The Frogfish

     Years ago, we were in Bonaire at Captain Don's Habitat, we had just gotten back from our morning dives, had lunch, and now, I was looking for something to do. While everyone else was relaxing, I went down to the pier on the house reef, wandered a bit, watched people as they put their gear on and jumped in. As I listened to those coming out of the water, recounting to one another about what they saw on their dives, I decided to go back in myself. 

     I started putting my wetsuit on, my weight belt, and the rest of my gear, as I watched the dive master make his rounds, offering his assistance to those in need. Divers would ask him which way to go, what to look for, and he would describe the reef and how best they should navigate their dive. 

     The house reef at Captain Don's is fantastic. The water is ten feet deep at the end of the pier, with a sandy bottom, perfect for entry. The sandy bottom slowly turns to rubble, then some vegetation and soft corals, as you make your way towards the wall. The vegetation and corals become thicker, and fish more plentiful, and just 40 or 50 yards from the pier, the wall, abundant with marine life. Take a left, and 20 or 30 yards away, you'll find a small wreck, and maybe a Green Moray, that makes the wreck his home. Swim straight down, and you will find the sandy bottom, in 200 ft. of water. 

     Anyhow, the dive master approached me and we made small talk, until I asked him the one question he hears 10 times a day, "where's a Frogfish dude?" He knows, they all do. Frogfish rarely move, and when these dive masters find them, they keep it to themselves, their tips get bigger on guided dives, when they can show you a Frogfish. 

      He stares at me, with a smirk on his face, as if he is trying to decide whether I am worthy of his secret, until he finally replies, "you wanna find a Frogfish?"

     "Yes, yes I wanna find a Frogfish, do you know where one is?"

     "Yep, there's one right out there," he said, as he pointed northwest of the house reef towards the open water. Right out there dude, you being cute, or are you gonna tell me where there's a freakin Frogfish? The dive master continued, "swim out to that buoy," he said, as he pointed straight off the pier, about a 150 yards out, to a mooring ball. "Once you get to that buoy, take a right," he used his hand to motion right, or northwest. "Take a right, and swim to, one...two... three, three more buoys," as he is saying this, he is pointing to each one of the three moorings, which cover about a a quarter of a mile, underwater remember. "Once you get to that third mooring, take a left, and swim out to the wall." I listened intently as he continued to give me directions, "once you reach the wall, look for a sea fan." Ok, now this guy is losing me, look for a sea fan, in the ocean? He must have noticed he was losing me, as he continued, he tried to reassure me, "you'll know the sea fan when you see it," he said, "it's hanging way out over the wall," and he made some motion with his arm to simulate, hanging way out. "You'll know the one I am talking about, I promise, you can't miss it," he said again.  He continued, "once you find the fan, swim out past the wall, turn around, and face the sea fan," he said. "Once you are facing the sea fan, drop down to," and at this point he seemed to be in deep thought, using his fingers to count as he continued, "drop down to, hmmm, 65...66...67, drop down to 68 feet, and the Frogfish is right there!" Really? The Frogfish is right there?

     So, with nothing else to do that afternoon, I decided to go in search of the elusive Frogfish. I finished putting on my gear, and did a perfect giant stride into the deep blue, deflated my BC and began my decent into the abyss. As I made my way to the wall, I kept my eyes peeled, hoping to catch a glimpse of a seahorse, or even an octopus. Once I reached the wall, and the line to the mooring ball was visible, I took a right, and began my swim to the next marker. I swam along the edge of the wall, constantly looking, hoping to see something cool. To my left was open water, 200 ft. deep, and where I might see big stuff; sharks, dolphins, a school of Eagle rays, possibly a Manta ray, or, one could only hope, a Whale shark. None of this is out of the question in Bonaire. One year, we were making our way down to a "1000 Steps" and could see a Manta in the water, from shore. On another dive, we could hear dolphins, they stayed far enough away that we couldn't see them though, and Day swears she saw Tuna one year. To my right, the wall, the reef, and where I will see my next marker. The mooring balls are about 200 yards apart, and I have a ways to go before I expect to see it, so I settle in, relaxed and enjoyed the peace of diving alone. All is quite, except for the "Darth Vader" sound as I breathe through my regulator, and the muffled sound of my bubbles as I exhale. Just ahead, off to my right, the first buoy, and I continue on my way. My breathing becomes slower as I relax more, I add a little air to my BC, and continue my swim along the wall, constantly looking. Truth be told, I don't care if I see anything, I just, like, diving. Whether I am alone, with a buddy or in a group, other than  and an eye on my buddy, from a distance, believe me, I am alone. Diving becomes "Zen" like for me, and I get lost in the peace and quiet ( I pass marker number 2 ). I become hyper aware of "cause and effect." Every movement ( cause ) becomes deliberate, and I patiently await the "effect." Like backing up a truck and trailer, or driving a boat, you turn the wheel ever so slightly, and patiently wait for the trailer or boat to move in the direction you want. On land, we are restricted to moving on two axes, forward/backward and right/left. Underwater, there are three, the third being, up and down, and this is where "cause and effect" is most noticeable. As I swim, and hover over the reef, I exhale to descend, if I exhale too much, I sink too fast. Just ahead is a tall coral, and I inhale, and float up and over, just like a bird. 

