Posted by Dave Bischof on December 21, 2003 at 22:36:53:
Went last Friday with Rusty and the gang out of SSA Montclair on the six pack Second Stage out of Ports-O-Call in San Pedro. I got my sorry ass up at 3:30 am and did the Carls Jr. run thing, arrived at 5:30 am....too early. Now and then I am tragically reminded of why I prefer to board the boat the night before and sleep. Others arrived at 6 am and we all boarded quickly.....swells were up a tad so the planned destination of the Cortes Banks was scrapped as was Santa Barabard Island for San Clemente.
The Second Stage has been refurbished a tad and now has new carpeting, the carpeting has been removed from the head so it doesn't absorb the mess from guys with genitalia that are gyroscopically unstable or gimbal challenged. Nice and clean head now, hot shower was great....all bedding has been upgraded with nice new padding in the bunks. Of course the stereo system and TV and DVD player with lots of flicks made the return trip relaxing. I like the 17knot cruising speed too.
We went to a site called Window Pane, apparently named for how clear the water is as opposed to being named after lysergic acid diethylamine. Visability ranged from 70-90 or so feet. We cruised the pinnacles and dropped over the sheer ledge down to about 105 feet. The first dive was about an hour and fifty minutes, with most of the time spent in the 70-90 foot depth range. There were langostino everywhere, all laughing at us.....Huge schools of perch were hanging out just off the sheer wall, more or less oblivious to us unless we made a quick movement and they felt the pressure wave. Ran into a small octopus with more ink then his body volume....saw sea lions cavorting as usual as well as some dolphins...
It was a crackup to be at 100 feet and look up and see clearly the pinnacles within 20 feet or so of the surface....We had such a blast we decided to break for lunch of chips, salsa, drinks and some mean hearty beef stew with fresh baked sourdough rolls.
Did the second dive same place, pretty much the same thing....went further east this time, sheer wall all the way....it is justt a blast to be on a wall in SoCal at 50 feet and be able to see the bottom 50 feet deeper quite clearly. Second dive was in the hour and twenty minute range at the same depths around 80-100 feet. What a nice dive....thanks to the Captain and crew of the Second Stage and Rusty at SSA for choosing a righteous dive site that after 30 years of diving, was really cool.