Roughwaterjohn
Contributor
Catalina Island, Wednesday May 5th
Conditions:
Dive #1
Dropped down at 8:59AM
Water temperature was 60 degrees at depth
Visibility, 45-50
Calm seas, with little apparent surge or current
Maximum depth 62 fsw
Total bottom time, 1 hour 3 minutes
Dive #2
Dropped down at 11:10AM
Water temperature was 59 degrees at depth
Visibility, 60+
Maximum depth 49 fsw
Total bottom time 36 minutes
Links to photos from the trip:
#1) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5513
#2) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5512
#3) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5514
#4) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5510
Dive Report:
* caution * This report is long, disjointed and rambles on painfully. Avoid at all costs.
Chamber Day is a once a year event held to help support the USC Hyperbaric Chamber, located on Catalina Island. A major portion of its operating budget comes from this charity event. Chamber day was held, as it has been in the past, on a weekday. This year it fell on Wednesday, May 5th. My fellow Bottom Bunch Dive Club members and I were quite surprised, and a little amazed at the coincidence, to find we had each come down with a rare and little known disease, we like to call Bluwhatur Flu. Having called our surprisingly unsympathetic supervisors, we each hastened to alleviate the symptoms.
Bluwhatur Flu requires chilling the body core down, usually by immersion in chilled brine water, and by pressurizing the lungs with compressed air. 24 hours is usually enough for this cure to take effect.
We had arranged to go on the Sundiver, out of Long Beach California. The boat was planning on leaving the dock at 7:00AM, and as we were coming up from San Diego, the crew of the Sundiver was gracious enough to allow us to board the night before and sleep on the boat. We arrived at the dock around 9:00PM and stowed our gear on board and checked out the accommodations. By the time we made several trips back and forth from our vehicles to the boat, it was 10:00PM and we were starving. After driving around for a bit, we found a restaurant that was still open, but the kitchen had closed 20 minutes before, and only the bar was open. We had to satisfy ourselves with baskets of chips and a hydraulic dinner.
The following day, we left the dock shortly after 7:00AM, escaping the channel and entering the open seas very quickly. It was overcast, with the sun hidden behind the marine layer, but the seas were flat and calm and it was an easy ride over to Catalina Island. About midway in the crossing, we spotted several Dolphins playing off the stern of the boat. Assuming, rightly so it seems, that where there were a few Dolphins, more were sure to follow, we headed to the bow, and were rewarded with several Pacific White Sided Dolphins playing in the bow waves. They were soon joined by more of their family and friends. Looking in the distance, we could see hundreds (yes, hundreds) of Dolphins converging from both directions to meet within the intended path of our boat. For a quarter mile in front of us, the sea was a mass of breaching Dolphins and churning seas. Looking down at the knife-edge of the bow, we saw an ever-changing mix of 10-15 Dolphins racing with the boat. As we watched, the sun broke out of the clouds behind us (phase in the angelic music now). It lasted for about five minutes, when ultimately, one of the Dolphins squealed tag youre it, then darted back into the deep, quickly followed by all the rest.
By the time we got to the island, the sun was out in force above us and the waters were deep blue below. We dropped anchor about midway between Yellowtail Point and Rock Quarry. We were already suited up by this point, so we slipped into the rest of our gear and did a giant stride off the starboard side of the boat. Gathering up at the stern, the four of us dropped down and started exploring. We were on a gently sloping field of stone blocks, rock reef and kelp forests, in about 40 fsw. Visibility was a blue 45-50 with a water temperature of 62 degrees and little to no surge. The kelp appeared healthy, topping out and laying over on the surface. With the sun rising higher, its light illuminated the translucent leaves and flickered on the rocky bottom below.