     Buoy number three is just ahead, and once it was directly to the right of me, I stopped and headed out past the wall, and began my search for "the" sea fan. I searched, and I searched, up and down the wall, forever, it seemed. "You'll know it when you see it," he said. Was he smirking when he said that? I hadn't noticed, I bet he's laughing now though. I swam a half a mile, in search of a................wait, one, freakin minute, there it is! That has to be it, just like he said, "hanging way out, over the wall." The sea fan is not my prize though, and I must continue my quest.

    I swam towards the sea fan, and for a moment, admired it, in a way, thanking it, a sea fan, majestically hanging out, over the wall, pointing the way. I began my decent to 68 ft, and begin my search for the prize, the Frogfish. 68 feet, plus or minus how many feet? Right below the sea fan, to the right or left how much? Even if it is only in a 5x5 area, that is still 25 square feet, of rock, rubble, coral, vegetation and anemones, and the Frogfish is an expert at camouflage. I would look and get my nose right in there, or is it like one of those hidden pictures, and I need to look from a distance? I backed up a bit, and searched some more. Is the fish even here anymore, I wondered. He can't stay in one spot forever, maybe if I look at the reef with my eyes slightly out of focus. I continued looking, forever! Nose right in the reef, then I would back up, and look again from a distance, nose back in, eyes out of focus, I would turn my back to the reef, and spin back around real quick, like I was gonna trick the Frogfish, and maybe sneak up on it. This went on, for what had to be a half an hour. My air is getting low, and I am in 70 feet of water, but I stayed. I stayed and continued my search, up close, far away, eyes focused, eyes out of focus, the spin around real fast, up close again, and the casual, out of the corner of my eye look. I searched, and I searched, and like a pimple on prom night, it appeared, out of nowhere, my Frogfish, sitting there, patiently waiting for it's next meal. I stayed, admiring my prize for awhile, took pictures ( the one below is mine ) but had to leave. I was almost out of air.  

     I began my swim back, elated with myself, and itching to show someone my Frogfish. Once back at the resort, I looked for Day, but she had gone out, I wanna show someone though. I found Sue, who reluctantly agreed to go out with me, in search of my Frogfish, one more time. And again, right at buoy, left after third buoy, sea fan, sixty-eight feet, and there she was again, waiting for me, to show her off to Sue, my Frogfish!

  

Let's go diving

     Years and years ago I took a SCUBA class at UMass, I didn't know it then, but that class would change my life. So, "Who's your buddy? Where's your buddy? Get with your buddy," read and enjoy this next blog post together.

     How can a SCUBA class change your life, you might be wondering? When I was a student, there was a sassy little redheaded TA, who later became my wife. She has since become an instructor, and is now teaching that same course at UMass, for Project Deep. We are still friends with many of the same instructors, TA's and students. Every Friday night for the last eighteen years, we have been barbecuing at my instructor, Scuba Steve's house, and come to think of it, he gave my wife away at our wedding. Over the eighteen years my wife and I have been together, we have met some fantastic people, during classes, while diving and traveling for years and years, to many different dive destinations. Some of those people have become friends, and travel companions, and some of those are friendships that will last our lifetime. That is how a SCUBA class changed my life.

This story begins with Project Deep a non-profit organization that teaches SCUBA classes to the five colleges in Western Mass, UMass, Amherst, Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke. 

Classes are, I don't remember, 10 weeks long, half of the class is in the pool practicing skills, the other half in the classroom. I attended UMass, but took my class at Hampshire College. The credits transferred and that class time worked better with my schedule. What I remember about my class, I sucked at the pool part, and spent most of the class floating on the surface, watching the class at the bottom of the pool. The other thing I remember, Hampshire does not believe in tests, students there do not take exams, and they were all freakin out over a SCUBA test. I have remained friends with my instructor, SCUBA Steve ever since.

