Fishkiller
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I have returned from a dive trip that needs to be posted.
I arranged for my dive trip to San Carlos with my LDS Saguaro Diving and Sports, located near my home in Mesa Arizona. Here in Arizona we have no ocean only limited viz. lake dives available so a dive trip to San Carlos can be arranged with most dive shops here in the valley, I went early this year with one shop to do my check out dives, having learned the trick of saving money went with my new LDS.
This group had 28 divers and 5 non-divers; we all met at the dive shop at 5:30 am Friday morning and loaded ourselves with gear and snacks onto a 42-passenger charter bus. We hit the road south by 6:15 by 7:00 a movie was being played and beer was being drunk. We stopped twice on the way to San Carlos once at the boarder, had to unload everything carry it across the boarder, push a button wait for green light, load gear back on the bus and then ourselves. The second stop was for gas in the bus and a few more snacks.
We arrived at the Club Med. in San Carlos at 2:45pm checked in walked to our rooms unpacked then headed to the scuba shack for shore dives. San Carlos had the prior weekend experienced a Hurricane and if I could remember her name would tell you that Gloria hit with 80-mph winds and really tore things up. The ship wreck that was located near the Club was wiped clean of all life the best snorkeling at a place called the aquarium was left clean out, just a cove with rocks. So this report is not typical of a dive at San Carlos but is typical of a post hurricane dive.
I found a buddy and went out to the bay, the visibility was 4 meters but the water temp was 83 degrees, at best we saw sand dollars by the hundreds. My buddy and I made our way past the sandy bottom and went to the edge of the bay and found a section of rocks, my buddy found all the large puffer fish hiding in the rocks, I was stung by a jellyfish on my right forearm. I went through a brief moment of pain and watching my arm twitch then was fine and finished our 35-minute dive.
That night for dinner we all attended a wedding reception, (If you get married at a resort where do you honeymoon?) so we ate under the stars and I ate well, steaks, lobster, salmon, and the best cheese cake.
The next morning awoke at 6:30 to eat breakfast at 7am then met at the Scuba shack at 7:45. Loaded our gear onto a Skiff that shuttled us out to the Nomad (an about 65 foot dive boat) for the one hour plus trip to Seal Island. Due to the people that were being certified I was put with a new buddy who was recently certified, I being an AOW diver was a little miffed because I wanted to go deep but my buddy was cool and we settled on 70 feet. At the Island the Visibility was much better about 60-70 feet the temp was 82 degrees so like the previous dive went sans exposure protection outside of reef gloves and my trunks. We dove until my air ran low. We moved to a second spot on the Island called the Caves. While we were diving, the person who brought two Apollo DPVs came by stopped so we got to play. On one Pass by this large bull Seal swam right next to my buddy parallel to the shore and we all thought he would be attacked. That was a really fun dive.
The third tank dive we stopped by the beach which was full of sea lions. My buddy and I were the first in the water. We swam out a short way and decided to dropped down and swim to the beach while seeing how many sea lions would play with us. My buddy had problems equalizing his ears so I waited at 25 feet. Looking around there were all these clear jellyfish floating just like the one that stung me the day before, so I swam up and around to avoid them. Watching my buddy I rose to about 5 feet and then something hit me in the right arm, then my right thigh then ankle. I turned and watched this purple blueish jellyfish break apart as it hit my fin. I swam down to my buddy then realized I was in trouble gave my buddy the wide-eyed two thumbs up sign. On the surface I told my buddy that my entire right side was on fire as we were about 30 feet from the boat, my buddy helped me get to the boat and with my left arm tossed my fins on the boat and lugged myself aboard. The DM a small French guy was of little help to a large person as myself. I was soaked with vinegar while I dumped my equipment I went through a cycle of cold water and vinegar until I could function normally. Once I could move I put away my gear and soaked in vinegar. I felt pretty wimpy when a few other divers talked about being stung by jellyfish on the face and one guy while at the DECO bar kissed one in the safety regulator. I went to the furthest place from the food and people; because I felt wimpy for a large guy, then when my instructor asked what the jellyfish looked like and he told me it was Man O War did I feel somewhat better.
When we returned from the Island most everyone unloaded and went to eat lunch at the restaurant and to get ready for the night dive. I decided to go sailing, while others went water skiing or sail boarding.
The night dive was at a spot not to far out of the bay the temp was 82 degrees and Visibility still was about 5 meters less with several lights shinning on the Puffed puffer fish. Was attacked by these small red fish about a quarter of an inch long, saw a school of Barracuda and several green Moray eels the Cortez damsels and rays.
The next day we did two dives the visibility was low still no more than 10 meters I was in a threesome with my buddy from the day before and his friend that was newly certified. I lead them around spotting Eels and shrimp lobster and large king angels almost made it back to the boat before I ran low on air, we did our safety stop, on the surface we were just about 60 feet from the DECO bar and boat. couldve stayed under that much longer if I had air. So on the second dive we planned on sharing air so we all could finish with about 800 psi. My second tank only started out with 2700psi so that was a good idea. Of course all good plans must come to an end and the guy with the DPVs needed a partner so guess what? The four of us played around on the DPVs. With the relatively low visibility it was pure luck that the first two people on the DPVs found us, of course my buddy and I waited watching this large eel and scorpion fish. The best part of the dive is that I wasnt the first to run low on air and the swim back to the boat was real easy with a DPV doing the work.
Getting back to Club MED at 1130 am I decided to go sailing again, at 1:30 took a quick shower and stopped by the restaurant for lunch prior to getting on the bus at 2pm.
We waited 3 hours at the boarder where we found out about the retaliation that took place and Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs. We were home at 1 am.
