Questions about getting air fills at the Isthmus

[Leejnd]

Thanks again for all the great info!

Paying for a mooring and then moving our boat elsewhere just for the dive is not an option. It's a pretty decent-sized boat - a 36-ft Islander Freeport - and anchoring is a bit of an effort...especially when we use both bow and stern. Our bow anchor is 35 lbs, and we've got a 100 ft of chain to go with it. Once we either drop anchor or pick up a mooring at Two Harbors, we're not going to want to move the boat.

But if we can enter the water and easily get to decent dive spots right from our mooring or anchorage, that will be perfect! I have to admit I'm a leeetle bit leery about swimming under and around a bunch of boats - what if a big ol' yacht comes by searching for a place to drop anchor, just as we're returning to our boat? This is not something we've experienced - every time we've gone diving off our boat, we were anchored in some remote cove off Santa Cruz or Anacapa and there wasn't another boat anywhere nearby. I guess we should think about using a signal sausage or some other kind of float...

And yes, you are correct - we really shouldn't dive and leave nobody on our boat. (Kids - don't try this at home! ) But we've only done that when we were in a very protected area, no swells, no current, and we could swim to shore if need be. So in that case we weren't at risk of coming up and finding no boat, and no way to exit the water.

 

[kelpmermaid]

The best diving near the Isthmus is the USC Preserve. No anchorage but if you can get someone to live drop you there the diving is amazing!

You can't anchor or use the moorings, but see if you can't get someone to take you over there and live boat it. Oh, and no fishing...

Isthmus reef is also good, but I won't do it until traffic/partying dies down.

 

[drbill]

I've been to Two Harbors once or twice (or maybe a few hundred times over the decades), but my only diving there has been off boats that we took up from Toyon or Avalon. Never had a fill there. The Two Harbors area has undergone some significant improvements in the past 10 years or so.

I love Isthmus Reef although Kelpmermaid is absolutely correct that this time of year one must dive there with caution... I see power boats zoom right across the top of the reef, disregarding diver down flags. It is one of my favorite dive sites though as I often see things there I don't normally see elsewhere.

Would you believe in the 41 years I've lived here on Catalina I have never dived the USC Reserve (at least not as far as I can remember). Local boats don't live boat it.

Oh, and beware of the GWS. They are sighted in that area with some frequency. Of course I've never had a problem with them!

 

[blue steal]

Leejnd. Have you considered picking up a mooring at emerald bay. You could take a mooring on the outside instead of close to the shore. then if you are in the "front row", you could dive right from you boat. Just on the other side of the rocks in emeralds is where a lot of dive boats go.
Then just use your dingy to go to two harbors for air/dinner, etc.