After passing the course and exam, it is time to do your open water dives, and become a certified diver. There are two options for this, one being Rockport, Mass with Cape Ann Divers,

and two being, sunny Key Largo Florida, with Ocean Divers.

     Diving in Rockport, Massachusetts can be spectacular. You can dive the Chester Poling Shipwreck, go scalloping or lobstering if you prefer. I don't like lobstering, they look huge underwater and come at you with their big claws, they scare the crap out of me. Day is much better at it, and way tougher than I am underwater. 

See, scary, right? If you find yourself out in Rockport, book a dive trip with Cape Ann Divers and spend the day with Capt. Steve, fill his head with toilet paper and puke all over his boat, he likes that. Tell him I sent you.

You can also choose option number two, diving with Ocean Divers in sunny Key Largo, Florida. My wife and I have been many times and made many friends on these trips, some of whom we continue to travel with. Our latest trip to Key Largo was this past April, which I wrote about in my blog, if you are interested in reading about these trips.
Spring Break in Key Largo, Interstate 95, Forever, and my last post, A Great Week of Diving.

So, I spent a week with my wife in Key Largo, while she taught this motley crew of college kids how to dive, and I had a great time. It was a chance to dive, catch up with old friends and make some new ones. It was also a chance to be Day's SCUBA Sherpa, and let her boss me around in front of our friends, so they can tease the hell out of me. 

Hmmm...I could get into trouble for this one, love you baby. Day and I spent a few years hanging around Project Deep, Rockport and Key Largo, until life got too busy. She still teaches, but not as much. Project Deep will always be, where I met my wife, and many life long friends, and will always be a part of our lives. As I have written before, our lives are a book. In that book are chapters, in those chapters are pages, paragraphs and sentences. Eighteen years ago a new chapter in my life began. If I were to give it a title, it might be, UMass, Project Deep and a Bossy Little Readhead."  

When it comes to diving, you need to spread your wings, and Day and I have...

It takes six months to a year to plan a dive trip to the Galapagos Islands and the Galapagos Aggressor dive boat. You can then imagine how heart broken we were, as we sat on the plane in Newark, New Jersey on the tarmac, when an announcement came over the speaker, informing us, our flight has been canceled. After six or more months of waiting to go on this once in a lifetime trip to the freakin Galapagos Islands, and dive with hammerhead sharks, a volcano erupts in the city we are suppose to land in, on the day of our flight. The trip was suppose to be the week of Thanksgiving, so now we are home, with no plans, eating pizza and watching a movie from Blockbuster, ready to cry and feeling like losers.   

As you can see, we did finally make it to the Galapagos the following February, and dove with the hammerheads, seals and just about everything else.

If you are a diver, the Galapagos should be on your list, it is a trip I will never forget. It is also really expensive, so, Bonaire, here we come.

Bonaire in my opinion, is one of the top ten dive destinations in the world! Why? Bonaire is relatively inexpensive, has a ton of dive sites, easy, easy shore diving, 200ft visibility, spectacular reefs, and great fish life.

We have been to Bonaire seven or eight times, and I never get tired of it. Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful dives on this planet, has to be, Town Pier. Town Pier, is just that, a pier in the center of town, and if you don't believe me when I say, "one of the most beautiful on this planet," check out my link, and be amazed!

This is a picture of us at "Town Pier" just before our night dive. In between all those trips to Bonaire, Day and I managed to dive many other Caribbean islands, some personal trips and some put on by Holyoke Underwater, a dive shop in Western Mass, that has since, gone out of business.  

Day and I took a trip to Grenada early in our relationship, for two weeks, by ourselves. Grenada was fantastic, the town of St. Georges is a great old Caribbean town, the beaches were pristine, the center of the island is a rain forest, there are plenty of spice and rum tours, and, the diving was great. Grenada is home to the largest shipwreck in the Caribbean, the Bianca C, A 600 foot ocean liner. If you do make it to Grenada, be sure to take an island tour with Mandoo Tours, and be sure to have dinner at Patrick's, which I have written about in a previous post.

 

"The Big Five" are lions, elephants, the Cape buffalo, leopards and the rhino, when referring to an African safari. When diving, the octopus is certainly one of the "Big Five." I am not sure where this picture was taken, but what a rare find to see an octopus out in the open like this, it has to be a late day dive. Octopus come out at dusk or night to begin feeding. Night dives are a chance to see different animals, and one of the best night dives I have ever been on was in Roatan. 

