Alexandra
Contributor
Dive trip report: Nov 6th, 2005
Spectre from Ventura to Anacapa
4 dive day
The boat left at 7am, on time, and completely full (40 divers). It was a split charter between UCSB and Hollywoodivers. Although there were definitely A LOT of people on board, I'm pleased to say that I didn't feel too crowded. The only time where we were a little on top of each other was right was the gates opened and folks were getting their things together to get in. There were a number of new divers/finishing OW certs.
The running of the boat and the dives was very smooth and enabled us to do 4 full dives, if we wanted to. They kept a good scheduled and communicated clearly when we could get in.
They have a hot tub on board which was nicely heated. Of course, that means taking off your wet suit to get in so not too many people did that and put the wet suit back on to get in the water again. I opted to sit on the edge and dunk my bare feet. Really helped warm me up.
Meals and drinks were all extra. About $6-7 for lunch and $1.25 for sodas. You had to order lunch before getting in for the second dive. I brought my own food and they were nice enough to let me use the toaster for my bagel and then the microwave for my soup at lunch time.
The crossing to Anacapa was pretty smooth and took about 1.5hrs.
The dives were great! Very little current and the vis was between 20-30'
We went to:
Pelican Preserve (front side) - Got to swim with a seal for a while who was particularly playful. We also saw a tremendous number of purple urchins and spanish shawls.
Underwater arch (front side) - Great topography (if that's what it is called underwaterHere we saw a good size sting ray and another seal (although not quite as close up as the first dive).
Goldfish bowl (back side) - Lots of the usual stuff. some beautiful large sea stars.
The Channels (back side) - Was very lucky to see a 5'(ish) leapord shark. Unfortunately he was out of my camera range but very cool nonetheless. We also saw a seal several times, a huge number of sea slugs, and the usual sea life and vegetation. Vis a bit murky at times compared to the previous dives.
Here are my photos from the day:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alexandraintl/album?.dir=/84d0&.src=ph&.tok=phi6k5DBrZyOSoGG
- Alexandra
Spectre from Ventura to Anacapa
4 dive day
The boat left at 7am, on time, and completely full (40 divers). It was a split charter between UCSB and Hollywoodivers. Although there were definitely A LOT of people on board, I'm pleased to say that I didn't feel too crowded. The only time where we were a little on top of each other was right was the gates opened and folks were getting their things together to get in. There were a number of new divers/finishing OW certs.
The running of the boat and the dives was very smooth and enabled us to do 4 full dives, if we wanted to. They kept a good scheduled and communicated clearly when we could get in.
They have a hot tub on board which was nicely heated. Of course, that means taking off your wet suit to get in so not too many people did that and put the wet suit back on to get in the water again. I opted to sit on the edge and dunk my bare feet. Really helped warm me up.
Meals and drinks were all extra. About $6-7 for lunch and $1.25 for sodas. You had to order lunch before getting in for the second dive. I brought my own food and they were nice enough to let me use the toaster for my bagel and then the microwave for my soup at lunch time.
The crossing to Anacapa was pretty smooth and took about 1.5hrs.
The dives were great! Very little current and the vis was between 20-30'
We went to:
Pelican Preserve (front side) - Got to swim with a seal for a while who was particularly playful. We also saw a tremendous number of purple urchins and spanish shawls.
Underwater arch (front side) - Great topography (if that's what it is called underwaterHere we saw a good size sting ray and another seal (although not quite as close up as the first dive).
Goldfish bowl (back side) - Lots of the usual stuff. some beautiful large sea stars.
The Channels (back side) - Was very lucky to see a 5'(ish) leapord shark. Unfortunately he was out of my camera range but very cool nonetheless. We also saw a seal several times, a huge number of sea slugs, and the usual sea life and vegetation. Vis a bit murky at times compared to the previous dives.
Here are my photos from the day:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alexandraintl/album?.dir=/84d0&.src=ph&.tok=phi6k5DBrZyOSoGG
- Alexandra
