Wednesday, July 27 at Rockaway Beach

Another Thursday night dive on Wednesday.  The summer light is turning in earlier and we almost turned this one into a night dive.  Lucas set the dive up for Wednesday since Steve was out of town and Lyanne was staying at Lucas and Shannon's overnight so the obvious thing was to go diving.  We met at 6:30 instead of 6pm and Kari joined us a short time later.  She's only a few minutes away which turned out to be a good thing as we found out later.  Of course when we all finally show up there's a lot of chatting and we were all happy to see Lyanne so it took us awhile to get ready and get in the water.  Well, all of us except Shannon who had a cold and that was to bad since it was a fun dive to the deep reef.

As I was getting ready Shannon came walking by all dressed but with a tank and BCD heading towards the beach.  Lyanne had hurt her knee so Shannon was helping her carry everything down to the beach.  Eventually, everyone got into the water and we began putting on our fins.  Everyone except Kari who realized she left them at home and which is why it was good she lived close by since we could wait for her to get them.  Meanwhile, I was trying out the new neck seal on my drysuit since I had worn out the other one from so many dives.  That and I probably wasn't taking care of it properly.  I was also trying out new wrist cuffs from Alyssa.  The dry gloves are difficult to get on and off so I wanted to find something easier.  My hands felt warm at first, and I emphasize only at first, as they felt extremely cold later.  I almost exclusively use dry gloves and now I can see why.

Kari was soon back in the water with her fins and off we went to explore the depths of Puget Sound.  We headed down the line and quickly came upon clumps of squid casings with holes in the ends of them.  When the casings have squid in them they are opaque white, but had turned a slightly brown color by the time we saw them.  Once we made it to the main reef we headed along it doing our usual search for creatures.  I spotted a Ratfish swimming along the bottom and later noticed more Ratfish around the main and small reefs.  About half way down the reef Lucas was wildly signalling me with his dive light to see something.  I looked inside the small crevice about half way along the reef and saw why he was flashing me so wildly.  There was a juvenile Wolf Eel, reddish-brown with light yellow spots all over its body down inside the crevice.  This wasn't the first time in the past month it's been spotted there so possibly it's setting up home.

We made it to the South end of the main reef and looked around for the line.  Kari found it for us as we were off a bit on its location.  While we followed it down to the deep reef I could feel my hands getting colder and a strange sensation of water around by wrists that I wasn't used to.  Unfortunately, I couldn't just change out my gloves so I had to put up with it even if my arms felt as though they were getting wet.

We arrived on the deep reef to find it covered in Rock fish and Dungeness Crab.  This would have been a feast for the Octopus that lives in the reef except the Octopus was gone.  Perhaps it was off hunting while the crabs played in its den.  I never got off the North side of the reef, there were to many fish to look at and I kept looking in the crevices for the Octopus.  I couldn't believe it went out hunting when there was so much food near home.  I began to feel a bit colder which I thought was strange since I usually didn't get cold in my dry suit and thinsulate undergarment.

At some point we were heading back up the line to the main reef and when I arrived there, I was following Kari, I saw Kari and we went along the South wall of the main reef.  We went a short ways and neither I nor Kari could see Lucas and Lyanne so we looked at each other, shrugged and continued along our happy way.  Once we made it to the main line and the brick to the small reef we headed North keeping to the contour at 30 feet.  I'm getting better at finding it as correctly surmised that at that depth I'd be on my left and I'd be at the lower end of the reef.  The water was to murky to see it well but I discerned a dark shape to my left after about 25 kick cycles.  The small octopus was gone and crabs infested all parts of the reef and included Dungeness, Red Rock and Kelp crabs.  At one point I saw a dogfish to my left but it wasn't in the mood to play fetch.  I later found our from Kari that once we were back at the buoy while I was being fascinated by a small Nudibranch the Dogfish showed up and scarred Kari as she'd never seen one before.  They are a bit unnerving since they look like JAWS on a miniature scale.

When we arrived back at the beach Lyanne, Lucas and Shannon were waiting for us.  It turned out that Lyanne was running low on air so that her and Lucas had to head back in while Kari and I dawdled along.  We finished the dive around 8:30 and I had to hurry home to get ready for work the next day.  It was good to see Lyanne again and hopefully we'll see Russ in the water soon as well.  And so ended another good dive at Rockaway Beach.     
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Saturday, July 16 at Sund Rock on the Hood Canal

After checking with multiple people about diving on Saturday I finally decided to go out on the Spirit and called the shop to confirm my reservation.  I was excited as they were shallow dives with some good sites for taking pictures.  All was fine until Thursday when Alyssa called to tell with the news that the boat was still hauled out so the boat dive was cancelled.  Steve W. was supposed to be on the boat as well so I contacted Steve and we set up for a dive at the Hood Canal on Saturday.  It was another beautiful rainy day so nothing to do but dive.  I could tell it was summer though because it was warmer outside.

