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| The Surface Interval |
| April 2005 - When to Say When |
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I’m sitting down to write this month’s column on Monday
March 14th, 2005. The column is due in by the 15th of each
month in order to make the printing deadline for the following
month. The past two months have been crazy. I’ve been swamped
and I’ve got quite a few stories to tell. I could keep my
column going for a couple of years with just those stories.
I’ll just have to tell most of them over drinks with friends
for now. I feel like staying current, so I’m writing about
events that happened yesterday. March 13, 2005 was a great
Sunday on the water and one that revealed some valuable
lessons.
I motored the boat away from the dock at 8:30 a.m. I’m not a
morning person but I do like to get out early when it comes to
fishing or scuba diving. 8:30 was later than I liked but the
boat was sitting behind a rented house. I did not want to
disturb these winter residents so my 3 buddies and I began
loading the boat at 8:00 a.m. as agreed upon the day before.
I looked at the deck of the boat as I steered out of the
Matlacha canal. Way too much gear. I am not a minimalist and I
had high hopes for fish this particular Sunday. We had planned
on completing two dives each. When I multiply that by four
people I come up with eight. We had ten tanks aboard. Two
spares. We had six fishing rods. Two spares. Two of us brought
tackle. 3 of us brought coolers. We had 5 lbs. of squid and 10
blocks of ice. Four spearguns, two of them mine. It was too
much. We had the space but there was always something in the
way. As it turned out we didn’t even fish. It often turns out
to be too much in one day to try to hook/line fish and dive. I
know this. I still try it several times every year.
Hours of preparation, and then the cleanup. Wash the boat.
Wash the rods. Wash the scuba gear. Load the tanks, gear,
coolers, etc. Unload the tanks, gear, coolers, etc. Dry
everything. Put it all back in its place. Ugh!
Our first stop was over a grass bed in Pine Island Sound. We
anchored and used Kozy Kitten cat food to get the pinfish to
the boat. Then we carefully aimed and shot the pinfish with
our spearguns… just kidding. In my list of gear I didn’t
mention a cast net. Well, add that to the list. After we got
the pinfish feeding we cast net our share for grouper bait. We
got that stowed, got the livewell going, got the anchor up and
we were on our way. (No pinfish were harmed in the making of
this story. Since we didn’t fish we ended up letting the live
pinfish go.)
Red tide was evident through Boca Grande Pass. The water was a
dark green-brown and the smell of red tide tingled my nose. I
hate the smell and my throat is sore today. Dead and bloating
pufferfish and white-bait floated by. Victims of the bloom.
The wind blew from the southwest and waves broke the port bow
on several unlucky occasions. We ran at 15-17 knots
(approximately 17-19 miles per hour) on the way out. Any
faster than that and I was slamming the bow through the next
oncoming wave. We traveled almost 35 miles to our dive site.
The dive was in 90 feet of water on a long ledge that breaks
and tapers in parts. Most of the ledge has a relief of 2’ –
3’. If you decide to ask me for the G.P.S. coordinates I
promise to give you the coordinates for Edison reef. Maybe…
Sanibel Light. I hear that’s still nice on a spring day. I
hope you get my point.
When the G.P.S. display showed we were on the spot we circled
a minute or two and made sure we were over the ledge. I gave
the go ahead to drop anchor and one of my friends let the line
peel out. Anchoring for scuba diving is easier than anchoring
for fishing. When bottom fishing, the captain of the boat must
judge his drift direction and move the opposite direction as
far as he plans on letting out line scope. That would put the
boat directly over the fishing spot. I had the anchor dropped
right on the spot. We then had a convenient ascent/descent
line right to the ledge.
I always preach safety and so I announced that we would have
two divers down and two up. If the boat were to break the
anchor free, the two guys on the boat could motor back to the
dive site. I told my friends that we would use the anchor line
for ascent/descent.
It was decided by the group that my buddy and I would be the
first two down. Two of the guys with me were very experienced.
The other diver was advanced certified but had little
practical experience. He had not scuba dived since last
summer. The suggestion of group order came from him. He was
nervous. I realized another mistake of mine at that moment. I
had made 90 ft. dives with this man before, but it had been
awhile. We probably should have made him get some shallow
dives under his belt again before taking him out to this
ledge. It turned out fine but it could have been disastrous. A
nervous diver is that much closer to panic.
I back rolled off the side of the boat and my buddy followed.
The cold water stung my face. I was wearing a 5mm thick suit.
