10/1/2006 - Prolific Life On The Reef

Merry and I went diving with Frank O'Donnell this morning at Buchanan's Reef offshore from Marineland. As soon as we saw the bottom Merry pointed out a couple of Cadlina Limbaughorum nudis. It just got better from there. We spent 61 minutes underwater and probably never went more than 40 feet from the anchor. Every rock had invertebrates, rockfish, algae and a few shells to spy. The problem with staying in a confined area for an hour is that you get cold. We climbed aboard Frank's Boston Whaler and all agreed that there was no sense spoiling a great dive by getting even colder. As we made our way around the peninsula Frank was able to open up the throttle a bit. He hit 36 knots in a slight chop with six steel tanks aboard. I'll bet it could fly empty.