Mid December.
That's the last time I was on a boat, doing dives in, you know, island water.
I love shore diving, and its been my strong assertion for years that real divers dive local. But with the weather as its been since about mid December, I've been yearning for a day on a boat again.
Of course, 3 times I've been canceled in 2010.
NOT THIS TIME!
With the pattern of nice week, rain on the weekend repeating over and over, dashing the hopes of many SoCal divers - this week started that way, as well. Forecast sunny all week, rain Friday night, heavy on Saturday, clearing on Sunday.
Oh for a 24 hour delay... and we got it.
Packing Thursday night, my head was in diving all day Friday while at work - my truck was loaded and Claudette and I were Texting throughout the day. She has Friday's off, so she's my weather rock... "hows it look? Clear? Wind? Anything...?"
I got off work and pointed north on the 405... no rain. No wind. She's about 45 minutes ahead of me, so she's reporting back along my drive... "looks good here."
Can it be? No rain?
I get a text from her, "Interesting Aroma...." AH! That's code for Chica is in or near Ventura harbor, and there's not a puff of breeze so the place really, REALLY reeks.
Nice.
I get there and its dead still. Its quite fragrant, but I've never welcomed the stench more than Friday night, I'll tell you.
We load on and head to Dinner. Come out of dinner. Still clear. No wind.
Back to the boat, I set up cameras and other gear and crash hard.
At about 5:30 AM or so (couldn't have been later than about 6:00 AM) I'm awoken by the loudest thundering herd I've ever encountered on a dive boat. This screeching band of ruffians roll in, laughing, yelling, stomping, chatting and dropping gear onto the deck. Seriously - this is the rudest awakening I've ever experienced on a dive boat. These clowns were insufferably inconsiderate, rude and way, way over the line of tactless. All of these people have dived this boat. A look at the Manifest or a glance across the deck tells you there are at least 7 or 8 people sleeping. When I board a boat before sunrise, I do so silently and with consideration. These goobers had none of that. My only sweet revenge was seeing these dopes shiver dive after dive in their poorly performing exposure protection while Chica and I zoomed for an additional 10, 15, 20 minutes or more on every dive while they were pouring hot water down their suits after their 25 minute dive.
People like this are just the worst.
We finally pull out - the harbor is like glass, and the exit from the harbor was pretty mellow. I do a little more set up of the cameras, then pop back down stairs to try to catch a little more sleep now that the buffaloes arealso resting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE DIVES
DIVE #1 - UNDERWATER ISLAND
We get the 20-minute call over the PA - I pop up to dress. Its still not raining, the sun is out and its a glorious day. We check out West end, but the current is ripping, so we pop around to the back side of the island and make the first dive at Underwater Island.
I've dived this site a zillion times. Its literally a seamount that comes up from about 60 feet to about 25 feet or so. It has kelp on the top, and lots of layers around the circumference. There are always Octos tucked away in these layers, some Nudis, lots of fish and this Marble headstone somebody put there years ago. In the fall this place is so clear its brilliant. Today it was just very nice - probably 25 feet or more of viz at depth. It was cool (54) but no current. We made a very lazy circle of the entire island on the scoots - on the trigger maybe 50% of the time.
Sea hares are all over the place. Tiny ones - just all over. It was kinda cool. There was a pair of courting rubberlip perch - doing that dance you see the Mandarinfish do in the tropics - getting all close, then wiggling into a yin yang, then getting vertical and doing it all again. It was so great to watch.
I was just so thrilled to be in clean water I wanted to take it all in nice and slow. We did another quarter-transverse and it was about time to get back to the boat.
DIVE #2 - RAT ROCK (WEST END)
We returned to the site that had the current ripping a couple of hours earlier - and it had calmed down enough to dive. This is among my fav dive sites on Anacapa, and I know its Claudette's favorite.
It would be the deepest site of the day, as well as the coldest (52.6) - but it was so worth it. For Chica and I on the scoots, the dive is to descend the anchor line, make a hard right and go west. Just go west.... until you're OFF the island and among the jumbled down rocks and structure that few people ever get to - surely most kick divers never see this stuff. There is always current, and its a very far scoot - we're 25 minutes on the trigger one way... but this is Anacapa like no other place. Deep valleys, huge walls, streaming sunlight, kelp swaying above, rocky outcroppings, sandy bottom. Its beautiful. What a dive! Better viz than the first dive... probably 40 or more. A little murky (not a gin-clear 40) but we could see the kelp from the sand. We could see the boat from the bottom of the drop in, and that was 45 feet, easily.
