fnfalman
Contributor
A friend of mine and I decided to do the last dives of 2011 on the last day of 2011. We were going to take a trip with Sundiver but they canceled due to lack of interest, so off to Casino Point we went via the Cat Express.
The day started out with lots of fog, but warm. By the time we got to Avalon, sun was shining with just a hint of breeze. Calm water and sunshine, what more can you ask for? There were two other divers on the boat with us, and we beat them to the water by mere seconds. Hehe.
I was told by Catalina Divers Supply people that viz had been up to 60-ft during the week. By New Year's Eve, it had gone down to about the standard SoCal 20-ft horizontal, tide was low-ish Barely covered the very bottom platform and the very bottom step. Water was a cool and expected 55-F with no thermocline. Because of my friend's elsewhere commitment, we had to catch the 2:05 PM boat back to mainland, so we planned for two long dives and ended up doing two 1-hrs long dives. Oh, and my friend was a Casino Point virgin too.
First dive, we jumped in and swam to one of the pink buoys, then dropped down and hugged the bottoms until we got to around 40-ft depth and hooked a right to find Jacques Cousteau plaque. We found it within five minutes of searching. Cool!!! The China grass was present but nowhere as bad as 2009 and 2010. Then we took a hard left and went out towards the Kismet wreck. We found the glass bottom boat and Kismet wrecks, fooling around out there and went out a bit further to around 70-ft. She had never been deeper than 40-ft, so we just took our time and get her acclimatized to greater depths. She's 21-years-old and athletic and was using my 100-cuft tank, plenty of air. We then started to get back to shallower depth to check out the reefs and kelp forests. Did I mention that the kelp forests were lush & green? At around 40-ft, we were hugging the bottom looking for possible mantis shrimp, I happened to look up and saw a 3-ft long Pacific Torpedo Ray. I signaled to her and we approached it very slowly. We got to within 5-ft of it and just hung there checking it out. It didn't seem to fluster and kept on going, so we floated along in the mild current. After ten minutes, it decided to hook a left and went into deeper water. We waved bye-bye and veered back towards the reef. By around the dive shop buoys area but a bit further out to sea, we went to check out a large group of calico basses hanging around the kelps. Suddenly my friend frantically waved her flashlight at me and pointed down towards the reef. My mask was leaking like crazy and I finally cleared it only to see a magnificent specimens of octopus sitting on the rock for all to see. All eight of its legs splayed out like it was sunbathing or something. We dropped down for a closer look and it turned color to match the reef, but we already got eyeballs on it. We got to around a couple of feet away and it retreated into the rock, but only partly because it still winked at us with one eye. This sucker was pretty good size with the head about the size of my fist if not bigger. We felt bad for interrupting its sunbathing ritual and went out to hang with the kelp basses for a bit, then we cruised around the boulders a bit more and finally went in to the shallow to play with the surge and looking for cool stuff hidden among the bull kelps, got back to the platform with 500-psi in our tanks and the biggest grins.
While we were diving, the birds came and ate my snack that I forgot to put in my dive bag. If I were only have a shotgun with me...
Alas, by the time we surfaced, the fog from mainland had come Catalina. We walked around the Casino so that my friend can take a look around. By this time, more divers had shown up. I guess that by the end of the day, there must have been at least twenty divers out there. A few couples were doing their own things and a group of people of probably 10 were out there (possible class). We told everybody about the Pacific Torpedo Ray that may still be in the area and warned them not to touch the thing lest they enjoy getting shocked.
Hit the water again and this time we went to the Su-Jac. My friend was feeling slightly chilled so we did a lot of swimming on the 2nd dive. Viz had dropped to maybe 10-ft by this time but the mild current had stopped and the giant kelps stood straight up to the surface. We hovered on our backs and enjoyed the view a bit before cruising back to the Kismet again. Then went and played in the reef looking for cool stuff. Didn't see any abalone but did see some orange lipped and green lipped scallops. Then we reversed direction and went towards the entry/exit platform, looking at every nooks and crannies, finding some shrimps here and there, picked up a couple of empty food cans.
