Posted by rookerymadness on June 07, 2005 at 01:30:05:
In response to Mr. C Dive Report Challenge.
A few weeks ago I read a post lamenting on how there were only a few dive reports mentioned from the many commercial boats so cal divers may go on. The post went so far as to say which boats they haven't heard from. The Mr. C, in particular, caught my eye — Hey, I go on that boat — maybe I can write a dive report!
Well... here we go! The boat had a light load of 21 divers. Divers were Mr. C's finest; Jeremy, Ray, Lindy, Art, Andy, Joe, Amber, Sumit, Claudette, Roger, Capts Tom & Tom & both cpt's kids, and two instructors — one, an attractive blonde with a group of firefighters as first-time divers, the other, the inimitable, unstoppable, unflappable Ron (who wasn't holding a class that day).
Destination: Catalina, west end. Right. Chatted, hit my bunk for maximum nap time before arrival (Mr. C has the best sized bunks — period). Hadn't dove (except once) since the crushed finger incident last October — 8 months! Crawled out right away when the engines slowed. Foggy but warm. Sweet. This is Nipple Rock, if my memory's good. Really not a whole lot of weather, drift, not really, June calm. At 55 feet below, outside of the kelp and reef, the water was 55(d) degrees. Super burr. Up, over the reef, in the kelp at 35 feet below and less, the water was 63(d) and just fine. Saw those Welk's (sp?) eggs that someone posted a picture of, lots of perch, a few legal lobsters, one small Spanish shawl nudi, sand dab, and one large bat ray with bite taken out of right wing. Could have been a snag or tear (triangle shaped gouge). Vis ranged from 20 to 50 feet depending on where you were at that moment. Better vis in the kelp. Good vis also below thermocine outside of reef. Burr. No real red tide problem.
Next dive; stony point. Lots of life, just like the first dive. Lots of those small blue blacksmiths or whatever those are. I love those. I like it when it's not so perfectly clear because you can play predator and stealth around. Maybe this is the dive I snuck up on that huge Ray with the bite out of his wing. It was not buried, (feeding) it was just resting, he let me hang around for a while before he took off, slowly, to show who's in charge.
I returned from this, the bar-b-q was started, and we moved to Parson's. Someone shot a lunch-sized calico at Stony Point and it went straight on the cue. We stayed there for the last of 2 more dives. The sun opened up beautifully, just as we began our trip back. No sun while we were diving, but now all the better to drink beer on the way home!
Daniel.