Happy Birthday Ktb!

[Blaiz]

So today I intended to get up very early and head down to Redondo for ktb's birthday dive/party. Since getting up very early on a Saturday is just not my strong point, I had to settle for getting up early and heading to Redondo. The weather on my island was actually not too bad, overcast, but with hints that the sun might break through and become a fine day. Alas, the drive south revealed gathering clouds, and at Des Moines it was definately a bleak and bleary PNW day. The smiling faces I saw as I drove through the parking lot easily made up for the weather. I brought my muttlings, Bruce and Veli, and they were quite pleased to meet and greet some of my fellow divers. Apparently I had arrived just after Kelly had a moment or three of (bad) excitement, and I rushed to get suited up in time to go down, rather than wait for second dive. In the nick of time, I made it into the water and became one of a foursome. We split into two nominal pairs in the group. The other pair ended up having some trouble clearing, and bowed out of the dive, so my buddy and I got the approval to continue on. A greeter stationed near the front entrance smiled and waved at the camera before trying to rip my face off. I like this fellow's bright colors.

My buddy and I wandered down to the (mostly collapsed) boat, where there was a lovely yellow-flavoured red irish lord wedged between two planks. He was probably the best fish of the dive, even though I couldn't get a lens on him. I poked carefully around, looking for a grunt sculpin. Here at Redondo, on my first dive with Penopolypants, she found the only grunt sculpin I've seen. They hide from me, and I think that's so not fair! Whilst poking about, I noticed a regiment of coonstripe shrimp lined carefully up on the underside of a piece of boat. I'm not sure how well this will turn out on a lower resolution picture, but each of those little dots are a shrimp, all facing the same way, with the same spacing between each, like cookies on a baking pan. Mmmm, Coookies.

Shortly after this, my buddy's equipment began to hassle them, and we ended up surfacing also. The other two of our foursome were still in the water, so we did some buddy shuffle and Kelly and I headed back under. Vis today was absolutely pitiful above 30 feet. I actually had some fun with that, just chilling and staring at the murky water, thinking, duuuude~. Under the murk layer, we followed one of the lines out to the little reflector thingy piles. Glancing left as I swam, I barely noticed this well-concealed fellow. After snapping a few shots, the devil on my left shoulder urged me to poke and startle him, but the angel on my right shoulder convinced me to leave him hidden.

Kelly and I made it out to the swingset, which I hadn't seen before, where she found two leopard nudibranchs which were really cool to see. Until I managed to plant my knee on the seafloor and silt everything out. Ugh. Turning away from the swingset we soon became aware that we were under hostile surveillance, as a lingcod began urgently urging us to Go Another Direction.

A few moments' search found us the reason for the urgency. I haven't seen lingcod eggs before. I was really impressed by the size of this guy's stash. Especially since he really isn't a very big fish. I use the masculine, but, do the males sit the eggs? or females, or both?

After briefly inspecting the treasure of eggs, Kelly and I headed upslope, ending near the pilings under the MAST center. There we found some sort of fish voodoo totem. And their voodoo totem worked surprisingly well, seeing as how it had put two of the four invaders out of the dive. Creepy.

Getting out of the water, we rested and relaxed and I had a good time talking with several people, including introducing myself to many new NWDCers. The dogs did their best to convince people to share bratwurst, but everyone was dog-savvy and they were all, like, dream on. While fully intending to do a second dive, as the minutes ticked by, I found myself becoming more and more chilled, wherein I decided not to use my second tank, but bid the birthday girl good wishes before changing out of my (wet) drysuit. The cleanup crew were hard at work, and I managed to be sent home with leftover franks and brats. Since my bachelor lifestyle involves a lot of Top Ramen, I was really grateful for the donation, although I did feel a bit guilty since I hadn't contributed to the spread!

Happy Birthday Kelly, and Thanks for Diving with Me!!

[ktb]

Always a pleasure Kriss!! So glad we were able to finish that dive since our buddies had issues to work out topside.

And dammit--I was I had known you wanted to see a grunt sculpin. I pointed out a resident one to my buddies on the second dive. Next time, next time . . .

And yes, the males guard the eggs. That was an impressive collection.

[WylerBear]

Kelly is the only diver I know who can find more Grunt Sculpins that I can. Stick with her and you'll be sure to see many.

[Fishstiq]

That ling was in a mood, he hassled us too! Myself, April and Trevor (with his new Sierra!) had a run in with him. I never saw his stash, but there was no mistaking his behavior!

[Blaiz]

i just realized that lingcod's eggs are in the rusted remains of the kitchen appliance

talk about a bun in the oven!!