Tom O'Leary offered a spot on his boat for a
last minute dive down to Point Joe. The ocean was flat and the
visibilty was 30-40'...not the 80-100' had by others earlier
in the week, but still really nice diving at a site not often
frequented by divers. As a result, the fish life was fairly abundant
and in almost 700 dives, I had my first underwater encounter
with a whale. It was a juvenile just on the edge of visibility
and it scared me pretty good at first. You see, everyone else
on the boat was hunting, which basically means everyone is solo
diving...including myself. As I was ending my dive, I was ascending
from eighty feet and as I hit forty feet, I caught out of the
corner of my eye a large grey, gliding body. I felt a surge of
warmth at the same time. Adrenaline? Whale pee? Anyway, I started
dropping back down, realized 'hey, I have a camera, set up for
wide angle, and a baby whale swimming nearby'. Why them do I
not have a picture of this rare opportunity? Well, the entire
encounter only lasted about 10-15 seconds and the whale never
came closer than the visibility allowed. Maybe in another 700
dives.
No images due to the Great Hard Drive Crash of 2007. |
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