elgoog
Contributor
I went on a 3 day trip (3/24-26) to the Northern Channel Islands with Truth Aquatics last week. It was scheduled to be on the Vision but was transferred to the Conception due to mechanical issues (the boats are practically identical). It was a very light load with only 15 divers on board and 6 crew. It was my first liveaboard experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll echo all the recommendations for Truth Aquatics - they are a first rate operation and I would recommend this trip to everyone who wants to dive CA.
Wifebuddy and I were supposed to dive together but a week before the trip, she had to cancel. Truth Aquatics was very accommodating and transferred her deposit to my balance as well as letting me keep the double bunk.
I drove down from the SF Bay area to Santa Barbara the day before and spent the night on the boat. The double bunks are stacked 2 high and the single bunks 3 high - if you book early enough and have a choice, I would suggest the upper or middle bunks as you'll need a pretty good tuck and roll to get into the lower ones.
The bunks are vinyl covered foam mattress with a pillow and a blanket - you will need to bring your own sheet for comfort. Also, there's next to no storage in the bunk room beyond a couple of hooks to hang stuff from. Other than dive gear, try to have no more than a backpack because you'll have to store it in your bunk.
The common area has about 6 tables which easily seat 6 each. The galley is compact but the crew prepared some amazing meals in there. There's a bunch of different soft drinks and water on tap. There were 3 hot meals a day (breakfast at 8, lunch at noon, dinner at 6) with snacks and fruit set out all day long. Oh, and a plate of bacon after practically every dive
The dive deck has a large central table with tank racks on it's side. It's flanked by 2 benches that you will use to get in and out of your rig. Bring a large mesh bag to put your dive equipment on top of the table for the duration of the trip. They have long whips and your tanks are filled in place. EAN32 is $6 a fill and they consistently filled my HP100 to 3000-3100psi. If you're renting a tank from their dive shop, an LP steel might be a good idea as they fill those to 3000psi as well (they have LP95s for rent which will give you ~107cu.ft of gas)
There's hot saltwater hoses for those diving in wetsuits as well as fresh water showers to rinse.
There's a gate on each side of the boat where you can giant stride from (it's about a 6ft drop down to the water). Or you can use the swim platform in the back.
If there's one thing about the boat I would change, it would be that darn swim platform. You have to use it to get back on and after 3 days of multiple dives, my knees were ground up pretty good. Even with calm seas, I didn't particularly enjoy it - there isn't much to hold on to when you have to get up and off your knees, I ended up crawling to the steps.
The dive windows were usually 8-noon and 2-6 with a night dive after dinner. Sometimes we did 2 dives at the same site or a short move within the window. During lunch, there was a longer transit to a slightly farther dive site.
We did all our dives at Santa Cruz Island - water temps were in the 53-59F range and it was bright and sunny topside. There was some current on all the sites but easily manageable. Surge was a bigger factor for me and there were a couple of occasions where I had to work pretty hard when I got tossed around. Viz tended to be in the 30-40ft range.
The conditions that week were pretty rough with a strong NW swell on almost all the days, 8-12ft combined seas. There was a gale warning a couple of days before the trip and a small craft advisory during. Consequently, we stayed on the sheltered south and east side of the island in the protected coves. Even with this limitation, the captain found us a good variety of sites although they were quite shallow (70ft max).
These were the sites we dove -
Fry's Cove
Coches Prietos East
Coches Prietos West
Albert's Anchorage
Blue Banks Anchorage
Todd's Rock
Hungryman's Anchorage
My GoPro skills are pretty subpar - I didn't get too many photos that passed muster.
Wifebuddy and I were supposed to dive together but a week before the trip, she had to cancel. Truth Aquatics was very accommodating and transferred her deposit to my balance as well as letting me keep the double bunk.
I drove down from the SF Bay area to Santa Barbara the day before and spent the night on the boat. The double bunks are stacked 2 high and the single bunks 3 high - if you book early enough and have a choice, I would suggest the upper or middle bunks as you'll need a pretty good tuck and roll to get into the lower ones.
The bunks are vinyl covered foam mattress with a pillow and a blanket - you will need to bring your own sheet for comfort. Also, there's next to no storage in the bunk room beyond a couple of hooks to hang stuff from. Other than dive gear, try to have no more than a backpack because you'll have to store it in your bunk.
The common area has about 6 tables which easily seat 6 each. The galley is compact but the crew prepared some amazing meals in there. There's a bunch of different soft drinks and water on tap. There were 3 hot meals a day (breakfast at 8, lunch at noon, dinner at 6) with snacks and fruit set out all day long. Oh, and a plate of bacon after practically every dive
The dive deck has a large central table with tank racks on it's side. It's flanked by 2 benches that you will use to get in and out of your rig. Bring a large mesh bag to put your dive equipment on top of the table for the duration of the trip. They have long whips and your tanks are filled in place. EAN32 is $6 a fill and they consistently filled my HP100 to 3000-3100psi. If you're renting a tank from their dive shop, an LP steel might be a good idea as they fill those to 3000psi as well (they have LP95s for rent which will give you ~107cu.ft of gas)
There's hot saltwater hoses for those diving in wetsuits as well as fresh water showers to rinse.
There's a gate on each side of the boat where you can giant stride from (it's about a 6ft drop down to the water). Or you can use the swim platform in the back.
If there's one thing about the boat I would change, it would be that darn swim platform. You have to use it to get back on and after 3 days of multiple dives, my knees were ground up pretty good. Even with calm seas, I didn't particularly enjoy it - there isn't much to hold on to when you have to get up and off your knees, I ended up crawling to the steps.
The dive windows were usually 8-noon and 2-6 with a night dive after dinner. Sometimes we did 2 dives at the same site or a short move within the window. During lunch, there was a longer transit to a slightly farther dive site.
We did all our dives at Santa Cruz Island - water temps were in the 53-59F range and it was bright and sunny topside. There was some current on all the sites but easily manageable. Surge was a bigger factor for me and there were a couple of occasions where I had to work pretty hard when I got tossed around. Viz tended to be in the 30-40ft range.
The conditions that week were pretty rough with a strong NW swell on almost all the days, 8-12ft combined seas. There was a gale warning a couple of days before the trip and a small craft advisory during. Consequently, we stayed on the sheltered south and east side of the island in the protected coves. Even with this limitation, the captain found us a good variety of sites although they were quite shallow (70ft max).
These were the sites we dove -
Fry's Cove
Coches Prietos East
Coches Prietos West
Albert's Anchorage
Blue Banks Anchorage
Todd's Rock
Hungryman's Anchorage
My GoPro skills are pretty subpar - I didn't get too many photos that passed muster.
