I gave the dive camera a second audition today and things went a little bit better than last time. As you can see from these nice picks scattered across the page, I managed to capture a few really good images.

My dive buddy, Garrett and I took the girls (Lizzy and his girlfriend Misa) up to Rockport, MA to dive a couple of spots. His mission was to figure out how to make his camera work without the lens fogging up. Mine was to take a few photos, work on my navigation skills, and learn how to use Garrett’s camera. We planned to 3-5 dives, checking out a few different locations around Rockport. Garrett is a master dive planner. He’d been planning this trip for over a week, comparing each of the dive sites and evaluating parking, walk-in/walk-out, depth, etc. By the time we were ready to dive, he practically had the entire area memorized.

We rolled in on the first dive and were sorely dissappointed to realize the video camera was again, fogged up. So we trolled around for a few minutes, I took a couple of photos, and we headed into deeper waters. It got cold quickly, and we passed the rocky ledges. Not much to see out there, so we headed back. On our way back, at about 14 feet, we saw the most amazing thing. We saw a massive lobster – easily a dozen pounds. His carapace was as wide as my hands. I can palm a basketball, and this lobster would’ve required two hands to hold. His claws were longer than my hands. His antennae were thicker than sharpie markers!

Truly remarkable. Garrett and I camped out with this lobster for several minutes, bleeding off the last our first dive’s gas supply before surfacing. At the surface we saw Liz who was snorkeling nearby. We reported the lobster and I rushed to show her photos. At the surface, in the tide, this proved impossible, so we worked our way to shore and I showed them there. We had to go back and find this guy. Wow.

On our second dive, after a few more visits to the lobster traps (most of the photos were out of focus), we spotted this big monster on his ledge. This time, Garrett’s camera was better equipped to get the shot (not perfect, but better). We teased and tortured the poor guy more than we should’ve. I surfaced and brought Liz over. She was amazed at how big he was, even from 14 feet away.

After a few more minutes, the big guy decided he’d had enough of us and headed out for deeper, and safer waters. We resumed our exploration of the deep. Near another trap we spotted two lobsters squaring off, each with one claw. I briefly started to imagine what might happen in one of these lobsters were to lose his other claw! How would he survive? Fortunately for the combatants, the decision to flee was made and neither suffered any loss or injury. Nearby though, we found another massive lobster. Though not quite as big as the first, he was definitely a 5-7 pounder. His class were humongous and he came out of his little hole to challenge us. The amazing part is, this guy’s home was right next to a trap that had been dropped recently, yet he didn’t take the bate (don’t know if he could’ve fit, actually). Though smaller lobsters were flocking to the site, he just stayed put.

Running low on air, we started to head back west to our entry point. Along the way, at about 8 feet, we came upon a narrow crevice. Inside this crevice, about 6 feet wide, I spied another behemoth! This guy, I’m starting to think, was bigger than the first. He was positioned facing up the side of the wall. His mighty claws nearly spanned the length of his carapace. He was enormous! He didn’t like us hanging around him taking pictures too much, though. Shortly after we arrived, he started to climb up the wall and around a protective rock. I didn’t follow, but I’d guess on the other side of the rock he had a secure hiding spot.

That second dive was outstanding and at the end of it, rather than fill tanks and head back out, we figured we’d had a day of it. The pictures we’d taken and the memories were enough for one lazy Sunday in Rockport. There will be future dives and bigger lobster……

maybe.