked in and took my equipment to my room and when I opened the door, I was confronted by the largest cockroach that I have seen in some time.  Opting not to squash it (because I have some hang ups about insect karma and some large insect stomping on me one day) and went back to the front desk and advised the management that there was another occupant and, while I did not mind sharing, that they might like to do something about it.  The person that was acting as manager (and not doing a good job of it) looked both vaguely concerned and confused at the same time. 

 

I decided that I needed to fortify myself with a beer - just one!  So I drove to the South Padre Island Brewing Company, but seeing me coming and fearing that I was personally infested with cockroaches, they had locked the door 30 minutes before the posted closing time.  Feeling a little down and knowing that there would not be another place open with a good IPA beer (I am a TERRIBLE beer snob), I went back to visit my buddies in my room in the Island Hotel.

 

As I wandered through the door, the slightly concerned and confused acting manager stood up and proudly told me that he had inspected the room and that he had not found any cockroaches.  And with that he grabbed his lunch box and departed, leaving the hotel reception desk in the hands of a child that could be no more than 12 years old with a small braided pony tail sticking out of the side of his head with one solitary bead on it. 

 

On opening the door of the room, my cockroach friend was still in the middle of the stone tile floor at the end of the bed.  He looked at me with an air of ownership....until after a few moments of frantic scrabbling (on the part of both of us) I scooped him into a plastic cup.  Proudly I took the cup to the child at the reception desk who looked both concerned and vaguely confused.  I left the roach and a note for the manager and went back to my room.

 

I opened the door and looked and there was another roach...in the same place...apparently looking for his buddy.  I grabbed another plastic cup from the bathroom, and after a similar amount of scrabbling, the second roach was in the plastic cup.  At this point I have to say that I was pretty proud of my roach catching capabilities!

 

I took the second cup to the front desk, within 5 minutes of the first.  The child behind the counter looked a little more concerned, but no less confused than the first time.  I transferred the second roach into the cup with the first roach, changed the roach count on the note to two and went back to my room.  I am glad to say that there were no more roaches, but the people in the room next door played loud rap music until 6 am, which coincided with the time that I got up.

 

I walked out past the kid in reception with the small pony tail with the bead on it that stuck out of the side of his head.  He looked at me walking towards him, and he looked concerned and slightly confused.  I showed him my hands and that I did not have a plastic cup in my hand; a ghost of a smile flickered on his face like a cheap motel sign.  He grabbed his lunch box and got ready to leave.  I shook my head - way too much deja vu for me!

 

On previous trips with American Divers I had arrived before 7 am and always been on time.  However, times are adjusted for a 3-tank dive, and the briefing was at 6.30 am.  Whoops....Tim gave me a withering look and took me off to pay!

 

There were a total of 18 of us on the ride out to the Texas Clipper for the first of two dives on that site.  Breakfast was the famous American Divers breakfast taco which everybody dives into and in some cases it dives back out and overboard before we make it to the dive site!  Listen people, you cannot take Dramamine when you step on the boat...you need to take it 12 hours before you get on the boat.  I wonder how many Dramamine tablets there are on the bottom of the Gulf between the dock and the Texas Clipper.

 

The boat is a little unusual as the deck is fully enclosed in air conditioned splendor, but the seats face forward and backwards so if you are slow to get below and pick a spot, you can be facing the stern heading out and that is like being on a backward facing seat on a bus or train.  However, the boat is very well appointed and very well organized and run. 

 

On arrival at the Clipper, the crew grapneled the ship and dove down to tie off to the wreck and fit a bridal line between the stern of the dive boat and the downline.  A bridle is a great idea, easy to follow to the downline and good for safety stops on the way back up.

 

I hit the water in the number one dive slot so I was first off the boat.  It is great to dive in blue water with 80-100 ft viz, little or no current, and to have your 3mm wetsuit be overkill!  I always wear a full suit and gloves on a wreck...much safer, especially taking photos as I often accidentally bump into stuff. 

 

It was great to see and be able to explore the ship as the last time that I was there the viz was poor and there was a big current.  There were lots of snapper, angel and trigger fish, cucumbers and several juvenile wrasse, blue angels and some butterfly fish.  No nudibranchs and not many crabs, but the structure is fun to explore and there are plenty of swim throughs and cut outs.  We did two good dives on the Clipper.

 

A word of advice - if you are nitrox certified, take the nitrox option because the two dives on the Clipper will be in the 90 ft range, and even with a 1 hour surface interval you can get very close to your no decompression limits.  I used the boat's nitrox at 33% and ran a 1 minute half stop and then over 10 minute safety stop on the first dive and over 15 minutes on the second. 

 

With those dives done, we moved to a rig.  I would know the name of the rig if I had been at the briefing on time!  Lunch on the way was cold fried chicken, a roll and potato salad, and it was GOOD! 

 

I have to say that I am more excited about diving the rigs than the Clipper.  The rigs have been there longer and are remote outposts of life.  The legs and risers are covered in barnacles, both live and dead.  The dead barnacle shells contain blennies, small fish that look like aliens to me.  The other great thing about the dive on the rig was the barracuda.  I seemed to be able to get closer to them at the rig.  I think that they knew that the rig was their natural hunting ground.  However, I also saw some sergeant major fish and got a couple of ok pics of blennies.  Check out the Little Sara dive pics for better blennie shots. 

 

The ride home to the dock was fun and fast, the sun was hot and I felt relaxed and happy with my dives.  Again - a well run boat with a good team and a very well practiced and executed method for getting people into and out of the water.  I felt safe at all times and recommend the boat and the crew to anybody that I meet that wants to dive in Texas.

 

Please enjoy the pictures.

 

Andy 9/6/10