Date: Friday 11/10/06 - Sunday 11/12/06
Dive Location: Catalina. Casino Point and off site (Valiant)
Buddy(ies): HB3-tank'Chica
Time: Dawn to dark - total of 10 dives over the weekend (no night dive Friday...)
Bottom Time: LOTS. Most dives over an hour, 4 of them in the 72 - 76 minute range
Max Depth: 99
Vis: Excellent. Great all weekend
Wave height: Whatever - stair entry....
Temp at depth: WARM! Friday & Sat: 63 to 64 (59 on Valiant) Sunday: 59 - 63 (57 on Valiant)
Surface Temp: Whatever... Dry Suit
Tide information: Who cares.
Gas mix: Pirelli in doubles, Firestone in the Deco
Top reason Pasley should hurry home: Fall Diving in SoCal rocks.
Dive objectives this weekend: Get in with the doubles, add a deco bottle and hammer through 9 to 11 dives. Work on buoyancy, managing the new equipment above and below the water, load on the drills (Mask, gas switching, OOA, Valve, etc.) and control buoyancy.
Did I mention buoyancy?
Friday
Chica and I roll into San Pedro and realize we have way too much gear for two people for a weekend at Catalina. Just stupid amounts of gear: 8 bags / boxes, 7 regulators, 6 tanks, 5 lights, 4 lenses, 3 hair brushes, 2 camera bodies and one cart.
OY
DIVE 1
So we get the caravan loaded on the boat and head over. We land, turn one perfectly respectable Catalina taxi into a low rider, and we cruise over to the point. We deploy, set up and hit it. Just the dubs - no deco bottles. We do a great dive - beautiful viz, Kelp coming back slowly, water very warm for Nov (64)... just a great, long dive. Octo's all over the place. Lunch time!!
Dive 2
I assemble the cam, we grab the filled tanks and head back to shoot some cool stuff we saw. Camera has a small leak. I'm so bummed, as I have a new lens on its maiden voyage. DAMMIT!!!!!!! We quickly kick back to the shore, I dump the cam, and dash back to the water. We have a great dive, but I'm kinda bummed. No worries.
Dive 3
Its getting late - so its a shorty. We decide to not do the night dive on Friday so we can have full tanks for the morning. Another mellow dive, good control. Great late afternoon dive. We get out, get filled as the station is closing, pack up, load the lockers I've grabbed (4 of them...) and call it early for Friday.
We debrief, then head to Dinner at the Country Club. Amazing dinner, excellent wine and killer desert. Back to room. Crash hard.
Saturday
Dive 4
We get in early, but decide not to go to the Valiant first. We want to clip on the deco bottles just to get a feel for schlepping them around, checking the SPG, clipping, un-clipping, etc. We go to the Sue Jac to warm up, then head to the deep sand and shoot a bag for a reference line for the rest of the day. The big Sheephead follows up from the Sue Jac to the sand and its watching us shoot the bag. I tie off the spool (a purple TDL spool!) and this Sheephead comes over and it mesmerized... he's circling the rock, checking it out, nudging it with his nose... taking those buck teeth and kinda gumming the thing a couple of times... I'm certain he's gonna grab it and run! I'm all worried I'd have to chase this guy down and make him 'gurge my spool. Fortunately he gets bored and goes away. We do the drills, and head back in, get filled and get ready for the Valiant.
Dive 5
We debate schlepping the bottles to the Valiant. We decide there will be times when we'll be doing surface swims with these things, so may as well give it a shot now. We gear up, and head out, kicking across the park and to the buoys that mark the Valiant. We get there (its no biggie... the bottles aren't a big deal) and we drop right on the wreck (mark your calendar: Christian gave perfect directions!) Its Nudi mania on the wreck. Limbaugh's, Fed Ex, McFarland's, Mexichromis... And more Octo’s. Three nice Morays, zillions of fish (blacksmith, sardines, jack macks, and more) - a sea lion buzzed the schools at 99 feet. Bonito and Yellowtail buzzed the schools. We saw a big Bat ray... it was an excellent dive. We were on the wreck 30 minutes, and then headed back 150 degrees to the park for another 40 minutes of practice. Excellent. Lunch time!
