Chica and I were going to be on a Reef Check California re-certification dive on Sunday 3/30/08 aboard the Peace dive boat - a SoCal classic.
I thought it'd be silly to go up to Ventura just to do the re-certification dives (read: working) on Sunday for RCCA, so I booked us on the Peace on Saturday, too, for some fun dives, and to get a head start on the fish ID skills we'd need and be evaluated against on Sunday.
This Saturday trip had been booked through two shops, each taking 1/2 of the boat. I called both, but never heard back from Anacapa dive center, so we ended up booking through Haven's Reef. I've met Scott a number of times (although I'm confident he couldn't pick me out of a line up) and I was very pleased that he called me back almost immediately after I called the shop (when it was closed - I left a VM) and left an eMail about the trip. We got the last two spots.
Friday night I arrive at Ventura and there isn't a puff of breeze. The harbor is perfectly still. In the 30 or 40 times I've dived out of Ventura, I've never seen it so still. I'm pretty excited. Looking forward to a good day!
The Lakers are playing Friday night, and Chica would be up a few hours later, so I roll over to a local restaurant, order something healthy and settle in and watch the Lakers get pasted by yet another sub-500 team.
Not in the best mood, I head back to the boat, take half-a-chewable dramamine and hit the rack.
I wake up the next morning and there's a little wind in the harbor - nothing out of the ordinary. I went back to the bunk and thought I'd grab another hour or so until we got to Anacapa. The moment, THE MOMENT we breached the mouth of the harbor, the Peace started ROCKIN'. Unreal, heaving to both sides. Its not a large boat. A courageous boat to be sure, but not a large boat, and the thing was getting bounced.
I went upstairs to make sure my batteries and stuff were secure on the charging table, then walked out to the soaking, heaving deck to be sure the scooters were secure. When I came back into the galley, several people were asking the crew for Dramamine... Of course, I had some in my drybox, so I started dispensing it like a (well prepared) pusher, holding one back for Sunday's trip.
Going back downstairs I fell back asleep. I woke up nearly TWO hours later when things calmed down. We had blown right pass Anacapa and were heading to Santa Cruz Island. Pretty cool, as it had been a long time since I dived there. I came back up stairs for some breakfast (we were still a ways off, but we were in the lee of the SC island - so it was a bit calmer...)
The Galley was loaded with ashen-faced people who were obviously not on the pleasure trip they expected. There were also a lot of kids - like 6 to 10 year olds... I think 4 or 5 of them - that also means a girp of proud parents and lots of PMS (proud mom syndrome...) OY.
Looking over the people, I could tell this was going to be a trip loaded with shallow sandy sites, as there were clearly lots of students aboard. Two things I'm grateful for: 1) Bring your own buddy. Chica and I go into our own world on these type of tag-along trips - and I couldn't be more appreciative to her for that. 2) I gotta say, this is another wonderful thing about the scooters. You're never bound to the confines of entry-level dive sites.
DIVE #1
Steve came over to us (he's a buddy, been on the Peace forever and was one of Claudette's early instructors, I believe), pulled us aside and said he wanted us in FIRST. The boat would take awhile to unload, and we could probably get 75 minutes on dive one. BONUS!!! We dropped near first, with scoots and cameras, and played for about 78 minutes.
Zillions of Sea Lemons, and some small Clown nudis. I was shooting Macro as the water was a mess. Unreal surge. Very hard to shoot in, and I was getting frustrated missing shot after shot.
It was Nudi family day. Several Nudis out walking about together. Very strange, as they are slugs and not at all social.
Chica will be on later with her report and the names of the sites. It was a nice dive except for the surge.
Dive #2
This site looked a little cleaner than the first dive site. As we were gearing up, I said to 'dette, "think I'll regret not putting on the Wide Angle for this one...." Oh man. We were again first in (this time about 69 minutes of BT) and as we were dropping, we see the largest Mola I've ever seen in the water. This thing had really chewed up fins, and Claudette immediately gave chase with the scooter. Even with his stubby, scared up fins he was able to outrun us. Before we splashed, Kevin (the Capt'n) told Chica and I this would likely be the best dive of the day for us, and gave us good directions to a special spot. After the Mola encounter we resumed our course to the pointy end of the island, and the promise of a cool site to ourselves.
As we scooted through the kelp towards the point, the current was really pushing us along. We were really zooming on the scoots - it was kind of cool. Several more species of Nudis (on the day we saw 11 or 12 species), getting buzzed by a sea lion and it was time to return.
