Date: Friday 2/23/07 and Saturday 2/24/07
Dive Location: SoCal Coast (Dive Safari #3 or #4)
Buddy: HBFrozen-even-in-a-Drysuit-Gurl
Time: All day, man
Bottom Time: Hours....
Max Depth: Anacapa - how deep can you really get there?
Vis: Worse than last Safari due to splashing between Wind Storms
Wave height: Whatever - Boat diving
Temp at depth: 54 to 57
Gas mix: Bridgestone
Top reason Pasley should hurry home: The Sea Lions, bud. The Sea Lions.
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About once a quarter, Chica and I make a "Dive Safari" this usually consists of me taking a Friday off (She always has it off, the rat) and us doing an early AM dive at MarineLand, then moving to North county (Malibu, etc.) for a couple, and maybe another stop on the way to 'Tura. We toss the DS Undies in a dryer someplace, go get dinner and collapse on the Specter Friday night and awake to 4 great dives on 'Capa or Cruz.
We've done a few of these - so we got it pretty dialed in. And seeing as my Housing just got back from Ike (sent it in for a complete tune up and electronics change out as I'm selling it soon) I was dying to start shooting this month... its been about 3 or 4 weeks.
Friday was unreal. The wind was roaring - there was NOT going to be any local diving Friday morning or afternoon. Instead, we spent the day cruising up the coast visiting dive sites and making notes - entry points, parking, facilities, kick to reef, topography, etc. It was a good day. Not as good as doing 2 or 3 dives would have been, but it was good to look at some new (to me) North County dive sites.
I recently gave a lecture and slide show to a dive club and photo club, so seeing as we weren't diving, we decided to eat an early dinner in Ventura and go through the presentation so I can tweek it a bit, show 'chica my pics and tighten up the word tracks (I have another lecture next week...) So there we are in the restaurant - over appetizers and entrée, laptop open, laughing and being silly... great fun.
Roll to the Spectre, as the wind is pounding the harbor, set up gear in the freezing wind and flop. I'm kinda worried, as I just replaced the exhaust valve in my DS, and I haven't had it under water yet (only tested it in the bucket...) so I brought the wetsuit just in case (I dived wet on Wednesday night - I don't know how you mental patients do it... BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR) Man is it windy.
We wake on Anacapa Saturday to still water. What a difference a day makes! I set up the cam and we drop in.
DIVE 1
6 species of Nudi (although I think it was only five... :shakehead) - clear water, cool, kinda deepish (90-something) on a site called Coral Reef. Very nice. Loved it. Drysuit is leaking less at the valve, so I'm claiming victory. We went deep to look for Nudis (and found some) but the dive is shallow in the rocks. Nice site.
Dive 2
We're at the "Sea Lion Spot" - the same place I shot the Sea Lion pics in January. We pull up and all of the babies on the beach start barking. Cap't drops over the diver recall, turns it on and its a rush to the boat! We drop in and the viz is about HALF of what it was a few weeks ago. I'm sad, but still shooting - but most of the better shots are shooting up in the column. We're on the site Mid Day, so the sun's rays are pretty cool. I'm still pretty new to a lot of this (Photoshop, shooting mid day with my 12-24mm lens - the weakest lens for me, managing bad viz, repositioning the "subjects" to cleaner water, etc) and it all conspired to make the "keepers" from this Sea Lion dive very few. OY!! I have so much to learn... its exciting, really. We finish the dive and head back to the boat for a killer freshly BBQ'ed TriTip lunch!
Dive 3
We're diving "Channels" - a cool site. The surge is so severe I really can't get a shot off. I mean, we're just getting tossed. We see some Fed Ex, another 'tata and 'dette spied a Hiltons!!! Of course when she got me and brought me back to it, it had sprouted legs and run off.... (just like the Hopkin's I pulled Josh to see at 90 feet on Farnsworth a couple of weeks ago...) Nice dive, but just surge city.
Dive 4
Cat Rock - I like this site. Its shallow, its an urchin farm, but there are usually some cool Nudis and Octos and Stars. Shot the Orange Star at this site. We played and played, and were (of course) the last ones back on the boat. We hit the step, climb back to the dive stations and the boat starts. We get back in daylight (first daylight return this year!)
I wish we could have gotten in on Friday, but I LOVED the survey of sites we did, and diving the Spectre just rocks. Fast fills, the best lunch ever, maybe 20 people on this boat (it was really open) and a great Capt and crew. Huge props to Chica - bestest dive buddy ever.
Here are some pics. Enjoy.
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Ken
'Tata (Albopunctata) on the Brittle Star carpet that is most of Anacapa. What's up with the cleft lip on this guy? He only had it in this pic.
A Hare in the hand is worth... we'll you know the rest. There were so many Hares of all sizes and colors on this trip.
I wanted to get a shot of a Tritonia OFF of his red Gorgonia. Fortunately, Chica stumbled onto one making a break for the red... so I was able to get some shots on the sand / rocks.
Ken's fav - the Fed Ex. Chica spoted this pair trying to hang on in the crazy surge. Every site we visited had surge. Some big surge, the others just cartoon surge.
This Orange Star (name, please?) was sitting on a ledge. It reminded me of a diver on a recent trip that was just sprawling in the bow of the bunkroom - just falling against the wall, fast asleep! Looks like this star had a very rough day.
Anyone who's ever dived with Chica and I on a Sea Lion dive has seen us roll and spin and dive and bark and blow bubbles - essentially playing back with them. They love it! This is a shot I took as I dropped. 'Dette was in the water first (on the LEFT, out of frame) and the whole herd came over to her to play with her as she was rolling and spinning!
Chica playing with the doggies. One is rolling with her (its upside down, just like her in the pic) and the other one is kinda hovering, just looking at these two weirdos!
Everybody in the pool!!!
Zoom! After playing with the puppies for about 20 minutes at 25 feet (and causing a complete silt out) I moved us to about 10 feet to get into some clean water for some better pix. A moment later, the whole herd followed us! They just showed up - barking and zooming and spinning! However, the surge in the shallows was kicking our butt, so after a few shots (like this one) we moved back to the deeper water.
This guy was so funny! He was hanging upside-down almost the whole 40+ minutes of the dive. He'd get a breath, and hang right over us upside-down like this. He wouldn't move... just watch the action, go get another breath, then come back - just hanging in the sun rays. I have so many shots of him! Here are a couple of the amazing head-standing Sea Lion!
We saw this same guy a few weeks ago. He has fishing line wrapped around his neck, and its cutting a deep scar into him. There is more line hanging from this necklace, as well as sea grass. Its kinda sad - but he's obviously eating and was playing with us just like all the others. Here's a drop-in shot of him and one on the bottom as he is calling us to play.
Full gallery
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Remember - if you get the Red X of Death instead of the pictures, just right click and select "show picture"... if that doesn't work, hit f5 to reload the page and try again..
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5 in the shallows, 15 in the canyon
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