Tuesday February 15, 2011

At about 9:30am Dirk came by and asked me if I would be interested in going lobster hunting today. I said yes. He told me that he would be back in about 20 for the long dingy ride out to the reef.

He picked me up as planned. I loaded my fins, mask, snorkel and wet suit. Dirk said that we should stop at FinniIrish and ask Ellie for a full wet suit. I agreed. Ellie ran below and produced a really nice full wet suit. We headed for the reef. I was a thirty minute dingy ride through some choppy water. I had to hold on to keep from bouncing out of the dingy. The wind was blowing out of the NNE at about 7 knots and was in our face. It was sunny and warm in the harbor and I did not bring a T-shirt. I was a tad chilly on the way to the reef. When we got to the reef, Dirk used his “looky bucket” to locate a good dive spot. We anchored in sand and swam the short twenty five feet the reef. All of the coral and the vegetation on the bottom seemed to be waving “hi” as we swam around looking for lobster. As we hunted lobster, several schools of barracuda swam buy patrolling their territory. The larger barracuda were in the front of the school and the smaller ones in the back. The barracuda is a bad-ass looking fish. They are long and slender. They are silver in color with some black spots on the sides and lots of teeth in their mouth. Dirk stood his ground and the barracuda school shifted directions. The reef is teeming with tropical fish. I felt like I was swimming around in a salt water aquarium in a dentist’s office.

There are fish of every color and size. Zebra fish, angle fish, parrot fish, sting rays, and small sharks. There are many that I cannot identify. I must say that the barracuda do not bother me, but sharks do. Even the little ones I want to stay clear of. We dove for several hours. Then in a grassy bed I saw my first ‘wild’ conch, I held my breath and dived the 10 feet to the bottom of the bank and gathered in my first conch. It was just sitting on the bottom waiting for me. I picked it up and swam it back to the dingy.

As I tossed the conch into the dingy, Dirk beckoned me to swim in his direction. He had a lobster spotted wide out in the open on a grassy bottom. He told me don’t miss as I pulled back the handle on the Hawaiian sling. I aimed for the head and the spear went right about one inch. I missed and the crazy thing did not move as I reloaded the Hawaiian sling. I took careful aim. Cocked the Hawaiian sling and the spear went just to the left of the critters head. I missed again! I then grabbed the spear and tried to drive it through the lobsters head by hand. The spear slipped off the carapace and then the lobster quickly swam into a hole in the reef. He was safe. I missed a great dinner. Dirk tried to coax him out but he kept crawling deeper into the reef.

On the dingy ride back to Water Mark, Dirk told me that he was a retired Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot. He served all over the world. The last eight years of his service was spent training younger Black Hawk pilots. He said that it was the best job in the world.

After returning to the Water Mark, I peeled off the full wetsuit put my conch into a bucket of sea water, dried off and took a nap. I was exhausted but elated. They say that if you do not dive you miss half of the Abacos. I have been lucky and been able to dive on the reef twice.