It was surprising not to see any divers at Peirce Island yesterday, it was perfectly warm weather in the middle of winter, perfect high tide timing. So, Bert and I hit the water to visit the friends.
Due to malfunctioning dry gloves it had to be a short dive with 3-5 ft visibility. First 5 mins of the 33 min dive was mostly screaming in my head, what the hell I was doing in the cold water on a nice warm day, the temperature had reduced to 33F after the nasty cold weather we had last week. But then, once we reached the hydroid farm, I forgot about the cold, until it was unbearable.
The usual suspects of the dive were the F. verilli and F. verrucosa, and finally I found one bushy back (damn I forgot the scientific name, so I won’t be able to act all nerdy here) nudi. As most of us, who dive this site, observed, there weren’t half as many nudis there compared to last year. Currently, the ones we observed were mostly nomming on the hydroid farm, probably gathering energy for the upcoming mating parties. However, there were some which are already mating and even a few egg ribbons. Kids, they just can’t be patient.
This dive was also the second dive I took my camera, Canon G16, for a ride. I wanted to use my strobe but somehow the optic cable malfunctioned so I had to take the photos with single video light. However, I am not too disappointed with the results. I am loving the camera, it is giving me really good details. A lot of details that I don’t notice during the dive but notice at home on my computer, like the isopods on the hydroids and the split cerrata on one of the verrucosas.
