Don’t fear the reefer and attempted SMB hijacking with video

[mz53480]

Here's the Pt. Wilson reef video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo9ELvVVOLI

Here's the Alaska Reefer video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2AciS4uOMQ

Met up at the Pt. Townsend marina with H20doctor & Renoun on Pensicolaracer (& family)’s
boat around 1200 on Sunday. Beautiful drive up from Olympia, great weather topside.
Arrived at the Alaska reefer dive site and I buddied up with Renoun to splash around 1300.
Somehow I ripped off the hand cord to my dive light on the entry (snagged on something), lucky
that everything worked ok though.
Vis was mucky down to 35-40fsw, but opened up to a grand 5-10 feet of vis thereafter.
I think we started on a north side barge and worked our way back around to the reefer.
Checked out some of the holds…very cool!
Found the mast and there were huge white anemones growing on them, the largest I think I’ve seen.
Renoun found all the good small stuff, most of which I don’t know the correct names of.
Found H20doctor & Pensicolaracer towards the end of our dive as they were having fun looking around.
Worked up to around 20fsw and Renoun shot the bag for our safety stop. Got back on the boat and
once doc and cola were done we had some lunch (thanks again for the chips!) and headed out for Pt. Wilson Reef.

Got to the reef and the kelp on top was pushing east, so we figured we would pickup quite a way downstream.
Doc and I buddied up for this one and we got in first around 1530. Vis was great, around 20-30fsw and seeing
the kelp in the sunlight was way cool.
Not much current down on the bottom, so that was real nice. Doc spotted all the cool stuff, including a tiny
little orange Puget sound king crab, several nudi’s, and a boat marker rope. Towards the end of the dive we
heard a boat zoom over the top of us but couldn’t see it….oh well. Doc sent up the marker, we did our stop
and surfaced to see renoun and cola WAY down current and the boat WAY down past them. Hmmm….
Eventually the boat came back for us and once we were all aboard we found out that cola had shot his SMB
and the boat that zoomed over us had stopped and tried to take it! So cola quickly came up and told the guy
to (edited) ‘go away’. Got back into the marina around 1700 and had another nice scenic drive back to Oly.
Thanks again for the great dives, looking forward to the next one.
(reefer video coming soon)

MZ

[ljjames]

more cow bell!!!!!!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[CaptnJack]

This is not the first time SMB = hey what's that cool thing, let's go grab it!
Considering how widely ignored dive flags are this isn't surprising...

[Nwbrewer]

This is not the first time SMB = hey what's that cool thing, let's go grab it!
Considering how widely ignored dive flags are this isn't surprising...

Judging by some of the boat handling we saw this weekend drinking...I mean boating season has begun.

[H20doctor]

I met up with Ross aka Renoun in Mukilteo and we loaded gear up in his car and headed over on the ferry…We met Chad and his wife Donna, and there daughter Jaden, and got loaded up.. once in at Keystone we headed over to Port Townsend to meet MZ.. On the way over…….. we saw Lots of seals Popping there heads up and then I saw something that looked like a tiny whale?? But Ross said it was a dolphin… so I told captian chad to SLOW DOWN..so I could see them , He then told me “ hey this aint no sight seeing Boat , were here to dive!! “ I then declared MUTINY ..and stabbed him with a Gaff and threw him over board to feed him to the Killer whales… Ha Ha not really … We headed into Port Townsend Marina and loaded up MZ and then off to Indian Island… Indian Island and marrowstone are side by side… Indian IS is owned by the Military and is used for amo etc..etc.. We had to go slow to the site because there is a patrol boat out in front of the station, and He is the LAW … Respect his authority !!! Hes board all day long and wants to zip here and there and make his presence known, so don’t mess whit Him..
ALASKA REEFER: this was dive one.. Man OH man , this boat is Big … from the white surface buoy on a low tide it come out of the water on the Bow side…Because me and chad Stood on it…sweet .. after dropping Ross and Mike , me and chad dropped on the Northside of the wreck.. Vis was gookey, lots of particulate in the water here, and it got dark as we got depth… swimming on the north side of this wreck we are actually looking at the Deck of the ship, it lays on the left side of the Hull, and its covered in this Mossy , Hairy stuff… lots of anemonies and life.. saw a bunch of decorator crabs, and lots of schooling Black rock fish… chad and I found several large deck Hatches, where you could penetrate and line in.. But for me , too dark.. and Not my bag baby..there is a lot of overhead and Hafta watchout for here as Chad and I found as we turned on the South side which is the service Bardge…this bardge Has a lot of beams and overheads you could bang into, also spikes of steele and whats left of ribs and structure of the bardge… it reminded me a lot of the dry dock ant edmonds and the triump , but way more bigger and larger.. Chad and I did another lap around the ship and crossed over the front of here in 1 foot of water , which everyone on the boat saw.. this tim we swam over the deck and we both penetrated into and over a section..there was a large square opening with walls on bothsides and cables and lines running on the walls… the section was about 10 feet long and we had light on the other end, once out I turned and watched Chad come through..He had the “ this is cool “ on his face.. over to another section of the ship where we see metal and large cylinders of something, and other square metal boxes.. I think the mast is still on it ? don’t know.. Back over the top and we have plenty air, Chad gives me the Im cold signal and we come up , max depth 52 feet at 42 mins, and I still had 1400 psi on my LP 95
Back on the boat and some snacks and off to the Reef

