Catalina dive trip 1/12/08 - One good dive, two not so much...

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Mo2vation

Relocated to South Florida....
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Date: 1/12/08
Dive Location: Catalina Island on the Bottom Scratcher
Buddy(ies): HBScooterGirl (who else?)
Time: 3 Dive day - boarded 6:25 AM
Bottom Time: See Sensus Profiles, below
Max Depth: 115
Vis: Dive 1 - great. Disappointing for dives 2 & 3
Wave height: Boat Dives
Temp at depth: 55 to 57
Surface Temp: whatever - dry suit
Tide information: whatever - boat dives
Gas mix: 32, 33, air top off
Best moment: All of Dive One
Things to do differently next time: Drive to Ventura and dive Anacapa instead
Comments: I'm so done with Catalina Boat dives

==========================

Our San Diego boat dive canceled due to swell predictions. We called and called and found a boat going out in L.A. After some last minute shuffling and personnel changes, Claudette and I wound up on the Bottom Scratcher on a 3 dive day to Catalina.

About the middle of last year, I decided I was done with boat dives to Catalina. I've dived the place a zillion times, and honestly, its such a better dive day to invest the drive to Ventura and get 4 dives on Anacapa / Santa Cruz as opposed to 3 dives at Catalina. With its decades of marine preserve, and wider diversity of life, a day on Anacapa / Cruz consistently delivers more to me than a day on Catalina.

That said, most of the Ventura boats are out of the water now, so Catalina it was.

The crossing was glassy. The Day was beautiful, but in the end only dive one was good. And I look for a reason to love a dive, but dives 2 and 3 were throw away dives for me. Very sad.

I had a good day. But if I had it to do again, I'd have stayed home and finished painting the spare bedroom.


Dive 1 - Ship Rock


My fav dive site on Catalina, Ship Rock was a surprise. The Bottom Scratcher double anchored very close to the rock, and the dive was a dream. I've always wanted to scooter ship rock - drop deep and corkscrew back up. We did just that. We stayed deeper longer as there were so may Nudi's to see. We saw only 6 species, but there were lots of several of them - especially Red Tipped Dorids and Searnsi's. There was a rotting SeaLion carcass there too. A little creepy. Viz was amazing below 90 FSW.




Dive 2 - Some un-named site


After an excellent dive on Ship Rock, the search was on for the second site. Cap't Greg went to several of the adjacent sites, but the current was kicking up and site by site things were going south. We wound up in some cove that offered some protection. The site was shallow, surgey and the viz was really poor (5 to 10 feet.) Claudette and I went away from the island to see what was out there - we went deep (as the profile above shows) and saw and photographed the Mantis Shrimp. Current was ripping at 102 feet over the sand where he was, making shooting him very difficult. That was the highlight of that dive. The rest of it was lame. I shot 3 images. We did come up with a new sign, however. Extend thumb, hold next to second stage: "this dive sucks..." I wrote in my WetNotes to Chica two notes:

* "This dive is good for something - off-gassing dive one!"
* "The only thing nice I can say is diving Catalina makes me appreciate Anacapa more"





Dive 3 - some other weak site


After an excellent lunch of smashed red potatoes, brisket and gravy we moved to the third site.

The viz on this site was worse than the last one. The surge was pretty major, and while most everyone went left, Chica and I went right with the scooters. Octos, Eels and a single Fed Ex. Miles of empty rock and lots, and lots of Kelp. I took 4 shots. With a very mild Fall this year, the water stayed cool in September, October and November. The benefit is there was no kelp die-off - so we're going into winter with lots of kelp (it loves the cool water) so in the Spring, the Kelp will be amazing!



All in all, one great dive at Ship Rock, two very forgettable dives at sites I couldn't identify along a severely over-fished, over-dived and over-used island. This will be the last dive boat I take to Catalina for a day of diving. I'd rather invest the additional 40 minute drive each way to Ventura for a fourth dive on either dive Anacapa / Santa Cruz.

I'm sad. I don't like diving angry. I hate regretting a dive, let alone two on the same day. But there it is. One great dive, to bad ones and I'm on vacation from Catalina boat diving for a good long while.

Here are some images.

---
Ken


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Full Catalina 1_12_08 Gallery here


One of several very large Stearnsi's that we saw on the amazing Dive One





Another Stearnsi - this one on a kelp leaf





Hudson's from Dive One





One of MANY huge Red Tipped Dorids we saw on Ship Rock. Guess he didn't like the olive...






Janny from Dive One





Whelk from Dive One. Ever drop a slice of buttered toast, and it lands butter-side up?! I saw this perfect whelk on a wall, I pointed to it, barely touching it, and it FELL OFF. I was watching it tumble through the water and it landed right where I shot it - in the perfect place at the perfect angle with its perfect side to me.





