12-15-01
We broke the inlet at 6:45 AM and plowed into the sunrise. The seas were beautiful, just as I predicted while the rest of the gang wanted to head over to the left coast. Never forget Rick's rule: If you listen to NoAA, you'll never GoAA.
We jugged the ledge, and headed down. The current was strong enough to make it difficult to follow the line. When we hit the bottom, a school of cobia swam towards us from the top of the reef. Dave was motionless and stalked the larger one in the distance and let the shaft fly. And it flew true. Graveyard dead, and ready for the grill. Back to the hunt, we pulled a few bugs and I shot a pudgy red snapper. Para mi.
While we were hunting this reef, a nurse shark came out of the ledge and started circling. The shark smelled something, and I think it was coming from Dave's wetsuit after I saw his eyes. I whacked her on the head with the butt of my trusty AB Biller and away she went, for a couple minutes anyway. I was poking my head under a ledge when I felt something bump my behind. Those nurse sharks are persistent, so I decide time to retreat. As I ascended, I watched the shark swim circles. The speed increased and the circles became smaller and smaller. This was a small shark, around 8' long. We see them much larger on other reefs we dive.
The next dive was on a reef we seldom dive, but we wanted to get away from the crowds. It was loaded with amberjack, but I don't ever shoot those worm filled trash fish ;) Napoleon and Dave were the big guns today on this trip, I was lagging. Some days a diamond, some days a turd. I don't care how bad I do, it is still the most exciting activity I enjoy. We had other friends out diving today, and they had good stringers too. More reports below.
Moose
