Hola mi amigos. El día tuvo frío Wait, wrong language. Why is it that most of the stories we tell involve early, cold, wet mornings, rising at 4am and making our bodies hate ourselves. This story starts no differently! I mean seriously, are there any hobbies that don't involve getting up at the crack of dawn? Even the prior days sky dive required being in Cross Keys by 9:30 am.

    Enough of this blather! The morning started, the sirens sang (get it?), beckoning us to the sea. Beep beep beep, low sleep, my alarm clock yelled. As I hit the sleep button, hoping for an extra 20 minutes, I hear, thump-a thump-a thump-a. Damnit, Andrews early, and he's waking up my whole neighborhood. I ran outside with my gear to dump in his car, ha, thank god I packed it last night. Andrew looks at me strangely. "What is it, what's the problem, lets go!". "AJ," Andrew says, "Don't you want to put some clothes on."  I look down, to my horror, I'm completely naked,  "How odd I say, must've been a good night To the Ol' Salty!" I grab the least amount of clothes I can carry, I won't need a sweatshirt or towel, it's July! A statement I'm sure to regret.

    We were off, off to meet up Pat (yes the same Pat as featured in SNL!). Pat never went on a Jersey dive, we'll brief him on the rid over to the slip. As we approached Pats house, the door was open! We checked it out, great the insider let us in, and is disguised as a CAT! That's why we hired him

    After finding Pat, and taking photos of Libby sleeping, we moved our gear from Andrews Porsche to Pats Caddy. We got in, ready to brief Pat on what to expect, and then.. Next thing I remember we're pulling up to the boat... Knock out gas, I should've known.

    "You guys are as easy as my kids, a little bit of chloroform and you're out! Muhahaha" Pat exclaimed.

    "Enough of this silliness, too the boat!" I responded

    We loaded up the boat, as the rest of the crew came, myself, Andrew, Pat, Alan ("Did you remember your bolt this time?!"), Leon, and a couple others. "Hey where's John Miller?!" Jen yelled. "Oh who knows, I'm going to sleep!"

    As the boat took off, I was already fast asleep under the deck Beautiful sleep, but it didn't last long. Suddenly the boat performed an emergency stop, and Nick, the captain dove off the boat. We looked at each other, confused. Suddenly a huge bass is tossed on to the boat, it appeared to have bite marks in it. Nick jumped onto the boat and proclaimed that NOW we can get to the wreck. All of us stood in awe, shock, not comprehending what just happened. "Did he just catch a huge fish with his bare teeth?".. We approached the Venturo quickly, a shallow wreck, at about 60/80fsw, full of recent lobster sightings. I hurried to get my gear on There was no sun, and no warmth. I quickly blew my YBOD and ensured its full satisfaction. Pat was to go in with Leon A scary pairing, even for the most agile of divers.

    Us YBOD divers jumped in, OH MY GOD it's cold!... Good thing I have my wet suit. As we met on the line to do our customary bubble checks and slaps on the behind, I noticed my crotch straps were undone Undone?? More like I forgot to put them on! I put my straps on and realized Alan forgot his straps too! After several minutes we got 'discombobulated' and ready to descend. Wait, I can't get my flash light Another 5 minutes followed as Alan tried to untangle the relatively simple, or so I thought, set up I made to hole my flashlight. Good thing we only used about 40psi of O2 during that entire undertaking (I love me YBOD).

We descended to the main deck of the small tug and started looking for critters to eat Nothing, the place was stripped, where was Jim to warm the waters? 20 minutes in I look at my fancy computer, "I'm freezing, but no way am I going up before JEN!" I waited and waited, finally at 55 minutes the signal, Jen was cold! Let's go up, empty handed, failures!

    Once on top, the hope of warm sun further faded. The rain and wind swept through us as we huddled in the cabin, burning the crew to stay alive. Stories of Pats panic travelled around. That was it, Jen and I were done diving, me in only a pair of shorts and Jen with several blankets, wet suites, drysuits and rain coats on. Alan went to us, are we diving again or what, no one said yes

    The cold day crept by, many of us too afraid to go back in, even Andrew, the notorious shorts and short sleeved skier. So really, there wasn't much to tell. Alan came up from his second dive with his buddy, Escabar. Alright, we're all on board, let us hold our heads in shame and go home, none of us are eating tonight.

    On the trip back the sun shone through just a bit, teasing us. As we pulled in, all exhausted from an early cold day, we unpacked and said our goodbyes, it's going to be a long trip back, and hopefully we don't get hit with the knock out gas again. We started driving, all trying to stay awake "Hey I think we were supposed to make a right 10 miles back" Oops!!! Eventually we made it, and Libby came out to welcome us back from out trip. We teased her with a story of a cooler full of giant lobster to eat for dinner when in reality There was none.

    After repacking Andrews car we were off, the day slowly came to an end, and it was time to rest and get ready for another adventure.

    Until then. Adios.