Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Were you an hour early to everything today . . . ???
SUNSET AT 4:59PM SHOULD BE CRIMINALIZED - Between now and December 21 is my least-favorite seven weeks of the year. Big sigh . . .
PRIMO CONDITIONS AT FARNSWORTH - I've seen a couple of postings from people who've been out to Farnsworth in the last week or so and it looks like conditions out there were spectacular, with nice blue water and lots of marine life. As we've frequently pointed out, October-December sometimes offers the best diving conditions SoCal sees in a given year. The water's still warm and, while the Santa Ana winds cause other obvious problems, they also tend to flatten out the swell and the on-shore waves. So strike while conditions hold and get out there and dive. Speaking of which . .
HOW ABOUT THIS SATURDAY TO AVALON? - We've got another one of our single-day three-dive outings to the Underwater Park planned for this coming Saturday, November 9. The extended forecast looks favorable, with a predicted high in the mid-80s. As I'm not a big fan leaving out of the Long Beach Express terminal, we'll likely do San Pedro on the 9AM going over and 5:30PM leaving Catalina. Three escorted dives (by me), tanks included (you bring everything else), pack a lunch as we'll snack between dives, and the GSBs are likely aching to ignore you while in their presence. Call us at 310/652-4990 if you'd like to sign up.
ALSO A NIGHT DIVE THE FOLLOWING WEEK - Put in the back of your mind that we've got a Night Dive planned for Vets Park in Redondo on November 14.
ANOTHER DIVE BOAT BURNS AND SINKS - Not good news coming out of Egypt. It seems that on October 31/November 1, the Red Sea Aggressor I - which we used for our 2015 trip there - caught fire, burned, and sank. One person died, 18 passengers and 12 crew members survived. The circumstances are eerily similar to the Conception tragedy. The fire broke out shortly after midnight and spread rapidly. Everyone (including all crew) was asleep. The difference here is that one of the passengers smelled smoke and sounded a verbal alarm. Here's a ScubaBoard post from someone who was there: "I was on that boat. It was Suzana 1 aka Red Sea Aggressor 1, a diving boat from Aggressor company. We were on a Brothers-Daedalus-Elphinstone liveaboard. On Thursday (Oct 31) night, at approx 00:30am we were waken up by the smoke in our cabin (no fire alarm). Fire was already well advanced. Most of us could escape by a small emergency exit to the main deck. The crew was sleeping above passengers’ cabins, so we woke most of them up . . . We then had to jump into the water without life jackets because flames were already too big. We got rescued by the only other diving boat standing nearby (Emperor)." Given the similar circumstances, especially with the apparent rapidity of the spread of the fire, hopefully some common circumstance can be found between this one and theConception to provide some answers for both.
HOW WAS YOUR HALLOWEEN? - Allow me to lighten the mood a bit. My Hollywood Bowl Box Buddy Michael Rudolph, who comes from a show biz family, always does it up big for Halloween, and turns his Huntington Harbor home into a Haunted House. I went down this year to participate in the festivities and was blown away. Not only does Michael have all kinds of animation and scary sounds (the Hounds of Hell were the best) but he's a major stop during the evening. I'm guessing there were easily a thousand of more people who stopped by, many of them regulars from previous years. His front yard is set up as a graveyard and the long entryway up to his front door - which is where the candy is - has all kinds of ghosts and goblins and ghouls along the way. Michael says it takes him about two-and-a-half months to set the whole thing up. I helped him finish it all off just before the kids started arriving on Thursday evening. I had my GoPro7 with me, shot a bunch of stuff, and put it all together (with appropriate music) into a 5-minute video of the experience. Take a peek: HALLOWEEN AT MICHAEL'S.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
SUNSET AT 4:59PM SHOULD BE CRIMINALIZED - Between now and December 21 is my least-favorite seven weeks of the year. Big sigh . . .
PRIMO CONDITIONS AT FARNSWORTH - I've seen a couple of postings from people who've been out to Farnsworth in the last week or so and it looks like conditions out there were spectacular, with nice blue water and lots of marine life. As we've frequently pointed out, October-December sometimes offers the best diving conditions SoCal sees in a given year. The water's still warm and, while the Santa Ana winds cause other obvious problems, they also tend to flatten out the swell and the on-shore waves. So strike while conditions hold and get out there and dive. Speaking of which . .
HOW ABOUT THIS SATURDAY TO AVALON? - We've got another one of our single-day three-dive outings to the Underwater Park planned for this coming Saturday, November 9. The extended forecast looks favorable, with a predicted high in the mid-80s. As I'm not a big fan leaving out of the Long Beach Express terminal, we'll likely do San Pedro on the 9AM going over and 5:30PM leaving Catalina. Three escorted dives (by me), tanks included (you bring everything else), pack a lunch as we'll snack between dives, and the GSBs are likely aching to ignore you while in their presence. Call us at 310/652-4990 if you'd like to sign up.
ALSO A NIGHT DIVE THE FOLLOWING WEEK - Put in the back of your mind that we've got a Night Dive planned for Vets Park in Redondo on November 14.
ANOTHER DIVE BOAT BURNS AND SINKS - Not good news coming out of Egypt. It seems that on October 31/November 1, the Red Sea Aggressor I - which we used for our 2015 trip there - caught fire, burned, and sank. One person died, 18 passengers and 12 crew members survived. The circumstances are eerily similar to the Conception tragedy. The fire broke out shortly after midnight and spread rapidly. Everyone (including all crew) was asleep. The difference here is that one of the passengers smelled smoke and sounded a verbal alarm. Here's a ScubaBoard post from someone who was there: "I was on that boat. It was Suzana 1 aka Red Sea Aggressor 1, a diving boat from Aggressor company. We were on a Brothers-Daedalus-Elphinstone liveaboard. On Thursday (Oct 31) night, at approx 00:30am we were waken up by the smoke in our cabin (no fire alarm). Fire was already well advanced. Most of us could escape by a small emergency exit to the main deck. The crew was sleeping above passengers’ cabins, so we woke most of them up . . . We then had to jump into the water without life jackets because flames were already too big. We got rescued by the only other diving boat standing nearby (Emperor)." Given the similar circumstances, especially with the apparent rapidity of the spread of the fire, hopefully some common circumstance can be found between this one and theConception to provide some answers for both.
HOW WAS YOUR HALLOWEEN? - Allow me to lighten the mood a bit. My Hollywood Bowl Box Buddy Michael Rudolph, who comes from a show biz family, always does it up big for Halloween, and turns his Huntington Harbor home into a Haunted House. I went down this year to participate in the festivities and was blown away. Not only does Michael have all kinds of animation and scary sounds (the Hounds of Hell were the best) but he's a major stop during the evening. I'm guessing there were easily a thousand of more people who stopped by, many of them regulars from previous years. His front yard is set up as a graveyard and the long entryway up to his front door - which is where the candy is - has all kinds of ghosts and goblins and ghouls along the way. Michael says it takes him about two-and-a-half months to set the whole thing up. I helped him finish it all off just before the kids started arriving on Thursday evening. I had my GoPro7 with me, shot a bunch of stuff, and put it all together (with appropriate music) into a 5-minute video of the experience. Take a peek: HALLOWEEN AT MICHAEL'S.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
