HBDiveGirl:
Signed up and requested the Pacific Star...see you there, Ken!
Do I get to learn that patented top-deck, back-flip entry?? Does PADI have a certification for that one? Do the DMs just sit in the galley and count the splashes??
Thanks, Ann Marie, for posting all the info for the day...Very Helpful!
Ciao,
Claudette
We did a fourple at Cat - the Arnaud-friendly 10 am - 10pm trip. Very nice. The crossing was pretty rought (as in very) but I sleep... so its all lost on me. I come up when we get there and half the crew is green, the other half has eyes like those velvet paintings of those kids with the really big eyes...
The diving was swell. Got some bugs, saw some stuff, had a great time. I asked Big-Wave Dave is he was taking the Pac Star out for Chamber day - he said of course. So I told him I'd see him there.
I love that boat... they try harder than any boat in the fleet. They schlep your stuff from the parking lot to the boat to your bunk and back again at the end of the trip. There are always a couple of guys on the swim step when you come back (the easiest re-board in SoCal, IMO) with 2 hotwater showers right on the step (woo hoo!) to take off the chill and the salt.
The cook has been significantly upgraded (yeah!) and to get around that wacky rear-galley set up, they've started serving the guests - as in no standing in line! They have real flatware (not plastic) and they bus the tables when you're done...gotta love that, too. There is a DVD and TV in the Galley, with a Sony surround sound system (with Sub!) No soda machine on the boat - so if you got a Diet Pepsi fix, bring yuour own (they do have a raging ice machine!) if you have a Diet Coke fix, dive the Bottom Scratcher....
I always bring a bigass insulated mug... fill it wif ice and rock on through the SI.
I can get a full 3000 fill (a
real 3000... not
dive boat 3000) and they offer PPB Nitrox with a real booster if you have an 02 clean tank (if you don't, Dave has some... if you ask.) This boat has the roomiest diving deck in the fleet (more open space than any other boat) and liberty and benches for all... The heads (2 of them) are accessed from INSIDE the galley, and both have real showers. All bunks are private (none of this wacky half-wall nonsense) and the camera / charger station is in the front of the bunkroom - so its protected, easy to get to (at the bottoom of the stairs) low traffic (read: safe), dry and very, very roomy.
PLUS: Dave is a sweet, sweet guy. No matter how bad things get, or how dicy things are, he is always, always positive. He's dived all these sites a zillion times... so he's not just a boat driver. He's a true diver and takes us to great sites - not the same ol' places. I throw mad love at this boat every chance I get.
OK - Plug for the Pac Star done. Dive it. You'll see the difference.
It'll be good to finally meet the famous Claudette. :10:
---
Ken
fftopic: 
Only peddle-boats and toddlers stay in the harbor... Great big old rollers obscured the horizon repeatedly all the way to Flat Rock. Must have been the same ones turning half your boat-mates green! Nearly got picked off by an outside wave in the kelp beds... Great day for 'yakin'! (Of course, it was smaller than the evening before, when my stomach was fluttering as I rose quickly up the face of the 6 footers rolling in....)