The reefs were covered in large Purple Sea Urchins, Warty Sea Cucumbers, Bluebanded and Blackeyed Gobies. Garibaldi were everywhere, flashing brilliant in the reflected light. We saw schools of Senoritas and constant sightings of male and female Sheephead. As we worked our way deeper, eventually spending time in the edge of the forest, where the sand meets the rock reefs, we saw a couple of very feisty Sheep Crabs and several Bat Rays, their heads buried in the rubble filled bottom, foraging for the bottom life they live on. Checking out the kelp stalks, we found several very large Norris Topsnails, and checking under rocks and ledges, we were pleased to discover Abalone. Following the bottom contours on the return to the boat, we surprised a basking Turbot, camouflaged against the rough bottom. Nearing the boat, we rose up among the thick kelp stalks, slipping between the fronds as we ascended, eventually pushing a thick mass aside as we surfaced a few feet from the stern of the boat.
Back on board, we relaxed as the crew pulled up the anchor, then started us cruising north/west along the islands edge to our next destination, Blue Grotto. After the required surface interval, we were geared up again and slipping back into blue waters. This sight drops steep into deeper waters, mimicking underwater, the sheer rock walls of the island above. We dropped down at the outer edge of the kelp forest, barely 20 yards from shore and into 40 fsw, with the bottom disappearing into depths and darkness. Here though, light and color ruled the day. The whole area surrounding Blue Grotto is an amazing sight. There were sheer walls, drop offs, overhangs, swim throughs and rock filled slopes, all covered in luminescent green kelp stalks swaying in the sunlight. Film cannot capture the essence of this sight; I think my mind was barely able to hold its own, stumbling and starting as color flashed around me. With pure, seemingly unfiltered sunlight streaming down through the kelp, colors jumped out and sparkled in every direction, never staying in one place long enough to discover the source. Shafts of light would strike a brilliant Gorgonian patch or other soft coral, flaring momentarily into brilliance, before moving further into the forest, beckoning us deeper, flashes of bright orange Garibaldi or brilliant green kelp leaves begging us to approach.
Swimming in a daze, we saw brilliant Rock Wrasse, Garibaldi and quick flashes of bright silver as schools of fish too fast to see darted between shafts of light and dark. Fish life was just as abundant here as our last stop, maybe more so, but for once, they paled against their surroundings. Entering Blue Grotto itself, we entered a blue green world of bright shafts of light and secret pools of darkness. An inverted forest of Gorgonians, Red, Orange, and California Golden, hung suspended from the cavern ceiling, sharing space with mercurial pools of trapped air. Swimming from grotto to grotto, you were stunned as light flared around you, temporarily blinding you with reflected brilliance, before dropping back into another hidden chamber. I havent experienced colors like this since the sixties, and this simply on compressed air. The simple wonders of color and light, can humble the best of us. Finally, regretfully, it was time to return to the boat. We surfaced in open water this time, a little ways away from the stern, but a short surface swim brought us to the swim step and eventually, a warm shower and a hot lunch.
As we approached the part of the island that shelters the Hyperbaric Chamber, we were greeted with a US Coastguard helicopter, which had been on display, lift from its pad and swing out low over the ocean, passing over and behind us in its hast. Once we arrived a t the dock, we disembarked and took a tour of the facilities, including one of L.A. Counties Baywatch boats, a monster of a lifeguard rescue van, and finally a tour of the chamber itself. We learned how it operates, what procedures are used for DCS and other treatments, how its monitored and how the entire complex system is integrated and put through its paces every time a patient is inside. We also took a tour inside the chamber, and were able to remain inside as it was pressurized and dropped to a depth of 1. Amazingly, even at that shallow depth, the effects were evident. Ears were cleared, noses were pinched, and the temperature increased, amazing considering a typical treatment drops the patient to 165, a far cry from our measly 1.
After the tour, we were able to purchase t-shirts, caps and such as souvenirs, before reboarding the boat and heading back to Long Beach. It was an easy, uneventful ride back. After docking and loading our vehicles up with all the gear we had used during the day, it was back to the Southern California freeways, and all the danger that entails. A worthy cause and a worthy day it seems. In addition, our symptoms had improved through our prescribed treatments, and Im sure we would all be hale and hearty by tomorrow.
