Lobster, No Lobster. Yes Lobster

After the shark feed we dove Lobster No Lobster.

Did you know that lobsters migrate?  They do, and neither European nor African swallows are involved.

Jacques Cousteau named this site because on one dive he found this reef just teeming with lobster. The next time he dove it there wasn't a lobster to be found.

Yes Lobster do indeed move around and migrate. 

We first dove Lobster No Lobster during the day and didn't see a single lobster.

There was a rather healthy reef system there.

 And smiling fish

 

There were also some quite large Lion fish.

 

Each spine on a lion fish is venomous and if you touch it, it hurts, a lot. So avoiding these invasive species is a really good idea, and there are unfortunately quite a few of them around.

 No lobster in sight.

Still a nice dive. 

The night dive however did have lobster.

Big. Lobster.

 

And a big Crab:

And a tiny Stingray

 

And best of all, a tiny and cute Octopus!

First time seeing an Octopus in the wild.  Very cool. 

That was a night dive for the books, we just kept finding cool creatures.

Day Dive: 44 minutes, average depth 27 feet, and a max depth of 32 feet.

Night dive:  1 hour, average depth 24 feet, and a max depth of 31 feet. 

Shark Dive

The highlight of the Blackbeard's trip is the Shark Feeding Dive.

After seeing some sharks while you dive, there's nothing like watching a bunch of them go after a nice chumsicle.

The boat headed to Split Coralhead for the feed. Split Coralhead is one of two shark feeding sites Blackbeards go to, the other being the Henry Smith wreck.

Just like the drift dive, the entire boat of divers gearded up and lined up to jump in together with a negative entry to drop to the bottom as quickly as possible. 

As we dove in, the sharks were already there waiting. 

 All the divers sat or knelt on a circle and then the chumsicle was brought out.

 

With only four sharks hanging out to be taking care of busienss, the shark feed lasted a long time. it was interesting that only four showed up, normally it's about a dozen.

They got to eat well. 

 

This made the chumsicle last awhile, and even split apart and fall to the ocean floor and the sharks really chowed down on it.

 

This had the sharks get nice and close. 

The expression on this yellow snapper's face as the shark was close behind was like "Dude, I'm outta here!"

 A very enjoyable dive.

It's always an experience seeing eye to eye with sharks.

Seriously eye to eye.

 Yep, that one came rather close.

Dive time of 1 hour and 2 minutes, the longest shark dive I've had yet, with an average depth of 49 feet with a 56 foot max. 

Diving: Cut 'N' Run

On July 7, we dove the Cut 'N' Run site.

Named because there's an anchor and chain on the bottom left there by a merchant ship that upon spying a pirate ship in the distance cut the anchor and ran for it. 

The site has a 50 foot depth by the anchor that slopes down to 70 feet and then 90 at the ledge, and then drops straight down to 1000 feet plus. 

We dropped down the anchor line to the anchor and chain.

 We were joined by a local resident:

 The shark was curious, but as more divers came it took off.

We then headed off into the deep two more recent additions to the bottom. 

Ran and sailed great when last run, prior to sinking in 2024, this sailboat is now available to the discerning diver.

 

 No lowballs, we know what we've got.

Leaving the sailboat behind, we then inspected another wreck.

 

 

A nice airplane wreck.

 it's been there longer than the sailboat by quote soem time.

 There was a nice Black grouper by the wreck.

 

We then headed to the ledge, and off it dropping down the wall.

No bottom in sight.

Dropped to 90 feet along the wall still no bottom in sight.

But there was a big Barracuda.

 Still no bottom, just a blue void below.

After being at 90 feet for a couple minutes I got a NDL (no decompression limit) alarm on my computer so we needed to ascend to avoid a decompression situation that we were really no equipped for handling.

We then went back up and started tracing our way back to the boat. 

We saw some pretty fish on the way.

 

Ended up doing a 5 minute safety stop at 20 feet.

Total dive time of 41 minutes and got to see a shark, fish, two wrecks and an anchor chain.  Quite a nice and enjoyable dive. 

An Evening of Laughs With Henry Cho

Last night, I drove to Ann Arbor with a friend to see Henry Cho live on his Empty Nest Tour at the Michigan Theater.

To say he is hilarious and that it is a great show is an understatement.

