I just received this email from Chris at the Sea Divers Dive Club. Looks promising:
"Sea Divers,
When it was announced in February that the Peace was up for sale and was going to cease operations, I reserved two dates on the Truth; October 14-15 to Cortes Bank, and December 5-6 to the Northern Channel Islands. My guess was that if the Peace was sold it would no longer be a dive boat.
As of a week ago the Peace has been sold to a group that also owns the Explorer Dive Boat, which now runs out of Long Beach. The boats will be managed by Bill Zhang who also runs a dive shop in Walnut.
The good news is that the Peace will remain a dive boat for now. However, the situation for us as a club going forward is as murky as a braille dive.
When I first got the news, I called up Bill Zhang and he told me the crew would be the same and Fidel would Captain the boat. So, I called up Fidel and told me he had run the Explorer for Bill but that he had not yet committed to running the Peace. I then contacted Brie and Joe and they told that Bill had not contacted them and they knew nothing of the plan.
Last Thursday Bill Zhang met with Fidel, Joe, Cody, Brie, Steve, and Tina to discuss plans; however I do not know the details of the meeting. Bill would not be on the boat he will only be a manager from shore.
Bill has told me they want to start running in June, but initially day trips only. I sent him an email saying we are only interested in overnight and multi-day trips.
The Truth has not run since the Conception disaster last year. It is not clear that they have crew to staff the boat.
The restrictions on running trips due to the “zombie apocalypse” (Covid-19) cloud the entire situation. So far there are no firm guidelines I know of from the Coast Guard or anyone else on running trips.
Social distancing is not possible on a dive boat. When we come back from dives we are dripping wet with snot running down our faces. The environment on a bot during a trip is generally very wet, especially while dives are happening. Wearing face masks is not practical in the wet environment. You can not spread people out because when it is windy or rough and the boat is moving you cannot occupy the bow, it is often too cold or to hot to stay on deck.
It is not clear to me when dive trips will go back to “normal” again. I suspect that the multi-day trips we love will not be possible until there is an effective vaccine making the prophylactic measures we all live with now moot.
At this point I am not willing to make any commitments for out club until I know what the rules and operational procedures will be. I wish I had a better story for you.
At this time club meetings are on hold, I will let you know when that changes."