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Thanks Dave! It was great fun diving with you and your lovely bride, and getting to meet and dive with Dr Bill was great fun as well! Tina and I had an absolute blast!

I still regret not bringing my camera on the second dive (I should have listened to Dr. Bill) and missing the opportunity to photograph the White Sea Bass we saw… I also regret not getting a chance to see the seal while we were on our dive, but I was happy to get the chance to see him by the steps!

Can’t wait to dive with you again in a few weeks!

Here are some images from the dives! Dave, I’ve got a good shot of you I’d like to post (with your permission of course)…

Be kind as this was my first attempt at using my new strobe and wide angle lens...

Here is the seal at the surface, he'd just swam away from the steps at this point:


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And I'm more than happy to pitch in for the Dr Bill wetsuit fund! :)

Sean
 
Beautiful shots Sean! and post away! Everybody loves pictures - (Unless I look stupid of course!). Next dive, wetsuits and video camera. We will definitely do some slow, reef peeking, and picture taking.
 
Nice shot of the Kelp Fish & any shot of a diver in public stupid looking or not is postable. I personally try to avoid the stupid looking ones.

John
 
Alright, well here he is...Teamcasa saying "Don't you envy my Drysuit!?"

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I think I was saying, "Honest! It was this big!" :)
 
About a dozen divers showed up for our traditional Sunday Barbeque a day late today. Merry and I were in Phoenix this weekend. We looked at the ocean before we left and it was a mess, with high surf predicted for the remainder of the weekend. Evil Jeff called yesterday to let me know that it flattened out nicely, so today was on. The cove looked pretty milky from the top of the trail, but the dive conditions were pretty nice at the point. The water has warmed up nearly ten degrees since last week and a few Rainbow nudis were still hanging around.
We've spotted a large Batray in the same area over the past month and he was still there today. Jeff Conner reported seeing as many as five yesterday.
Evil Jeff Shaw experimented with lots of new equipment today. His dry gloves didn't stay dry, but his drysuit did. Merry forced him to bring his camera along, so hopefully he got some better pictures than I did.
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Date: 5-26-08

Time: Noon-ish

Dive Length: 40 mins

Max Depth: 99 ft

Viz: 25-30 ft. [Not bad!] :)

Bottom Temp: 54 F

Surface: 60 F

Mix: 31%

Dive Buddies: Navy Dan, Dennis. Skipper Barb at the helm and non-diver, Hope: Navy Dan's wife, who came along to provide Dan with some adult supervision.

Critters Seen: Sheep/Masking Crabs, California Sea Cucumber, Greenlings, Blacksmith, Surfperch, Senoritas, Macrocystis and Elkhorn--not Bull-- Kelp.


Remarks:


After a bit of fiddling about with something called a DIN-to-yoke adapter [technical/mechanical details I try never to sully myself with] :shakehead:, which then didn't work and Navy Dan had to go back and get a couple HP 80s from his shop, we were finally off to Wreck Alley after being delayed mere hour or so.

Ominous grey storm clouds followed us out to the Yukon, remnants of this weekend's storm which had prevented us from going out sooner and caused me to stay cooped up in the house climbing the walls and driving everyone crazy, but they soon dissipated and we had beautiful sunshine throughout the rest of the day.

Since Barb was still having a little neck pain, she declined to dive, so Dennis, Navy Dan and I elected to splash in over the Yukon together. Since the only tanks Dan could find when he went back to his shop were some rather small HP 80s, it was agreed beforehand that if he ran low on gas before the Dennis or I, he would give us the high sign and head back to the ascent line on his own.

He actually started down the Forward Guns line slightly ahead of me and Dennis and remained ahead of throughout most of the dive.

Upon arrival on the Yukon, we were all delighted to see the viz had opened up to anywhere between 20 and 30 ft., we could see nearly a third of the ship stretching away from us--cool!

With Dan basically in the lead a few yards ahead, Dennis and I dropped to the sand and began crawling around on all fours under the ship. Or, more accurately, I began crawling around under the Yukon, with Dennis wisely hovering a few feet above me, due to a slightly higher Nitrox mix, watching my bubbles.