We kept seeing Black Dorid eggs on those green Bryzoans - but no Nudis. FINALLY I saw a couple - and they were again so well disguised that I pulled back a ways to get a shot of them, so you can appreciate how perfect they can hide on the stuff.
On our way back into the ripping current, we found the anchor line. We still had gas, so we thought we'd follow it back down to the original site. We got to the end of the line and it was only sand everywhere.... IT WAS THE BOW LINE! Silly. Line and chain looks like line and chain.... We made a U-turn back to the boat and we rolled up onto a football-sized comb jelly. He had orange spikes, was freely swimming and I had a 105mm lens on.... The best I could do was open things up, slow things down, get really far away and roll the dice. As fuzzy as the pics are, you can still see most of the details on him.
Dive #3 - Flame Reef
As the trip out took so long, and the trip back would be even longer, Capt'n Kevin announced that we'd be only making one more stop, so the options were to make two shorties or one longer dive, but we had a hard stop at XX:00 o'clock.
Kevin then came over to Claudette and I and pointed to some kelp a ways off the boat's stern to the east. He said that was "Flame Reef" and we may want to dive there. What a hook up! He provided directions and we we're off.
This was THE dive of the weekend. Nudi Mania, excellent structure, gorgonians, kelp, big rock relief, tons of fish. An excellent dive. Just wonderful.
We zoomed on the coordinates we received and got there in a reasonable amount of time with the scoots. Once there we pretty much dived the tanks down to the nub - making sure we were off the reef with ample time to be back on the step just prior to the hard stop Kevin gave everyone.
Of course, Chica and I are the last ones back. We haul on and break down. I grab a yummy desert and hit the rack for the trip back.
Many thanks to Claudette, best buddy ever, for an excellent day of diving. We really do fall into our own world and do what we do. Thanks again!
A few pics below. More pics are in the full gallery here on Dive Matrix: SC Gallery
Enjoy.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nudi Family Day out! A bushel of Lemons.
Family day continues with a couple of Sandy's, grazing in the grass.
Here are those Black Dorids, hiding out in the open on the Bryzoans!
On the way to Flame reef on Dive 3, I saw a Kellet's Whelk trying to digest a small globe crab. When ever I see barnacles on a lobster or crab, I laugh. I mean, if you can't out-run a barnacle, right? But c'mon. A whelk grabs a Crab? Please. Crabby's got, you know, LEGS. I had Chica hold it up, as nobody would believe a whelk sneaked up on and grabbed a crab by his face...
Cockerell's on the edge - I like this shot. I think its my fav shot of the trip, mostly because I was getting blasted in the surge and shot this on the fly by, and the composition is precisely what I wanted to achieve. Small thing on the grand scale, but very satisfying to a photographer shooting under sub-optimal conditions.
Swell Shark Egg Case Before and After - The top shot is a Swel Shark egg case that was freshly laid. Its shiny, rubbery, clean and has the tendrils on the ends. This case is quite new (probably several hours to maybe a day old.) I had Chica hold her light behind it so you can see how beautiful it is. These eggs, depending on the water temperature, take 9 to 12 MONTHS to hatch. The lower picture is an egg that is quite old. If you look to the right side of the bottom pic, you can see how those tendrils in the top shot serve to snag on stuff and keep the egg from blowing ashore. We looked, and there was a live shark in there, wriggling around. Its amazing to me that these cases sit on the bottom for nearly a year, and rebuff all manner of invasive predators, tolerate all manner of growing crust that comes with being on the bottom of the ocean, and eventually spit out a new baby shark. Life just does.
White Spotted Navanax - I see the other types all the time, probably 100 to 1. I was pretty fired up when 'dette saw this one.
Chica pointed out this baby anemone (smaller than a dime) on a rock. He was the brightest and happiest thing on the rock. I originally thought it was a Hopkin's Rose Nudi, until I got closer and saw it was a baby 'monie.
Some kind of small crab. I just like this one because he has a baby clown Nudi he's hanging out with!
Here are a couple shots of that football jelly we saw at the end of dive two. This is as good as I can get, shooting something huge with a telescope in the surge! Too funny. She held her light on the jelly to light it up a bit as I clamped down the ap to get some darker water around it.
Claudette was hearing me screaming into my reg. She was so patient, as I kept trying different settings, holding up my index finger signaling "just one more...." (about 15 times)
Tritonia with his mouth agape, looking for his next snack!