Copper Rockfish

We made it to Sund Rock in the early afternoon when the crowd was thinning and were able to get a parking spot in the lower lot.  I wouldn't want to walk down the hill from the upper lot with all of my dive gear on.  After suiting up we headed to the North end of the site with the intention of going down to see the Sea Whips and possibly the old wreck.  Steve was to lead the dive.  The viz was initially only 10 feet but cleared up considerably as we went over the wall and headed deeper.  We found one Octopus on the wall tucked deep into its den and a variety of Rock Fish and Ling Cod.  After reaching the bottom at about 60 feet we headed South.  As we reached 75 feet the Sea Whips slowly appeared in front of us like bent canes randomly spaced every few feet on the bottom.  Sea Whips are related to Sea Pens and are a community of polyps which in this case form a 4 foot long cane like structure with small fan like protrusions running up and down there length.  As we went a bit deeper the number of Sea Whips increased and formed a small forest.

We hung around them for awhile before heading back to the wall then North to find the wreck .  Steve again led the way following the contour keeping steady at 50 feet.  After a bit I thought we might have missed it then its dark shape slowly came into view looming in front of us.  It's not a big ship but it's fun to dive around and makes a good artificial reef for the fish and other creatures.  The boat lies partially on its side with the bow at 60 feet and the stern west at 40 feet.  Steve explored under the bow and found another Octopus tucked inside.  I waited up on deck not wanting to go underneath the side.  We explored the ship for a bit finding a large Ling Cod, Plumose anemones and a Dungeness Crab here and there before heading back to the wall and up to the buoy to surface.

It was a lucky thing we took Steve's truck since it was raining even harder when we got out and were able to huddle under his back hatch while waiting between dives.  After 45 minutes it was time to hit the water again.  The second dive along the Southern edge of Sund Rock is a shallower dive in 15 to 50 feet of water with lots of creatures to see.  I grabbed my camera and we headed down the stairs to the water.  Sund Rock is a very civilized place to dive as they provide bathrooms, parking and stairs to the beach with an easy entrance into the water. We donned our fins and masks and headed down around the rock and along the outcropping,.  I was in charge of this dive since I had been here before and it was less likely I'd get lost since I had the wall on the right going out and on the left coming in.

We reached 15 feet and a large shape emerged out of the depths swimming towards us at a fairly fast speed.  I knew there weren't sharks but there certainly are seals and this was a large grey harbor seal with black spots on its head and shoulders coming in to check us out.  It swam around in back of Steve but I don't think he noticed it at first.  I fumbled with my camera as it came back for another look circling us both but all I could get was a blurry figure of grey.  I'll always have the memory until I forget.

Slime Star

The viz was worse here degrading to about 5-10 feet until we rounded the rock and headed down to 30 feet.  At that point it cleared considerably to around 15 feet if I didn't kick up the silt on the bottom.  At one point I was trying to get a picture of a Slime Star near the bottom on the wall.  After a couple of shots I repositioned myself and that was the wrong thing to do.  My fins touched the bottom so as I was trying to get a new shot a wave of silt rolled in engulfing myself and the Slime Star, I couldn't see it even 2 feet away.

Wolf Eel in it's home

Northern Ronquil

We continued along the rock and the viz continued to clear along the way.  Especially after I moved on from the silt I kicked up on the bottom.  Below me I spotted a trail a crab parts and was very excited when I spotted a Wolf Eel that made it's home in a rock crevice.  I signalled Steve with my light flashing my light at him and he eventually came over to look.  My excitement was abated later when Steve told me he had already found the Wolf Eel along with a second one and Octopi as well.  I was excited though to get a good shot of a Northern Ronquil (I couldn't identify it until I was home) and a Copper Rockfish hiding out in the rock crevices at around 40 feet.

