socaldiver
Contributor
Well, it has come and gone. One of my "dream dives" took place today, and it was fantastic.
We boarded the Aquatica dive boat at 10 PM last night (didn't want to get up at 4 this morning to make the drive) and "claimed" our bunk. We were awakened at 6 this morning for roll call and to make final preparations to get underway. We took off from San Pedro at 6:30 and headed for Avalon Banks, a pinnacle that is about 6 miles off the coast of Catalina. Seas were unusually calm which made for a nice ride.
The ocean floor is about 3500 fsw and the pinnacles at Avalon Banks rise up to about 1500 fsw. We arrived at the Banks around 10 this morning and immediately started chumming. The boat moved upcurrent. After crawing upcurrent while chumming for about 1 1/2 hours, the engines were shut down and we started drifting back with the current. At 12:02 (knew the time because we had a pool for when the first shark would be spotted) a 3 ft blue shark made it's appearance. The boat crew put the cage in the water and set it up for us to jump in and snorkel while watching the shark. The cage is 4 ft high by 8 ft wide by 20 ft wide. It accomodates 7 snorkelers comfortably. there were 17 divers and 8 crew on board the boat so we had to take turns going in the cage.
Within a half an hour of the arrival of the first shark, 3 more blues appeared. The smallest was about 1 1/2 ft and the largest was 4 ft. Geez, these are beautiful creatures to watch swimming so effortlessly. I was in the cage for about 1/2 hour shooting some pics thru the cage wires when we were told it was safe to go in the open water.
There were 3 safety divers so they could only put 3 of us in the water at one time. My chivalry (hehe) came to the front and so I let the women and younger "men" go first. Each diver got to go in for 15 minutes with the safety diver, you jumped in with no air in your BC so that you would not linger on the surface. There were 4 drop lines in the water to hang onto because of the current. You dropped down to 15 fsw and hung on while the sharks swam around you. After about 4 cycles of divers going in and out (my turn was in about 1/2 hour) the safety divers came shooting to the surface with their other diver yelling to get out of the water quick. A 6 ft Mako decided to appear and it was VERY aggressive. It came right up to the swim step just as the last safety diver was exiting the water, he just missed getting a fin. WHAT A RUSH!! The Mako stayed around for 5 maybe 10 minutes just waiting for someone to go in the water. It then swam over by the cage, breeched and was gone. If you batted an eye during that time you missed it. I have never seen anything that could move that quick in water.
Anyway, after waiting about another half hour to assure the Mako wasn't lurking the safety divers went back in gave the all clear and the final 5 divers (yea, my turn) got to go in. I did a backwards giant stride off the swim step and dropped real quick to the safety stop, armed the camera and waited, and waited and waited. Finally after what seemed to be a lifetime, but actually was about 3 minutes a solitary 4 ft blue came back under the boat and started swimming around us. I shot off about 6 or 7 pics, my 15 minutes of ecstasy was over, I surfaced and joined the other divers in some exhilarating shark diving conversation. BTW, at 15 fsw the water temp was 68.
As I side note to this trip, while we were drifting a marlin breeched the water maybe a hundreds yards from the boat, and I saw the strangest jellyfish I have ever seen. They reminded me of the creatures in the movie "The Abyss".
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I will have the pics on Monday and hopefully they turned out ok.
We boarded the Aquatica dive boat at 10 PM last night (didn't want to get up at 4 this morning to make the drive) and "claimed" our bunk. We were awakened at 6 this morning for roll call and to make final preparations to get underway. We took off from San Pedro at 6:30 and headed for Avalon Banks, a pinnacle that is about 6 miles off the coast of Catalina. Seas were unusually calm which made for a nice ride.
The ocean floor is about 3500 fsw and the pinnacles at Avalon Banks rise up to about 1500 fsw. We arrived at the Banks around 10 this morning and immediately started chumming. The boat moved upcurrent. After crawing upcurrent while chumming for about 1 1/2 hours, the engines were shut down and we started drifting back with the current. At 12:02 (knew the time because we had a pool for when the first shark would be spotted) a 3 ft blue shark made it's appearance. The boat crew put the cage in the water and set it up for us to jump in and snorkel while watching the shark. The cage is 4 ft high by 8 ft wide by 20 ft wide. It accomodates 7 snorkelers comfortably. there were 17 divers and 8 crew on board the boat so we had to take turns going in the cage.
Within a half an hour of the arrival of the first shark, 3 more blues appeared. The smallest was about 1 1/2 ft and the largest was 4 ft. Geez, these are beautiful creatures to watch swimming so effortlessly. I was in the cage for about 1/2 hour shooting some pics thru the cage wires when we were told it was safe to go in the open water.
There were 3 safety divers so they could only put 3 of us in the water at one time. My chivalry (hehe) came to the front and so I let the women and younger "men" go first. Each diver got to go in for 15 minutes with the safety diver, you jumped in with no air in your BC so that you would not linger on the surface. There were 4 drop lines in the water to hang onto because of the current. You dropped down to 15 fsw and hung on while the sharks swam around you. After about 4 cycles of divers going in and out (my turn was in about 1/2 hour) the safety divers came shooting to the surface with their other diver yelling to get out of the water quick. A 6 ft Mako decided to appear and it was VERY aggressive. It came right up to the swim step just as the last safety diver was exiting the water, he just missed getting a fin. WHAT A RUSH!! The Mako stayed around for 5 maybe 10 minutes just waiting for someone to go in the water. It then swam over by the cage, breeched and was gone. If you batted an eye during that time you missed it. I have never seen anything that could move that quick in water.
Anyway, after waiting about another half hour to assure the Mako wasn't lurking the safety divers went back in gave the all clear and the final 5 divers (yea, my turn) got to go in. I did a backwards giant stride off the swim step and dropped real quick to the safety stop, armed the camera and waited, and waited and waited. Finally after what seemed to be a lifetime, but actually was about 3 minutes a solitary 4 ft blue came back under the boat and started swimming around us. I shot off about 6 or 7 pics, my 15 minutes of ecstasy was over, I surfaced and joined the other divers in some exhilarating shark diving conversation. BTW, at 15 fsw the water temp was 68.
As I side note to this trip, while we were drifting a marlin breeched the water maybe a hundreds yards from the boat, and I saw the strangest jellyfish I have ever seen. They reminded me of the creatures in the movie "The Abyss".
Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I will have the pics on Monday and hopefully they turned out ok.