sb_diver
Contributor
I went out on the Raptor today and had a great day out on the water. It was my first time on a boat in several years. I just started diving again, mostly been doing some beach dives around Santa Barbara. I did some shopping for new gear at Ventura Dive & Sport and was impressed with their shop so thought I would give their boat a try. They had a $100 3-tank trip for MLK Day.
Boat Ride: Conditions were a little breezy in the morning, but the wind layed down after our first dive. We had a 2-4' swell on the boat ride out but the boat handled it really well. Its a relatively small boat but rides bigger than it is. We had a pretty easy crossing. A big plus is that this boat cruises at 15+ knots! I think we made it across to Anacapa in like an hour and a half. And that was with navigating around a huge cargo ship. That was neat. The boat ride home was even faster. I went up to the wheelhouse and saw the GPS had us at almost 18 knots. After spending a day on the water I appreciated the short boat ride. I'm used to sitting for 3-4 hrs on the return trip on the Santa Barbara dive and fishing boats so it was really nice to not have such a long ride.
First Dive: "Channels" - This spot was on the backside of Anacapa on the west end. I dove with my buddy and and another member from here in a 3 person group. Visibility was up to 30-40. We could see the bottom from the boat, which was neat. Water was a bit chilly at 53 F but my new Semi-Dry was quite comfy. Saw some cool salps and other inverts floating around, some smaller fish and also got followed around by harbor seals. At one point I got body checked by one. That was exciting!
Second Dive: "Underater Arch" - Sea Lions! It was pretty fun swimming around in a raft of Sea Lions. I've seen sea lions and seals underwater before, even had a harbor seal tug on my fin, but have never been with such a big group, it was actually more fun than I thought it would be
They remind me of my dogs when they're playing around. They're pretty playful but some seemed to get a little aggressive. We dove as a 3 person group again but one of the group ran out of air early, so he returned to the boat while we kept burning our tanks. Visibility was variable, at worst 20', best 40'? At the end of our dive I think we were the only ones left in the water because it seemed like all of the Sea Lions were swimming around us.
Third Dive: "Fenceline?" - This spot was also on the backside of Anacapa closer to the East End. We went around to the front side to check some spots but the water was really green, so the captain returned to the backside. We had a switch with one of our buddies, but we dove another 3 person group.The third dive had less visibility, down to 15' at some points, 30'+ at others There was some surge and when we moved through some sandy areas it got really stirred up. I think the highlights of that dive was the harbor seal that followed us around the whole time and the horned shark we ran into. I was leading our group and found it really funny turning around and counting, 1 buddy, 2 buddy, Harbor Seal! He was really intrigued with one of my buddy's fins.
All in all fun day out there
Boat Ride: Conditions were a little breezy in the morning, but the wind layed down after our first dive. We had a 2-4' swell on the boat ride out but the boat handled it really well. Its a relatively small boat but rides bigger than it is. We had a pretty easy crossing. A big plus is that this boat cruises at 15+ knots! I think we made it across to Anacapa in like an hour and a half. And that was with navigating around a huge cargo ship. That was neat. The boat ride home was even faster. I went up to the wheelhouse and saw the GPS had us at almost 18 knots. After spending a day on the water I appreciated the short boat ride. I'm used to sitting for 3-4 hrs on the return trip on the Santa Barbara dive and fishing boats so it was really nice to not have such a long ride.
First Dive: "Channels" - This spot was on the backside of Anacapa on the west end. I dove with my buddy and and another member from here in a 3 person group. Visibility was up to 30-40. We could see the bottom from the boat, which was neat. Water was a bit chilly at 53 F but my new Semi-Dry was quite comfy. Saw some cool salps and other inverts floating around, some smaller fish and also got followed around by harbor seals. At one point I got body checked by one. That was exciting!
Second Dive: "Underater Arch" - Sea Lions! It was pretty fun swimming around in a raft of Sea Lions. I've seen sea lions and seals underwater before, even had a harbor seal tug on my fin, but have never been with such a big group, it was actually more fun than I thought it would be
They remind me of my dogs when they're playing around. They're pretty playful but some seemed to get a little aggressive. We dove as a 3 person group again but one of the group ran out of air early, so he returned to the boat while we kept burning our tanks. Visibility was variable, at worst 20', best 40'? At the end of our dive I think we were the only ones left in the water because it seemed like all of the Sea Lions were swimming around us. Third Dive: "Fenceline?" - This spot was also on the backside of Anacapa closer to the East End. We went around to the front side to check some spots but the water was really green, so the captain returned to the backside. We had a switch with one of our buddies, but we dove another 3 person group.The third dive had less visibility, down to 15' at some points, 30'+ at others There was some surge and when we moved through some sandy areas it got really stirred up. I think the highlights of that dive was the harbor seal that followed us around the whole time and the horned shark we ran into. I was leading our group and found it really funny turning around and counting, 1 buddy, 2 buddy, Harbor Seal! He was really intrigued with one of my buddy's fins.
All in all fun day out there
