So far the summer has been amazing. The water temperatures warmed up and it has been sunny and calm in the weekends. What more can you ask as a diver?
This Saturday we did our GAFC (Great Annual Fish Count) dive at Loblolly Point. First dive was so good that I didn’t even question doing the second one, despite the fact that I needed to head home as early as possible.
For the first dive we took sort of a 120 degree bearing. That takes us towards the Thatcher Island. After a while if you keep bearing right you will be going up and down over big boulders, and that’s one of my favorite things on this site. At strict 120 degree we get to the sand and eventually the reef. The sand is always fun and you never know what surprises it may bring. This day it was a bigass searobin. I don’t see these guys in Cape Ann that often, and this one was one of the biggest I have ever seen. One fish encounter may make a good dive a great dive. And now it became great dive 🙂
Second dive we hit north bearing (0 degrees). Passed over some shallow reefs and then found a sandy patch in between. Agitated by the diver fin kicks bunch of sand lances started shooting up and soon after pollock showed up, it was a feast for pollock and for our eyes. We were just sitting and watching the survival war going on in front of us. The dive was over and I wasn’t ready to get out. I signaled the buddies getting out that I am just going to hang out near the shore. I am so glad that Todd joined me (he is a great buddy that he never leave anyone alone) and we had another 35 mins of bonus dive
Such great day, with amazing encounters with bunch of fish and also some nudibranchs unexpected this late in the season. Now I can’t wait for next dive…
Buddies: Todd B, Mike S, Jason E, Amy N
Dive 1: 44ft, 64min, 53 F, 20ft viz
Dive 2: 30ft, 85 min, 56 F, 20ft viz
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”115″ gal_title=”21 July 2018 – Loblolly Point”]