8 species of Nudibranch, more sea hares (what's the deal today?) and lots of glorious clear water.
DIVE #3 - PRESERVE (someplace...)
We pop from the dive and lunch is waiting. Let me just state - I've spent probably 25 or 30 days on the Peace over the years. And with Joe (the current cook) I've probably been on there maybe 20 days or so. But this was the finest lunch ever. Dude outdid himself. Two types of Chicken (spicy and just dang tasty) and this veggy, mushroom, tofu thing that was 3 helpings worth of fun. Just a great thing to come back home to after an excellent dive.
We motored from the West End to essentially the East end of this tiny island - over to Landing Cove. On the way over it gets really, really windy. The clouds come in, it gets dark, and the wind is whipping. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to anchor in landing cove, we move West a bit and anchor in the preserve.
Capt Eric asks the boat (speaking to Me and Chica, no doubt) if we can keep this a short-ish dive, as all the travel and jostling cut into our time. Chica and I decide to make this a 45 minute dive, and we splash.
Life is good in a preserve. While we're hanging there looking around a 10 pound lobster the size of my thigh just walks on by. In broad daylight... out for a stroll. Unreal.
I gotta say, Chica was on fire today. One of the great things about our team is the spotting of things to shoot and point out to each other. It nearly always falls about 50/50. I see cool stuff to shoot, she sees cool stuff to shoot. I don't know what my issue was today - maybe it was getting use to managing a scooter, a camera and a deco bottle after 3 months off. Maybe I was just loving being in clear water again... I dunno. But this chick was on fire - she was spotting things left and right... She found the Coffee Bean Cowrey on this dive as well as the smallest little Gibbosa nudi EVER. I swear, this thing was maybe 3/8" long... total rice kernel size. She was unstoppable. A short but beautiful dive. I hope its not too long before the rest of the front side looks this good (as it was recently designated an MPA.)
DIVE #4 - Portuguese Rock
I thought I'd dived all of the sites on Anacapa - but I don't remember this one. Its a large rock sticking out of the water not far from the main island. Several people sat this one out, as it was howling wind and the cold was coming in. To the great credit of the leadfooted pre-dawn Wetties, several of these knuckleheads sucked it up and did the 4th dive.
This dive was super clear. It was super shallow. It was also the second coldest dive of the day (53-ish) - but it was really pretty. There are these huge rocks below the surface - like 25 feet high - so much to scooter around and play in. Just fantastic!
I saw a group of rocks off in the distance, on the sand... so we scooted out. Then I saw some more, and we scooted out there. I rolled up on this little Sea Hare - OMG. What a performer. He was on the edge of a rock, so I could compose with just water behind him. He was reaching, and stretching, and recoiling, and looking around... we sat and watched him for over 5 minutes (that's the flat spot on the Sensus screen grab, above.) He was amazing.
We said "bye" and scooted back to the anchor chain. Then along the chain to the line. Up the line to a mooring buoy...
No fair moving the boat when we're on the dive! The boat was parked a bit off the island. When we got back on board they said there were two HUGE gusts (about 45 knots they figure) that started to push the boat toward the island - so they threw off the stern anchor and just let the boat swing on the bow anchor.
We boarded in the wind. We took down in the wind and went inside to the waiting hot brownies. YUM.
Got everything secure (apparently our Scooter crates became projectiles in the gusts) and cleaned up. I went down to crash hard for the trip back.
Still no rain.
We arrived back in port and it was raining. Not too hard, but hard enough that unloading the boat (several trips for Chica and I as we brought on 7 cylinders, the deathstar, two scoots, etc.) would have soaked us. I'd been to this movie in November when we got caught in a downpour right as we were unloading.
This time I brought my NorthFace Mountain Light Gore-Tex jacket and Pants. Along with my Bogs (the ultimate dive shoe) I was dry and toasty for the multiple trips up the ramp in the rain. Its the terrestrial equivalent of a drysuit - and it was prefect!
