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.