A very odd day at the bridge. Before I left the house at a little after 6:00am I saw on the local news that there was a search being conducted for a missing swimmer and that the local news stations had set up at Phil Foster to catch any action. So at least I was expecting the Park to not be so quiet as it usually is on a weekday early in the morning. With the remnants of tropical storm Ana coming through in cloud bursts and lightning in the distance, there were very few people at the bridge besides the news crews and a member of the sheriff's office. The sheriff's deputy asked us politely to not go in the area east of the swimming area as they considered it a potential crime scene. I inquired about going west under the big bridge with my open water student. He probably realized at that point that we were not interested in participating in a recovery operation and said we could go. As the squalls blew through there was a pretty good chop that I could feel through the dive flag and reel. Flashes of lightning occurred a couple of times as the skies became darker, and we could see the rain pelting the water, but it was peaceful where we were. We did the usual route for open water students visiting the wrecks and then going under the bridge to the edge of the boat channel. It was yellow stingray day as we saw at least five. My student rescued a little hermit crab from an octopus who was reluctant to let go of it. Fascinating to watch. A couple of lobster are still under the fishing pier. After the dive, with apparently no action to report, news reporters approached us probably for lack of something better to do. My friend and my student each granted a little interview to the "newsthirsty" reporters. Always something different at the bridge. Yesterday a colleague at the shop asked if I ever tire of the bridge. My response, "Never!" Get in the water, Ham
Dive Report 19 August
