Congrats to our Oscar winners, nominees, and presenters (an advantage of being in Beverly Hills is that I get to legitimately say that each year) . . .
GREAT SOCORRO TRIP - As I mentioned last week, we had a really nice Socorro trip on the Nautilus Under Sea. Aside from the usual mantas and sharks galore, we also got a Whale Shark and an incredible dolphin encounter - which still leaves me amazed - so how can you complain? Plus we had a fairly nice ride down and a nice ride back up to Cabo so everything worked out well. And we had a really good group of people and a wonderful crew so who could ask for more? I've got the trip report done, the pictures are posted, and I've also posted a copy of the Nautilus-created trip video (which used a lot of our stills). Here are the links to those if you'd like to peruse any or all:
CHAMBER DAY/EVE 2022 - May 4 is the date and now that I'm back, you'll be hearing more from me about this critical fund-raising event for our Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber. Our Reef Seekers Chamber Eve table has two spots left but our virtual table has plenty of space. We've got a bunch of you signed up for the Flying Dutchman already but we can always use more scallywags. And for those of you who contribute to the Chamber Challenge, your donations are always appreciated. We hope you'll pitch in to support our Chamber. It's one of those thing you hope you'll never need but you'll be very glad it's there if you ever do. Check it out at
www.chamberday.org.
INNOVATIVE USE FOR A LUGGAGE SCALE - Many of you have one of those portable luggage scales you use to weigh your bags for a trip but we found another use for them on the Socorro trip. The weights they were giving us on the boat weren't all labelled so while we could guess how much we had, we never knew if it was accurate or not. Then we got the bright idea of using a luggage scale to weigh the weights when on a belt or in a weight pocket. Turns out the ones I had that we thought were 20 pounds were actually 23 pounds, so I took some off. But it's a great little hack to think about when travelling to make sure you've got the amount of weight you think you have and aren't diving over-weighted.
SPEAKING OF OVER-WEIGHTING - I've ranted for years about divers who over-weight themselves. It means you work a little harder, use up your air faster, and it can be a contributing factor in a diving accident. On this trip, we had a guy diving with a steel 100cf tank, which is about 10 pounds negative at the END of the dive (and about 18 pounds negative at the beginning). He insisted 23 pounds was the right amount of weight for him, despite the weight of the tank. We tried to convince him he was wrong. And I'm pleased to say he listened and tried a little less weight each dive, finally getting himself down to 9 pounds on his belt (which we still thought was a couple of pounds heavy). But the good news is that he shed 14 pounds of needless weight. He also commented that his air consumption got better and that he wasn't working as hard on the dives. All good things. So hopefully take his story to heart and re-examine the amount of weight you are wearing. I'm willing to bet that you're wearing anywhere from 2-10 pounds more than you really need and will be a much happier diver if you shed some lead.
MIKE LEVER ON ZOOM SEEKERS - The Tuesday before we left for Socorro, Nautilus Liveaboards owner Mike Lever was our Zoom Seekers speaker, talking about Gray Whales and the fabulous "glamping" camp in San Ignacio Lagoon where you can go and interact with these graceful creatures. If you missed Mike's talk, it's up on our YouTube channel. Here's the link:
ENDURANCE FOUND - The story of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1915 expedition to Antarctica on the Endurance is one of the great stories of the time. After the ship was trapped by thick ice, Shackleton and his men set up camps on ice floes that were drifting north and then Shackleton and a few men got in a lifeboat and made their way to Georgia Island and mounted a rescue to come back and get all the others, without a single loss of life. Their ship, the Endurance, sank and had been searched for many times to no avail. But earlier this month the ship was located roughly four miles away from where it was thought to be, at a depth of almost 10,000 feet in the Weddell Sea. The ship seems to be amazingly well-preserved. You can read more about it here:
ENDURANCE FOUND.
WORD OF WARNING - Friday is April 1. I'm just sayin' . . .
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