The Roatan String of Pearls phenomenon occurs about an hour after sunset. It must be pitch black with no moon and lights turned off. It is the mating display of ostracods which are tiny organisms about the size of a tomato seed. They act much like a firefly emitting a little light in sequence to attract a mate. (this picture is not one of mine, I got it off the Internet) There was so much of this stuff in the water, I could not tell where up or down was. Amazing!

The "Big Five"

Hammerheads or sharks, octopus and add to the list, turtles!

Everything underwater is faster than you are, so it is amazing to come up on a turtle like this. It doesn't happen often but when it does, wow, let's hope we all have cameras. Now, I asked Day what she thought the "Big Five" were, and we both agreed on sharks, octopus and turtles, she added Manta Rays. 

Now, I don't have a picture of a Manta, but surely a school of seven Eagle Rays is pretty damn good. I would love to take credit for this pic but, Jeff S. gets the credit for this one. Last on the list of the "Big Five" has to be a whale shark, which I have never seen, but when I do, that will be a blog post itself. The big things are great...

like this Grouper, but don't miss out on the small stuff...

like this shrimp or...

or this Frogfish. Can you see the fish? At this point, I deleted a huge part of this blog, it is a great story, and I decided to make it a post by itself. Look for "The Frogfish," in the near future. Anyhow, whether it's Bonaire, Grenada, Roatan, Utila, Belize or Cayman Brac, someone has wrecked a boat there, and it is sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor, waiting for us to explore her.

 

Day swears this is a picture of me, at the bow of the "Hilma Hooker" in Bonaire. She says it is just the angle, but it looks like she is sitting upright to me, and that cannot be...

because the Hilma Hooker is laying on her side. It is a mystery Susan, who by the way is the diver in this picture.
The Hilma Hooker is a great wreck dive, just past the wall, she lies in about 100 feet of water, and is home to some pretty big tarpon.

The USCGC William J. Duane, known simply as the Duane in the Florida Keys, near Molasses Reef. The Duane is a great dive and has a ton of history, and is worth a read. 

Other great wrecks in Key Largo, are the Spiegel Grove, as seen above, which I have never been on but...

Day has. Other wrecks would include the Bibb, the Benwood and the City of Washington. Click on the link above, to read about these great wrecks.

There is something exciting about descending into the depths of the ocean, until a wreck comes into view, and for a moment, it feels as if, you, were the first to discover her.

Years and years of diving together, and I can't find a decent picture of the both of us, together. Can one of our freakin friends take a picture of my wife and I?

 It's always difficult to decide, how to end a post. I wrote earlier, I cut a big piece of this one out, deciding it was a great story, and worthy of a post itself, and "The Frogfish" will be. But now, I am thinking of another post. As I was writing this one, I was getting a little nostalgic, especially when writing about Bonaire. Day and I have been to Bonaire many times, with many friends, is there a better place to be, when I turn 50, in just a year and a half? Is there a better place to be, with all my friends? Surely SCUBA Steve will have to go on that one, right? Well, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed my post, as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

A great week of diving

     We were spoiled. That's right, the weather was perfect, sea conditions were fantastic and diving, spectacular!

Pictures of North Beach, the name of one of the two beaches in the campground we stayed at, the other is of course,  South Beach.

About 70 people were on this trip, 50 of whom were students. The students were assigned an instructor,  here is Day's group. What a fantastic week they had, conditions were, dare I say, perfect.

So our day starts at Ocean Divers, and, on the Santana.

On the boat, and head out to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

A little pre dive brief from Day before jumping in.

And, the pool is open...

The seas were flat, water was warm, the visibility was good, what more could we ask for?

Day says these are Pork Fish, not sure if she knows what she is talking about, but the pictures are pretty good. To be honest, Day knows her fish.

Hey look, we found a boat, a shipwreck.

Above is the bow of the Benwood.

SCUBA Steve 

Day

Back to the surface, on the boat, and off to our next dive site.

If any of Day's group is reading this, you should know, I think you guys did great, and it was fun diving with you guys.

Diving with turtles, also pretty freakin good.

All these pictures, are taken with a Nikon Coolpix 120 AW.

The camera is waterproof to 59 ft.
as is, with no underwater housing.

What a beautiful animal.

And as quickly as the turtle showed up, it leaves. Don't bother trying to chase it, you will lose.

We saw a lot of cool stuff underwater. The diving was fantastic,  but the real highlight of these trips, are the people. It is always good to see old friends, but equally as good to meet new ones.

Seventy people,  one common interest, multiple friendships renewed and made, some lives changed forever, welcome to Project Deep. 

"No reason to be sad, no reason to cry, we can always come back, for Key Lime Pie."
SPK