Epic conditions at Catalina 10/23

[Codyjp]

Boardmember Rainer organized a charter a few months ago for a trip to Catalina and a bunch of GUE, UTD and DIR divers were in attendance. We were to dive Ship Rock, Eagle Reef and Blue Caverns. This trip was going to be great. Then rain. And more rain. Then on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning you guessed it. It rained. I'm reasonable sure the sea actually rose an inch it rained so much.

We packed the car it rain and arrive to the Sea Bass Early in the morning just behind Ligersandtions. Her and her husband bail out of their car sporting drysuits. Turns out they were smart enough to dress in the warmth of their living room! This was telling of the day we may have ahead of us. We all suited up in the parking lot and loaded the boat down with a lot of gear. Doubles, singles, stages and scooters filled every nook and cranny. In all, a big pile o' fun. At 7am sharp we threw the dock lines and off we went. The Sea Bass turned corner at the Pt. Fermen Light House and the sky opened up to be showing signs of sun, but really, could it be? By mid channel we could clearly see the dark skies of the mainland behind us and the clouds breaking and rays of sunshine near the island.

The seas were glass as we dropped anchor (and dropped it well indeed ) at Ship rock. The teams divided up and dropped into quite a gift. The vis had to be at least 70'. With my extra layer of undergarments I though for a minute I was in the tropics. The kelp was standing straight up and there was no current whatsoever. Things were looking up for us! Some buzzed off on scooters, others headed for the tech depths, more bolted off with monkey diving rigs. Our team circled around the north side at around 80' finding a few swell sharks then worked our way shallower to finish our dive in the kelp. A team deeper than us must have stired up a big angel shark that swam from the depths up to us, he said hello, then descend back into the depths.

Our second dive was on Eagle Reef. ScubaQ was kind enough to offer up his nearly new, and perfectly trimmed Sierra to me so Jen H, Vincent and I hit the triggers and tore off into the distance to explore the reef! Vis had dropped but still was at a respectable 40'. After about 8 minutes of trucking along with a stiff current from behind us we decided to turn back towards the boat. We passed the boat heading into the current only to be greeted by another current pushing the other way. What's going on here? Anyway, lots of kelp laying flat, lots of manic current and some really huge nudis. I was leading this dive and had to be honest. With all this current I knew we must be within a 10 minute scooter run of the boat with around 5 minutes of battery time left. Oye. Vincent shot a bag and up we went to have a look. Due to my expert navigation we surfaced about 20' from the boat. I was surprised enough I couldn't even play it off as intentional.

The third dive was at Blue Caverns. This dive was to be a live boat event against a wall. We quickly found the first cavern which is huge, and had approximately 22 1/2 million lobsters in it. We ascended up to around 50 and continued to drift along the wall as the others continued to follow the base of the wall along to about 80'. They were able to explore more caverns as we enjoyed a huge vertical wall that was covered in sea fans and corals. The vis was still around 40'. I haven't had this much fun since we were on the Yukon earlier in the week with 60-80' of vis. To finish the dive we kicked away from the kelp and I shot a marker buoy as we completed our deco. I'd practice this quite a bit but this was the first time I got to put this skill to use for 'real'. Sure was nice to arrive on the surface with a boat crew who was already waiting to pick us up. These small bits of training really pay off to make diving less stressful, safer and a lot more fun.

The day was filled with friends having fun, joking and laughing the whole time. With all the divers on the same agenda it made for simple, safe and successful dives. We ended the night with 2 hours at Sushi. Special thanks to Rainer for organizing this and keeping the community active and thanks for everybody on the boat for making it fun. Thanks to Ligersandtions for loaning me an inflater hose and ScubaQ for letting me play with his scoot. (don't even start!)

There were a couple cameras in the water so I'm looking forward to seeing those!

 

[Jeff_S]

A great, fun day...here's a little video of Kim and I racing the scooters all over the kelp.

Kim and Jeff Scootering Catalina - Unified Team Diving

Jeff

 

[Rainer]

What a wonderful trip report, Cody (Codyjp)! Thanks so much for posting.

