Since there were just three of us, I was prepared to just drive the boat so Robert could have a good dive with Jody. Instead, Jody offered me two dives if I was comfortable with a ½ hour surface interval.

Dive 1: Sheri Lynn, Rio Miami, and Dema Trader

Robert drove and Jody and I splashed in with a perfect drop on the Sheri Lynn. Scootering down, towing a Riffe Torpedo float on a reel and clearing your ears is not an easy skill.

As we approached the wreck, the fish were really jumpy. The twilight time is a high activity time and our presence made them nervous. Some fish are slowing down getting ready to sleep and others are gearing up for the nights hunt. While heading between the two pieces of the Sheri Lynn, a huge Rainbow Parrotfish shot out form under some debris as I passed. It scared me as much as I scared him.

I found a nice green moray tucked into one of the pipes on the bow section. However the two goliaths I spotted earlier in the year on the wreck were gone. We peaked in the engine room as well.

I found the steak near the bow section to head for the Rio Miami. This time we turned the pitch down on the scooters and slowly cruised over the wreck. The cudas stayed close as if they were guarding the wreck.

I attempted to head south to the Parasio, but the slight North current was not going to let me take the float in that direction. I let off the trigger and rebounded 5 ft backwards like a cartoon character and the giant rubber band.

We continued North to the Dema Trader. It stills a hunk of rusting metal compared to the other two well-grown reefs. It wasn’t long before I was asking Jody about which way to the next reef. He interpreted my hand signals as “Big shark like fish over taking wall street by 2:1 ratio of stock performance” instead of my intention of “which way now?” We cruised some sand and then came up after a 40-minute dive.

On the boat we planned the second dive. “How deep was that dive’” Jody asked? “I don’t know?” I replied. We agreed to call it an 80ft for 40 minutes. The second dive was a 60ft so I guessed about 40 minutes bottom time with ½ hour on the surface. The Swedish tables agreed my bastardization of the 130 rule.

Dive 2: Belzona Triangle, Belcher Barge and South Seas

It was good and dark now so we didn’t need to tow a flag. Jody would follow our lights with the boat. By shining our lights up now and then it makes for a perfect signal in the water of where we are.

We were supposed to land on the largest of the Belzona tugs. But we hand sand and a lobster pot. Robert was leading and started to follow the line to the next trap. As the line went up, I knew it was on something and we hit the Belcher Barges. From there we headed back to the Tugs.

On the first tug a school of Bar Jacks come and attached me. I had three bumps all at once. What the heck were they thinking? We circled back to the barges and found a big loggerhead awakened by our lights. Every time we hit it with our lights it would circle around and crawl in the sand. It looked like turtle was tripping. I’d never seen behavior like that before? But it didn’t leave, it kept circling us, so we left.

We headed for the Ultra quiz but didn’t find it. We were lost, so we just kept on the trigger. At 30 minutes we hit the South Seas a good distance away. In the middle of the wreck was a large Dan forth Anchor and 1 ft or so away a 4ft Cuda. Robert went down to check the anchor while I hovered 10ft above him. The Cuda freaked out and started bouncing off the sides of the wreck. Back and forth, then it started circling Robert. Last time I saw this behavior the Cuda bumped my dive buddy. Then I saw the Cuda bump Roberts’s tanks. The Cuda looked up at me and I knew I was next. I moved the scooter under my belly and bump, the Cuda shot up and hit it as well.

I jumped on the trigger and thought this was enough wildlife encounters for this dive. We circled the wreck once more and ascended at 40 minutes. Figuring I had pushed the tables for the second dive, I wished I had a computer to know exactly where I was at for this very multiple level dive. Looking at all the gas we had left, I doubled the 20ft stop and made a slow ascent and all was fine.

What a great night out on the water!

–Matt