July 10, 2009 Night Dives - Deep LCU & Black Rock Arches

On Friday, July 10, 2009, I dove with Chris Mazerolle and Shawn (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts. We did two dives, the Deep LCU, a 106 foot deep dive on a Landing Craft Utility that was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and Black Rock Arches, an 45 foot deep dive on a coral reef.

The sunset was spectacular from the boat as we were gearing up for the first dive.

Sunset Off Leeward Coast

Chris and I were in Shawn's group, so we were first in the water. There were 6 divers and one "guide", so we all went together.

Chris and I dropped down and immediately came across this enormous White-Spotted Hermit Crab (new). It is in a Trident's Trumpet shell that is at least a foot long. It is one of the largest hermit crabs in the world!

White-Spotted Hermit Crab

I also got this photo of a Rusty Guard Crab (new) hidden down in a cauliflower coral.

Rusty Guard Crab

There always seems to be at least one Frogfish hanging around on the railings of the LCUs. This big old red one was posing for me.

Commerson's Frogfish

There were several Palenose Parrotfish (new) tucked away in little spots sleeping peacefully. The flash probably bothers them, but they did not stir.

female, Palenose Parrotfish

supermale, Palenose Parrotfish

Chris ran out of air way before I did and everyone else was bailing, so ended early and did my safety stop in the dark watching the phosphorescence in the water and then swam up to the ladder and climbed out. I still had 1300 psi of air.

The second dive was my first at this particular site. It is the most shallow site that Ocean Concepts uses. Chris pretty much hung out with me and pointed things out from time to time, but for the most part this was a group dive and as long as we could see other's lights, no one seemed to care.

Right after beginning the dive, I came across this odd looking critter. It is a hermit crab with several sea anemones on its shell. They are symbionts - the crabs always have the anemones and the anemones only live on the hermit crab's shell.

Hermit Crab Anemone & Jeweled Anemone Crab

This little guy was guarding his hole. Not very big, but a little bit of a nasty disposition. This is only the second one I have seen, both at night.

Yellowhead Moray Eel

This little Day Octopus was out scuttling along on the top of the reef. When I stopped, he curled up in a ball.

Day Octopus

Hawaiian Swimming Crab

These are always hiding in coral heads during the day, and getting a photos is very difficult. It is nice to see one out in the open. One of the big advantages of night diving.

Speckled Scorpionfish

The largest nudibranch - about 10 inches long! Usually you can make them dance in the water column, hence the name, by rubbing their stomach, but this one was stubborn. It just would not dance. These are fairly common at night, but I have never seen one during the day.

Spanish Dancer Nudibranch

This big Yellowmargin Moray Eel was tucked back under this overhang with just his head showing.

Yellowmargin Moray Eel

And this Red Reef Lobster (new) was under there with the moray!

Red Reef Lobster

Another new discovery! An Eared Sea Hare (new).

Eared Sea Hare

Chris ran out of air early again, but so did someone else and we rearranged buddy teams. I finally started to get cold and ended my dive with about 700 psi left.

These were both fun dive with quite a few new critters.

Nora's Blessing

When I first said something to one of my employees, Marie Walton, about going to Kansas City, she asked if I would do her a favor and drive her truck there and back. I figured she was joking, but it turns out she was serious. She has had the truck for two years and has only driven it 3000 miles. The night before we took off for Kansas City to attend Nora's Blessing, we loaded the freezer in the back of her truck and then decided we needed to go find some fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July with Caleb and Spencer before we left.

This is Rebecca, who got an immediate crush on the truck, taking me and the boys to get the fireworks.


The next morning Lauri took this photo of Spanish Fork Canyon from the back seat where she was stretched out. The truck is nice, but big, noisy (although not bad for a diesel), and a bit of a fuel hog, but we did a favor for Marie and got a freezer delivered to Cydney and Ken in the process.


Later in the day, we discovered that cleaning the windshield is no easy task. This service station even had long handled cleaners, but I still had to climb up onto the tires to reach the center of the windshield.


The kids were having fun in Kansas!


We stopped for dinner at a McDonalds just after it got dark. The girls quickly put this cake together for Lauri, since it was her birthday. We even sang to her there in the restaurant. I can see these Ho Ho cakes becoming a tradition. That is how some of them get started, you know. Anyway, it was not a very fun birthday, but I will make it up to her.


This video shows a little bit of the lightning we experienced that night as we drove through the plains of Kansas. We have another one that is better, but we haven't figured out how to upload it, yet. I am still working on that and if I figure it out, I will alert everyone.


The rain did come eventually. It had been pouring where we stopped for dinner, even though it was not raining at the time we got there. The parking lot at McDonalds was a river. Later, when we caught op to it, it was the heaviest rain I have ever driven in. I have been in some real gully-washing rainstorms, especially over in Trinidad, but this was every bit as heavy as those, and it was a night, in the dark and at 65 mph. We had to slow way down, and even pulled off at one point to try and wait it out from the relative safety of an on-ramp.

It was really late when we got there again, so we just unloaded the freezer and the canned goods and went to check-in to the hotel.

Later in the morning, we went back to the apartment and everyone got to know little Nora. She is a doll!




Guitar Hero was one of the main activities during the couple of days we were there. Most of us took at least one turn with it at one point or another.


At lunchtime, the girls disappeared. Lauri found them out on the front "porch."


When we were here in May/June, we tried to grill using Ken and Cyd's little gas grill. It has a significant gas leak in the valve, which ends up in flames as you use it. We decided that would not work to make Manti Turkey, so they tried to borrow a grill. That was not working out too well, so I went to WalMart and bought them a grill. We spent the afternoon and part of the evening putting it together.


Ready for church the next morning.


She is sleeping, but the proud parents are doing photos anyway.


Of course, we had to get the whole family too. We took lots of photos with lots of cameras, but I figured with all the other blogs, I would just include these.


Doesn't she look gorgeous in that gown with the pink background?!


Once the clothes came off, she woke right up and was talking to the camera.


Dinner was Manti Turkey, of course! We broke in the new grill well.


There was plenty of other good stuff to go with the turkey and we ate well.


And then, it was back to the Guitar Hero.




Grandma with the little doll!



All too soon, it was Monday morning early and we had to head out. The sun was just rising as we were fueling just outside of Kansas City.


Cleaning the windshield again in Arvada after our little nostalgia detour.



And just like that, the whirlwind trip was over. Way too fast, but we were there when we needed to be there. That is the important thing.