This was a fantastic trip and served to remind me how good the diving can be on the front side of Catalina.

For the first dive at Ship Rock, Quintin (ScubaQ) and I buddied up. We planned to scooter around the entire pinnacle. Max depth for us was 165', with 25 minutes of deco. The schools of blacksmith were insane between 90-130'. Several sea lions were out hunting (and playing). Visibility was great (~70'). Deco was up the rock and through some gorgeous kelp. What a great start to the day! Here's a quick video from the first dive:

[vimeo]16158403[/vimeo]

I was planning to dive with Jen (jenth) for the second dive at Eagle Reef, but as we were getting ready to leave the first site, Captain Richard let us know that his anchor was stuck. Stephen (xstephenx) and I volunteered to bounce down and free it. We were hoping for a quick five minute dive, but alas, when we got to the anchor (sitting in 105'), while it was free in the sand, the chain had somehow gotten helplessly entangled under a few massive boulders. There was no obvious way to free it (we tried for a few minutes), so we decided our only hope was to free the shackle, and try passing the chain through the holes between the boulders. In all, it took over 15 minutes to free, but finally, the chain and anchor were sitting in the sand. Now to raise the 65# of anchor and chain. Between us, we had one 50# lift bag and two 6# SMBs. Thankfully, it was *just* enough to let us swim it to the surface. We reshackled the anchor chain to the anchor rope (thankfully Stephen still had the pin!) and soon we were underway. Stephen and I decided to sit out the dive at Eagle Reef, but from reports from others, it sounds like it was a great site.

For the third dive, Stephen and I jumped in at Blue Caverns with the scooters. We explored a couple of caverns, and as Cody notes, they were just swarming with lobsters. Cruising back and forth along the reef, we came across a Pacific Electric Ray. The reef here is stunning, with sheer walls that run from ~80' to within 15' of the surface. One patch was absolutely covered in various gorgonia. After an hour, we headed up, and I did a few minutes of O2 deco before we surfaced to the boat waiting for us. Some video I shot on the third dive:

[vimeo]16158316[/vimeo]

A quick trip back and we were soon at the dock in San Pedro. A really fun day with some really fun divers.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Thnx great vid

 

[fnfalman]

Thanks for the great videos as well.

The two times I dived at Ship Rock, the conditions were quite challenging and being on single tank, I didn't last long.

 

[Rainer]

Thanks for the great videos as well.

The two times I dived at Ship Rock, the conditions were quite challenging and being on single tank, I didn't last long.

Ship Rock can get some decent currents, especially on the side away from the island. When it's calm, though, it's a spectacular dive just about anywhere. It's a great spot as it allows just about any profile (0-300'+) and offers distinct scenery at different depths. I don't think Jeff and Kim went below 30' on their dive there and they had a wonderful time. If you can get back, I'd highly recommend it. Hopefully conditions will cooperate!

 

[ligersandtions]

What an amazing day for diving! The week leading up to the charter was grey and rainy....not downpour type rain for the most part, but still rainy enough that I assume local diving probably wasn't all that great. I was concerned enough to post a thread and ask if anyone had been out to Ship Rock, Eagle Reef, or Blue Caverns in the past few days (or any other time it rained before they went out). It wasn't of much help, so I figured I'd just be optimistic. Besides, there can't really be much run-off out at Catalina, right?

We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of rain. It sounded like it was raining pretty hard....but it was mostly just the dripping off the house that made it sound that way. Despite the fact that it wasn't raining that hard, Stephen and I chose to don our drysuits in the comfort of our warm, dry living room....and then go out and pack the truck and head to the marina, five minutes away


The ocean was almost glass-like. I kinda wished I hadn't taken Bonine in the morning because I know it's going to knock me out later. The sun is breaking through the clouds as we get to Catalina....much better to be on the island than on the mainland today! We anchor at Ship Rock and splash for dive #1.