Within a couple of slightly claustrophobic minutes in tiny opening under the hull, I came out triumphantly waving an ancient blue fin that must have been there since early 2000--complete with white metridia growing on it from age--the underwater equivalent of moss, I guess.

It had been there so long, I'm not even going to advertise it here, the original owner obviously has given up diving and moved out of state years ago, but it made me feel useful. Nothing I hate more than polyurethane litter on the bottom of the ocean!

So, emerging from under Lady Yuke clutching my trophy, we continued on towards the Rear Guns, passing the Capt's Bridge, Milt's Tilt, still covered in a layer of freshly fallen snow.......er, Senile Metridia.

Along the way, Dennis and I paused to admire the glowing pink Strawberry Anemones which covered a good portion of the ship, including a Masking Crab, carefully clinging to a piece of the superstructure. I gently picked her up to determine gender, and then gently replaced her where I had found her, leaving her waving her claws menacingly, annoyed at having obviously been wakened from a peaceful nap and wondering what the hell that had been all about.

Sooner than I anticipated, we found ourselves in the Mortar Bay and paused here to play for a while. I inspected the various species of Gorgonians and Sea Cucumbers attached with steel hull [Red and California, respectively].

I passed on creating a Sea Cucumber avalanche down in the Lobster Trap Hold, much to the relief of the Sea Cukes, I imagine, and Dennis and I moved on to the South end to inspect the Stern part, where I briefly ducked into the Burma Road cutout, which leads all the way to the bow, for a couple minutes, before emerging again--still clutching my prized blue fin.

It was time to turn around and we all began heading back in a leisurely fashion back towards the Bridge, where, as per our prior agreement, Dan began running low on gas and headed up the Radio Tower Mast ascent line.

Dennis and I continue on towards the Forward Guns, where we dallied about for a bit to burn the remaining portion of our air, until it was time to come up.

I pointed out the old steel cable transect line which we used to count fish for the San Diego Oceans Foundation, oh, so many moons ago [OK, so it was only 6 years ago], strung between Bridge and the guns, where it hangs almost menacingly now, ready to snag an unsuspecting newbie diver coming up under it, who would be unable to cut it, even with a Titanium knife.

Finally, it was time to come up and we began our reluctant ascent towards the glittering surface, high above us, with short, one minute Pyle stop at 52 ft., before proceeding onwards.

One really cool sigh: as we passed around 40 ft. were the absolutely HUGE fronds of Elkhorn [not Bull] Kelp, reaching up from the Starboard side of the ship, near the bow.

The fronds stretched out horizontally at least 12-14 ft., waving gently in the current, almost beckoning us to investigate further--which I did--and they practically enveloped me as I approached, gently wrapping around me as we hovered high above the ship far below us now.

I carefully unwrapped myself from their embrace and made my way back to Dennis and the ascent line, where we continued on to our safety stop and final ascent to the Scuba Do.

While hanging on the ascent line at our safety stop, Dennis having already gone up ahead of me, I delighted in watching huge schools of Blacksmith fish close around me and then part like a curtain as soon as I moved an arm towards them.


As I triumphantly hurled my newly found fin aboard, Barb sort of went, 'Eeeek! I don't want that scuzzy ol' thing on my boat!" :no [and, trust me, she's not the type who goes 'Eeek!], so at that point, I knew my newly found prize was bound for the dustbin as soon as we hit the dock.

Dan and Dennis went on to do a second dive on NOSC Tower, with me declining due to an excessively wet liner. Time to get the other dry suit of the shop, I see.

Oh, well: a good time was had by all and there were no complaints, since we hadn't been in the water in over a week.

Dive Safe, everyone........

Mikey
 
Into the Yukon: Burma Road

Date: May 31, 2008

Location: Yukon, Wreck Alley

Time: 11:15 am

Conditions: 4 foot swells, with the occasional five footer and some white caps. Rockin’ and rollin’ on the surface, calmer down below.

Viz [Surprisingly]: 20-30 ft.

Dive Length : 35 minutes

Temperature: 50° F on the bottom, 54° F on the surface

Max Depth: 95 ft.

