Today Kyle and I dived a large wreck on the north side of the private island ...

Today Kyle and I dived a large wreck on the north side of the private island of Isle de Quatre. 30 years ago it was a working freighter between Bequia and Trinidad and belonged to the cousin of Kerry The Mariner. It was purposely sank to make a reef.

The dive was interesting with very little current for a happy change. Followed the mooring line down to about 65 feet to get to the super structure of the freighter. All of the surfaces of the boat were covered with corals and sponges. The density of fish live was relatively sparse, although there was one large happy southern stingray hanging out on the sandy bottom near the bow. As we approached the stingray placidly watched us, we kept her on our right as we orbited the bow and came down along the starboard side of the ship.

As we neared the starboard aft corner we came across a small Lionfish. I tried hard 2 times to spike it, but my sling's point was too dull and it was too bony for it to stick him.

Meanwhile our Danish buddy Peter got a bit frustrated because I was not noticing the large Lobster about 4 feet away. We switched focus, but between the Lobster and ourselves we kicked up too much sediment under the keel to catch him.

Peter signaled that he was out of air (he uses a small pony bottle and doesn't have much bottom time.) Plus we were at 85 feet and hunting. Kyle and I still had 2000 psi to work with.

Si we circled around the stern, cruised along the port side for a bit and then floated 20 feet up to go over and into the large open cargo bay. This was nice as we were inside the wreck looking at ladders and decks, but still wide open and sunny. And 85 feet deep.

Came across a nice medium sized lobster and successfully slung that one. Circled around the cargo bay a bit more and then floated up and over the starboard wall and went down to find that large lobster again. The sediment mostly settled, and after just a couple of tries, I successfully manually jammed him onto the same sling as the other one. Two big Lobsters on a single stick. Woot!

Time to go up. I kept one hand firmly gripping the tail of the large one on the outside of my Lobster kebob, and another hand holding onto the other side of the sling.

It had been a while since I checked air as I was distracted with happy hunting. Fumbling around with full hands as I slowly finned up, at about 60 feet I was surprised to see my air was below 600 psi! Holy crap in just the 15 minutes at 85 feet actively hunting I spent half of the tank and was a mere 100 above reserve. Well no worries, finned up to 15 feet and did the 3 minute safety stop. By the time I made it to the surface still had somewhere between 400 and 500 psi (500 is the reserve).

As I broke the surface I kept the lobsters initially well below the surface, and then JK teased and said, hey man where are the lobsters. I grinned and showed off the two. "Ah c'mon man, you are getting professional!" he declared in a very heavy Africans accent.

Originally posted on Facebook on September 10, 2016.