I like your new look Ken.
John
John
So Cal Alert Farnsworth on the Sundiver this Sunday 18 February
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joelmarenco75
Guest
What an awesome dive trip! Awesome divers! Awesome boat crew! Tevis, thank you for letting me come aboard and FINALLY log in Farnsworth Bank. I had a really good time. Looking forward to the next trip.
-Joel-
-Joel-
HBDiveGirl
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It's Wednesday, and I'm still mulling over the fun of Sunday's BareFootBlue charter to Catalina island.
Sweet!!
Let's start with Lori and Kyaa: The faces of the flight deck. The dive masters and the providers of air to breath and food to eat.
Lori gave a concise and thorough briefing at Farnsworth, including necessary info for both Farnsworth newbies and old hands:
Every dive was drama free. When one dive party got blown off the anchor line on ascent, Lori was watching the bubbles and informed the captain long before the SMB appeared on the surface. The divers were down current quickly while safely making all their stops. Lori quickly completed roll call (with Eye Contact! I love this woman!). The hook was pulled, and the divers were picked up smoothly from a live boat. AND LORI HAD INCLUDED THIS PROCESS IN THE PRE-DIVE BRIEFING SO EVERY ONE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO.
"The planners survive", as Mo2vation said. :colgate:
Tanks were filled well throughout the day, and snackage/drinks/food were in the galley all the time. Climbing the ladder after the 2nd dive, the aroma of BBQ chicken was fabulous! Thanks, Kyaa!!
And... The day had it's unavoidable delays due to conditions. But we enjoyed a full 3rd dive at a spectacular spot with no complaints from anyone. As Tevis promised, with BFB, we are guests and clients, and the sweet fun never stops.
Captains Kevin, Ray, and Kyaa: GREAT DIVE SITE SELECTION AND ANCHORING AND SITE BRIEFINGS.
They picked a beautiful peak at Farnsworth, putting us closer to a shear vertical wall than was the Pacific Star, who had anchored first.
PacStar had the high spot, but WE had the cooler, deeper wall, according to my detailed bathymetry map.
On a quickly roughening day, the captains tucked us into Eagle's Nest on the lee side for some great Gorgonia thicket diving and Paper-Nautilus-shell finding.
Then, my favorite dive of the day: The deep reef Northeast of Indian Rock. In the late afternoon light, the water glowed a spooky green in the thick kelp. Ken navigated us beautifully around all the gorgeous rocky peaks, faces, and crevices. We found half a dozen eel, half a dozen octopuses, dozens of lobbies, and TWO toothsome Swell Sharks, sleeping soundly in a vertical rocky crevice. FABULOUS. Our great day closing out, we hovered silently upwards amidst the kelp, quite unwilling to leave the beauty.
The sky stepped up competitively, with slices of white clouds uplit by the setting sun.
Thank you, Tevis, for bringing us all together for superb diving. I can only echo what Ken so eloquently said. Thanks! Thank you to all the skilled and fun divers who made the surface intervals a joy and the diving drama-free.
Thank you, Ken, for the adventure, The Funny, the skills and focus, for completely being there on every dive, and for seeing the magic. I'm having the time of my life.
~~~~
'Chica
Sweet!!
Let's start with Lori and Kyaa: The faces of the flight deck. The dive masters and the providers of air to breath and food to eat.
Lori gave a concise and thorough briefing at Farnsworth, including necessary info for both Farnsworth newbies and old hands:
- Watch depth and gas on these walls.
- Ascend and Descend on the anchor line.
- Use caution at the swimstep.
- Carry a SMB and use it if needed.
Every dive was drama free. When one dive party got blown off the anchor line on ascent, Lori was watching the bubbles and informed the captain long before the SMB appeared on the surface. The divers were down current quickly while safely making all their stops. Lori quickly completed roll call (with Eye Contact! I love this woman!). The hook was pulled, and the divers were picked up smoothly from a live boat. AND LORI HAD INCLUDED THIS PROCESS IN THE PRE-DIVE BRIEFING SO EVERY ONE KNEW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO.
"The planners survive", as Mo2vation said. :colgate:
Tanks were filled well throughout the day, and snackage/drinks/food were in the galley all the time. Climbing the ladder after the 2nd dive, the aroma of BBQ chicken was fabulous! Thanks, Kyaa!!
