This weekend, DWF and dive buddies got to do some scuba diving from the Chesapeake to Juturna Springs! Saturday was the first oyster dive of the year! Oyster season opened up October 1st, so we got in there as soon as we could. We had six divers total and we were able to “catch” our fill of a bushel of oysters each.
The water was quite warm…a balmy 74 degrees at our oyster hunting depth of 16 feet. Visibility wasn’t nearly as welcoming dropping to about 3 feet at that depth. In previous years we’ve gotten to enjoy visibility of up to 10 feet during our oyster dives. At that depth we get to stay down there quite awhile. I brought one of my steel 133s and was able to stay down for 121 minutes (not including my breaks to pop to the surface to empty my bag of oysters).
The water in the Chesapeake Bay is brackish, meaning (sort of) salty, which threw off the weighting that most of us are used to.
The 6 of us had a great time, collecting up to our limit, and now the only near-term problem is eating all those oysters. For DWF, oysters on the halfshell is the go-to tradition on my way home from an oyster dive, and this year’s first oyster dive was no different.
DWF is also a big fan of oyster stew!
Sunday morning was more of a day of fun diving! DWF headed out to Juturna Springs to dive with several folks (almost all of whom were previously students). The water out at “The Springs” is starting to cool down, and mother nature isn’t doing a whole lot to help as the air temperature is down from the 80s only a few weeks ago, to a chilly 45 degrees this morning.
A couple of my dive buddies today are doing their last MD dives before an upcoming trip to Roatan! And I’ve got to tell you that it’s incredibly gratifying to see my students, who were taking Open Water from me only a few months ago, grow and develop as divers right before my eyes! I’m so proud.
A great weekend of diving!
DWF runs a couple of oyster diving trips every year. If you’d like to be notified of the next one, join the DWF mailing list, like (and follow) the DWF Facebook Page, or just shoot me an email.
