rling
Registered
Hi all,
I guess I kind of promised a dive report for July 30/31 on the Spectre.
Overall the weather in California was much cooler than I was expecting... during the lead-up to the diving (aka the "business trip" ;-)) I spent most days in downtown LA in jeans and a light jacket and sadly left my stock of T-shirts back at the hotel. On the day I visited Santa Monica, a cool onshore breeze and some cloud cover made for pretty miserable sunbaking. The ice cream guys were not doing much business.
I got the Pacific Surfliner up from LA Union Station on the evening of July 29, no issues there. Left about 7pm, it set me down at Ventura around 9pm and I just got a cab to the boat -- about 3-4 miles. The boat is left open so I just wander in and make myself at home. Inside it's spartan and functional, with a slight aroma of chilli ;-) About what you'd expect of a boat that used to service oil rigs. Sonorous snores drifted up from below. I set up my housing and strobe then found a bunk and rolled out my swag (sreiously!). Earplugs in and I slept very well till 7am when I was woken by divemaster Larry for signing on.
There were about 20 punters (the boat takes 40) so things were roomy. We enjoyed a fantastic hot breakfast cooked by Shannon on the way out to Anacapa, under an overcast sky. We hit the east end of the island with its spectacular arch and pinnacles covered in seabirds. Wow, what a sight that is!
The first dive site was the Goldfish Bowl, noted for giant sea bass apparently. There were sea lions playing around on the surface as we geared up, listening to Larry's dive brief. There is plenty of space on the dive deck, much better than some liveaboards I've been on. I buddied with 2 fairly new divers. Giant stride off the side and on the descent I got my first closeup look at the giant kelp I'd come to see, so distracted I touched down pretty much right on top of a sheep crab. The seals and the advertised giant sea bass didn't co-operate, but other residents such as sheephead, garibaldi and senorita wrasse came to investigate (why are so many Californian sea creatures named after sheep..??) and I was soon snapping away at these which of course are new species for me. Visibility was only about 10-15ft which I'm told is typical in summer. Time flew by and after 45 minutes in the cold water my buddies were done. I was very taken with the school of damselfish right under the boat (blacksmith perch apparently) and hung around taking photos till the last divers returned.
Back on the boat divers were availing themselves of the hot tub, definitely the best innovation I've seen on a dive boat. Just time to strip off my drysuit and rant on about the great things I'd seen while the boat motored to the next site and before I knew it everyone was gearing up for the second dive, hey I'm not used to this pace, haven't even changed my camera battery yet! I should have guessed that to pack 3-4 dives into a day trip you have to keep things moving along!
Next dive site was a "wall dive" at Garden Spot but I don't think I saw any wall -- getting in close to shore was impossible with all the thick kelp in the way -- it's good at snagging fins! We satisfied ourselves following a depth contour at around 20ft that led over and around some interesting boulders. I found out a bit more about the macro life -- sea hares, hermit crabs and sea stars clearly related to species at home, but also clearly different. The warty sea cucumbers were totally new, there's nothing like them near Sydney, though their relatives are common up on the GBR. It was during this dive that I suddenly realised by strobe was no longer working. :-(
By the time I got back on board most people were finished lunch and Shannon warned I was holding up the show! Lunch was spicy fried chicken and rice, really delicious, but about twice what I could eat. I fiddled with my strobe, the battery compartment was dry but still it was dead.... sigh. At this time I got chatting to a knowledgeable local photographer (Flickr: divindk's Photostream) and we rabbited on about unreliable strobes, spiny lobsters and north pacific sea stars (a serious pest in Australia). He knew a bit about Australian species too. We skimmed through our photos and he rattled off fish names while I scribbled them down.
The third dive site was Fish Bowl Point. On this dive we drifted through immense cathedrals of giant kelp which closed overhead giving the light an eerie green tinge. One buddy spotted a Spanish shawl (Flabellina iodinea) on the sand and seemed pretty chuffed. I thought it was stunning, later I found they're as common as dirt round Anacapa! I also discovered that giant kelp is very photogenic, though I could have used some clearer water (and a working strobe). Again the dive was shorter than I'm used to at 45 mins but I was grateful as the cold was biting even through my drysuit. 15degC / 60degF -- don't know how my buddies managed in 7mm wetties, must be made of sterner stuff. One was Canadian so that probably helped. Sydney's water is warmer even in winter.