Mix: 26%

Dive Buddies: ‘Iron Man’ Charlie and Barb
Critters Seen: Peltodoris nobilis, Dendronotus iris w/eggs, Hermisssenda crassicornis, Flabellina iodine, Navanax inermis, Doriopsilla albopunctata, Triopha catalinae, Polycera tricolor, Diaulula sandiegensis, California Sea Cucumbers, Blacksmith, Greenlings, Masking Crab, Pelagophycus porra [Elkhorn Kelp] and Macrocystis pyrifera.


Remarks:


Funny how sometimes you can’t fill a boat even by begging nicely, but we managed to get ‘Iron Man’ Charlie to come out with us to the Yukon, NOAA Jim having been called to annual duty cleaning piers in Los Angeles County for the weekend. It was strange going out without him: sort of like leaving dock without the propeller or something.

The forecast had called for 10 to 15 knot winds and 4 to 5 foot swells with the occasional white cap, and we were not disappointed.

By the time we had tied off to the Stern buoy of the Yukon, the Scuba-Do was bouncing up and down pretty good and we were all getting a bit queasy and anxious to get in the water, so without further ado we suited up and jumped in.

The plan was to drop down the Stern line and let Charlie lead us through the Burma Road cutout in the rear, through to the first cutout on the starboard, or top side, which is exactly what we did.

While Barb and I waited at the cutout, I chivalrously motioned for Charlie to go first, followed by Barb, with me bringing up the rear.

As you go in, there are a bunch of pipes and other strange objects hanging down in your way, which you have to duck around to get past, but when you’re past these, it’s pretty much a straight shot through the entire ship, down to the bow, with cutouts visible on either side pretty much all the way down.

Our goal was simply to go to the first to cutout in the ‘roof,’ ie: the Starboard side, which faces up an exit there; no big deal.

Once past the pipes, you pass into another antechamber, which unfortunately for them, was filled with California Sea cucumbers, and as never fails, my passing by dislodged a number of them from the wall, creating the usual ‘sea cucumber avalanche’ as I went by; I could almost hear them muttering and cursing me as they disappeared down into blackness below. :11:


I noticed Barbara scanning the walls with the new x2 reading lenses recently installed in her mask, excitedly pointing out baby nudibranches that Charlie and I would have needed a portable scanning electron microscopes in order to see.

Since everyone knows that I only know two species of nudibranch, I obviously received assistance from Barb in listing them in order of their Latin names above. :D

Charlie popped out in the kelp forest on the starboard side above first, followed by me and then Barb, who had to be dragged reluctantly from her nudibranch festival down in the bowels of the ship.

However, as it we exited the ship and dropped down on the hull side, we were delighted to encounter even more on the sand below, in between the Sea Pens and Tube-Dwelling anemones: a gorgeous Dendronotus iris in the process of laying eggs, and a 4 inch Peltodoris nobilis.

From here, we glided up and over Graffiti alley and down onto the superstructure, where we found ourselves on the Rear Guns, just behind the Radio Tower.

Here, there are two large openings that were obviously part of the original superstructure, with flanged openings, but the term for the always escapes me.
Anyway, with Charlie and Barb waiting outside, I ducked in and made an immediate right turn into a short chamber, which was obviously a dead end, so I turned around and came out.

Barb went in and immediately began spying more tiny new, nearly invisible nudibranchs, visible only to her new x2 reading lenses and began gesturing frantically to us to get our attention.

Charlie and I took one look inside, and chuckling, shook our heads and left, knowing it was hopeless trying to spot these little babies on the wall.
We had just come from a comical conversation on the boat, about how as you enter your forties and fifties, CRS [Can’t Remember Sh**] morphs into CSS [Can’t See Sh**], followed inexorably, in later years, as we all know, by CHS [Can’t Hear Sh**], so we weren’t even going to tempt fate on that one and left Barbara to her nudibranchs and x2 readers. :crafty:

I had forgotten that the two chambers were connected, so when she disappeared into the bowels of the first one, I was momentarily alarmed, until I saw that her pop out through the one below. Sounds like a trick I pulled on someone else recently. :wink:

What goes around comes around!

