ligersandtions
Contributor
Socal divers often rave about how amazing the diving off San Clemente Island is, so when I found that the Channel Island Dive Adventures was putting on an overnight charter that would have us diving San Clemente on Saturday, Farnsworth Banks and some other Catalina sites on Sunday, and the front side of Catalina (followed by fireworks) on Monday, I knew we had to get in on the action!
Joining us (my husband and me) on this charter were our good friends, Rainer and jenth. The plan was to board the Pacific Star at 10pm on Friday and begin motoring over to San Clemente Island around midnight. We’d wake up at SC, do five dives (including one night dive), and then motor over to the back side of Catalina to dive Farnsworth Banks the next morning. After a day of diving Catalina, we’d head back to San Pedro for the night, and board again the next day for some Catalina (front side) diving.
We boarded Friday night, and after many trips to get all of our gear (including rigs, drysuits, undergarments, scooters, spare scooter batteries, camera gear, spare parts, save-a-dive kits, and other necessities), we settled into our miniature bunks for a somewhat fitful night of “sleep”. We were greeted the next morning with calm seas and a thick marine layer (no wind!) that burned off by the end of the first dive, revealing clear blue skies
As promised, we were able to make five dives (including one night dive) on San Clemente. Highlights of these dives included following two GSB’s on our scooters, a really neat swim through with tons of lobsters hiding in it (that Jen and I went through twice!), a harbor seal, incredibly lush (thick, healthy) kelp forests….and the world’s creepiest flat worms that “attacked” us on the deep portion of our night dive (every person who saw the worms that night said they were creepy and couldn’t want to get the hell out of there!).
After wrapping up our day on San Clemente Island, the boat motored over to the backside of Catalina, where we were again greeted to calm waters and a thick marine layer. The first dive of the day was at Farnsworth Banks. There was another boat on the pinnacle we wanted to dive, but the Captain thought we would be close enough to it that we could dive it. Almost all the other teams entered and exited before we made it to the water (waiting on fills…
, each saying that there was no pinnacle in sight as deep at 110fsw. Our plan was to take a heading to where the other boat was anchored, tie into the anchor line at 80fsw if we were still midwater, and scooter over to the pinnacle. After a few minutes on the trigger and compensating for the current, we ran smack into the pinnacle! Farnsworth is one of the most beautiful, rugged sites on Catalina Island, but it is definitely a site where a bit of experience in less than ideal conditions comes in handy. The time we spent on the pinnacle was somewhat short-lived due to the trek over and the short fills, but it was most certainly worth it!
Since conditions on the backside of Catalina were not ideal, we motored over to the west end for our next dive (where Jen and I saw seven abalone!) and to the front side for our final dive (where we saw something like six large horn sharks plus a moray eel).
After two days at sea, we headed back to San Pedro for a much needed night of good sleep….and then we were off for one of the most spectacular days of diving one could imagine!
The frontside of Catalina has some nice diving, but typically it is not as breath-taking and awe inspiring as it was on the 4th of July. The first dive of the day was at Ship Rock; we circumnavigated the entire rock in mediocre vis, but with thick walls of blacksmith (and the occasional sea lion taking advantage of such easy prey!). However, shallower than 40fsw, we had damn near tropical vis (80+ feet of horizontal vis), strong current (likely bringing in the very clear water), and millions upon millions of mackerels forming giant bait balls / walls! We played in the shallows, scootering into the current for minutes on end before drifting back, then scootering into the current again and drifting back….until we reached min gas and had to say goodbye to our underwater playground. This was an absolutely incredible dive….worth the cost of the charter alone….and I would have been perfectly content if that was the only dive we did that day.
But we were in luck — our Ship Rock dive was not the only spectacular dive this day. Our second dive brought us to the Blue Cavern Preserve (not the site with the caverns, unfortunately), which turned out to be a mellow, relaxing drift dive. Then we headed over to Goat Harbor in hopes of diving with GSB’s.
Stephen and I were joking that the scooters would just scare the GSB’s away, so we were going to kick….and Chris and Jen were joking that the strobes flashing would scare the GSB’s away, so they were going to scooter far away from us. Luckily for everyone, scooters and strobes do not scare the Goat Harbor GSB’s away, and we were treated to an hour of nearly constant GSB sightings! Stephen and I found an area where many GSB’s continuously swam by, some playing a lead-follow game, some solo, some curious enough to come check me out (so close that I could clearly see the copepods on his face and could have reached out and brushed them off!). Diving with these giant, gentle, curious creatures is absolutely amazing!
Between the first dive and the third dive today, this was easily my favorite dive day ever (and probably two of my best dives of the year!). To be so content that I don’t even feel the need for another dive is a very rare thing; we all felt the same way. To top the whole thing off, we saw a whale (not sure what kind) as we were motoring over to Avalon, and then got to watch fireworks from the boat. This was a perfect end to a really great weekend!