A short time later my right strobe went out on my camera.  I noticed a brown colored precipitate in the battery compartment but couldn't open it up to find out the problem.  As we went further along I continued to get pictures with Steve continuing to help find creatures to photograph.  At one point we came across a rock face covered with Decorator Crabs in full seaweed regalia.  My second strobe went out at this point with another brown precipitate in the battery compartment similar to the other strobe.  We turned around and headed back towards the muck and the shore.  After we got back to the car it was clear why the strobes quit in the middle of the dive.  Both lucite battery doors had cracked and partially flooded the battery compartments with salt water corroding the battery terminals after causing the batteries to leak.  Even so, the dive was good and the drive home with a friend was better.  Another good dive in Puget Sound, or in this case the Hood Canal.   

Thursday, July 14 at Rockaway Beach

Our Thursday night dive began with what was supposed to be meeting only Lucas and Shannon at Rockaway beach.  Lucas did not even agree to dive on Thursday until I called him and let him know the visibility at the Coleman Dock in Seattle had increased dramatically and it should be a good dive to the deep reef.  We were to meet at 6:15.

I showed up at 5:50 and went down to the beach to check the viz and indeed it had cleared dramatically.  As I walked back up to the truck I noticed someone standing there that I hadn't met before on our Thursday night dive.  We chatted briefly and I learned his name was Mike.  I told him the  viz looked great.  He replied "great, then I'm going diving".  No one else was around so I asked him if he was diving alone.  Yes he was.  He was a contractor working in Afghanistan and is here on his 1 month vacation and was told Rockaway was a good place to dive.  I left it at that and went to get ready.

Shannon waiting on the line

Lucas with his new friend

Lucas and Shannon showed up a short while later and while we were getting ready Mike walked by with his tank and BCD set up and went down to the beach.  When he came back up we spoke with him a bit and found out he was planning to dive alone and hadn't been to the site before.  Lucas began asking him a few questions such as when he last dove, cerification level, the basics.  He hadn't dove since last September and only had an open water certification, we eventually invited him to dive with us.
   
We were nervous about taking him to the deep reef so Lucas suggested we take him to the shallow reef then  bring him back and go to the main reef.  He was diving a Scubapro wet suit and the zipper opened after I zipped it for him.  He went to try and fix it while the rest of us went down to the beach.  I actually didn't expect Mike back but he managed to get the suit off, fix the zipper, came back down and put his gear on in the water.  He had a few problems putting it on but eventually got it straightened out with Lucas's help.  I was really starting to get nervous by this time.  I thought he really needed to take a refresher course before he got back in the water.


Eventually, everyone was ready and we swam out to the buoy before heading down.  After the signal to dive, we went down but I only saw Shannon in front of me at the bottom.  We were only in 15 feet of water.  I looked up and Lucas had partially descended but Mike was still on top.  We went up and it turned out he wasn't weighted properly so Shannon and Lucas each gave him some weight.  We all descended and went down the line to the brick then North to the shallow reef.  I went off to take pictures while Mike followed Lucas and Shannon.

The small octopus was in it's hole and I signaled with my light to Lucas to come over and take a look.  I didn't see Shannon or Mike at this point.  We later found out that Mike kept adding air to his BCD and eventually made an uncontrolled ascent.  Shannon had tried to grab him but couldn't so just followed him up.  We were only in 30 feet of water.  Shannon had been able to calm him down on the surface and brought him back down where Lucas and I caught up with them not knowing what had happened.  When Mike's air was at 1500 psi we started back to the brick and the line back to the buoy.

Saddleback Gunnel

Shannon and I went down to the main reef while Lucas took Mike back to the shallower depths.  We went down along the main reef and headed back up when Shannon's air was at 1000 psi.  Past the brick on the way up we saw a faint light in the distance in front of us, that turned out to be Lucas.  He had been trolling around with Mike in the shallows having a good time.  Shannon continued on up and Lucas and I spent some time around the buoy eventually heading in towards the beach.  This is some of the best area to dive sometimes and with the viz clearing up there was a lot to see.  A three arm starfish, a Saddleback Gunnel and a Swimming Anenome among others creatures.

Once we all arrived back at the beach and made it up to the cars we caught each other up on what happened down below.  Shannon and Lucas were great and the dive turned out well because of them.  All in all it was another good dive in Puget Sound. 

Friday, July 8 Crabbing at Fay Bainbridge

A few weeks ago while we were at the Pub after a particularly beautiful couple of dives from the Spirit, Kelly mentioned that crab season was upon us July 1st and we should go out crabbing.  After looking at the tides we settled on Friday, July 8 as Kelly and Alyssa had the day off, or so they thought.  We were to meet at Fay Bainbridge at 2 pm and in the water by 2:30.  Slack tide was at 3 pm and we wanted some time on either side since the current can get fairly strong there.  Alyssa and Kelly had to work so it was Lucas and I. 

