Posted by Chris on August 28, 2001 at 17:42:08:
Weekend before last, August 18-19, 2001, my girlfriend Kathryn and I went to San Clemente Island on the Great Escape (DiveBoat.com) with Ocean Safari (OceanSafariScuba.com).
We were supposed to go to Cortes Bank, but the Navy had shut it, and part of SCI down for exercises.
We started the first day diving at blockhouse reef.
It was a nice dive with about 40 to 50 foot visibility, but nothing spectacular this day.
We then moved down the island to Mosquito Cove, where Kathryn and I were the first in the water.
As we swam to the wall we encountered a pair of Black Sea Bass.
The largest one was about 250 lbs., the small one was about 100 lbs.
Our next two dives were at the East End Reef.
Here the visibility opened up to over 100 feet, with a water temperature of about 66 °F.
One the first dive we found a crack with many lobster, some very large red crabs, and a 8 ft. moray eel.
When we returned to the crack on the second dive there was another 5 ft. moray there as well.
The next day we did two dives a Castle Rock.
Kathryn and I were the first ones in.
Just after we entered the water, which was 59 °F, two large Black Sea Bass swam up to check us out.
The largest one, which was a bit over 6 feet long, swam with inches of me.
Kathryn did not see them at first, because she was untangling some kelp from her fins.
When she looked up the big one was less than a foot from her face checking her out.