socaldiver
Contributor
This past Wednesday was the Catalina Chamber Day, a fund raiser to help the Hyperbaric Chamber on Catalina Island. From what I understand they raised over $70,000 from the event.
My g/f (who is my dive buddy) and I had signed up to go out on the Pacific Star, out of Redondo Beach. We got up Wednesday morning at 4 AM so we could get to the boat by 6 AM (this is when boarding starts and we wanted to make sure we got a stateroom to take a nap on the trip over and back). The boat departed a little after 7 AM.
We were briefed that we would do our first dive at Isthmus Reef, off Two Harbors, and within eye sight of the chamber. After the first dive we would go to the chamber and take a tour. And then after our tour we would go on to our second dive sight.
I also had the opportunity to meet ChrisM, he is one of our board members who posts periodically. It was a pleasure meeting him after seeing his posts and pics on here and RSD.
The trip across the channel was nice. We had 4 to 5 foot seas, a few people sort of got sick. While we were crossing they held door prize drawings. I won a Trigger dive knife and my buddy won a Pelican dive light. Shortly thereafter my dive buddy, who only had a few hours sleep came down with flu like symptoms and she called the first dive before we even suited up and decided to take a nap instead. Bummers!! Isthmus Reef is a really cool dive. However, I respected her decision. After the divers came back aboard we went to the chamber.
The chamber tour was nice. We had briefing from the Baywatch crew about their job in rescuing people both on land as well as water. Then we had a briefing from the Coast Guard helicopter crew about their responsibilities with rescuing and transporting people. Finally the chamber. Wow! What an ugly looking piece of machinery that is so vital. They let us inside and took us to a depth of 1 ft. Amazing how you could feel the pressure at just 1 ft and how we had to equalize. after the tour while waiting for our boat to come back to pick us up we were fascinated by the leopard sharks sanctuary in the cove. Yup, a sanctuary that had about 10 leopard sharks swimming around. I would guess most were around 5 ft in length with a few of them being smaller.
After we boarded we headed for our next dive sight, Rock Quarry. Unfortunately, my buddy still wasn't feeling too well although she kept saying she would be ok. This time I called the dive though. I told her I felt it would be better to not dive (there is always another day to dive). I am glad I called it because she became very sick later in the evening and ended up not going to work the next day.
as far as the conditions, surface air temp was in the mid 60s, partly cloudy and a slight breeze. I understand the water temp was 60 and it appeared vis was possibly 50 fsw (that is only a guess from my prospective of looking down from the boat into the water).
Final thoughts, I probably could have still did the dives without my buddy but I felt if she couldn't go I would stay dry with her. That way I knew she wouldn't do anything silly. We were still happy with the event, the chamber came out with much needed funds, we got to go on a nice boat ride to our favorite part of the world, and we did win some nice door prizes.
My g/f (who is my dive buddy) and I had signed up to go out on the Pacific Star, out of Redondo Beach. We got up Wednesday morning at 4 AM so we could get to the boat by 6 AM (this is when boarding starts and we wanted to make sure we got a stateroom to take a nap on the trip over and back). The boat departed a little after 7 AM.
We were briefed that we would do our first dive at Isthmus Reef, off Two Harbors, and within eye sight of the chamber. After the first dive we would go to the chamber and take a tour. And then after our tour we would go on to our second dive sight.
I also had the opportunity to meet ChrisM, he is one of our board members who posts periodically. It was a pleasure meeting him after seeing his posts and pics on here and RSD.
The trip across the channel was nice. We had 4 to 5 foot seas, a few people sort of got sick. While we were crossing they held door prize drawings. I won a Trigger dive knife and my buddy won a Pelican dive light. Shortly thereafter my dive buddy, who only had a few hours sleep came down with flu like symptoms and she called the first dive before we even suited up and decided to take a nap instead. Bummers!! Isthmus Reef is a really cool dive. However, I respected her decision. After the divers came back aboard we went to the chamber.
The chamber tour was nice. We had briefing from the Baywatch crew about their job in rescuing people both on land as well as water. Then we had a briefing from the Coast Guard helicopter crew about their responsibilities with rescuing and transporting people. Finally the chamber. Wow! What an ugly looking piece of machinery that is so vital. They let us inside and took us to a depth of 1 ft. Amazing how you could feel the pressure at just 1 ft and how we had to equalize. after the tour while waiting for our boat to come back to pick us up we were fascinated by the leopard sharks sanctuary in the cove. Yup, a sanctuary that had about 10 leopard sharks swimming around. I would guess most were around 5 ft in length with a few of them being smaller.
After we boarded we headed for our next dive sight, Rock Quarry. Unfortunately, my buddy still wasn't feeling too well although she kept saying she would be ok. This time I called the dive though. I told her I felt it would be better to not dive (there is always another day to dive). I am glad I called it because she became very sick later in the evening and ended up not going to work the next day.
as far as the conditions, surface air temp was in the mid 60s, partly cloudy and a slight breeze. I understand the water temp was 60 and it appeared vis was possibly 50 fsw (that is only a guess from my prospective of looking down from the boat into the water).
Final thoughts, I probably could have still did the dives without my buddy but I felt if she couldn't go I would stay dry with her. That way I knew she wouldn't do anything silly. We were still happy with the event, the chamber came out with much needed funds, we got to go on a nice boat ride to our favorite part of the world, and we did win some nice door prizes.