We passed some oil rigs on the way back to Ventura and the obvious subject came up. I couldn't imagine the islands I had just seen, with their birds, seals, and other life, covered in oil. We got back to Ventura about 4:30pm. I was overnighting on the boat again, and the sounds of a hot three-piece rhythm drifting down from the top deck of nearby Margarita Villa soon lured me to sample a few Dos Equis cervezas with some friendly locals.
Next day's trip (July 31) was to Santa Cruz island, and aiming to fit in 4 dives, so we were motoring out of Ventura at the ungodly hour of 7am. The divemaster, Greg, appears to have stepped out of a time warp from the 1960s The Endless Summer... just add surfboard. The boat is full, and Shannon is working 110% cooking the bacon and egg rolls. The first dive is Cavern Point on the north-east tip of Santa Cruz, which features a tall underwater pinnacle with many overhangs and swim-throughs. I buddied up with Dave, a Californian native and virtual Jacques Cousteau, and we moved slowly, Dave taking photos while I took video. There were many different scorpionfish (or maybe one species with very variable markings?) as well as juvenile treefish, painted greenling, and kelpfish. Spanish shawls were also very common, I almost got sick of seeing them! Plenty other invertebrates of course, including giant sea stars literally in heaps. We surfaced well past 60 minutes and I was very satisfied.
I'd barely got the drysuit off for an important pitstop
before it was time to put it on again. Second dive was back at Goldfish Bowl at Anacapa, and Dave and I explored the thick kelp forest with its eerie green light and grasping stems, becoming thoroughly entangled and thoroughly lost on more than one occasion. Dave photographed indignant garibaldi brooding their eggs, and we found a big pile of purple sea hares having an orgy, but the highlight for me was a tiny juvenile California horn shark, an relative of the Port Jackson but quite a bit smaller and, I might say, with cuter spots. It was happy to pose and perform for my video and I only left it after a quarter hour or so. We surfaced a fair way from the boat and dropped back to 15ft to swim back under the masses of floating kelp
Lunch was "tri-tip" with potatoes -- much anticipated by all on board, and a total mystery for me, though it turns out to be steak with chilli. Delicious once again, thanks Shannon! And as we motored to the thord site, the sun broke through for the first time in the two days. What a pity it was gone again within the hour.
The third site was Underwater Island also off Anacapa, quite a change in that it is a bare rocky reef with no kelp. It is deepish, starting at 60ft, and I spent almost the whole hour's dive creeping along at that depth as I was so taken by the rich invertebrate life around the base of the "island". Dave dropped by occasionally to see if I'd hurry up, but in the end I was just too slow I was quite taken with the masses of brittle stars out during the day -- Australian ones like to hide from light. There were tube anemones, an unusual pale nudibranch with several small black circles on its back, some kind of hingebeak shrimp, a flounder with what appeared to be a keyhole on its side, several shells containing live molluscs or hermit crabs, and beautiful jewel anemones (in fact the nudi was probably a San Diego dorid, Diaulula sandiegensis). Small purple urchins were ubiquitous in the cracks and crevices in the rock. Finally Dave came by looking a bit frantic, clearly looking for me, and although he swam almost within touching distance several times I couldn't get his attention and couldn't quite reach him -- funny how these things happen! When we finally hooked up we were both nearly out of bottom time and ascended with an extra long safety stop to the boat.
After this dive my computer read 18 hours of no-fly time, and as I had a flight to Boston at midday the next day I decided to call it quits. I broke down my gear and packed up at a leisurely pace while others enjoyed the fourth dive of the day, and by the time the boat left Anacapa my gear was nearly dry and I was reviewing video and browsing the boat's library of ID books.
We arrived back at the marina about 6:30pm and one of the crew dropped me back at Ventura station in time for the last train back to Union Station. The Amtrak trains were clean and very comfortable -- I had no issue with them at all. Got back to LA Union around 9pm and got the metro back to 7th Street/Metro Center. Overall I was very satisfied with my 2 days' diving off Spectre, Ted and the crew were knowledgeable and helpful.