Port Wilson Reef: Mz and I are first in and chad is giving me some flack cause I get the pre dive jitters and making fun of me… But hey that’s what friends are for … this reef runs along off shore and I had chad drop us off on a kelp bed in about 20 feet of water … Ya Ya YA Chad … we get in and the water is clear as day soooooooooooo steller Vis more than 35 feet here .. I did not have my extra set of batteries for some reason so I couldn’t shoot video here..but I did snap one shot of a Puget sound King crab, and will post it up later tonight.. theis reef was large rocks sperated by sandy/ rocky floor… some of the gaps between rock was as much as 25 feet and more.. I decided just to stay here rather than navigating the reef on a 70 degree heading.. there was Lots of macro life growing here and the purple coralline algae growing on the rocks was nice to see… we found a ledge about 20 feet high that served as a wall and there was life abundant here…crabs and snails…. Hermits walking around…large sunflowers of many colors… Lots of sea urchins… some very nice Nudi’s … Kelp greenlings… and a large variety of fishes here too…. It was time to go and we swam back up to outr drop site near the kelp beds and I deployed my Sausage…Oh im so naughty .. and we watched it hit the surface and be blown east by the surface current…. Once up we found NO BOAT !!!! , but all was good casue Donna was there but she was down by the end of the point Lighthouse due to the surface current.. we had no current at all during the whole dive..
Now the funny story …. Chad had deployed his large lift bag at 40 feet and on the surface a boater was zipping by and stopped ….. so picture this chad Kneeling on the floor holding the string on his SMB.. Topside boater is leaning over the side Pulling up on lift bag with a lot of force… BELOW..Chad is feeling something on the surface Pulling up on his rope ??? again…and again…. And again in a tug of war !!! Chad says Ive had enough of this SH*& and Goes UP !!! gets to the surface and yells at the dude , “ what the F are you doing?? , Boater is in disbelief of whats has come up from below and apologized … chad goes back down to finish safety stop with Ross …. Funny as hell
Back in the boat and we end the day …or do we ?


3Rd dive : Keystone Jetty
I had the last dive with Ross here at 630 and the vis was yucky matbe 10 to 15 feet with all the goo in the water.. very little current and lots to see…. There has been an explosion of kelp groth here since last year and its really really thick in the shallows… we had a nice dive and Ross got to see the site… Lots of lings here.. saw prob about 8 to 10…even a LINGZILLA !!!! which was cool.. 38 mins and a max depth of 44 feet ..

Video coming soon as well…hafta do some editing tonight and music production..

[mz53480]

more cow bell!!!!!! (sorry, couldn't resist)

untitled.JPG

[H20doctor]

[CaptnJack]

This is not the first time SMB = hey what's that cool thing, let's go grab it!
Considering how widely ignored dive flags are this isn't surprising...

Judging by some of the boat handling we saw this weekend drinking...I mean boating season has begun.

OO Denny was a fun spot. While its not my decision, I think you might be going back there to dive the USNS Spool again I am patiently waiting for da class synopsis...

[mz53480]

king crab.JPG

NICE PIC!!!!

[H20doctor]

Yes MZ. I got crabs on that dive ...

[mz53480]

Yes MZ. I got crabs on that dive ...

:looking:

[pensacoladiver]

Great report guys. The ONE thing Chris forgot was that I DID STOP to let him ooogle the dolphins and what not on the way to PT Townsend.

The look on the guys face was priceless when I surfaced and "politely spoke" to him about grabbing my lift bag.

that was my second dive with "issues" at PT Wilson. I think I am jinxed there. I was not fortunate enough to see the boat far off whn I surfaced and had to deal with the initial thoughts that run through your head at the moment... did the boat sink under my wife, did someone hijack my boat, DID MY WIFE RUN OFF WITH H20 DOC??? Aghhhhhhhhh!!! :angry:

[mz53480]

..... DID MY WIFE RUN OFF WITH H20 DOC???....

Better run Doc. Once thoughts like this enter his head, you're done for. See why he was trying to get you to the ferry dive?
Gonna take you down DEEP and stuff you under a rock....you'z done for boy.....

