Posted by Eric S on August 05, 2002 at 21:42:57:
Well the 2nd annual Vandamme party happened and it was a super time. Would it be any other way?
There was a good turn out of people this year from this BBS.
Tommy and family made it and finfan was there with his family and his BEAUTIFUL 21 ft. boat, Seahunt and his wife, and a score of others. A bunch of the good 'ol boys from these parts where there too and everyone got along just great.
All the dive stories around the campfire and the seafood cook-a-thons, the great dives. This restored my faith that real divers, no matter where they're from, share a true kinship for adventures in diving and new experiences. The rest of the anonymous rif-raf that mucks up the board from time to time probably don't know how to have a good time so there wouldn't have been anything for them up here anyway.
My vacation started on Wednesday and I rolled into the campground about 6:30 pm. Finfan was already there (he got a spot up on the mesa) so I looked him up and we chatted for a while then I went back down to my site and thought about dinner. It was too late to jump into the water and get something to eat so I settled for some hot dogs. One problem, no skewers. Damn!, I new I forgot something. I looked around and saw no thin branches to cut for a skewer. Then I looked over at my 3 prong hawaiian sling and in minutes I had three dogs barbecued to perfection. Pole prears also work good for marshmallows BTW.
In the morning I woke up and through the early light I could see all these specks moving around on the outside of my tent. What the hell.. Well, In the evening darkness of the night before I had pitched my tent right over an ant hill! Needless to say I moved the tent right away then got my espresso and pancakes and bacon going.
Later that morning finfan and I launched my boat at Albion and did a quick ab dive in the north end of Albion Bay. The vis was fairly good and getting better so I new this was going to be a good diving weekend. There wasn't even a whisper of wind in the overcast fog. Finfan (Jeff) and I got our abs in short time (some really nice ones) and headed north to Vandamme bay.
Jeff couldn't get over how many abs there were and the shear beauty of the coastline. As we cruised along I was pointing out some of my favorite dive sites and we even cruised into some coves to scope for potential ab spots. As he will confirm there are pinnacles right at the water line and 50 feet away you're in 120 ft. of water!
After Jeff and I moored the boat in the bay we met Tommy at the campground. He had never ab dove before (or even been up here) and was wanting to get in the water and give it a try. A few hours later he came back with a limit of three beautiful abs that he got right in the bay!
Both of those guys also mentioned that, even though the water was 51 degrees, it really didn't seem that cold.
Back at camp I cooked up an ab and next to me was a big non-diving family of 12 people who were in awe of the fresh abs. I fried up the snail and ate only 3 pieces so I gave them the rest. They were so eternally greatful that they gave me a whole top sirloin dinner, a big bag of fish from their fishing boat charter trip that day, and a tray of fresh fruit. Some of them hadn't had ab in 35 years and some of them never had it. You meet some of the greatest people camping!
Friday morning there were more people who rolled in the night before and that morning. I organized and ab trip down the coast and into a secluded cove. 6 of us in the boat, all from the BBS and the freedivelist. We played like children in the water for 2-3 hours. We all got abs, did a lot of fun freediving, and one guy (Dimitrios) was shooting digital photos of the action both top side and underwater. The ocean was very calm with a gentle rolling swell. The sky was over cast but not cold, and again there was absolutely no wind. The spot we went to was a small island just south of Vandamme about 3/4 miles south and I anchored the dory in on the lee side of the island in the channel between the mainland. The water dropped right off into 30- 40 ft. off the rocks of the island and you could have literally giant strided off a rock. There were spots where rocks came up 5-10 feet from the surface in the channel, but most of it was deep.The vis was a good 15- 20 feet and the underwater growth was phenomenal. The deeper you went the bigger the abs got. At the bottom in 40 feet there were spots with abs almost on top of each other.
In the afternoon my dedicated dive buddy and a few tech diver friends of mine went and we scuba dove a site called the sand channel.
This site starts in 35 feet and goes down very rapidly to 100+ feet to a flat sand path that winds it way up to 70 feet between 2 walls and is about 8 to 15 feet wide. What we do is drop of the edge of the wall down to the sand path, then as we come to the end of the channel we reverse directions and head back up the wall at an angle to the anchor line. At the turn around point there were 3 huge lings hanging around so I shot 1 of them and wrestled him down and dispatched him in the spine with my knife. A quick end.
Dale captured a nice box crab so that went into the bag also.
After we got into the boat I pulled up the equipment line only to find that my $269 Riffe gun had some how come unclipped and fell onto the ocean floor... GODDAMNSONOFABeeeep
I was tempted to toss my doubles on again (still Had plenty of air) but I got a better idea. Now this next manuever I know is going to get some of you exited and maybe even start a flame war, but that's OK. Here goes: Dale hands me his bottle of 50/50 in a 30 cft pony, I grab it by the handle, put the reg in my mouth and over the side I go. No bc, only my mask, weight belt, fins, and this bottle. I searched around for a while until the bottle had about 500 lbs in it and I came up... Nothing. Oh well, nobody said diving was cheap.
The next morning we went on a search and recovery mission and right at the very end of the dive my buddy Larry found the gun.
Larry is the best dive buddy in the world and as far as I'm concerned he has free boat dives for ever! The gun soaked for 18 hours and was in perfect shape (teak stock). Praises to Julie and Jay Riffe!
When we rolled back into Van damme bay I set the boat on the mooring and when stepped onto shore, there, pulling up with his wife, low and behold it was SEAHUNT!
Mike, are you reading? Take it from here.
Part two tomarrow...