It was a great day of diving and Casino Point did not disappoint. I can't think of a better way to close out the year 2011.
The day started out with lots of fog, but warm. By the time we got to Avalon, sun was shining with just a hint of breeze. Calm water and sunshine, what more can you ask for? There were two other divers on the boat with us, and we beat them to the water by mere seconds. Hehe.
I was told by Catalina Divers Supply people that viz had been up to 60-ft during the week. By New Year's Eve, it had gone down to about the standard SoCal 20-ft horizontal, tide was low-ish Barely covered the very bottom platform and the very bottom step. Water was a cool and expected 55-F with no thermocline. Because of my friend's elsewhere commitment, we had to catch the 2:05 PM boat back to mainland, so we planned for two long dives and ended up doing two 1-hrs long dives. Oh, and my friend was a Casino Point virgin too.
First dive, we jumped in and swam to one of the pink buoys, then dropped down and hugged the bottoms until we got to around 40-ft depth and hooked a right to find Jacques Cousteau plaque. We found it within five minutes of searching. Cool!!! The China grass was present but nowhere as bad as 2009 and 2010. Then we took a hard left and went out towards the Kismet wreck. We found the glass bottom boat and Kismet wrecks, fooling around out there and went out a bit further to around 70-ft. She had never been deeper than 40-ft, so we just took our time and get her acclimatized to greater depths. She's 21-years-old and athletic and was using my 100-cuft tank, plenty of air. We then started to get back to shallower depth to check out the reefs and kelp forests. Did I mention that the kelp forests were lush & green? At around 40-ft, we were hugging the bottom looking for possible mantis shrimp, I happened to look up and saw a 3-ft long Pacific Torpedo Ray. I signaled to her and we approached it very slowly. We got to within 5-ft of it and just hung there checking it out. It didn't seem to fluster and kept on going, so we floated along in the mild current. After ten minutes, it decided to hook a left and went into deeper water. We waved bye-bye and veered back towards the reef. By around the dive shop buoys area but a bit further out to sea, we went to check out a large group of calico basses hanging around the kelps. Suddenly my friend frantically waved her flashlight at me and pointed down towards the reef. My mask was leaking like crazy and I finally cleared it only to see a magnificent specimens of octopus sitting on the rock for all to see. All eight of its legs splayed out like it was sunbathing or something. We dropped down for a closer look and it turned color to match the reef, but we already got eyeballs on it. We got to around a couple of feet away and it retreated into the rock, but only partly because it still winked at us with one eye. This sucker was pretty good size with the head about the size of my fist if not bigger. We felt bad for interrupting its sunbathing ritual and went out to hang with the kelp basses for a bit, then we cruised around the boulders a bit more and finally went in to the shallow to play with the surge and looking for cool stuff hidden among the bull kelps, got back to the platform with 500-psi in our tanks and the biggest grins.
While we were diving, the birds came and ate my snack that I forgot to put in my dive bag. If I were only have a shotgun with me...
Alas, by the time we surfaced, the fog from mainland had come Catalina. We walked around the Casino so that my friend can take a look around. By this time, more divers had shown up. I guess that by the end of the day, there must have been at least twenty divers out there. A few couples were doing their own things and a group of people of probably 10 were out there (possible class). We told everybody about the Pacific Torpedo Ray that may still be in the area and warned them not to touch the thing lest they enjoy getting shocked.
Hit the water again and this time we went to the Su-Jac. My friend was feeling slightly chilled so we did a lot of swimming on the 2nd dive. Viz had dropped to maybe 10-ft by this time but the mild current had stopped and the giant kelps stood straight up to the surface. We hovered on our backs and enjoyed the view a bit before cruising back to the Kismet again. Then went and played in the reef looking for cool stuff. Didn't see any abalone but did see some orange lipped and green lipped scallops. Then we reversed direction and went towards the entry/exit platform, looking at every nooks and crannies, finding some shrimps here and there, picked up a couple of empty food cans.
It was a great day of diving and Casino Point did not disappoint. I can't think of a better way to close out the year 2011.