And... The day had it's unavoidable delays due to conditions. But we enjoyed a full 3rd dive at a spectacular spot with no complaints from anyone. As Tevis promised, with BFB, we are guests and clients, and the sweet fun never stops.
Captains Kevin, Ray, and Kyaa: GREAT DIVE SITE SELECTION AND ANCHORING AND SITE BRIEFINGS.
They picked a beautiful peak at Farnsworth, putting us closer to a shear vertical wall than was the Pacific Star, who had anchored first.
PacStar had the high spot, but WE had the cooler, deeper wall, according to my detailed bathymetry map. On a quickly roughening day, the captains tucked us into Eagle's Nest on the lee side for some great Gorgonia thicket diving and Paper-Nautilus-shell finding.
Then, my favorite dive of the day: The deep reef Northeast of Indian Rock. In the late afternoon light, the water glowed a spooky green in the thick kelp. Ken navigated us beautifully around all the gorgeous rocky peaks, faces, and crevices. We found half a dozen eel, half a dozen octopuses, dozens of lobbies, and TWO toothsome Swell Sharks, sleeping soundly in a vertical rocky crevice. FABULOUS. Our great day closing out, we hovered silently upwards amidst the kelp, quite unwilling to leave the beauty.
The sky stepped up competitively, with slices of white clouds uplit by the setting sun.
Thank you, Tevis, for bringing us all together for superb diving. I can only echo what Ken so eloquently said. Thanks! Thank you to all the skilled and fun divers who made the surface intervals a joy and the diving drama-free.
Thank you, Ken, for the adventure, The Funny, the skills and focus, for completely being there on every dive, and for seeing the magic. I'm having the time of my life.
~~~~
'Chica
OP
Archangel
...
Dearest Claudette:
So eloquently written, so vividly spoken.
You bring the magic!
Tevis
So eloquently written, so vividly spoken.
You bring the magic!
Tevis
scubacalifornia
Contributor
Awesome dive report Claudette. I posted a link to it on the ocdiving.com email list. Prior to your post here, a conversation ensued on the ocdiving list based on an inaccurate observation by a diver on the Pacific Star that the Sundiver had done something weird by picking up our two stray divers. The post was very accusatory in nature and I quickly cleared the matter up. Your report even goes further in describing how safely the trip was run. And colorful reading as well. Thanks!
Kevin
Kevin
HBDiveGirl
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Thank you, Kevin. And thank you (and Kevin Lee) for stepping assertively into that "conversation".scubacalifornia:
The operation of picking up the final two divers at Farnsworth was one of the smartest, smoothest, and finest boat procedures I've witnessed in over 3 years of frequent commercial boat-diving. I would confidently dive to the full limits of my skill set from the expert deck of the Sundiver... any day. They've got my back, every second of the dive.
Excellent boat. Exemplary crew and captains.
Claudette
See Claudette, that 30" snorkel came in handy!
All kidding aside... great trip, great boat, and great people. Thank you Tevis and BFB...
...amazing, I come home to a sick kid and nitrogen unloading... don't check the board for a couple of days and find out that somebody is starting Berry Berry bad rumors. Rumors are like Rusty metal, you don't treat it quickly and it starts to spread, like a bad disease...
All kidding aside... great trip, great boat, and great people. Thank you Tevis and BFB...
...amazing, I come home to a sick kid and nitrogen unloading... don't check the board for a couple of days and find out that somebody is starting Berry Berry bad rumors. Rumors are like Rusty metal, you don't treat it quickly and it starts to spread, like a bad disease...
OP
Archangel
...
Thank you all for scraping off the Rusty metal as Kev nailed it! Any curmudeon that would besmirch the good name of the Sundiver will suffer the full force of the diving community. I am proud to be a part of this family.
The Sundiver performed with military precision. What a class act, big time shout out to Capts Kyaa, Ray, Kevin and the DM with the mostest, Lori.
You go girl!
Tevis
The Sundiver performed with military precision. What a class act, big time shout out to Capts Kyaa, Ray, Kevin and the DM with the mostest, Lori.
You go girl!
Tevis
From all of the Captains and crew of the Sundiver (Ray, Ken, Kyaa and me) we had a great time too, and look forward to seeing all of you again!
Lori
Lori
The exchange on OCDivingNews was a bit disturbing. I knew when I read Rusty's post that it was the Sundiver he was referring to, and although I've never dived that vessel I've heard nothing but praise from those who have. Glad that so many in the SoCal dive community chimed in to praise the vessel and its crew.
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