I arranged for my dive trip to San Carlos with my LDS Saguaro Diving and Sports, located near my home in Mesa Arizona. Here in Arizona we have no ocean only limited viz. lake dives available so a dive trip to San Carlos can be arranged with most dive shops here in the valley, I went early this year with one shop to do my check out dives, having learned the trick of saving money went with my new LDS.
This group had 28 divers and 5 non-divers; we all met at the dive shop at 5:30 am Friday morning and loaded ourselves with gear and snacks onto a 42-passenger charter bus. We hit the road south by 6:15 by 7:00 a movie was being played and beer was being drunk. We stopped twice on the way to San Carlos once at the boarder, had to unload everything carry it across the boarder, push a button wait for green light, load gear back on the bus and then ourselves. The second stop was for gas in the bus and a few more snacks.
We arrived at the Club Med. in San Carlos at 2:45pm checked in walked to our rooms unpacked then headed to the scuba shack for shore dives. San Carlos had the prior weekend experienced a Hurricane and if I could remember her name would tell you that Gloria hit with 80-mph winds and really tore things up. The ship wreck that was located near the Club was wiped clean of all life the best snorkeling at a place called the aquarium was left clean out, just a cove with rocks. So this report is not typical of a dive at San Carlos but is typical of a post hurricane dive.
I found a buddy and went out to the bay, the visibility was 4 meters but the water temp was 83 degrees, at best we saw sand dollars by the hundreds. My buddy and I made our way past the sandy bottom and went to the edge of the bay and found a section of rocks, my buddy found all the large puffer fish hiding in the rocks, I was stung by a jellyfish on my right forearm. I went through a brief moment of pain and watching my arm twitch then was fine and finished our 35-minute dive.
That night for dinner we all attended a wedding reception, (If you get married at a resort where do you honeymoon?) so we ate under the stars and I ate well, steaks, lobster, salmon, and the best cheese cake.
The next morning awoke at 6:30 to eat breakfast at 7am then met at the Scuba shack at 7:45. Loaded our gear onto a Skiff that shuttled us out to the Nomad (an about 65 foot dive boat) for the one hour plus trip to Seal Island. Due to the people that were being certified I was put with a new buddy who was recently certified, I being an AOW diver was a little miffed because I wanted to go deep but my buddy was cool and we settled on 70 feet. At the Island the Visibility was much better about 60-70 feet the temp was 82 degrees so like the previous dive went sans exposure protection outside of reef gloves and my trunks. We dove until my air ran low. We moved to a second spot on the Island called the Caves. While we were diving, the person who brought two Apollo DPVs came by stopped so we got to play. On one Pass by this large bull Seal swam right next to my buddy parallel to the shore and we all thought he would be attacked. That was a really fun dive.
The third tank dive we stopped by the beach which was full of sea lions. My buddy and I were the first in the water. We swam out a short way and decided to dropped down and swim to the beach while seeing how many sea lions would play with us. My buddy had problems equalizing his ears so I waited at 25 feet. Looking around there were all these clear jellyfish floating just like the one that stung me the day before, so I swam up and around to avoid them. Watching my buddy I rose to about 5 feet and then something hit me in the right arm, then my right thigh then ankle. I turned and watched this purple blueish jellyfish break apart as it hit my fin. I swam down to my buddy then realized I was in trouble gave my buddy the wide-eyed two thumbs up sign. On the surface I told my buddy that my entire right side was on fire as we were about 30 feet from the boat, my buddy helped me get to the boat and with my left arm tossed my fins on the boat and lugged myself aboard. The DM a small French guy was of little help to a large person as myself. I was soaked with vinegar while I dumped my equipment I went through a cycle of cold water and vinegar until I could function normally. Once I could move I put away my gear and soaked in vinegar. I felt pretty wimpy when a few other divers talked about being stung by jellyfish on the face and one guy while at the DECO bar kissed one in the safety regulator. I went to the furthest place from the food and people; because I felt wimpy for a large guy, then when my instructor asked what the jellyfish looked like and he told me it was Man O War did I feel somewhat better.
When we returned from the Island most everyone unloaded and went to eat lunch at the restaurant and to get ready for the night dive. I decided to go sailing, while others went water skiing or sail boarding.
The night dive was at a spot not to far out of the bay the temp was 82 degrees and Visibility still was about 5 meters less with several lights shinning on the Puffed puffer fish. Was attacked by these small red fish about a quarter of an inch long, saw a school of Barracuda and several green Moray eels the Cortez damsels and rays.
The next day we did two dives the visibility was low still no more than 10 meters I was in a threesome with my buddy from the day before and his friend that was newly certified. I lead them around spotting Eels and shrimp lobster and large king angels almost made it back to the boat before I ran low on air, we did our safety stop, on the surface we were just about 60 feet from the DECO bar and boat. couldve stayed under that much longer if I had air. So on the second dive we planned on sharing air so we all could finish with about 800 psi. My second tank only started out with 2700psi so that was a good idea. Of course all good plans must come to an end and the guy with the DPVs needed a partner so guess what? The four of us played around on the DPVs. With the relatively low visibility it was pure luck that the first two people on the DPVs found us, of course my buddy and I waited watching this large eel and scorpion fish. The best part of the dive is that I wasnt the first to run low on air and the swim back to the boat was real easy with a DPV doing the work.
Getting back to Club MED at 1130 am I decided to go sailing again, at 1:30 took a quick shower and stopped by the restaurant for lunch prior to getting on the bus at 2pm.
We waited 3 hours at the boarder where we found out about the retaliation that took place and Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs. We were home at 1 am.