FOUR excellent dives. No rain all day. Lots of pics, tons of fun. Saturday exceeded my expectations in every possible manner (well, every moment after about 5:40 AM) The crew of the Peace are friends, I have the best dive buddy on the planet and we had more fun than I thought I could cram into a day.
Thank you, Dette for setting this up. You are a great spotter, you are an excellent diver, a great hang and you are as excited about this stuff as I am. What a team mate. Thanks again.
Some pics below. I'll be putting more up as I get them done over the next couple of days.
Enjoy.
-Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hare Trigger - Chica with one of the 2-zillion juvi sea hares we saw. They were crawling on rocks, they were crawling on kelp, they were rolling on the sand in the surge. They were everywhere. Nice gloves, Pinky...
Mega Nax - March and April are the Juvi months... baby Nudis, baby fish, baby everything. It was funny to see a GIANT Navanax... just a phatty.
Fed Ex Delivery - Talk about multi-tasking. Hanging upside down, in the blowing surge, laying eggs, holding on tight. That's Doing It Right! Check out the 24-pack abs on this guy!
Smallest Gibbosa EVER - how she saw this I don't know. I love the little gibby, but I'm in awe of the sponge next to him. Look at the perfect 6-pointed stars that move water in and out of this thing. WOW. The stuff we get to see.
Coffee Bean Cowrey - I have nothing witty to say. Except that the skeletor fingers of the barnacles are kinda creeping me out.
The Cucumber that ate Cincinnati - I'm scooting by and I see image one, just as you see it. The side of a cucumber on top of a rock. I think, cool - I've never seen the underside of a cucumber. I go to check it out, and it looks through the lens like Starfish feet... very cool. Then, while I'm looking through my 105mm telescope at him, he moves, rears up and opens his mouth at me... OK. This really was kinda weird to watch through the lens... I'm looking at this giant cucumber (they never move...) and he's going all Godzilla on me. Here's the series.
Nice Feet
What's going on here?
OMG - that's his head I was looking at?
"Where's Tokyo? I need a snack...."
I'll end this first post with the amazing performing Sea Hare from Dive #4
(more pics soon...)
.
.
.
.
.
That's the last time I was on a boat, doing dives in, you know, island water.
I love shore diving, and its been my strong assertion for years that real divers dive local. But with the weather as its been since about mid December, I've been yearning for a day on a boat again.
Of course, 3 times I've been canceled in 2010.
NOT THIS TIME!
With the pattern of nice week, rain on the weekend repeating over and over, dashing the hopes of many SoCal divers - this week started that way, as well. Forecast sunny all week, rain Friday night, heavy on Saturday, clearing on Sunday.
Oh for a 24 hour delay... and we got it.
Packing Thursday night, my head was in diving all day Friday while at work - my truck was loaded and Claudette and I were Texting throughout the day. She has Friday's off, so she's my weather rock... "hows it look? Clear? Wind? Anything...?"
I got off work and pointed north on the 405... no rain. No wind. She's about 45 minutes ahead of me, so she's reporting back along my drive... "looks good here."
Can it be? No rain?
I get a text from her, "Interesting Aroma...." AH! That's code for Chica is in or near Ventura harbor, and there's not a puff of breeze so the place really, REALLY reeks.
Nice.
I get there and its dead still. Its quite fragrant, but I've never welcomed the stench more than Friday night, I'll tell you.
We load on and head to Dinner. Come out of dinner. Still clear. No wind.
Back to the boat, I set up cameras and other gear and crash hard.
At about 5:30 AM or so (couldn't have been later than about 6:00 AM) I'm awoken by the loudest thundering herd I've ever encountered on a dive boat. This screeching band of ruffians roll in, laughing, yelling, stomping, chatting and dropping gear onto the deck. Seriously - this is the rudest awakening I've ever experienced on a dive boat. These clowns were insufferably inconsiderate, rude and way, way over the line of tactless. All of these people have dived this boat. A look at the Manifest or a glance across the deck tells you there are at least 7 or 8 people sleeping. When I board a boat before sunrise, I do so silently and with consideration. These goobers had none of that. My only sweet revenge was seeing these dopes shiver dive after dive in their poorly performing exposure protection while Chica and I zoomed for an additional 10, 15, 20 minutes or more on every dive while they were pouring hot water down their suits after their 25 minute dive.