We continued on from here until we reached the Radio Tower, where the 50° F water was beginning to take its toll and we all mutually agreed to begin turning around.
We cruised around to the Mortar Bay, where I led to everyone through the hole cut in the top and up into the Macrocystis waiving gently in the current above.

Your Barb was able to spot a rather large Navanax, wrapped around a stipe of Macrocystis and we all paused here to admire it.

With my hands beginning to burn in the cold and deco fast approaching, I gestured and I’d like to go up, and everyone readily agreed.

Pausing at the 40 ft level to admire the 30 ft. visibility, our attention was once again drawn to the absolutely huge fronds of the 60 ft. long Elkhorn Kelp, growing on the stern end of the Starboard side. The fronds alone stretched 15-20 ft. horizontally in the water column.

First I swam over to it, followed by Barb, who, being in a playful mood, wrapped one of the fronds around her face, like a shawl, while Charlie and I hovered nearby, chuckling into our masks.

From the safety stop, we could see the water above churning above our heads and knew not much had changed on the surface.

Sure enough, as soon as we a popped to the surface, we were greeted with the boat bouncing up and down rather violently in 4 ft swells and it took some doing to get all our gear on board without getting smacked in the face with the ladder.

But, eventually, everyone was onboard, grinning from ear-to-ear from another spectacular day in/on Lady Yuke.

[Sorry for the rather monotonous string of Yukon Only dive reports lately, but trust me when I say that conditions here recently have really not warranted going much beyond Wreck Ally, say to Pt Loma, where it would have been fairly nasty today, surge being what it is down there. As soon as conditions permit, we hope to venture back out Pt Loma,
Scripps Canyon and other spots, such as the P-38].


Dive safe, everyone…….

Mikey

:zen:
 
Dive Site: Catalina Island aboard the King Neptune
Date: Saturday May 31, 2008
Conditions: Mild Seas – Weather was perfect
Water Temp: 51 at depth 65 surface
Visibility: 20’ +-
Dive Buddys: Dr. Bill – most of the time!
Comments:
Marian and I planed a nice weekend of diving that included a three tanks dive on Saturday aboard the King Neptune with Bob and his daughter, followed up with a few dives Sunday in the park. Well my lovely bride woke up Saturday will a head cold. L. After a short discussion, she elected to stay in the room at the Via Portofino and let me go diving.

We boarded the King Neptune and headed to the first of three good dives. After a shot cruise we anchored just East of the Dynamite Shack and I splashed with Dr. Bill. After retrieving both of our video cameras, down we went. After I checked everything, I turned on the camera to do the white balance and realized I had not opened the camera’s video screen – stupid. I tried the look through the little viewfinder for a while but it proved useless. I’ll just cruise around and fix it before the next dive.

We then motored over to the East end of the quarry for dive number two. After cleaning and drying my video housing, I opened it and then opened the monitor screen. After splashing, I went looking for abalone and morays. Saw neither but I did find a nice sheep crab motoring down the sand to depths unknown. I’ll put a clip on youtube soon.

We then cruised down past Avalon to the Garibaldi site. (Near blue car wreck) A diver had lost some gear their the day before and we thought maybe we could find it. No luck with that but I did spot Dr. Bill taping a nice mantis shrimp and before I could approach for my own shot, the bug jumped a few times off into the depths.

Overall the diving was great but the company was terrific! I met John and Sylvia out here from Indiana and Ruben, an instructor with a trio of happy students. Hoping my lovely bride was feeling better, I returned to the VP and found her sleeping. She was definitely not going to be up for any diving on Sunday. Her #50 would have to wait a two more weeks.

Thanks to Bob Kennedy (Scuba Luv) and his family for the good time!

Ohh - and you too Dr. Bill!

 
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Just a quick report on Casino Point on 6/14:

Conditions were excellent. Viz on the first dive was better than 50, but by the third dive (around 3:30) it was probably closer to 30. Water temp hovered around 63-64 all day, no current. Fantastic!
 

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