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I thought it'd be silly to go up to Ventura just to do the re-certification dives (read: working) on Sunday for RCCA, so I booked us on the Peace on Saturday, too, for some fun dives, and to get a head start on the fish ID skills we'd need and be evaluated against on Sunday.
This Saturday trip had been booked through two shops, each taking 1/2 of the boat. I called both, but never heard back from Anacapa dive center, so we ended up booking through Haven's Reef. I've met Scott a number of times (although I'm confident he couldn't pick me out of a line up) and I was very pleased that he called me back almost immediately after I called the shop (when it was closed - I left a VM) and left an eMail about the trip. We got the last two spots.
Friday night I arrive at Ventura and there isn't a puff of breeze. The harbor is perfectly still. In the 30 or 40 times I've dived out of Ventura, I've never seen it so still. I'm pretty excited. Looking forward to a good day!
The Lakers are playing Friday night, and Chica would be up a few hours later, so I roll over to a local restaurant, order something healthy and settle in and watch the Lakers get pasted by yet another sub-500 team.
Not in the best mood, I head back to the boat, take half-a-chewable dramamine and hit the rack.
I wake up the next morning and there's a little wind in the harbor - nothing out of the ordinary. I went back to the bunk and thought I'd grab another hour or so until we got to Anacapa. The moment, THE MOMENT we breached the mouth of the harbor, the Peace started ROCKIN'. Unreal, heaving to both sides. Its not a large boat. A courageous boat to be sure, but not a large boat, and the thing was getting bounced.
I went upstairs to make sure my batteries and stuff were secure on the charging table, then walked out to the soaking, heaving deck to be sure the scooters were secure. When I came back into the galley, several people were asking the crew for Dramamine... Of course, I had some in my drybox, so I started dispensing it like a (well prepared) pusher, holding one back for Sunday's trip.
Going back downstairs I fell back asleep. I woke up nearly TWO hours later when things calmed down. We had blown right pass Anacapa and were heading to Santa Cruz Island. Pretty cool, as it had been a long time since I dived there. I came back up stairs for some breakfast (we were still a ways off, but we were in the lee of the SC island - so it was a bit calmer...)
The Galley was loaded with ashen-faced people who were obviously not on the pleasure trip they expected. There were also a lot of kids - like 6 to 10 year olds... I think 4 or 5 of them - that also means a girp of proud parents and lots of PMS (proud mom syndrome...) OY.
Looking over the people, I could tell this was going to be a trip loaded with shallow sandy sites, as there were clearly lots of students aboard. Two things I'm grateful for: 1) Bring your own buddy. Chica and I go into our own world on these type of tag-along trips - and I couldn't be more appreciative to her for that. 2) I gotta say, this is another wonderful thing about the scooters. You're never bound to the confines of entry-level dive sites.
DIVE #1
Steve came over to us (he's a buddy, been on the Peace forever and was one of Claudette's early instructors, I believe), pulled us aside and said he wanted us in FIRST. The boat would take awhile to unload, and we could probably get 75 minutes on dive one. BONUS!!! We dropped near first, with scoots and cameras, and played for about 78 minutes.
Zillions of Sea Lemons, and some small Clown nudis. I was shooting Macro as the water was a mess. Unreal surge. Very hard to shoot in, and I was getting frustrated missing shot after shot.
It was Nudi family day. Several Nudis out walking about together. Very strange, as they are slugs and not at all social.
Chica will be on later with her report and the names of the sites. It was a nice dive except for the surge.
Dive #2
This site looked a little cleaner than the first dive site. As we were gearing up, I said to 'dette, "think I'll regret not putting on the Wide Angle for this one...." Oh man. We were again first in (this time about 69 minutes of BT) and as we were dropping, we see the largest Mola I've ever seen in the water. This thing had really chewed up fins, and Claudette immediately gave chase with the scooter. Even with his stubby, scared up fins he was able to outrun us. Before we splashed, Kevin (the Capt'n) told Chica and I this would likely be the best dive of the day for us, and gave us good directions to a special spot. After the Mola encounter we resumed our course to the pointy end of the island, and the promise of a cool site to ourselves.
As we scooted through the kelp towards the point, the current was really pushing us along. We were really zooming on the scoots - it was kind of cool. Several more species of Nudis (on the day we saw 11 or 12 species), getting buzzed by a sea lion and it was time to return.