This was kind of long, so if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Cheers
R
I guess I kind of promised a dive report for July 30/31 on the Spectre.
Overall the weather in California was much cooler than I was expecting... during the lead-up to the diving (aka the "business trip" ;-)) I spent most days in downtown LA in jeans and a light jacket and sadly left my stock of T-shirts back at the hotel. On the day I visited Santa Monica, a cool onshore breeze and some cloud cover made for pretty miserable sunbaking. The ice cream guys were not doing much business.
I got the Pacific Surfliner up from LA Union Station on the evening of July 29, no issues there. Left about 7pm, it set me down at Ventura around 9pm and I just got a cab to the boat -- about 3-4 miles. The boat is left open so I just wander in and make myself at home. Inside it's spartan and functional, with a slight aroma of chilli ;-) About what you'd expect of a boat that used to service oil rigs. Sonorous snores drifted up from below. I set up my housing and strobe then found a bunk and rolled out my swag (sreiously!). Earplugs in and I slept very well till 7am when I was woken by divemaster Larry for signing on.
There were about 20 punters (the boat takes 40) so things were roomy. We enjoyed a fantastic hot breakfast cooked by Shannon on the way out to Anacapa, under an overcast sky. We hit the east end of the island with its spectacular arch and pinnacles covered in seabirds. Wow, what a sight that is!
The first dive site was the Goldfish Bowl, noted for giant sea bass apparently. There were sea lions playing around on the surface as we geared up, listening to Larry's dive brief. There is plenty of space on the dive deck, much better than some liveaboards I've been on. I buddied with 2 fairly new divers. Giant stride off the side and on the descent I got my first closeup look at the giant kelp I'd come to see, so distracted I touched down pretty much right on top of a sheep crab. The seals and the advertised giant sea bass didn't co-operate, but other residents such as sheephead, garibaldi and senorita wrasse came to investigate (why are so many Californian sea creatures named after sheep..??) and I was soon snapping away at these which of course are new species for me. Visibility was only about 10-15ft which I'm told is typical in summer. Time flew by and after 45 minutes in the cold water my buddies were done. I was very taken with the school of damselfish right under the boat (blacksmith perch apparently) and hung around taking photos till the last divers returned.
Back on the boat divers were availing themselves of the hot tub, definitely the best innovation I've seen on a dive boat. Just time to strip off my drysuit and rant on about the great things I'd seen while the boat motored to the next site and before I knew it everyone was gearing up for the second dive, hey I'm not used to this pace, haven't even changed my camera battery yet! I should have guessed that to pack 3-4 dives into a day trip you have to keep things moving along!
Next dive site was a "wall dive" at Garden Spot but I don't think I saw any wall -- getting in close to shore was impossible with all the thick kelp in the way -- it's good at snagging fins! We satisfied ourselves following a depth contour at around 20ft that led over and around some interesting boulders. I found out a bit more about the macro life -- sea hares, hermit crabs and sea stars clearly related to species at home, but also clearly different. The warty sea cucumbers were totally new, there's nothing like them near Sydney, though their relatives are common up on the GBR. It was during this dive that I suddenly realised by strobe was no longer working. :-(
By the time I got back on board most people were finished lunch and Shannon warned I was holding up the show! Lunch was spicy fried chicken and rice, really delicious, but about twice what I could eat. I fiddled with my strobe, the battery compartment was dry but still it was dead.... sigh. At this time I got chatting to a knowledgeable local photographer (Flickr: divindk's Photostream) and we rabbited on about unreliable strobes, spiny lobsters and north pacific sea stars (a serious pest in Australia). He knew a bit about Australian species too. We skimmed through our photos and he rattled off fish names while I scribbled them down.
The third dive site was Fish Bowl Point. On this dive we drifted through immense cathedrals of giant kelp which closed overhead giving the light an eerie green tinge. One buddy spotted a Spanish shawl (Flabellina iodinea) on the sand and seemed pretty chuffed. I thought it was stunning, later I found they're as common as dirt round Anacapa! I also discovered that giant kelp is very photogenic, though I could have used some clearer water (and a working strobe). Again the dive was shorter than I'm used to at 45 mins but I was grateful as the cold was biting even through my drysuit. 15degC / 60degF -- don't know how my buddies managed in 7mm wetties, must be made of sterner stuff. One was Canadian so that probably helped. Sydney's water is warmer even in winter.