[H20doctor]

Don't touch my bag baby ... Don't touch my Bag.. Insert austin powers voice..
I can't belive we had a Bag violation !!! Please report all SMB bag Violations at www.smbviolence.com and also at 1-800-SMB-Igotyanked.. Ha Ha Ha Ha as for going deep and being taken out.. Chad did call me a wus.. Ha Ha Ha

[renoun]

I was so confused on the safety stop when I saw Chad start playing tug of war with the lift bag. When I saw him yanking on the buoy line I was wondering if there was something about lift bags that I didn't know. I am sure glad that my SMB is marked "Diver Below". When I got to the surface I and didn't see the boat I was even more pleased that I drove to Redmond to pick up my new 6' SMB since I missed the UPS delivery.

[pensacoladiver]

Don't touch my bag baby ... Don't touch my Bag.. Insert austin powers voice..
I can't belive we had a Bag violation !!! Please report all SMB bag Violations at http://www.smbviolence.com and also at 1-800-SMB-Igotyanked.. Ha Ha Ha Ha as for going deep and being taken out.. Chad did call me a wus.. Ha Ha Ha

Never once have I called you a wus... until now. YOU WUS!!!

[airsix]

OO Denny was a fun spot. While its not my decision, I think you might be going back there to dive the USNS Spool again I am patiently waiting for da class synopsis...

Don't dive the USNS Spool. That wreck is cursed. All manner of badness will happen if you dive it.
-Ben

[H20doctor]

After further review of the Video... MZ got his Light wrapped around a tank yoke as he did his Back flip .....

and Look at His really cool Mask !!!!

[BASSMAN]

Chad had deployed his large lift bag at 40 feet and on the surface a boater was zipping by and stopped ….. so picture this chad Kneeling on the floor holding the string on his SMB.. Topside boater is leaning over the side Pulling up on lift bag with a lot of force… BELOW..Chad is feeling something on the surface Pulling up on his rope ??? again…and again…. And again in a tug of war !!! Chad says Ive had enough of this SH*& and Goes UP !!! gets to the surface and yells at the dude , “ what the F are you doing?? , Boater is in disbelief of whats has come up from below and apologized ..

Now that right there is a perfect oppurtunity to come up with a Predetermined Zinger for any boater or jet skier who pulls this crap! :angry: :Although the phrase used, was probably effective, for communicating purposses.

I admit this was a funny story but that could have gone Wayyyyy Wrong.

Too bad you weren't at a deep bottle field, where you could send up partially air filled Projectiles at the boater

But this, as narrirated by Mr Ditka, "This... and that.. up here... and over and across here...And Stretched Here... causing unforseen pressure her and here... Resulting in a direct attack of this... But notice, he still has his Yellow, Pull the diver up from the bottom device!"

[mz53480]

After further review of the Video...

Good to know, thanks Doc. Thought it was the battery on the tank that got hooked on the side of the boat.

Here's the video of the Pt. Wilson Reef:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo9ELvVVOLI

(warning: funky jazz music on this one.....)

MZ

[Nwbrewer]

MZ and Doc, thanks for the video replay. The funny thing is, we were just warned this weekend in class to tuck our light cord into our waist strap when doing boat entries/leaving it clipped off. This just reinforces why that's a good idea. Did the light survive?

[BASSMAN]

Yeah, yeah thats it! It was a training video!

[mz53480]

MZ and Doc, thanks for the video replay. The funny thing is, we were just warned this weekend in class to tuck our light cord into our waist strap when doing boat entries/leaving it clipped off. This just reinforces why that's a good idea. Did the light survive?

Dang....I could've used that weekend class sooner! but...the light did survive and only just busted the strap.
hmmm.....maybe the cord catching on the tank valve leaked some air from that tank and that's why Renoun only had 500psi for the start of dive #2?

[pensacoladiver]

After further review of the Video... MZ got his Light wrapped around a tank yoke as he did his Back flip .....

photo 1.JPG

photo 2.JPG

photo 3.JPG

and Look at His really cool Mask !!!!

Mike.JPG

I will loudly and proudly prempt this with "I AM NOT GAY", but MZ, you have one hell of a Moose Knuckle working in that fisrt pic!!! Kinda hard to miss it.

[Norris]

After further review of the Video... MZ got his Light wrapped around a tank yoke as he did his Back flip .....

photo 1.JPG

photo 2.JPG

photo 3.JPG

and Look at His really cool Mask !!!!

Mike.JPG

I will loudly and proudly prempt this with "I AM NOT GAY", but MZ, you have one hell of a Moose Knuckle working in that fisrt pic!!! Kinda hard to miss it.

You said "Moose knuckle"