July 10, 2012*

After a couple of hours of rest, Idit and I met at the Hotel Maestral, where I was staying.

The “Fisherboat Wreck” is just off the private beach of the Hotel.

“You swim out, find the trail of tires, follow it to the sand path until you find the line that leads you to the bow of the Fisherboat,” Idit said.

“Great, we’ll never find it,” I thought.

The Fisherboat was sunk in a storm in the 1960’s or 70’s.

The boat doesn’t have a name, so the Polish guys who found it just call it the “Fisherboat.”

We spent about five minutes breathing off the tanks to test the air – it tasted like air, was dry, left no after taste and we didn’t get a headache or dizzy.

The air was good!

I geared up and went into the water.

I took my primary second stage, put it in my mouth, put my head underwater and breathed – breathed 85% air and the rest water.

FUCK!

Really?

I told Idit.

“What do you want to do?” he asked.

I tested my auxiliary regulator; it was good.

“Let’s continue, but if you have issues with air, we have to share this one – the other is not good,” I said.

We swam out and looked for submerged tires while on the surface.

It was getting dark, visibility wasn’t the best, so we descended.

Logged SCUBA Dive #413

Dove with Idit

“Fisherboat Wreck”
Saranda, Albania

Air Source: Private compressor in Vlorë
In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 98 feet
Waves: Flat
Visibility: Up to 25 feet
Water Temperature: 73 degrees
Air Temperature: 90 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 45 minutes or so

I followed Idit, and sure enough, he lead us right to the Fisherboat.

Albania is very mountainous, with mountains going right to the sea; it is not difficult to get really deep, really quick.

The Fisherboat rests in about 100 feet of water.

I brought a light, but the fucking thing didn’t work.

The Fisherboat is covered with nets and sea growth – light sea growth compared to Southern California standards.

This was a pretty deep dive for a shore entry; Idit lead me back to the bow after 20 minutes and we followed the trail back to the shore.

I checked what was wrong with my primary second stage – the hose was cracked going to the first stage, allowing water in when I breathed.

I fixed it with “Rescue Tape.”

Our Dive Master who supervised our dive.

Idit told me, that he had not dove in a year.

I expressed concern that he didn’t take a “refresher” course.

He asked, “Why? Would you still have gone if you knew before?”

I still would have gone.

As the sun set, we packed up and headed out for a night in Saranda.

*Due to time constraints, lack of reliable internet access outside of Tirana, a power outage in Tirana and the strength of Albanian beer, posting of this article has been delayed.

The technical divers were coming back to the boat as Joe and I were jumping off for our second dive.

Logged SCUBA Dive #409

Notable Event: Went into mandatory decompression

Dove with Joe R.

The Palawan Wreck, Redondo Beach, CA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 126 feet
Waves: Slightly choppy
Visibility: Up to 40 feet
Water Temperature: 65 degrees, colder at depth
Air Temperature: 75 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 25 minutes or so, including deco

Joe descended, and so did I.

The technical divers were still on their deco stop coming up on the anchor chain.

I descended and sort of got twisted around; I saw divers, but not the anchor chain.

I actually surfaced to find the chain and tried again – I think Joe came up to make sure everything was OK, and all was good.

We spent about 10 minutes at the wreck; again Joe had to remind me to get back.

I would have been a lot more careful if I had been solo diving, but I relied on Joe to tell me when to leave.

By the time I got back to the anchor line, my computer was screaming that I had gone into deco – not very smart on my part.

If I needed to make an emergency swimming ascent to the surface, I might be really fucked up by the time I got to the surface.

I stopped at 50 feet for five minutes, hanging on to the anchor line, watching my Nitrogen levels decrease.

I slowly went up, stopping every 15 feet or so for a few minutes; at fifteen feet I stopped until Joe gave the thumbs up.

Joe told me on the surface, “Don’t get used to going into deco.”

Traditional debriefing on the boat, spilled over into the parking lot of King Harbor.

One of the divers is a famous video editor named Neno; I had given Professional Debriefer Paul his contact info, but Paul never called, potentially missing out on a very good video editing gig.

We also talked about someone’s brother who gets laid more than anyone else.

His secret?

He doesn’t drink, has a good job and plays the numbers game, not concentrating on any chick who gives him any resistance.

“He doesn’t drink, so he looks very healthy and doesn’t act like an asshole,” I was told.

Oh yeah, and his good job?

He’s a sperm and egg broker.

Also, another thing that was brought up was when Neno mentioned to me, the first time that I met him several months ago, he said that he was a big fan of my blog.

Well, apparently I did not show very much appreciation to him initially, but I do have one thing to explain…

I have met a lot of people personally through this blog, and all of them have been cool; however, about once every two months I do get some kind of a correspondence that could be considered a “death threat” – usually from psychos that think lobster hunting is cruel or nut jobs that.. just don’t like me.

Well, “If everyone likes you,” you are doing something wrong in life.

So, fuck the the haters.

But thanks for reading my blog!

If you ever meet me and I seem sort of unappreciative for you reading my blog, I don’t mean to be – I just want to make sure you aren’t the guy that emailed me last week, telling me he wants to cut my nuts off.

I made another lame ass video that condenses today’s events:

To view this video on YouTube, click here.