Don't you just love holidays!!
I had the best 4th of July EVER!!!
Went diving, what else is there!
Boarded the Aquatica at 9 AM, we left for Catalina at 10. Arrived a little after noon at Black Rock. My dive buddy and I jumped in at about 12:15 descended to about 55 feet and were just amazed at the activity. Surface temp was 73, water surface temp was 68 and at 55 fsw it was 66. Saw marine life haven't seen before took a bunch of oics, just hope they come out. There were also various gargonian fans, lots and lots of kelp. We were only down for about 35 minutes when my dive buddy signaled she was down to 750 psi (which was our pre dive arrangement to head back to the boat), after making our safety stop we climbed back on the boat and ate some lunch and everyone was just ecstatic and taking at the same time, "old salts" as well as the newcomers. But the highlight was when we first arrived. On the cliff overlooking the dive site sat a BALD EAGLE! Now, is that an omen or what. Let freedom ring!!
We weighed anchor and headed to our next site which was Eagle's Nest (the nest for the bald eagle btw). Arrived there about 3PM and jumped in. We again went to about 55 fsw and water temp was about the same. A sea lion cow was swimming near shore with her 2 pups which was cool. I couldn't get close enough to take pictures though. We were only at depth for about 30 minutes when my dive buddy ran into some equipment problems and then she started getting leg cramps. We didn't want to leave because we still had about 1100 psi and the scenery was absolutely fantastic but we couldn't work the cramp out, so after our safety stop we worked our way up the anchor chain.
2 other guys that I knew were going in for a 3rd dive and I decided to go with them. I never went down with them before but had been out on the boat a couple of times in the past. We decided where we were going to go before jumping in and when we would come back so they said lets go straight to the bottom and go. they went first and literally went straight down. I jumped in, signalled I was ok and descended. They were about 100 feet in front of me and I had to do some quick kicking to catch them (never again). We went to 68 fsw, the water temp was 61. We came across some underwater caverns and did some inspecting. We found a horn shark about 2 feet long just resting inside, pretty cool. I was getting low on air and advised I was going back, the boat was in sight so no need for them to come along. I was only down about 25 minutes on this dive.
We then left and headed back for Long Beach to watch the fireworks and WOW! We were half way across the channel when we had to stop because there was a wail off the starboard bow just cruising along. Don't have a clue what type, probably a humpback but this baby had to be at least 25 to 30 feet long. It was a huge.
took in the fireworks and went home very exhausted.
Can't wait til this weekend when I get to do it again.
Sorry for the long story but I am still overly excited about my best 4th yet.
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