Tom O'Leary offered a spot on his boat for a last minute dive
down to Point Joe. The ocean was flat and the visibilty was 30-40'...not
the 80-100' had by others earlier in the week, but still really
nice diving at a site not often frequented by divers. As a result,
the fish life was fairly abundant and in almost 700 dives, I had
my first underwater encounter with a whale. It was a juvenile just
on the edge of visibility and it scared me pretty good at first.
You see, everyone else on the boat was hunting, which basically
means everyone is solo diving...including myself. As I was ending
my dive, I was ascending from eighty feet and as I hit forty feet,
I caught out of the corner of my eye a large grey, gliding body.
I felt a surge of warmth at the same time. Adrenaline? Whale pee?
Anyway, I started dropping back down, realized 'hey, I have a camera,
set up for wide angle, and a baby whale swimming nearby'. Why them
do I not have a picture of this rare opportunity? Well, the entire
encounter only lasted about 10-15 seconds and the whale never came
closer than the visibility allowed. Maybe in another 700 dives.