Lucas pulled in just after 2 pm and as we were getting ready realized he forget his bag.  I had mine so I was promptly put in charge of holding the bag during the dive.  I actually volunteered to do this since I hadn't been out crabbing before and didn't know how good I'd be trying to grab them.  I clipped the bag on a small clip.  I thought that if I got distracted at some point I might unknowingly drop the bag and it would at least still be attached.  Dropping the bag turned out to be a correct assessment.


We walked into the water and stopped to put our mask and fins on.  I put on one fin looked down and realized I not only dropped the empty bag but it was no longer attached to the clip.  I frantically put on my mask and other fin, yelled at Lucas what happened and dove down to find it.  As I searched for it in the four feet of water we were in I felt tugging on my fin, looked back and found the bag attached to the strap.  The strap had caught on the pulley line and broke when I put the fin on.  That crisis was averted and we then had to untangle Lucas's regulator before setting out to find our crabs. 

Our depth was initially 5 feet with the depth dropping slowly as we headed NorthEast until we hit 15 feet then declined rapidly.  We didn't see many crabs until about 25 feet where we found two circling each other with their claws out and a third watching from the sidelines.  Lucas went to grab this one, a large Dungenness, but the crab anticipated his move and skirted aside.  They did this twice then the crab took off on a sideways run.  Crabs move fast.  I chased it up the incline against the current continually losing ground until I quit so I didn't burn through all of my air.  We were only 10 minutes into the dive.

We continued down to 30 feet passing beds of Sea Pens, some pulled into the sand, and the largest Nudibranch I had ever seen.  It was a pink translucent color and must have been 8-10 inches long and 5 inches wide.  The pickings were lean for crabs but we found a few that went into the bag as we slowly made our way back up the incline to around 18 feet.  When you grab crabs you have to grab them from the back with your fingers on top and thumb underneath, otherwise they can reach underneath and grab your fingers.  Lucas tells me Dungeness can cut off a finger but Red Rock crabs will only break them.  That's why I carried the bag and let Lucas catch them.  We filled the bag with a number of crabs and headed back South. 

So I finally found a crab, was trying to grab it and at some point forgot about the bag full of crabs I was holding.  I grabbed the crab, went to measure it and realized I had dropped the bag.  Lucas was up ahead and hadn't noticed.  I frantically swam back to where I thought it had been.  Right when I put my hand on the bag I saw Lucas next to me probably wondering what I was doing.  We stayed at this depth and made our way along the contour chasing the Red Rocks through the Eel Grass and ending up a bit South of our starting point in about 7 feet of water.  Our dive time by this point was 76 minutes so we dove back down and headed in towards the beach.  Final crab total was 9.  Dinner was excellent and the beer tasted great.  All in all another great day of diving in Puget Sound.   

Thursday, July 7 at Rockaway Beach

Another Thursday night dive with Steve and this time also Lucas.  It's not exactly night as we meet at 6 pm so it's still plenty light out.  Today though we decided to go to the deep reef at 85 feet and it was still murky enough down there that all the light was gone so it was essentially a night dive although the viz is beginning to clear and should continue to get better.  We can tell this because the algae is starting to clump so it's like swimming through the snow.  From the buoy we went down to the main reef then straight down to the deep reef.   While we didn't spend any time on the main reef, as we swam by it was obvious the life we usually see in the summer was absent.  On the deep reef we saw a number of Sail Fin Sculpin and a beautiful Giant Pacific Octopus in the usual hole on the Northwest side of the reef.  It's easy to find them by following the trails of crab parts.  Octopi are messy eaters.  After going around the reef we headed back up following a line strung along the bottom.  As we started up Steve and Lucas were in front of me so I turned off my light to see what it was like to experience the darkness at depth.  Steve and Lucas appeared as faint glows of light in front of me and I couldn't see my hand until it was right in front of my face.  It didn't make me as nervous as I thought it would.  I switched my light back on and caught up with them.  We made our way back up the line to the main reef then back to the buoy and into the beach.  Another good dive in Puget Sound. 

