I'm heading back from the the east coast for an extended weekend family thing . . .
ZOOM SEEKERS THIS TUESDAY - As COVID cases are once again on the rise, this seems to be a rather timely talk. Dr. Charlotte Sadler is from UC San Diego where she is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Program Director, Undersea Hyperbaric & Medicine Fellowship. More pertinently, she's also been co-ordinating studies about diving and COVID ever since COVID-19 first started appearing. She'll be sharing with us her knowledge overall about how this disease affects divers and especially the ability to dive after an infection, as well as tipping us off to any new insights that the medical community is gleaning. We hope you'll join us this Tuesday evening starting at 7:30PM. Q&A will follow the talk and we should be done no later than 9PM. Here's the Zoom link:
ALSO TUESDAY - Join me in wishing Best Sister Sue a happy birthday.
MORE TRAVEL CALENDAR PLOTTING - I've told you I'm still looking for something in November of next year and got a note from one of our divers asking, "How about Palau?" Well, anyone interested? I've already been in contact with Aggressor as we'd use either the Rock Island Aggressor or the Palau Aggressor II (the boats are identical) and both are wide open. We could look at either November 3-10 or 10-17, 2024. It would also be possible to set you up for an extension to another place nearby (Truk aka Chuuk, Yap, Philippines, etc.) for those wanting to do longer than a single week. But the official group part of this would be the week in Palau along with the travel time to get there and back. We haven't been to Palau since 2016 so it's probably high time that we returned (as long as there's enough interest). We don't need to take the entire boat (18 spots) but I'd like to fill as much of it as we can. So if you're interested, let me know, along with which week you'd prefer or if both are doable. Palau offers some wonderful diving and the Aggressor operation there is top-notch.
AVALON ON OCTOBER 18 - Our next Avalon day trip is scheduled for Wednesday, October 18. We'll be leaving out of San Pedro on the 8:45AM departure and returning to SP around 7:30PM the same day. In between, we'll get in three dives and all the fun you can handle. This is a good time of the year for visibility, water temperature, and Giant Sea Bass sightings so it's the diving equivalent of triple witching hour. If you're interested in joining us, give us a call at 310/652-4990 or e-mail us here.
WARM WATER ISN'T ALWAYS A GOOD THING - There have been frequent reports about how this has been one of the hottest summers on record and that goes for ocean temps too in both the Atlantic and Pacific. We've previously told you about temps around the Florida Keys reaching 100 degrees. Yikes!!! The warmer waters can also mean an extended hurricane season which - although it officially runs through the end of November - generally slows down starting in October. However, we've already had 18 named Atlantic storms this season and as I write this, Tropical Storm Lidia looks to become Hurricane Lidia and is projected to slam through the Socorro Island chain on Monday. So we're not out of the woods quite. Read more about it here:
HURRICANE SEASON MAY LINGER.
BETTER NEWS - On a more positive note, we seem to have made it through the first full week of lobster season without any significant injuries or fatalities (at least as far as I know at this point). Yahoo!!!
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