We kept seeing Black Dorid eggs on those green Bryzoans - but no Nudis. FINALLY I saw a couple - and they were again so well disguised that I pulled back a ways to get a shot of them, so you can appreciate how perfect they can hide on the stuff.
On our way back into the ripping current, we found the anchor line. We still had gas, so we thought we'd follow it back down to the original site. We got to the end of the line and it was only sand everywhere.... IT WAS THE BOW LINE! Silly. Line and chain looks like line and chain.... We made a U-turn back to the boat and we rolled up onto a football-sized comb jelly. He had orange spikes, was freely swimming and I had a 105mm lens on.... The best I could do was open things up, slow things down, get really far away and roll the dice. As fuzzy as the pics are, you can still see most of the details on him.
Dive #3 - Flame Reef
As the trip out took so long, and the trip back would be even longer, Capt'n Kevin announced that we'd be only making one more stop, so the options were to make two shorties or one longer dive, but we had a hard stop at XX:00 o'clock.
Kevin then came over to Claudette and I and pointed to some kelp a ways off the boat's stern to the east. He said that was "Flame Reef" and we may want to dive there. What a hook up! He provided directions and we we're off.
This was THE dive of the weekend. Nudi Mania, excellent structure, gorgonians, kelp, big rock relief, tons of fish. An excellent dive. Just wonderful.
We zoomed on the coordinates we received and got there in a reasonable amount of time with the scoots. Once there we pretty much dived the tanks down to the nub - making sure we were off the reef with ample time to be back on the step just prior to the hard stop Kevin gave everyone.
Of course, Chica and I are the last ones back. We haul on and break down. I grab a yummy desert and hit the rack for the trip back.
Many thanks to Claudette, best buddy ever, for an excellent day of diving. We really do fall into our own world and do what we do. Thanks again!
A few pics below. More pics are in the full gallery here on Dive Matrix: SC Gallery
Enjoy.
---
Ken
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nudi Family Day out! A bushel of Lemons.
Family day continues with a couple of Sandy's, grazing in the grass.
Here are those Black Dorids, hiding out in the open on the Bryzoans!
On the way to Flame reef on Dive 3, I saw a Kellet's Whelk trying to digest a small globe crab. When ever I see barnacles on a lobster or crab, I laugh. I mean, if you can't out-run a barnacle, right? But c'mon. A whelk grabs a Crab? Please. Crabby's got, you know, LEGS. I had Chica hold it up, as nobody would believe a whelk sneaked up on and grabbed a crab by his face...
Cockerell's on the edge - I like this shot. I think its my fav shot of the trip, mostly because I was getting blasted in the surge and shot this on the fly by, and the composition is precisely what I wanted to achieve. Small thing on the grand scale, but very satisfying to a photographer shooting under sub-optimal conditions.
Swell Shark Egg Case Before and After - The top shot is a Swel Shark egg case that was freshly laid. Its shiny, rubbery, clean and has the tendrils on the ends. This case is quite new (probably several hours to maybe a day old.) I had Chica hold her light behind it so you can see how beautiful it is. These eggs, depending on the water temperature, take 9 to 12 MONTHS to hatch. The lower picture is an egg that is quite old. If you look to the right side of the bottom pic, you can see how those tendrils in the top shot serve to snag on stuff and keep the egg from blowing ashore. We looked, and there was a live shark in there, wriggling around. Its amazing to me that these cases sit on the bottom for nearly a year, and rebuff all manner of invasive predators, tolerate all manner of growing crust that comes with being on the bottom of the ocean, and eventually spit out a new baby shark. Life just does.
White Spotted Navanax - I see the other types all the time, probably 100 to 1. I was pretty fired up when 'dette saw this one.
Chica pointed out this baby anemone (smaller than a dime) on a rock. He was the brightest and happiest thing on the rock. I originally thought it was a Hopkin's Rose Nudi, until I got closer and saw it was a baby 'monie.
Some kind of small crab. I just like this one because he has a baby clown Nudi he's hanging out with!
Here are a couple shots of that football jelly we saw at the end of dive two. This is as good as I can get, shooting something huge with a telescope in the surge! Too funny. She held her light on the jelly to light it up a bit as I clamped down the ap to get some darker water around it.
Claudette was hearing me screaming into my reg. She was so patient, as I kept trying different settings, holding up my index finger signaling "just one more...." (about 15 times)
Tritonia with his mouth agape, looking for his next snack!
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