His opening act Nathan Wallace was also very funny and really got the laughs rolling.

Henry Cho then performed with a lot of funny new material and some of his hilarious classics, as well as some very funny and smart off-the-cuff stand up based on audience questions.

It was a great show.  

Getting out of the parking structure after the show, not so much, but that happens.

If you get a chance to see Henry Cho on tour, it’s well worth it.

If you're not near a live show, then catch a show of his live streaming on Netflix or such, it's worth it.

Stupid Criminals: Let's Play Name That Party

So Jabran "Jim" Manna, a West Bloomfield Township Truastee is alleged to have placed cameras and spied on some women in their bedrooms and sent the feeds from the cameras allegedly to his cell phone.

Rather creepy and criminal behavior, that.

MSN/The Detroit News: West Bloomfield trustee hid spy cams in women's bedrooms, prosecutors say

Board of Trustees member Jim Manna has been charged with seven felonies after Oakland County prosecutors said Thursday he hid spy cameras in smoke detectors in two women's bedrooms.

Manna, 65, is charged with two counts of capturing an image of an unclothed person, a five-year felony, and five counts of installing a device for eavesdropping, which carries up to two years in prison.

Two adult women discovered surveillance cameras hidden in smoke detectors in their bedrooms, according to a release from the prosecutor's office....

Nowhere in the article is his political affiliation mentioned. 

Click on Detroit:   West Bloomfield Township trustee faces 7 felony charges over alleged hidden cameras, nude videos

Nor in this article is his political affiliation mentioned, but it does have a great mugshot photo.

WXYZ Detroit: West Bloomfield Township trustee charged, accused of planting hidden cameras

No mention here either, but the mugshot photo is still a great feature.

The Detroit Free Press:  Why a West Bloomfield trustee is facing felony charges for spying

Nor here.

As one might suspect from the rather uniform omission of his political affiliation as an elected official, this is indeed a case of a (D) thinking with his d. 

Yep, he's a proud member and trustee of the Democrat party.

Of Drift Dives And BCDs

A drift dive is when there's a strong enough current that you can jump in the water and get pulled along by it and it takes you on a tour.

We dove Cousteau's Drift. 

You tend to get a longer dive out of it as you're suing less air by not kicking nearly as much as the current takes you where you want to go.

The downside is you're not fighting against the current to get back to where you entered the water, so the boat is going to come pick you up. Everyone sticks together and the divemaster tows a float so the boat knows where you are.

Entry is fun too,  you gear up, buddy check, line up at both exits on the boat and as the boat drifts in the current when you reach the starting point for the dive the Captain yells "Dive, Dive, Dive" and in you go with a negative entry to drop down into the current as rapidly as possible.

Thus turned into quite a cluster of a dive entry.

People all over the place trying to keep an eye on the divemaster and not run into anyone else. 

 

 There's the divemaster with the float in tow.

You could just take a seat and flow with the current.

 

The current was zipping along, as you can see form the coral bending in the current:

 

Got to see a stingray flying in the current as well.

 

This was fun until I started rising a bit. Took some air out of my BCD and that did it. The BCD is the wing on my back behind the tank that you can and or remove air from to adjust your buoyancy.

Then I started rising again, took even more air out wondering how there could still be air in it as I had jumped in with a deflated BCD.

It happened yet again,

Yep, BCD was malfunctioning and it was doing a slow inflate all on its own.

So I removed the hose connecting it to my tank and problem solved for the rest of the dive. The slow leak was taking quite a fair bit of air over time.

At the surface we all were told to inflate out BCDs  so I reattached the hose and Whompf! 

The BCD inflated 100% in seconds and started over-inflating in a very loud manner and spilling air loudly out the overpressure valve.  So I took the hose off again and took some air out as well. The inflator on the BCD had a leak and was staying open. Not a big deal but an annoying that needs to be dealt with and they didnt have the tools on the boat to fix it.  I dove with it a few more times inflating it manually, and then swapped it out for a rental BCD for the rest of the trip.

It was a fun dive and drifting away was kinda relaxing. 

A 37 minute drift dive with a max depth of 29 feet and an average of 18 feet. 

