Dive Notes from December 1:

As we dropped on Amaryliss and headed north to the reef, I saw a 5 foot long barracuda-a real "grand-daddy". We found and cleaned off all three benchmarks on this site. Benchmark 201 was installed the last time the team dove this site, and it was holding up very well with the concrete nails driven directly into the limestone rock. Benchmark 202 was heavily encrusted. It also appears that the rock it is mounted to has shifted or rolled slightly to the west, as the marker is now facing somewhat on the west side of the rock instead of the top.

We had an unacceptable situation occur when two got separated from the group and missed the dive site. They waited too long (35 minutes) to come back up to the surface. When they did, the current had carried them more than .5 mile away from the site. They did not have a dive flag with them, but did have orange "sausages". Capt. Bob was afraid to leave the dive site area to go pick them up for fear of leaving the majority of the divers unprotected as they were starting to surface. By the time Bob had picked up all the remaining divers, they were almost 1 mile away to the north. Needless to say this was not a safe situation and Captain Mike made sure we got a dive briefing before we did the second dive. I guess it never hurts to give those briefings, no matter how repetitive they may seem.

On the Cross-Current Barge, our drop put us past the south benchmark, so Wade and I had to swim against the current to the south to find the mark. I found it on our first pass and we cleaned it off. I did not see any fish counters around, so I am not sure if this location got fish counts or invertebrate slides. I lost my old rusty dive knife on the swim from the south benchmark to the eastern benchmark. Ben believes he may have seen it laying on top of the southern gunwale of the barge, so maybe it will be there the next time we dive the site (but I doubt it). While swimming over the site after finding and cleaning all benchmarks (all look in good shape), I noticed that the outer hull of the barge on the north side is deteriorating rapidly. Sheets of metal are falling away from the ship's stays and a horizontal hole in the barge running parallel to the substrate and about 8-10 feet above the bottom is becoming quite large. Some of the metal sheets were "flapping" in the current. I believe both Wade and Ben took video of the area. Visibility was very poor for this site with a lot of suspended matter in the water column.

Dive Notes from December 2:

Departure was scheduled for 8:30 but delayed as the dive coordinator/guide/videographer was late. We departed at 9:03, the scheduled time for slack high tide. Fortunately the tide was late, due to the northest wind and was still slightly incoming when the first two divers hit the water at 9:22. They tied off the flag and the last diver was down the flagline on the SE corner of the north barge at 9:27. There were 5 divers, 3 fish counters (Matt, Andrea, and Gail), a videographer/guide (Ben) and Lois who was pressed into the photographer role for lack of availability of any of the others. We lacked a dry crew (not required) and a 6th diver could have gone along, but the mission requirments could be met with 5 divers.

The plan was to survey/video/photo on the northern two barges, rendezvous at the flagline at T+20, then move as a group to the southern barges, and resume monitoring there. This proved successful. At 9:44 the group moved south, and at 10:14 surfaces as a group from the south barges. Pickup was uneventful. Another anchor was recovered, this time by Matt. Last Rybo makeup Bob Hersey also recovered an anchor. Both were 12 pound Danforths, standard for small boats, and both had chains worth at least as much as the anchor. I'm starting a collection.

During the dive Lois returned with the camera, reporting the flash was not working regularly, and asked to load the 2nd camera. I recalled Cheri from the previous day's dives (Dec 01) indicating the flash has quit on her last 4 shots, so rather than take the time and risk of loading the 2nd camera, I swapped strobes. I had Lois do a test shot on the boat (moi, grinning down from the bridge) and when that proved successful, we redropped her. My guess is that the strobe batteries needed a charging cycle.

Subsequent post dive debriefing indicated that:
• 1. The drop had been satisfactory.
• 2. The visibility varied, but was good enough at the fish stations to get good counts. Some stations had to rove slightly in the water column to see the entire volumn around the point, but it's still point data.
• 3. The group swim south would have been better if the guide had a compass.
• 4. Lois reported being unfamiliar with the site, and as a roving photographer, was unsure of where she was part of the time.