Long weekend plans

[Guy Alcala]

Thanks Doc! We may have to let Kathy finish her schoolwork first, we'll work it out.
I just finished 85 today, not really in style. I'll be getting sand out of my gear for the next hour or so.
I did make it to the barge on my first dive. That was such a neat experience.
Guy Alcala: I checked that screw you were talking about, it's seated just fine, it's up about an inch. but when I tried to tighten it down I could not. It's not going anywhere.
Many thanks to Kenn for his video so that I was able to know what to expect. I made it back with 1300 psi (in an HP100)
We had a considerable surface swim though, I was grateful the boat traffic was pretty much non-existent. We found the line easily going out, I was expecting to see the barge at the end of the line but we couldn't. I took a guess and veered left and found it. We could not, however, find the line on the way back (thus the extreme surface swim).

<snip>

Kristina, thanks for checking it for me. I'll send you a PM on how to find the end of the line from the barge if you want, but failing that, from any point on the barge if you swim any course between 180 and 240 inclusive, you'll eventually arrive at either the wall or the beach, near the corner stairs. I tend to use 200 deg., which will bring you back to the wall slightly west (towards the beach) of where you started, and gets you out of the boat traffic sooner than swimming 180 would, while also getting you shallower and closer to the wall in case there are any problems.

I make it a habit to always have a safety direction/heading and the approximate distance to the feature pre-planned and either memorized or better yet written down, just in case I'm not too sure where I am or the direction to my target. The safety direction is chosen to take you to an unmistakeable linear feature lying across your path, one which will lead you to people/help. This is a carry over from land navigation practice: in the Sierra it's common to use the nearest through-road. Ideally it will be one of the cardinal directions, but doesn't need to be.

Guy

 

[eric gundrum]

Wow, Kristina, I'm impressed you chose to dive yesterday. I drove by Asilomar just to see the 12' breakers on the point. There was some heavy surf, but no surfers. Maybe they saw that shark that was hunting for you.

I'm off to Breakwater to play in the sand with my son.

 

[pacificgal]

That's exactly what I did, Guy, I knew the wall was 180 and the beach was 210-240 so I set a course halfway inbetween. But swimming mid water column, in current, we weren't sure we were actually getting anywhere. Probably should've descended back down and kept going till he had his rock bottom psi but I wanted to ensure we had plenty of air if we encountered any problems, like we had when we exited the second dive. I'm always learning things I could've done better, but was very pleased I was able to find the barge the first time I tried. That was my + for the day, the - for the day I'm still dealing with, trying to get the sand out of my integrated weight system latches from dive 2.

 

[pacificgal]

Eric, it wasn't bad at all in the morning, it picked up shortly after we entered for our 2nd dive, around 10 am, when we got out at 10:45 it was really challenging. Made it out alive, but got tossed about a bit, needed a hand getting off my knees in the surf and resorted to putting the reg back in my mouth as the waves went crashing over me. Scary stuff, wouldn't want to do it again.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Eric, it wasn't bad at all in the morning, it picked up shortly after we entered for our 2nd dive, around 10 am, when we got out at 10:45 it was really challenging. Made it out alive, but got tossed about a bit, needed a hand getting off my knees in the surf and resorted to putting the reg back in my mouth as the waves went crashing over me. Scary stuff, wouldn't want to do it again.

Scuba wrangler, yes you are... Waves crashing over you.... Kristina, if you keep up this bravery you might get mistaken for Coast Guard on a rescue...

 

[fobturbo]

FYI for anyone that's still on the fence, the waves are reaching the stairs pretty consistenly @BW right now.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

resorted to putting the reg back in my mouth as the waves went crashing over me.

It's not a bad idea to just keep your reg in our mouth on entrances
and exits. And Nitrox is stuff while climbing the stairs with full
gear on.

It's not about diving all of the good days,
it's about diving none of the bad days.

 

[mikemill]

FYI for anyone that's still on the fence, the waves are reaching the stairs pretty consistenly @BW right now.

Woot, laziness FTW again!

 

[pacificgal]

Met fobturbo, andrewy and sgrunert at BW. Wasn't divable, we all went to check out Lover's, there were surfers there, we came back to look at MacAbee, nuh-uh, went back to BW to see if we could do the south entry, no, waves up the ramp/stairs there too. Went by Del Monte, nope, went back to BW to have breakfast at the deli. Took another look at wave action before deciding it's not a good day to dive. There were 2 divers out, I think fobturbo may have stayed to see how they exited (if they exited OK), but I came home and returned my tanks and now I'll take a nap. Hope for better next weekend.
I did swing by Del Monte one more time by myself on my way out and there were surfers there too.

 

[pacificgal]

Mike G, I haven't heard of you being out in awhile, you ok?