We passed some oil rigs on the way back to Ventura and the obvious subject came up. I couldn't imagine the islands I had just seen, with their birds, seals, and other life, covered in oil. We got back to Ventura about 4:30pm. I was overnighting on the boat again, and the sounds of a hot three-piece rhythm drifting down from the top deck of nearby Margarita Villa soon lured me to sample a few Dos Equis cervezas with some friendly locals.
Next day's trip (July 31) was to Santa Cruz island, and aiming to fit in 4 dives, so we were motoring out of Ventura at the ungodly hour of 7am. The divemaster, Greg, appears to have stepped out of a time warp from the 1960s The Endless Summer... just add surfboard. The boat is full, and Shannon is working 110% cooking the bacon and egg rolls. The first dive is Cavern Point on the north-east tip of Santa Cruz, which features a tall underwater pinnacle with many overhangs and swim-throughs. I buddied up with Dave, a Californian native and virtual Jacques Cousteau, and we moved slowly, Dave taking photos while I took video. There were many different scorpionfish (or maybe one species with very variable markings?) as well as juvenile treefish, painted greenling, and kelpfish. Spanish shawls were also very common, I almost got sick of seeing them! Plenty other invertebrates of course, including giant sea stars literally in heaps. We surfaced well past 60 minutes and I was very satisfied.
I'd barely got the drysuit off for an important pitstop
before it was time to put it on again. Second dive was back at Goldfish Bowl at Anacapa, and Dave and I explored the thick kelp forest with its eerie green light and grasping stems, becoming thoroughly entangled and thoroughly lost on more than one occasion. Dave photographed indignant garibaldi brooding their eggs, and we found a big pile of purple sea hares having an orgy, but the highlight for me was a tiny juvenile California horn shark, an relative of the Port Jackson but quite a bit smaller and, I might say, with cuter spots. It was happy to pose and perform for my video and I only left it after a quarter hour or so. We surfaced a fair way from the boat and dropped back to 15ft to swim back under the masses of floating kelp Lunch was "tri-tip" with potatoes -- much anticipated by all on board, and a total mystery for me, though it turns out to be steak with chilli. Delicious once again, thanks Shannon! And as we motored to the thord site, the sun broke through for the first time in the two days. What a pity it was gone again within the hour.
The third site was Underwater Island also off Anacapa, quite a change in that it is a bare rocky reef with no kelp. It is deepish, starting at 60ft, and I spent almost the whole hour's dive creeping along at that depth as I was so taken by the rich invertebrate life around the base of the "island". Dave dropped by occasionally to see if I'd hurry up, but in the end I was just too slow
I was quite taken with the masses of brittle stars out during the day -- Australian ones like to hide from light. There were tube anemones, an unusual pale nudibranch with several small black circles on its back, some kind of hingebeak shrimp, a flounder with what appeared to be a keyhole on its side, several shells containing live molluscs or hermit crabs, and beautiful jewel anemones (in fact the nudi was probably a San Diego dorid, Diaulula sandiegensis). Small purple urchins were ubiquitous in the cracks and crevices in the rock. Finally Dave came by looking a bit frantic, clearly looking for me, and although he swam almost within touching distance several times I couldn't get his attention and couldn't quite reach him -- funny how these things happen! When we finally hooked up we were both nearly out of bottom time and ascended with an extra long safety stop to the boat.After this dive my computer read 18 hours of no-fly time, and as I had a flight to Boston at midday the next day I decided to call it quits. I broke down my gear and packed up at a leisurely pace while others enjoyed the fourth dive of the day, and by the time the boat left Anacapa my gear was nearly dry and I was reviewing video and browsing the boat's library of ID books.
We arrived back at the marina about 6:30pm and one of the crew dropped me back at Ventura station in time for the last train back to Union Station. The Amtrak trains were clean and very comfortable -- I had no issue with them at all. Got back to LA Union around 9pm and got the metro back to 7th Street/Metro Center. Overall I was very satisfied with my 2 days' diving off Spectre, Ted and the crew were knowledgeable and helpful.
This was kind of long, so if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Cheers
R
