Back in the Water Again

Been away from diving for a few week, but was able to get wet again today. I grabbed my old buddy from McChord AFB, Rich, and went out and hit up the YO-257 this morning. As soon as we started our decent down, we were greeted by turtle number 1. We got down on the bow of the old ship wreck, and began our journey toward the keel. Along the way we encountered turtle number 2, sleeping on the steps going to the wheelhouse. Only seconds later, turtle number 3 came swimming out of the side of the boat. Next, we found turtles number 4 and 5 sleeping on the back deck. The current really picked up here and took us all the way back to the bow. Along the way, I was able to peek in the pipe where I’ve been finding shrimp, and yep, he’s still there. But to my surprise, when I turned me light on, a hermit crab went scurrying further down the pipe. Our next dive was over at Turtle’s Canyon, but all the turtles must have gone over to the YO today as we only spotted one today. As soon as we got to the bottom, Divemaster Joe found an octopus peering out of a hole in the reef. Joe, Rich, and I took a nice SLOW swim up reef, peeking in every nook and cranny. We spotted everything from divided flatworms, a few ells, and a couple titan scorpion fish as well. The highlight of this dive was the octopus we found towards the end of the dive. I was sticking my fingers in the backside of his hole trying to coax him for a photo, and the thing grabbed a hold of my finger. Talk about a strange feeling. Now that I know what it feel like to have one attach itself to you, I hope to be a little more successful coaxing the next one out of his hole.

Turtle swimming off the side of the YO-257

Calling this one "Raptor Turtle", he fins look like the twin tails of a F-22

Look close, scorpion fish is hiding in this one. Notice his fin in the lower left

This is the octopus I tried to coax out, and the same one that grabbed ahold of me too.

Picture of two turtles sleeping on the deck of the YO-257