Chickens For KFC

Just like Chickens voting for KFC, Jewish Democrats voting for Abdul El-Sayed have yet to realize that denial is not just a river in Africa. 

From the "Vote Blue No Matter Who" types (Query does that include Hitler?  it did include a man with a Nazi tattoo until the Dems figured out he wasn't going to win so....); to the "He's just anti-Israel not anti-Jewish types"; to  the "He doesn't really mean it, and hey Medicare for all";  to the "Better an Islamist than a Republican" types;  the Jews that vote for El-Sayed and his ilk are badly deluded at best or complicit at worst. 

Op ed writier Nikki Vinkier is one of them:

The Detroit Free Press: I voted for Abdul El-Sayed. He needs to cut ties with Hasan Piker | Opinion

I voted for Abdul El-Sayed. I wanted him to win. And when he did, I was thrilled. I was relieved. And almost immediately, I was scared. Because while I was celebrating, I was hearing from Jewish friends, family and community members who felt angry and betrayed. Many said they would never vote for him in November.

Yep, unlike Nikki some Jewish Democrats actually read his statements, viewed his actions, and who he associates with, and used their brains and will not vote blue no matter who.  That this is what Nikki is scared of, rathert than the clear threat posed by El-Sayed and his ilk is just precious.

But worry not, her op-ed gets worse. 

I watched criticism of the Israeli government repeatedly become conflated with hatred of Jewish people. I also watched legitimate fears about antisemitism become tangled in political rhetoric and, at times, dismissed altogether. As a result, many Jewish Democratic Michiganders are entering the general election feeling as though they cannot even consider supporting El-Sayed.

Those people doing the conflation are El-Sayed and his key supporters and main voting block, yet you voted for him Nikki.

It also requires an honest conversation about El-Sayed’s response to the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.

To be clear, El-Sayed unequivocally condemned the attack.

Except he did not, Nikki, even as you yourself note: 

He called it heinous and evil, said antisemitism has no place in our communities and affirmed the right of Jewish people to worship safely. He repeatedly said there was no justification for what happened. But he also repeated the phrase “hurt people hurt people” and drew a direct line from the deaths of the attacker’s relatives in Lebanon to his decision to target a synagogue.

He condemned and did not condemn it at the same time and blamed the "cycle of violence" for it and his "hurt people hurt people" bit to excuse it. 

Sayed also willfully held back on discussing the Iranian dictator's death due to it upsetting his Islamic constituents and supporters - which would be a concern about him to most people, but you gloss right over that.   

Anyhoo, Nikki keeps on trying to  drum up support for El-Sayed and figures out the solution: he should dump Hasan Piker with his America deserved 9/11 and his multiple antisemitic and anti-American rants, that'll do it:

There is one more barrier El-Sayed must address: His continued association with Hasan Piker.

I do not believe being seen with someone means automatically endorsing everything that person has ever said. But many Jewish friends I have spoken with felt El-Sayed’s response to their concerns about campaigning with Piker was insufficient. Then they watched Piker livestream from El-Sayed’s election-night party.

At some point, continued association becomes a choice. If El-Sayed wants to earn the trust of Jewish voters who are not with him yet, he must be willing to hear why that relationship concerns them, and show them where his own boundaries are.

Good luck with that one there, kapo. 

Abdul campaigned alongside Piker, he agrees with Piker, he's not going to give him up because he and Piker are in lockstep.  He needs Piker, no matter how much you'd like to delude yourself otherwise. He's not just seen with Piker, Piker campaigns for him and he's on the stage holding hands with Piker because they believe in the same things:  Hating America, Hating Jews, and Hating Capitalism even as they both get rich from it.

Thank goodness some Democrat Jews are finally realizing  the Progressive Islamic Nazi-fest the Democratic Party has become.  Meanwhile people like Nikki still don't get it - or even worse they do and still choose to give up their birthright for a progressive mess of pottage.

Birthday And Flight Review

Yep, made another full cycle around the sun today.

 For my birthday, I gifted myself a flight review, as that was now due (you need to have one every two years). Kind of a mandatory gift, that.

Got to the airport and had the preflight done when Brian the instructor pulled up. 

Wind was blowing from 190 around 11 knots so there would be some decent cross-wind technique practice during the review.

We went over stuff on the ground as a refresher and then got in the plane.