John A.
Conditions:
Dive #1
Dropped down at 8:59AM
Water temperature was 60 degrees at depth
Visibility, 45-50
Calm seas, with little apparent surge or current
Maximum depth 62 fsw
Total bottom time, 1 hour 3 minutes
Dive #2
Dropped down at 11:10AM
Water temperature was 59 degrees at depth
Visibility, 60+
Maximum depth 49 fsw
Total bottom time 36 minutes
Links to photos from the trip:
#1) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5513
#2) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5512
#3) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5514
#4) http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/photogalleries.php?s=5510
Dive Report:
* caution * This report is long, disjointed and rambles on painfully. Avoid at all costs.
Chamber Day is a once a year event held to help support the USC Hyperbaric Chamber, located on Catalina Island. A major portion of its operating budget comes from this charity event. Chamber day was held, as it has been in the past, on a weekday. This year it fell on Wednesday, May 5th. My fellow Bottom Bunch Dive Club members and I were quite surprised, and a little amazed at the coincidence, to find we had each come down with a rare and little known disease, we like to call Bluwhatur Flu. Having called our surprisingly unsympathetic supervisors, we each hastened to alleviate the symptoms.
Bluwhatur Flu requires chilling the body core down, usually by immersion in chilled brine water, and by pressurizing the lungs with compressed air. 24 hours is usually enough for this cure to take effect.
We had arranged to go on the Sundiver, out of Long Beach California. The boat was planning on leaving the dock at 7:00AM, and as we were coming up from San Diego, the crew of the Sundiver was gracious enough to allow us to board the night before and sleep on the boat. We arrived at the dock around 9:00PM and stowed our gear on board and checked out the accommodations. By the time we made several trips back and forth from our vehicles to the boat, it was 10:00PM and we were starving. After driving around for a bit, we found a restaurant that was still open, but the kitchen had closed 20 minutes before, and only the bar was open. We had to satisfy ourselves with baskets of chips and a hydraulic dinner.
The following day, we left the dock shortly after 7:00AM, escaping the channel and entering the open seas very quickly. It was overcast, with the sun hidden behind the marine layer, but the seas were flat and calm and it was an easy ride over to Catalina Island. About midway in the crossing, we spotted several Dolphins playing off the stern of the boat. Assuming, rightly so it seems, that where there were a few Dolphins, more were sure to follow, we headed to the bow, and were rewarded with several Pacific White Sided Dolphins playing in the bow waves. They were soon joined by more of their family and friends. Looking in the distance, we could see hundreds (yes, hundreds) of Dolphins converging from both directions to meet within the intended path of our boat. For a quarter mile in front of us, the sea was a mass of breaching Dolphins and churning seas. Looking down at the knife-edge of the bow, we saw an ever-changing mix of 10-15 Dolphins racing with the boat. As we watched, the sun broke out of the clouds behind us (phase in the angelic music now). It lasted for about five minutes, when ultimately, one of the Dolphins squealed tag youre it, then darted back into the deep, quickly followed by all the rest.
By the time we got to the island, the sun was out in force above us and the waters were deep blue below. We dropped anchor about midway between Yellowtail Point and Rock Quarry. We were already suited up by this point, so we slipped into the rest of our gear and did a giant stride off the starboard side of the boat. Gathering up at the stern, the four of us dropped down and started exploring. We were on a gently sloping field of stone blocks, rock reef and kelp forests, in about 40 fsw. Visibility was a blue 45-50 with a water temperature of 62 degrees and little to no surge. The kelp appeared healthy, topping out and laying over on the surface. With the sun rising higher, its light illuminated the translucent leaves and flickered on the rocky bottom below.