For this dive, Jen, Vincent, and I are scootering. I've made some adjustments to my rig based on what Bob Sherwood and I had talked about on Monday. This makes scootering seem a little easier (yeah, I still suck on a scooter!), but barrel rolls are still near-suicide missions for me Vincent had some close calls with his barrel rolls too, so I felt a little better. We saw a couple nice lingcods, some big lobsters, and tons of densly packed blacksmith schools. This is a great site for scootering as there's not a ton in the way of macro life (or at least I'll tell myself that, cause I missed it!).


As mentioned before, Chris and Stephen had to recover the stuck anchor / chain. What was supposed to be a quick bounce dive was running up on NDL's. Because of that, they thought it was wise to sit out the second dive. I think Jen was getting worried, as Stephen and Chris were supposed to be her buddies for the second dive! Quintin also decided to sit out the dive, so Jen had at least one buddy till Cody was offered a scooter. He seemed hesitant....I talked him into it cause, honestly, I wanted to dive with Leslie! We zig-zagged back and forth, working our way up the reef. I spotted an eel....my favorite, Leslie's least favorite....so I gave her the "eel" signal and then held my hand over my face to tell her to close her eyes. She totally got my signal and we both started laughing....until I went back to peek at the eel for a few moments. Toward the end of the dive, Leslie signalled me to show me this huge sea hare....it had to be close to three feet long! I had no idea they got that big....I went over to "measure" it with my arms and apparently scared the crap out of it....literally.

The final dive was the real icing on the cake. Stephen and Chris were feeling scooter-deprived, so they grabbed the scoots and Jen and I kicked Blue Caverns. We both wanted to work on trim (had both adjusted rigs, per Bob's comments) and give each other feedback. Things were feeling really good....and then we came across the first cavern, with hundreds and hundreds of really big lobsters! It was seriously cool! I have to wonder, though, if cave/cavern diving would be as cool if there wasn't life in it. I'm not entirely sure I'd be all that captivated, but I guess I'll have to try it out someday to really know.

Jen and I kept kicking and found another cavern that housed some more lobsters. Finally, we came across the most beautiful wall I've ever seen....the gorgonian wall. There were all kinds of gorgonians coming from all directions....some that hung from the top of the rock, some that suck out sideways from the side of the wall, and some that grew from the bottom. Gold, brown, red....and this neat yellow flower-like gorgonian (don't know what it is, but it's very pretty). We finished off the dive ascending up the giant kelp....chattering about how beautiful the dive was!

We finished off the charter with smooth seas, sun, and lots of laughing on the way home....and finished off the day with some sushi and sake!

I wasn't expecting to love the front side of Catalina so much, but I really had a great time. And if for some reason we cannot make it to Farnsworth in a couple weeks, I would love to go back to Blue Caverns! We really are very lucky to have such great diving in our back yard. Thanks, again, Chris for setting this up!

 

[TSandM]

Nicole, you'd feel better if you had seen me try to do a barrel roll on my scooter in Maui, and corkscrew my head right into the sand!

No macro life on Ship Rock? My memory of that dive was nudibranchs galore, but also HUGE schools of fish at depth.

Sounds like you guys had almost as much fun this weekend as we did

 

[jenth]

Great write ups and video. What a great day of diving! I must say, Blue Caverns exceeded my expectations. The structure was amazing...LOVED the wall of hanging gorgonia!!

And Nicole, a not-so-perfect barrel roll just means you need more trigger time! Next time you should do a scooter dive with Cody...he's a natural! And somehow (as if by magic) he manages to get you right back to the boat at the end of the dive.

 

[Codyjp]

Great write ups and video. What a great day of diving! I must say, Blue Caverns exceeded my expectations. The structure was amazing...LOVED the wall of hanging gorgonia!!

And Nicole, a not-so-perfect barrel roll just means you need more trigger time! Next time you should do a scooter dive with Cody...he's a natural! And somehow (as if by magic) he manages to get you right back to the boat at the end of the dive.

I must say that barrel rolls in doubles is quite a challenge and I only crashed the scoot once (and by crash I mean gently touches some sand Quinten!) Thats a lot of weight to be slinging around. As for finding the boat that was pure [-]skill[/-] luck. Thanks for scootering with me!