Despite the seas above, there was little or no current on the wreck & we proceded to take a nice, leisurely swim from bow to stern. As always, I was agog at the sight of this magnificent wreck & just relished swimming along peering into the decks & looking at all the "stuff" protruding from the top of the deck. For those of you that may not know, the Grove sinking did not go so well & instead of landing upright in the sand, it wound up on it's side. It's also a relatively new artificial reef & doesn't have a whole heck of a lot of growth on it yet. The last time that I was there, it was teeming with fishes but, alas, not so this time. Visability was not the greatest- about 40 feet.
Four of us went down together, two with cameras, so although we stayed relatively close, the shutterbugs were one pairing & my buddy & I another. After going around to the visible screw for photo ops, we all headed back. My buddy & one of the others went into one of the decks but the other diver signaled that he needed to head back in. We signaled the others of the change & headed back to the bow a little more quickly. My new buddy signaled that he was getting very low on air & asked me how much I had- around 1500 by then. We proceded to ascend up the line to 15 feet when, he asked to share air for the safety stop. So, I gave him my reg & switched to my octo for the duration of the stop. He then went back to his own air & we proceeded to the stern & got back in the boat. Because he was almost out, I let him go first of course. Took the fins off while I was waiting & looped them around my wrists (thanks Walter). It actually made it easier to get back in the boats in those rough seas because I didn't have to struggle to hand them up to somone while clinging to the ladder for dear life. I did get caught by an unexpected swell & my masked met the ladder briefly (ouch) but no biggie. It turned out that the guy that ran low on air had a malfunction in the hose that inflates the BC. None of us saw any telltale bubbles to give it away early.He fixed it in time for the second dive.
Second dive was out on French's Reef at the ledges. Just a nice leisurely dive, watching our buddies take photos & floating along. My buddy took the lead & actually lead us off onto one of the fingers unknowingly. I tried to tell him but underwater communication does have its limits & I just let it go. It turned out nicely in the end because even though we missed some of the critters the others saw, we also enjoyed the solitude of being the only four around. As usual for me, the water was too cold (80 on the SG & 79 on the reef) so, I came up shaking like a leaf & covered in hives both dives- is the water EVER going to get warm????
We were scheduled for the afternoon trip on the boat but I opted out, knowing that my body would not be able to take the cold for two more dives. Instead, I spent a nice, leisurely afternoon hanging out near the dock & at a nearby outdoor restaurant. Oh, and a little side trip to Diver's Direct- no I didn't spend a dime!
Edited by Marvel, 09 May 2004 - 04:23 PM.