Dive 6
We head to the swim platform. Three more Octo’s. What is the deal this weekend? Octo’s are all over the place. We come off the platform to the engine pile... ANOTHER Octo. WOW! Coming back we stop by this big wall, 'Dette finds yet ANOTHER Octo... this one holding a snail shell as a door. She plays tug o' war and almost loses. This thing was the strongest Octo ever... grabbed her and almost took her glove off!
Dive 7 (Night Dive)
Time for a night dive. We have a group of 7. I ask what they'd like to see, and I mention the world's strongest little Octo. So we all splash and I take the group back to the Arnoldpus. His life will never be the same after 7 people descent with their lights and poke and peek. It was silly fun. We split into a pre-designated 3 + 4 team, and I lead the team of 4 ('Dette, me, Mark and son) on a brief tour. We see lots of lobster, eels, Octo, a ray, and lots of fishies. A mellow night dive. Off to shower and dinner with the group!
SUNDAY
Dive 8
I get up and pack the room for checkout. As a prayer, I assemble the camera rig to see if its functional. IT WORKS!!!!!!!! I do a dance around the room (door open...the people across the hall think I'm a freak, now...) and head to the point to dive the Valiant. With Camera in hand, we meet up with DrB. He discovers a hole in his BC you can put your fist into, so he doesn't make the trip out. We kick out and drop onto the wreck to find about 5 times as many nudis as Saturday! The solo Fed Ex is still in the same place. The solo McFarland's is in the same place - but the hull is just stupid with Limbaugh's and Mexi's. Fun shots! 37 minutes. As we're leaving, 5 divers plunge from the surface near the stern, and drop full speed, feet first and lawn dart into the sand in a huge cloud. We smile, and dive back 150 degrees to the park.
Dive 9
We head back to the Sue Jac. Claudette is taking the deco bottle to get some more bottle work in, but with my well work rock boots I'm sliding every time up and down the steps.... no way I'm gonna go in with a camera AND deco bottle. So I'm just shooting. Another excellent dive. She finds an Octo on the 'Jac, I see one on the way back, more morays, etc. Tons to see. On the kick out she saw a 3 pound Calico with about 2 feet of line and torpedo weight coming from a hook in its mouth. Poor guy can barely move, sitting there head down. We make a charge for it, she grabs the line and I have my shears out and snip the line very close to its mouth. I'm surprised we caught it... that's how impaired and tired it was. Pretty cool to see it freely swim off. The hook will rust out soon.
Dive 10
I want to go back to the swim platform to photo the three Octo’s we saw there on Saturday. We kick over and we find all three - just where they were the day before. I shoot some shots, we work on some drills and head in at twilight to have the park to ourselves. Break it down, call a cab, back to the Mole and onto the boat.
~~~ Wrap ~~~
Chica and I learn best with these types of highly concentrated, repeat diving exercises. We try to do this once a quarter - come over and get in 10 - 12 dives in three days with a clearly defined, narrow set of objectives. We learned to mount, enter, exit, and manage the deco bottle. We did several gas switches at various depths. We did a full complement of drills. We mashed through buoyancy skills with the doubles and the bottle (still infants there.)
We learned so much. And by diving again and again it gets us right back into the water
that day and the next to not just point out our mistakes and problems, but also solve many of them, and at the least know what we need to work on to fix the rest.
Loved seeing all the SoCal's again.
Here are some pics from Sunday. If you get the RED "X", just right click and select "Show Picture"... it should show up.
---
Ken
One of the zillion Limbaugh's on the Valiant. I like this one for the Peacock tail!
McFarlands from the Valiant
Valiant Flowers!
Peek-a-boo Octo from Valiant. Check out his buddy on the right... Full size image
here.
Rocky from the Platform
Was able to get right up in his grill for this one. Full size image
here.
A friend Claudette made when hitting a couple of rocks together
Top deck, port side bow of the Valiant. Some lovin' on the edge of the world
One of 3 Octos on the Swim Platform. Follow the Pizza boxes & Beer Cans...
I had 'Dette hold it over the 18 Watt HID to illuminate the yokage. Over easy, please...
'Nuther Octo. Sue Jac. Buried deep in the wires and rust. Full size image
here.
