Avalon Harbor is Clean!

[nannymouse]

Avalon Harbor is Clean Again!!!

Well, relatively so.

I didn't see the things that came out at Step Beach or Green Pier, but we brought a lot of junk out at Casino Point. I was buddied with Mike Mino and we were among the first pairs into the water. But thanks to my air hogging ways and an incomplete fill, we were also the first pair out of the water.

Mike started gathering what looked like fishing line, but turned out to be some kind of sea grass. A clump that I brought up yielded a pint size octopus, which we returned to the water. I grabbed up some caution tape, some bottles, and various other debris. The long piece of pvc pipe was hard to carry, but I'm happy to get it out of the harbor. Mike brought up a floor mat, some shorts and a few other odds and ends.

There is too much to list, but some of the other cool things that were brought up included: a full bottle of wine, a frying pan and steak fork, a 1972 Eisenhower silver dollar, a dvd player, a pier piling sleeve, at least a dozen cell phones (of various vintages) and the funniest find......Billy Bob Teeth!!!

Getting my gear together, and everything lined up, was stressful, but well worth the effort. Many people pulled out because of the stormy weather, but it ended up being a BEAUTIFUL day!! The ride over was glassy, the wind didn't come up until after the awards, there was a sprinkle at about 3:00, but not enough to get anything wet, and the ride back was also smooth (except for the drunk party of Wiggies and loud singers. "Excuse me sir, you are going to have to step off of the boat. And take the girl with the cotton candy hair with you!")

All in all, I would definately do the clean up again. I am sure that by next year I will have my breathing under control, and my gear all lined up. I took a lot of pictures, and will see about posting some of them here.

What else was brought up? Who did you meet? What did you catch (or get hit on the head by) at the awards? Did you have tickets starting with 720? Where was Dr. Bill? Did that outboard from Scuba Luv still run???

 

[drbill]

Dr. Bill was there... but not diving. I've been bedridden with the flu, but dragged my sorry butt out of bed to watch the awards and raffle. I guess if I had to miss a clean-up, this was a good one since reports of vis in the harbor itself suggested a number of my friends couldn't even read their gauges at close range... and those were the "youngsters" with decent vision.

Thanks to all who braved the threat of the storms (did the one last night ever hit? I was snoozing in my warm bed, wearing my dry suit undies to keep toasty. I had plenty of raffle tickets that started with 720, but no prizes! Oh, and that outboard wasn't actually one of Scuba Luv's... the story was entirely fabricated (as that competition should be). Ugh... back to bed.

 

[MikeMag]

I went off Green Pier, but between the storms and fin action we were dealing with little to no visibilty in the pier area. I managed to come up with an oar handle and a full jar of lip gloss, spent the rest of the time avoiding a kick to the mask! But man, what a lucky window of sunshine betwen the storms----a beautiful fun morning in Avalon!

 

[drbill]

OMG, you got stuck returning with the group with the cotton candy hair. They sure were a rather loud and obnoxious group as they walked past the raffle.

 

[MissyP]

That was, hands down, the WORST vis I've ever been in... We were diving blind because there wasn't even 1 inch of visibility
Had to hold onto Josh's bcd pretty much the entire time, otherwise we would've just kept getting separated~ I couldnt even see my light, much less his....
We managed to go quite a ways down towards the step beach, and actually got a couple ft of vis for a little bit-- he found a lovely bath mat, and the rest of our findings were small~ bottle caps, a cup, foil, chewed gum, a button, a skull bead, sand paper... We found a large sheet of Plexi glass, but couldn't get it fully uncovered to bring it up....
During our brief stint of 3ft vis, we did see a couple of fat navanaxes and some HUGE spanish shawls....

 

[kelpmermaid]

Sorry about the viz, but that does happen unfortunately...this morning, after last night's rains, the water in the harbor looked like tea with milk. Runoff, I suppose, after last year's fires. Missy, I did like that little skull bead!

Oddest item found: the legs of a racing pigeon still attached to the pelvis (do birds have a pelvis?!) Ugh! The poor thing was identified by the numbered bands still on his feet.

Did anyone lose a fin on Saturday? I'll start a separate post to make it stand out.

Thanks for your participation!

 

[Blackwood]

Green Pier was definitely stupidly poor viz. Ari and I dove touch contact and called it after about 15 minutes.

I managed to come up with some pigeon feet.

Really.

 

[Kevrumbo]

And it was good to see nobody come in for treatment during my Crew Duty at the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber this past weekend. . .

 

[kelpmermaid]

So it was you with the pigeon feet!? As my pet bird would say, "Nasty!"

 

[Wiilldd1]

I did find a yellow fin, but about 10 minutes later I found the owner swimming around with his metal detector and the other fin.

I think he was very happy to see me!