Casino Park Catalina..Wed Oct 12,2013

[lamarpaulski]

Casino Park Catalina..Wed Oct 2,2013

​ Did a pair of dives at the park on a mostly cloudy day. The viz on dive 1 was excellent and I encountered three bat rays and a torpedo ray out by the two small wrecks @ 55ft. Dive #2 was much murkier but saw more bat rays and encountered the Cardinalfish again. Upon surfacing I had the privilege of encountering Dr. Bill. We started talking Scuba and I almost missed my 430 ferry ! Wonderful actually meeting him in person. here are a couple screen grabs of rays and Cardinalfishes (there were two). Same place but over one grotto as last time.

 

[MalibuJerry]

It's nice to dive there mid-week when the crowds are not scaring the bigger fish away. Thanks for the report.

 

[drbill]

Holy mackerel... you're reporting on a dive you will make 9 days from now Paul! Please tell me how you accomplished time travel! Tee hee.

Enjoyed the chance to chat yesterday. I'll have to do a dive during daylight to see if I can finally find the Guadalupe cardinalfish that have been avoiding me! Night dive was pretty good.

 

[lamarpaulski]

thats what happens when you try to do this stuff after a long day !!!!

 

[deeper thoughts]

thnx for posting

 

[blue steal]

Sounds like you had a good time. Thanks for posting.
I always enjoy weekdays (usually on Fridays) at Catalina.
Now that we are at the "off season", maybe I'll try a Saturday.
How was the water temp?
Was the fill station open for you?

 

[drbill]

On my night dive last night (to a max depth of only 52 fsw) my min temp was 68 F (20 C)

 

[lamarpaulski]

Sounds like you had a good time. Thanks for posting.
I always enjoy weekdays (usually on Fridays) at Catalina.
Now that we are at the "off season", maybe I'll try a Saturday.
How was the water temp?
Was the fill station open for you?

CDS fill station was open. Apparently they are considering some changes in their off-season deployment...my 2 cents was to keep Casino operation open and minimize pier or set up a lock box for tanks at Casino(get key at pier) . In any event I was told nothing would be done until the end of the month and any changes would be posted on their website. The Casino mini-dive shop is a great convenience but mid-week winter customers are pretty scarce (lock box idea !!)...so it seems we will be OK until next month at least. I would call ahead of time to make sure nonetheless. Water was warmer than a month ago...I had 63F at 75 ft and shallow was much warmer. Viz changed for the worse from Dive #1 to #2 tho. Dive #1 was that clear blue that just makes a kelp forest beautiful.