Mantis Shrimp from Dive Two





Octo from Dive Three - this guy was SOOOOOO red






Moray from Dive Three

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Don't worry, Ken, the Catalina Chamber of Commerce has revoked your visa after reading this.

Yes, the current was really ripping yesterday. Our DM had to assist three out of five divers. One dove with me and we were fine because we ducked inside the nooks and crannies at Long Point and surfaced well up current of the boat for an easy (and surprisingly slow) drift back.

Nice pix as usual... I especially liked the Acanthodoris rhodoceras.
 
I especially liked the Acanthodoris rhodoceras.

Its funny - how the same species of Nudi can be so different location to location.

This one I shot at Vets on Thursday - his papillae are black tipped




This one from Ship Rock yesterday: Not a speck of black






It always strikes me how the same species of Nudi can vary so much site to site.

---
Ken
 
I think the eye doctor's name is Claudette.

Ken, geographic isolation may be a factor in maintaining different gene pools at different locations.
 
Wow the photos were great from both posts. I just got my camera and am praying for a good shot like any of those. By the way, my shots will be coming from Catalina. I love the place. Wish I could live there and commute. Oh my dreams.
 
...Very VERY good!!!

Ship Rock on Saturday morning was right up there on my Best-Dive-Ever list, for a bunch of reasons:
  • Surprise! Captain Greg made no announcement... I was gearing up when I noticed Ship Rock filling the horizon. Get out!!! Really???? I LOVE Ship Rock!!
  • Light! As planned, we scootered precipitously down to 120fsw and I remember gasping! I was in a big blue room, where rock met sand, and I didn't even need my light. We were bathed in attenuated sunlight, with schools of fish dappling the sky. Viz was 60-80 feet horizontal. I could see the surface above.:D
  • Ken! Ship Rock can be a complex, deep recreational dive, with current changes during the circumnavigation and radical depth changes along monolithic features. Years of diving in all conditions has taught us so much as a team. We dived this assertively, and in complete control despite several curveballs.
  • Scooters! After 110 dives with my X-Scooter, this was the first time to scooter Ship Rock. hee hee... it's a dream-come-true scooter dive.
  • Photographs! I love memories of good dives, and I write detailed logs. But there is nothing like the beauty of Ken's photographs to intensely lock the dive in my skull. The F. stearnsi, A. rhodecera, and hudsoni were spectacular "Easter Eggs" in the big blue room deep at the foot of Ship Rock.
  • Curve Balls! One strobe-arm connector failed almost immediately upon reaching max depth. :11: And this was a fantastic place with tons of life.:( I was sighing in sympathy, when I noticed Ken finning over to me while his hands flew over the camera housing. I flipped into O.R.-nurse mode as he surgically dissected the connections of his focus light and the failed strobe arm, handing me the extra parts, then taking some back, and finally reconnecting the strobe arm to where the focus light used to be! All at 115 fsw, in natural light, within 2 minutes. I divided the left over parts between his cargo pocket and mine, and we dived on!! And he kept shooting with dual strobes. :14: Nice.
  • Birds! A cormorant flew by at 65fsw as we hovered against a vertical wall. Birds flying underwater! What's not to love about this Discovery Channel moment??
  • Kelp Slalom! The island-side of Ship Rock is a kelp garden filled with schools of fish. Ken and I ran interweaving courses through the 2 foot gaps between kelp stipes. It was silent speed and tons of fun. Just one of 10 inspired ways we put the scooters to use on this dive.
Dive #2? The Mantis Shrimp was a cartoonish joy!!
15 minutes later I signalled Ken over, circling my light around a small cave, indicating there was a Moray eel inside. As he peered in, I sadly noticed that the eel had vanished. :-( But as we both kept looking in, the back wall of the 'cave' morphed into the sandpaper hide of a sleeping swell shark!!! It was at least 3 feet long, perhaps 4, and wedged completely into this small cave made of boulders. What a cool find!!!

Dive #3? The open water next to the kelp curtain was a great place for improvised scooter acrobatics while Ken took that lovely Moray eel photograph. And we found the only two octopus we would see all day. I do love seeing octopus. Other than that it was just a good time to daydream about all the wonderful things I've seen and experienced in these past years of diving. And it's always wonderful to look through water and see a good friend.

Thanks, Ken. You are way too much fun to dive with!!


Mo2vation:
We did come up with a new sign, however. Extend thumb, hold next to second stage: "this dive sucks..."
And we do have a brand new U/W sign. THAT doesn't suck at all. :D

~~~
Claudette
 
Those are fabulous photos from both posts. I am very impressed. One day, with the right equipment, I want to be able to take shots like those. :)
 
This one I shot at Vets on Thursday - his papillae are black tipped

Now, Ken, a nudi-phile like yourself certainly knows that it is not a he, but a he/she.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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