People like this are just the worst.
We finally pull out - the harbor is like glass, and the exit from the harbor was pretty mellow. I do a little more set up of the cameras, then pop back down stairs to try to catch a little more sleep now that the buffaloes arealso resting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE DIVES
DIVE #1 - UNDERWATER ISLAND
We get the 20-minute call over the PA - I pop up to dress. Its still not raining, the sun is out and its a glorious day. We check out West end, but the current is ripping, so we pop around to the back side of the island and make the first dive at Underwater Island.
I've dived this site a zillion times. Its literally a seamount that comes up from about 60 feet to about 25 feet or so. It has kelp on the top, and lots of layers around the circumference. There are always Octos tucked away in these layers, some Nudis, lots of fish and this Marble headstone somebody put there years ago. In the fall this place is so clear its brilliant. Today it was just very nice - probably 25 feet or more of viz at depth. It was cool (54) but no current. We made a very lazy circle of the entire island on the scoots - on the trigger maybe 50% of the time.
Sea hares are all over the place. Tiny ones - just all over. It was kinda cool. There was a pair of courting rubberlip perch - doing that dance you see the Mandarinfish do in the tropics - getting all close, then wiggling into a yin yang, then getting vertical and doing it all again. It was so great to watch.
I was just so thrilled to be in clean water I wanted to take it all in nice and slow. We did another quarter-transverse and it was about time to get back to the boat.
DIVE #2 - RAT ROCK (WEST END)
We returned to the site that had the current ripping a couple of hours earlier - and it had calmed down enough to dive. This is among my fav dive sites on Anacapa, and I know its Claudette's favorite.
It would be the deepest site of the day, as well as the coldest (52.6) - but it was so worth it. For Chica and I on the scoots, the dive is to descend the anchor line, make a hard right and go west. Just go west.... until you're OFF the island and among the jumbled down rocks and structure that few people ever get to - surely most kick divers never see this stuff. There is always current, and its a very far scoot - we're 25 minutes on the trigger one way... but this is Anacapa like no other place. Deep valleys, huge walls, streaming sunlight, kelp swaying above, rocky outcroppings, sandy bottom. Its beautiful. What a dive! Better viz than the first dive... probably 40 or more. A little murky (not a gin-clear 40) but we could see the kelp from the sand. We could see the boat from the bottom of the drop in, and that was 45 feet, easily.
8 species of Nudibranch, more sea hares (what's the deal today?) and lots of glorious clear water.
DIVE #3 - PRESERVE (someplace...)
We pop from the dive and lunch is waiting. Let me just state - I've spent probably 25 or 30 days on the Peace over the years. And with Joe (the current cook) I've probably been on there maybe 20 days or so. But this was the finest lunch ever. Dude outdid himself. Two types of Chicken (spicy and just dang tasty) and this veggy, mushroom, tofu thing that was 3 helpings worth of fun. Just a great thing to come back home to after an excellent dive.
We motored from the West End to essentially the East end of this tiny island - over to Landing Cove. On the way over it gets really, really windy. The clouds come in, it gets dark, and the wind is whipping. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to anchor in landing cove, we move West a bit and anchor in the preserve.
Capt Eric asks the boat (speaking to Me and Chica, no doubt) if we can keep this a short-ish dive, as all the travel and jostling cut into our time. Chica and I decide to make this a 45 minute dive, and we splash.
Life is good in a preserve. While we're hanging there looking around a 10 pound lobster the size of my thigh just walks on by. In broad daylight... out for a stroll. Unreal.
I gotta say, Chica was on fire today. One of the great things about our team is the spotting of things to shoot and point out to each other. It nearly always falls about 50/50. I see cool stuff to shoot, she sees cool stuff to shoot. I don't know what my issue was today - maybe it was getting use to managing a scooter, a camera and a deco bottle after 3 months off. Maybe I was just loving being in clear water again... I dunno. But this chick was on fire - she was spotting things left and right... She found the Coffee Bean Cowrey on this dive as well as the smallest little Gibbosa nudi EVER. I swear, this thing was maybe 3/8" long... total rice kernel size. She was unstoppable. A short but beautiful dive. I hope its not too long before the rest of the front side looks this good (as it was recently designated an MPA.)
