I've been busy gathering up pictures to download to a digital frame to hang up at my store.
One of the photos I scanned and downloaded was of me, diving with my Garrett XL 200 Sea Hunter. I know, the XL 500 was a much better model. The XL 200 was only made like one year, but when I bought it in the mid-80's I didn't know it. All I knew was that I heard Mel Fisher, yes THAT Mel Fisher, said that the Garrett Sea Hunter was the best metal detector he had ever used. The photo was from the late 80's.
This story deals with the early 90's. I was scuba diving off the Florida Keys. It was a Dive Vacation that I found through 'Skin Diver' Magazine. I took along my Garrett Sea Hunter since I was going to be searching for sunken treasure. After some orientation the first day, we actually dove around 2 that afternoon. In an hour of diving, all I found was junk.
I said that this was a ghost story, so I guess I should get to it. That second day we dove, I was we, as there were myself and five other divers. I was the "old man" of the bunch. (I'm always the oldest. LOL) I was at about 40-45 feet underwater searching with my Sea Hunter again. My attention was firmly planted on the sea floor beneath me. About 20 minutes into the dive, I was between 2 rock outcroppings. My Fellow divers were out of my line of sight.
I large shadow passed over me. It was long and I looked up, but didn't see anything. At 45 feet there is still some light filtering through from the sun over head. At first, I figured it was one of the other divers. But as I popped up over the rocks, they were scattered over the area. I passed it off and continued my treasure hunting. When we surfaced and regrouped at the dive boat, I asked if anyone else had seen the shadow. Of course, we joked about a Mermaid to a shark to a cloud blotting out the sun. (The cloud actually made the most sense, except it was long and narrow. And there were very few clouds in the sky.)
I never did discover what the shadow was. Neither did I find any sunken treasure. I did have a great time diving, a little drinking and kicking back with a great group of people. Not to mention, anytime I could trade my shirt and tie for swim trunks and polo, priceless.
Good Hunting, Brian (Charlotte49er @ Gold Rush Guys)