Tuesday July 5, Rockaway Beach

The visibility is not getting any better and has actually decreased since my last dive on Sunday.  This may in part be due to it being high tide during this dive rather than low tide as on the last one.  Five of us set out to go diving but only three of us remained by the time we were ready to go down.  Lucas's power inflator was leaking and wouldn't close so he was out and the o-ring on Shannon's BCD had fallen out when the power inflator hose was being attached so when she went to inflate it in the water it leaked out the air.  This left Steve W., Katie and myself to explore the darkening depths of Rockaway Reef.  Since the other two hadn't been there in awhile I was put in charge of leading the dive.  I did better this time.  We made it down to the reef and began from our usual North to South direction.  Since the tide was coming in and approaching high tide the reef was about 10 feet deeper and much darker than Sunday. 

We went along the reef searching for critters to observe.  I've noticed though that since the algae bloom this week the number of creatures on the reef in the darker sections has decreased significantly.  Normally, we would see many types of invertebrates and fish and I now primarily see Dungeness Crabs and a few fish.  We did see a small Opalescent Nudibranch on the main reef  hiding under a rock.  The Giant Sea Cucumbers appear to be much larger than what I've seen over the past couple of months and the Orange Sea Cucumbers are more extended with their stalks showing rather than being pulled in as they normally are.  Due to it being so dark and murky we decided not to go down to the deep reef, instead heading around the corner to continue along the main reef.  Upon rounding the corner I found what was a fairly large crab with numerous barnacles growing on its back with the barnacles extending their legs for feeding.  As we approached the upper end of the main reef and the water became more shallow to about 35 feet more creatures appeared including a Lemon Yellow Nudibranch (this one was solid yellow while many of the ones we normally see are either white with a yellow lining or white with yellow dots), a couple of Leopard Dorids, a huge Decorator Crab with spindly legs and what appeared to be a cone upon its head and a Moss Head Warbonnet hiding in a Giant Barnacle.  It ducked inside and tried to hide in the back when the light was shown upon it.  We also saw numerous Rock Fish and even a Cabezzon covered in algae hiding in a crevice. 

The algae covering everything produced a kind of gloomy and dispirited feeling to what we saw.  After the main reef we headed off to the shallow reef and this time I found it.  Part luck and partly I was looking in the right direction.  As we swam along the contour we came upon a small rock that I knew the reef was near.  On Sunday I was looking up the contour towards shore when in fact the reef was on the downward slope of the contour.  I decided to look that way and saw what I thought was a vague outline of the reef.  We swam that way and this time found the reef.  We spent some time there and found more crabs and various creatures but the Octopus that used to live there was gone. 

As we headed back towards the line a Dogfish Shark came out of the gloom at about 20 feet of depth.  This one was about 2 feet long and its yellow eyes appeared to be staring at nothing in particular, but it headed straight towards me then veered away when it was within a foot or so.  It swam a ways out then came back around and again veered away at the last minute.  It repeated this action one more time before swimming off into the darkness.  Wow, that was incredible.  I haven't seen one of those since last summer down on the main reef and never had one come so close multiple times.  Nothing could compare to that part of the dive.  Lucas and Shannon waited for us and Lucas wanted to know if the dive was epic.  No, but it came pretty darn close.  Another good dive in Puget Sound. 

July 3, 2011 at Rockaway Beach

One day doesn't clear up the water, but knowing the site sure helps.  Ehren B. and I went diving at Rockaway Beach getting in the water around 11AM.  It was low tide and we just about walked out to the buoy.  We dropped down at 6 feet on the buoy and spent some time looking for the line down to the reef.  This should give you an idea of how murky it was as we couldn't find the line.  At one point I popped my head above the water to find Ehren as we lost each other just looking around for the line.  I went back down then Ehren went up to do the same thing.  I was waiting for him at the bottom of the buoy.  So at this point we were tired of looking for the line and Ehren and I headed off at about 58 degrees to find the main reef.  We unknowingly paralleled the line as we eventually came upon the brick with directions to the small reef and the remaining line down to the main reef.  I held the line loosely while we went down to the main reef.  As we hit 35 feet the darkness was just beginning to get noticeable and by the time we were at the other end of the main reef in about 45 feet of water it was definitely dark.  Normally, there's enough light you can see your gauges without using a light.  We moved along the main reef from North to South looking for the juvenile Wolf Eel that had been reported there but we couldn't find it.  At one point Ehren went over the reef to the other side and when he was facing away from me, he was within 5 feet, I couldn't see him at all and waited for him to turn around with his light.  Our diving was rewarded though with the sighting of a large Sail Fin Sculpin, at least 7 inches long, and the largest Clown Nudibranch either of us had ever seen.  It was about the size of my fist.  The sighting of the Sail Fin Sculpin was spectacular as we usually only see them on the deep reef at around 85 feet.  We made our way back up the line and back to the brick to the small reef.  I took the lead, we were in 17 feet of water, and followed the contour for a ways but couldn't find the reef.  I'm sure we were within just a few feet but the viz was so bad we could only see a couple of feet by this point.  We headed back towards shore with the viz becoming continually worse to the point that we finally surfaced and swam back to the shore.  Another great day of diving in Puget Sound.

