What A Night

Well, finally everything lined up favorably for our first night diving expedition of the season. Good weather reports plus flat calm waters had us salivating for a night dive on a night that won"t soon be forgotten. Setting off from St Peter Port at around 5.00pm on a dark November evening  under picture perfect conditions.  We were soon over the broken-up steel wreck of the Oost Vlaanderen know locally as the Cement wreck after it's cargo of cement and guns. The shot line was soon over the side and anchored in on the first try (as usual). As the tidal current settled we were over the side and in the water. 
What a way to kick off the week. 15 metres viz and tons of sea life all over the place. Once the sun sets the vibrant colours of the daylight dives go with it, and the colourful fish somehow manage to disappear from view and the cast of ocean characters change as the night shift comes on.
  Instead the ocean is filled with a variety of mollusks and crustaceans coming out of their daytime hiding places for their night time feasts. This is also the time for the predators to appear, creatures like the conger eel and squid who are mainly hidden from view during the day in wrecks and under rocks can be seen swimming freely out in the open at night. Many marine creatures will take advantage of this magical hour to hunt with the squid already ahead of the game out and about looking for love. To add to the night’s diving excitement it was time to turn off my torch. Once your eyes have adjusted to the underwater environment you may notice that the water around you appears to have a certain glow, and any movements you perform can be traced in swirling patters of Phosphorescence. This is caused by the plankton in the water and the disturbance your movements causes, something that is invisible during daylight hours.
 It was time to push on and get back to the shot line, on the way back Matt stumbled into a Monkfish.  He brought me over to the side of the wreck and pointed out one of the seas nastiest predators just a few feet away from the shot line sitting on the bottom waiting for it's tea to swim past. You know me, I am always game for catching myself dinner but we were all a little chicken when it comes to grabbing a fish that size with no spear and just a small dive knife. Here we are three grown men sitting on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean too afraid to grab a fish. I was loving every minute of this dive and did not want to leave the bottom but my time was up,,,