It was a fairly quiet week . . .
AVALON ON MONDAY - While I'm not looking forward to my alarm going off at 5:30AM, I am looking forward to going over to Avalon on Monday with a small group. I'll do the requisite monthly cleaning of the new (I'll have to stop calling it that soon because it's almost a year old now) Cousteau plaque and then it's off to search for Giant Sea Bass. Last weekend, they estimate there were nine of them hanging around. I'm also taking my big camera (Nikon D750) rather than my GoPro so hopefully will have some stills to share with you.
ALSO ON MONDAY AT 11:11AM - If you're a space geek like me (and others), look to the skies northwest of L.A. at 11:11AM on Monday as there will be a Landsat satellite launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This will be the 2,000th launch from Vandenberg (the first was in 1958). It's predicted to be partly cloudy tomorrow so that may limit what you can see if you go outside but if you want to watch the launch on-line, they've got a webcast set up that starts at 10:30AM. You can access it for FREE - a diver's favorite word - through this link:
VANDENBERG ROCKET LAUNCH.
SOCORRO ANYONE??? - We have a single spot left on our March 11-20 trip on the Nautilus Under Sea and perhaps it has YOUR name on it. The spot's in the co-ed triple (with me and one other guy at the moment) but the nice thing about this trip is that while the Under Sea normally maxes it out at 19 divers, on this trip we have four people who are doing single supplements, so our max load will be 15 divers. And both for COVID reasons as well as diving reasons, it makes the entire journey that much more pleasant. Call us at 310/652-4990 for more details.
CALIFORNIA LOBSTER SEASON STARTS SATURDAY MORNING - I'll try to put another safety bug in your head (borrowing from the DEMA poster): Safety first, lobsters second. Just to re-emphasize the safety angle, we generally make sure the Chamber is fully staffed for opening weekend, just in case. The L.A. County Coroner's office has this on their radar as well. I don't want to come off as an alarmist, but every year we always have close calls and often have one or more fatalities. Most of the time, that's because people get so engrossed with lobsters, they forget that air, not crustaceans, is what sustains life. So please dive safely and check your air often. A good rule of thumb is every five minutes or 500psi. If you've consumed more than 500psi since the last time you checked, you're not checking often enough.