It was good quality and did its job but it still took a minute
to adjust. The cold water filled the suit and ran down my
back. Brrrrrr! The water temperature was in the low 60’s
degrees Fahrenheit. We made our way down the line and I cocked
the bands on my speargun. My dive buddy wasn’t spearfishing.
I had trouble equalizing my ears and it took a few minutes to
get down. My ears are sore today, I’m sure I pushed too hard.
Another close call. I was a bit congested and should have
picked another day to dive.
We got to the bottom and leveled our buoyancy out. We hovered
just off the bottom and I could see the ledge straight ahead.
I could see gag grouper at the edge of my vision, twenty feet
or so away. They were watching us just as we were watching
them. I came up off the bottom ten feet or so and took aim on
one. I fired. The spear hit! I swam over and grabbed the spear
shaft. I had to use my knife to kill the struggling fish. A
quick insertion into the fish’s head. This gag grouper turned
out to be 28 inches long. I ran my stringer (a heavy stainless
steel ring) through his eyes and clipped him waist level on my
B.C.
A short swim further down the ledge I shot a hogfish. The
spear cleanly penetrated the fish and kept on going! I was
using a freeshaft, meaning there was no line from the shaft to
the gun. The freeshaft spear lay past the hogfish and he
darted away. The freeshaft is ideal for accuracy, power, long
shots, and big fish. It was too much for the approximately
20inch hogfish.
I reloaded the spear shaft, cocked the bands, and almost
immediately fired again. This time I hit a 24inch gag grouper.
He died as I swam over to him. I added him to my stringer.
We swam a little further and I glimpsed a bigger gag grouper.
My pace slowed and my dive buddy followed suit. The big
grouper doubled back and I turned and fired. A clean hit to
the head but it didn’t kill him. If the fish had been any
further or if I’d had a line gun I wouldn’t have got him. I
swam to the spear and grabbed both ends of it. The fish
struggled fiercely but was trapped between my hands. I
motioned to my buddy who grabbed my gun off the sandy bottom.
I had my hands full and began my ascent.
My pace to the surface increased as I went up. Not by choice.
The gas in the bodies of the three grouper I held was
expanding. They were floating me. I could not stop at my
safety stop. This was not a decompression stop, in other
words, it wasn’t mandatory. The safety stop is a stop at 15
feet for 3 minutes or more to help the process of off-gassing
nitrogen. This is recommended at the end of every dive.
I handed my fish up to the boat and climbed in. My buddy
followed a few minutes later with my speargun. He had made his
safety stop. The last gag grouper I shot weighed in at 28 lbs.
and was a yard stick long. The girth of a grouper that size is
expanded exponentially from the smaller ones.
The second group got in and did their dive. The nervous diver
didn’t wear a wetsuit! I was amazed but he had a macho
attitude about it and credited it to being a somewhat recent
transplant to the south. Luckily I felt great confidence in
his dive buddy. They returned to the boat in twenty minutes.
They had a nice dive but no fish.
At this point we discussed dive number two. I decided to sit
it out and let my three friends dive together. I had pushed my
ears. I had come up quicker than I wanted to. It was a very
physical dive. It was cold. I was somewhat fatigued. I knew
the best lesson of all – when to say when. Risks for
Decompression Sickness (the bends) increase greatly for – cold
divers, tired divers, and physically over-worked divers. On
top of that, the risk is much higher on repetitive dives.
My three friends went down for dive number two. I sat back and
smiled. They had an enjoyable dive and the more experienced
diver in group two shot a good size mangrove snapper. His
buddy, sans wetsuit, tangled in the line of his speargun and
came up without fish.
We headed in. We were able to cruise at 24 -25 knots
(approximately 27-28 miles per hour) with a somewhat following
sea. We had a great day. I thought about some of those
potential errors. Maybe I should have stopped the diver
without a wetsuit. Hypothermia was a very real possibility.
Maybe I should have made him leave the speargun in the boat
considering his discomfort. The speargun could only compound
problems. Any of these things could have become a problem
quickly.
I knew that if I went down for dive two I would have come up
with some more grouper. I knew when to quit though. I had a
great day just the same. Besides, if I would have brought up
another big grouper it would only demean the first beauty.
Capt. Pete is interested in your diving questions for future
articles. Please email those questions to
scubashop@captpetes.com.
If you would like to be on Capt. Pete’s mailing list for
exciting trips and specials, please email your name and
address. |
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Capt. Pete's
Diving Outfitters, Fort Myers, FL, Email:
scubashop@captpetes.com |
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28-lb. Gag Grouper |
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King Spider Crab claw
Pompano |
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