DIVE #4 - Portuguese Rock
I thought I'd dived all of the sites on Anacapa - but I don't remember this one. Its a large rock sticking out of the water not far from the main island. Several people sat this one out, as it was howling wind and the cold was coming in. To the great credit of the leadfooted pre-dawn Wetties, several of these knuckleheads sucked it up and did the 4th dive.
This dive was super clear. It was super shallow. It was also the second coldest dive of the day (53-ish) - but it was really pretty. There are these huge rocks below the surface - like 25 feet high - so much to scooter around and play in. Just fantastic!
I saw a group of rocks off in the distance, on the sand... so we scooted out. Then I saw some more, and we scooted out there. I rolled up on this little Sea Hare - OMG. What a performer. He was on the edge of a rock, so I could compose with just water behind him. He was reaching, and stretching, and recoiling, and looking around... we sat and watched him for over 5 minutes (that's the flat spot on the Sensus screen grab, above.) He was amazing.
We said "bye" and scooted back to the anchor chain. Then along the chain to the line. Up the line to a mooring buoy...
No fair moving the boat when we're on the dive! The boat was parked a bit off the island. When we got back on board they said there were two HUGE gusts (about 45 knots they figure) that started to push the boat toward the island - so they threw off the stern anchor and just let the boat swing on the bow anchor.
We boarded in the wind. We took down in the wind and went inside to the waiting hot brownies. YUM.
Got everything secure (apparently our Scooter crates became projectiles in the gusts) and cleaned up. I went down to crash hard for the trip back.
Still no rain.
We arrived back in port and it was raining. Not too hard, but hard enough that unloading the boat (several trips for Chica and I as we brought on 7 cylinders, the deathstar, two scoots, etc.) would have soaked us. I'd been to this movie in November when we got caught in a downpour right as we were unloading.
This time I brought my NorthFace Mountain Light Gore-Tex jacket and Pants. Along with my Bogs (the ultimate dive shoe) I was dry and toasty for the multiple trips up the ramp in the rain. Its the terrestrial equivalent of a drysuit - and it was prefect!
FOUR excellent dives. No rain all day. Lots of pics, tons of fun. Saturday exceeded my expectations in every possible manner (well, every moment after about 5:40 AM) The crew of the Peace are friends, I have the best dive buddy on the planet and we had more fun than I thought I could cram into a day.
Thank you, Dette for setting this up. You are a great spotter, you are an excellent diver, a great hang and you are as excited about this stuff as I am. What a team mate. Thanks again.
Some pics below. I'll be putting more up as I get them done over the next couple of days.
Enjoy.
-Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hare Trigger - Chica with one of the 2-zillion juvi sea hares we saw. They were crawling on rocks, they were crawling on kelp, they were rolling on the sand in the surge. They were everywhere. Nice gloves, Pinky...
Mega Nax - March and April are the Juvi months... baby Nudis, baby fish, baby everything. It was funny to see a GIANT Navanax... just a phatty.
Fed Ex Delivery - Talk about multi-tasking. Hanging upside down, in the blowing surge, laying eggs, holding on tight. That's Doing It Right! Check out the 24-pack abs on this guy!
Smallest Gibbosa EVER - how she saw this I don't know. I love the little gibby, but I'm in awe of the sponge next to him. Look at the perfect 6-pointed stars that move water in and out of this thing. WOW. The stuff we get to see.
Coffee Bean Cowrey - I have nothing witty to say. Except that the skeletor fingers of the barnacles are kinda creeping me out.
The Cucumber that ate Cincinnati - I'm scooting by and I see image one, just as you see it. The side of a cucumber on top of a rock. I think, cool - I've never seen the underside of a cucumber. I go to check it out, and it looks through the lens like Starfish feet... very cool. Then, while I'm looking through my 105mm telescope at him, he moves, rears up and opens his mouth at me... OK. This really was kinda weird to watch through the lens... I'm looking at this giant cucumber (they never move...) and he's going all Godzilla on me. Here's the series.
Nice Feet
What's going on here?
OMG - that's his head I was looking at?
"Where's Tokyo? I need a snack...."
I'll end this first post with the amazing performing Sea Hare from Dive #4
(more pics soon...)
.
.
.
.
.