Saturday, July 2 at China Reef

 China Reef

As Ryan so deftly replied once when asked where we were diving "We went diving at can't see shit reef".  That about summed up the dive yesterday at China.  With maybe 10 feet of viz on top and worse as we went down it wasn't good.  On the surface I could still see my fin so I guessed that the the viz was about 10 feet but that wasn't the case.  Divers going down on China were Steve, Jim and Mark from out of town and myself.  We began our descent on the line and after we hit 30 feet Steve gave the signal to go up.  We didn't know what was wrong but Steve was the divemaster and if he says up we go up.  It turns out Steve was only counting two of us when there should have been three.  We waited on the surface at the front of the boat while Steve went to tell Captain Mike we couldn't find Mark, our other diver.  As it turns out Mark had gone back to get his weights readjusted and didn't go down with us.  Once we were all back together we went down the line and after about 45 feet the light from the surface was fully filtered out and it went dark, very dark.  This is a different type of dark from a night dive when you can see well with a light on.  In this dark all you see is the narrow beam of light from your diving light and most of it is backscattered.  If feels very confining and somewhat claustrophobic.  Once you've dove in Puget Sound for awhile though it feels like the norm in the spring.  I go down the line slower than other people to keep my ears equalized so when I hit the bottom I didn't see anyone.  I waited a moment and moved my light from side to side and finally saw a faint light off in the distance, which was probably only 10 feet.  I found them and followed along with the group.  Steve put us over the side onto the wall but it was difficult to see much and we kept  bumping into each other.  At least I knew the others were around.   I have a difficult time diving in these types of situations so I usually just end up looking at whatever I find in a particular place on the wall.  I really enjoy finding the small invertebrates and plants so it's usually not a problem to have some fun.  What is difficult is to get over and see what everyone else is looking at in these conditions since you don't always know where everyone is and we end up bumping each other with our fins.  This went on for about 18 minutes then Steve gave the sign to head up.  I still had plenty of air so I figured the others were running low.  The advantage of a steel 100 tank is I don't worry about air so much.  At the safety stop I only saw my diving buddy, Jim and we bobbed at 15 feet for 3 minutes.  We actually had to make a free ascent as we couldn't find the line to go back up on or someone was getting low and we didn't have time to go find the line.  Either way it worked fine and we made it back to the boat after another dive.

Thursday, June 30 at Rockaway Beach

The Thursday night dive group this week included Steve H., John M., Kari and myself.  I have my camera back again and was excited to try it out with Steve, our other photographer.  The visibility dropped dramatically from the previous weekend to about 5-10 feet of haziness on the main reef.  It was high tide when we went in so we didn't have to walk to far then swam out to the buoy.  John wanted me to try some new Mares fins he had, and I did but I couldn't get them tightened enough so one kept wobbling around.  On the way down to the main reef I lost track of Steve (my dive buddy) and hoped he was in front.  Eventually I saw a light off in the distance and knew it was him since I was following John and Kari.  We made it down to the main reef and Kari and John took off for the deep reef.  Steve and I stayed on the main reef for photographing.  I didn't put the wide angle lens on and couldn't get the focus correct.  I finally realized I was to close and corrected that problem then couldn't get the lighting correct.  I corrected that problem then couldn't get my buoyancy correct and my spotter light fell off.  I held the spotter light by hand, adjusted the strobes and put my fins on the bottom to get a decent picture of  a Clown Nudibranch.  After taking a few pictures I looked around and didn't see anyone (this is why I now carry a pony tank) and went along the main reef.  I eventually found Steve up ahead.  We were about 38 minutes into the dive and Steve wanted to go in as he was getting cold. I was following Steve in and found some interesting squid eggs so lost Steve again.  Eventually, John and Kari came swimming by and I followed them in.  They veered a bit North so we ended up a little right of the beach and had to swim back in a ways.  The surf had also picked up making it more difficult to swim in.  We made it and trudged back out of the water and up to the cars.  Another good day of diving.