Posted by Frank O on July 15, 2002 at 20:41:13:
In Reply to: What a frig'n bummer posted by Jeffro on July 15, 2002 at 17:07:55:
It's a pain, but changes of plan happen all the time.
Last November I was scheduled to go out on a boat to Anacapa the same day a rain front was coming in. They assured me the night before that they'd be going out the next morning, rain or no. I drove an hour and a half on wet freeways to get there. Ten minutes before departure time, the captain called the trip. He said it was the wind pattern rather than the rain.
This spring I thought I'd beat an incoming front and hop over to Avalon for a little diving in the morning. Got up at 4:30 and made it down for the 6:30 Express. "I hope you're not planning to come back today," the crew said as I was handing them my gear. They handed it back, and five minutes later I was back in my car, heading home.
In May I boarded a boat in the evening looking forward to a trip to San Clemente Island. It was due to leave at 2 a.m. and motor through the night. I woke up at 6 with the boat unnaturally steady motionless. It was still at the dock, and we left a little while later for the alternate site, frontside Catalina.
And on the beach diving front, several times this spring I've driven down to Laguna or Corona del Mar, looked over the bluff at a cove below, seen the surf and the chop, said, "Nah," and drove home.
And then, out of the blue, there are those times when everything comes together right, the boat gets there, the vis is great, you see something that makes the trip.
The moral of the story, I guess, is you have to stay flexible ...
Your dolphins sound definitely worth it.