Stephen shot some really nice pictures throughout the weekend....a few of them are shown in the post below
Joining us (my husband and me) on this charter were our good friends, Rainer and jenth. The plan was to board the Pacific Star at 10pm on Friday and begin motoring over to San Clemente Island around midnight. We’d wake up at SC, do five dives (including one night dive), and then motor over to the back side of Catalina to dive Farnsworth Banks the next morning. After a day of diving Catalina, we’d head back to San Pedro for the night, and board again the next day for some Catalina (front side) diving.
We boarded Friday night, and after many trips to get all of our gear (including rigs, drysuits, undergarments, scooters, spare scooter batteries, camera gear, spare parts, save-a-dive kits, and other necessities), we settled into our miniature bunks for a somewhat fitful night of “sleep”. We were greeted the next morning with calm seas and a thick marine layer (no wind!) that burned off by the end of the first dive, revealing clear blue skies
As promised, we were able to make five dives (including one night dive) on San Clemente. Highlights of these dives included following two GSB’s on our scooters, a really neat swim through with tons of lobsters hiding in it (that Jen and I went through twice!), a harbor seal, incredibly lush (thick, healthy) kelp forests….and the world’s creepiest flat worms that “attacked” us on the deep portion of our night dive (every person who saw the worms that night said they were creepy and couldn’t want to get the hell out of there!).
After wrapping up our day on San Clemente Island, the boat motored over to the backside of Catalina, where we were again greeted to calm waters and a thick marine layer. The first dive of the day was at Farnsworth Banks. There was another boat on the pinnacle we wanted to dive, but the Captain thought we would be close enough to it that we could dive it. Almost all the other teams entered and exited before we made it to the water (waiting on fills…
, each saying that there was no pinnacle in sight as deep at 110fsw. Our plan was to take a heading to where the other boat was anchored, tie into the anchor line at 80fsw if we were still midwater, and scooter over to the pinnacle. After a few minutes on the trigger and compensating for the current, we ran smack into the pinnacle! Farnsworth is one of the most beautiful, rugged sites on Catalina Island, but it is definitely a site where a bit of experience in less than ideal conditions comes in handy. The time we spent on the pinnacle was somewhat short-lived due to the trek over and the short fills, but it was most certainly worth it!Since conditions on the backside of Catalina were not ideal, we motored over to the west end for our next dive (where Jen and I saw seven abalone!) and to the front side for our final dive (where we saw something like six large horn sharks plus a moray eel).
After two days at sea, we headed back to San Pedro for a much needed night of good sleep….and then we were off for one of the most spectacular days of diving one could imagine!
The frontside of Catalina has some nice diving, but typically it is not as breath-taking and awe inspiring as it was on the 4th of July. The first dive of the day was at Ship Rock; we circumnavigated the entire rock in mediocre vis, but with thick walls of blacksmith (and the occasional sea lion taking advantage of such easy prey!). However, shallower than 40fsw, we had damn near tropical vis (80+ feet of horizontal vis), strong current (likely bringing in the very clear water), and millions upon millions of mackerels forming giant bait balls / walls! We played in the shallows, scootering into the current for minutes on end before drifting back, then scootering into the current again and drifting back….until we reached min gas and had to say goodbye to our underwater playground. This was an absolutely incredible dive….worth the cost of the charter alone….and I would have been perfectly content if that was the only dive we did that day.
But we were in luck — our Ship Rock dive was not the only spectacular dive this day. Our second dive brought us to the Blue Cavern Preserve (not the site with the caverns, unfortunately), which turned out to be a mellow, relaxing drift dive. Then we headed over to Goat Harbor in hopes of diving with GSB’s.
Stephen and I were joking that the scooters would just scare the GSB’s away, so we were going to kick….and Chris and Jen were joking that the strobes flashing would scare the GSB’s away, so they were going to scooter far away from us. Luckily for everyone, scooters and strobes do not scare the Goat Harbor GSB’s away, and we were treated to an hour of nearly constant GSB sightings! Stephen and I found an area where many GSB’s continuously swam by, some playing a lead-follow game, some solo, some curious enough to come check me out (so close that I could clearly see the copepods on his face and could have reached out and brushed them off!). Diving with these giant, gentle, curious creatures is absolutely amazing!
Between the first dive and the third dive today, this was easily my favorite dive day ever (and probably two of my best dives of the year!). To be so content that I don’t even feel the need for another dive is a very rare thing; we all felt the same way. To top the whole thing off, we saw a whale (not sure what kind) as we were motoring over to Avalon, and then got to watch fireworks from the boat. This was a perfect end to a really great weekend!
Stephen shot some really nice pictures throughout the weekend....a few of them are shown in the post below
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