I took off and headed for Linden as it was a close by un-towered field.

Completely buggered up the initial approach, and decided to do a go-around, and then redid it and then did a decent landing. I was flying too high and fast on final, which is a bad habit of mine, so we decided to break that habit, 

Linden did have a surprise for us on that landing - Sandhill cranes - which are rather large birds, and they decided they wanted to hang around the runway. Since hitting a Sandhill on final or takeoff can really wreck your day, we decided to head back and finish at Ponitac after doing some air-work. Landed on Runway 27 and one just walked across as we landed much fun.

So we then trolled the runway revving the engine trying to get the Sandhills to move, and they at least got off the runway and stayed off it long enough for me to do a short field takeoff to get up before we passed the point where they were hanging out.

Did a good short field takeoff from Runway 9 and up we went.

Then we worked on slow flight and stalls, and I did two good power off stalls and recoveries. More importantly, I really really worked on slow flight, using pitch and power to climb and descend, while keeping the airspeed right locked on at 60 knots which does help your landings quite a bit.

Then we headed back to Pontiac, and got some pattern work in.

The slow flight practice certainly helped, and I did three good touch and goes and then a solid final landing. 

That's 1.5, 5 landings, and a flight review done.

Now off to a birthday celebratory dinner. 

Diving: The Underwater Airplane

Returning to our diving posts, the next dives were on the Pablo Escobar Plane Wreck. 

It's called the Pablo Escobar Plane because it was carrying a rather illicit product from Columbia for smuggling into the US when it crashed. The Bahamas were a major smuggling route at the time for the cocaine trade.

The plane crash has since formed a nice artificial reef for fish to hang around.  All the illicit contents of the plane have long since been removed from the site, leaving aircraft wreckage behind for fish to frolic.

I've dove it quite a few times now, and each time there's something new to see.

 

 

 

Quite a number of big fish were swimming around the wreck too.

 

There were also a some barracuda circling around the wreck, looking for a meal:

 It was a nice dive maximum depth of 23 feet for 57 minutes.

 

Then we went to Barracuda Reef and did a dive there down to 30 feet for 41 minutes.

As night fell, we returned to the Pablo Escobar Plane for a night dive.

 

I did the night dive with Kevin and Jim, two true southern gentlemen from South Carolina.

The wreck looks different at night.

 It was a nice first night dive with a max depth of 21 feet for a 61 minutes.

A Modest Proposal For Spain

So Spain is facing an invasion of 60,000 Islamic migrants from Morocco into their enclave in Ceruta (and Europe is kinda freaking out about it),  and likely moving on from there onto mainland Spain itself.

Luckily, the Spanish have a solution to this problem. 

Indeed, since they've been demanding this solution on another country, I'd daresay they should boldly move forward and progressively adopt the following proposal:

 

There's a ready made slogan for it too: “From the Mountains to the Sea, Al-Andalus will be free".

Well, fair is fair, and all that. Good luck senors, you'll need it.

4 Up. 4 Down.

Today the weather was VFR with a TFR coming in to shut down the airspace at noon.

So I got up early and headed to the airport.

 

 

Misty and scattered/broken above 2,000, but still VFR for pattern work.

So I did the preflight checks, including making sure I could access the runway from the taxiway as they have had the main drag torn up all summer.  

Thankfully the construction is now up-runway of our hangar row so it was easy to get to the run-up area and runway, and no need to taxi the plane on the service drive.

All checks were good, as was the run up, and soon I was up in the air again.

I did touch and goes, as if you landed long for a full stop, you got a very long taxi around to avoid the construction.

With two other aircraft wrapping up as I took off, I soon had 27R all to myself as business jets and King Airs took off and landed from 27L. A very light wind of 6 knots from 240 degrees made for a beautiful day to fly.

For the first one, I did a great takeoff, a solid pattern and then a good landing.  Having not flown since May, I was a little rusty.

Landing two was better, as was landing three.  Touch and goes were fun as always. Landing 4, a full stop was perfect and landed with plenty of room to get off the runway at my hangar row without having to take the construction detour route. The number of landings matched the number of takeoffs, so all was well.

Got the plane parked, washed the bugs off, played with the new Garmin GTN650 navigation system that was just installed on the aircraft for a bit, and done. Beat the TFR closure by plenty of hours and already at work.