The reefs were covered in large Purple Sea Urchins, Warty Sea Cucumbers, Bluebanded and Blackeyed Gobies. Garibaldi were everywhere, flashing brilliant in the reflected light. We saw schools of Senoritas and constant sightings of male and female Sheephead. As we worked our way deeper, eventually spending time in the edge of the forest, where the sand meets the rock reefs, we saw a couple of very feisty Sheep Crabs and several Bat Rays, their heads buried in the rubble filled bottom, foraging for the bottom life they live on. Checking out the kelp stalks, we found several very large Norris Topsnails, and checking under rocks and ledges, we were pleased to discover Abalone. Following the bottom contours on the return to the boat, we surprised a basking Turbot, camouflaged against the rough bottom. Nearing the boat, we rose up among the thick kelp stalks, slipping between the fronds as we ascended, eventually pushing a thick mass aside as we surfaced a few feet from the stern of the boat.
Back on board, we relaxed as the crew pulled up the anchor, then started us cruising north/west along the islands edge to our next destination, Blue Grotto. After the required surface interval, we were geared up again and slipping back into blue waters. This sight drops steep into deeper waters, mimicking underwater, the sheer rock walls of the island above. We dropped down at the outer edge of the kelp forest, barely 20 yards from shore and into 40 fsw, with the bottom disappearing into depths and darkness. Here though, light and color ruled the day. The whole area surrounding Blue Grotto is an amazing sight. There were sheer walls, drop offs, overhangs, swim throughs and rock filled slopes, all covered in luminescent green kelp stalks swaying in the sunlight. Film cannot capture the essence of this sight; I think my mind was barely able to hold its own, stumbling and starting as color flashed around me. With pure, seemingly unfiltered sunlight streaming down through the kelp, colors jumped out and sparkled in every direction, never staying in one place long enough to discover the source. Shafts of light would strike a brilliant Gorgonian patch or other soft coral, flaring momentarily into brilliance, before moving further into the forest, beckoning us deeper, flashes of bright orange Garibaldi or brilliant green kelp leaves begging us to approach.
Swimming in a daze, we saw brilliant Rock Wrasse, Garibaldi and quick flashes of bright silver as schools of fish too fast to see darted between shafts of light and dark. Fish life was just as abundant here as our last stop, maybe more so, but for once, they paled against their surroundings. Entering Blue Grotto itself, we entered a blue green world of bright shafts of light and secret pools of darkness. An inverted forest of Gorgonians, Red, Orange, and California Golden, hung suspended from the cavern ceiling, sharing space with mercurial pools of trapped air. Swimming from grotto to grotto, you were stunned as light flared around you, temporarily blinding you with reflected brilliance, before dropping back into another hidden chamber. I havent experienced colors like this since the sixties, and this simply on compressed air. The simple wonders of color and light, can humble the best of us. Finally, regretfully, it was time to return to the boat. We surfaced in open water this time, a little ways away from the stern, but a short surface swim brought us to the swim step and eventually, a warm shower and a hot lunch.
As we approached the part of the island that shelters the Hyperbaric Chamber, we were greeted with a US Coastguard helicopter, which had been on display, lift from its pad and swing out low over the ocean, passing over and behind us in its hast. Once we arrived a t the dock, we disembarked and took a tour of the facilities, including one of L.A. Counties Baywatch boats, a monster of a lifeguard rescue van, and finally a tour of the chamber itself. We learned how it operates, what procedures are used for DCS and other treatments, how its monitored and how the entire complex system is integrated and put through its paces every time a patient is inside. We also took a tour inside the chamber, and were able to remain inside as it was pressurized and dropped to a depth of 1. Amazingly, even at that shallow depth, the effects were evident. Ears were cleared, noses were pinched, and the temperature increased, amazing considering a typical treatment drops the patient to 165, a far cry from our measly 1.
After the tour, we were able to purchase t-shirts, caps and such as souvenirs, before reboarding the boat and heading back to Long Beach. It was an easy, uneventful ride back. After docking and loading our vehicles up with all the gear we had used during the day, it was back to the Southern California freeways, and all the danger that entails. A worthy cause and a worthy day it seems. In addition, our symptoms had improved through our prescribed treatments, and Im sure we would all be hale and hearty by tomorrow.
John A.