That's 0.5 and 4 good to great landings.

NYC: Allahu Akbar Yet Again

 So, right after Mayor Mamdani (NY-Hamasitarian) went off on a tirade against Israel, Netayahu and Zionists, a New Yorker in a most timely manner stabs a Jewish pedestrian, as well as a nearby Asian fellow pedestrian, while yelling "Allahu Akbar".

The Guardian: Double stabbing in New York City being investigated as possible hate crime

New York City police are investigating a pair of stabbings near Central Park as a possible hate crime, police commissioner Jessica Tisch said Thursday.

The suspect, Raul Morales, allegedly stabbed a 57-year-old Asian man in the back with a knife, then stabbed a 50-year-old Jewish man in the torso with a screwdriver, according to a New York police department spokesperson. Morales allegedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” before the stabbings, police said. The attacks occurred about two blocks apart and in broad daylight in Manhattan’s affluent Upper West Side neighborhood.

Only a possible hate crime, mind you.  Also, apparently Allahu Akbar now means "possibly has mental problems" in addition to its traditional meaning of "the motive for the attack will never be known"  --  even when the attacker has no known history of mental problems.

New York police were assessing whether a mental health problem had driven the suspect’s actions.

“While the perpetrator has no known mental health history with the NYPD, the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor,” Tisch tweeted in a statement on X. “At this time there is no known link between Morales and either of the victims, nor between the victims and each other.”

Quite the deflection from a hate crime to a claim of mental problems, now isn't it? 

The desperation of the authorities to obfuscate and have the motive for the attack be anything but a deliberate anti-semitic attack by an adherent of Islam is rather tiresome.

Unless, of course, the authorities want to claim that if you yell "Allahu Akbar" when you stab someone you have mental problems - but wouldn't such a claim be Islamophobic? 

Yep, That's What Most People Would Call A Clue

But some people ignore quite blatant clues.

WXYZ Detroit: 'We saw and heard the rattle': Witness describes Oakland County snake bite

A man was bit by a Massasauga rattler at the Proud Lake Boat Launch in Commerce Township.

The rattle is the snake being polite and giving you a friendly warning to stay away, not an invitation to come closer, as this fellow did.

Remember the rattle sound doesn't mean "get closer for a better photo", it means back the heck away or you're about to discover the Find Out portion of FAFO. 

The fellow in this story ignored the rattle and thus got the full-on FO treatment with a bite to his hand.  

Thankfully, Massasauga rattler bites are rarely fatal and he was quickly treated with antivenom at UofM hospital so he should be both a little wiser as a result and probably a bit poorer with a rather large hospital bill, too.

Yet a new thing to be aware about when you're hiking about in a rec area in Commerce.  I know Massasaugas are around the Ann Arbor Arboretum area but did not know they have a population in the Proud Lake area. I've seen plenty of Garter and other non-venomous species there, but never a Massasauga.  

Happily, Michigan has only one species of venomous snake, and it is generally small, shy, and wants to get away from you rather than bite you. It very politely even tries to warn you to go away first, whenever possible for it to do so,  before it decides to strike.  

You'd be well advised to heed the polite warning and leave the snake alone so it can continue to do snake things, and you can continue to do human things without racking up unnecessary pain, swelling, and medical bills.

Thunder Over Michigan 2026 - Got MiGs?

Yes, Thunder Over Michigan had MiGs.

Not one but two MiG-17s to be exact.  One a Lim-5 and the other a Lim-6 variant.

Lim-5

Lim-6

 The Lim-6 has a beefed up strakes on the wing with strongpoints for air to ground attack, and has and an extended tailcone that was originally designed to have a parachute but that was never put into production, and instead it is used as a transport pod.

Both MiGs taxied out together for a tandem takeoff.

 

Quite a sight as, with afterburners roaring, they took to the skies.

 

Then we got some formation passes.

They were hard to pick out of the sky in the smoke and twilight until they got rather close.

 

Managed some decent shots of the MiGs in the grey. Whether in camo or bare metal, both were hard to pick out of the muck.

 

Soon they landed and taxied back after a darn nice display of their speed, power, and maneuverability.

 

 

 

An impressive display of two historic jet warbirds.