A sold-out Peace boat set sail at 7AM on Sunday morning, destination - Anacapa. Penny and I were geared up, ready to go! She was a little sea-sick when we reached the first site, but felt better underwater.

Every dive site was in a marine reserve. The captain tried several times to find sites for the hunters, but currents there were too strong. I actually felt bad that they didn't get to hunt on even 1 dive!

Bat rays were seen on every dive. vis was nice on dives #1 and #4, (a big improvement from the last few weeks I heard). Not too great on dives #2 & #3.

Dive #1 - Cathedral Gardens. A nice site! beautiful kelp, large sheepheads, schools of opaleye and black perch. It has a nice rocky reef going down to 50ft. 57 below 25ft. 30-40ft vis. 47ft, 56min.

Treefish

Opaleye

Garibaldi laying eggs, with its mate. It was really cool to actually see the eggs being laid! (The eggs are yellow).

Pile Perch

Large Male Sheephead

Dive #2 - Winfield Scott. Lots of barren rocks here, not a great site, except for the pair of Black Sea Bass that passed by us. Many divers on the boat saw them (maybe half?). After the first passing, Penny and I swam into deeper waters and just "hung out" in hopes of a second passing, we were not disappointed. I was quite excited, as this was my first black Sea Bass sighting ever. 40ft, 64min, 64 degrees

We came to this site because the full moon was causing strong currents everywhere. Great job Kevin finding this site!

School of Opaleye

Black Perch

Island or Spotted kelpfish, living in a shell

Unidentified sculpin

Dive #3 - Fishbowl Point. Supposedly there is a reef off the point (to the right), going down to 80ft, we didn't explore it though. A large Black Sea Bass made this dive! It came right by us, and swam away. karen would have seen it if she wasn't taking a macro shot. 58ft, 52min, 59 degrees

Gorgonians and Sea fans

Unidentified Flatworm

Karen Elaine, adjusting her strobe to take a photo of us

catalina Triopha

Black Sea Bass

Bat Ray

Dive #4 - Landings cove. This site rocks! Nice walls, lots of life, an incredible swimthrough cave, and clear kelp make this a favorite. Too bad my camera went out of batteries early on this dive. 51ft, 49min, 63 degrees.

Scorpionfish, well camoflauged.

3 species of rockfish, inside the swim-through cave

Rockfish, maybe a Copper? Surrounded by sea cucumbers, algae, and Bryozoans

Very, very large lobster. Check out mussel shells and large black urchin for comparison.

Green Anemone

The peace boat was awesome, they did 4 dives as promised, even though the strong currents often delayed us finding sites. Even though penny and I limited our dives to 60 minutes, we were usually the last ones back (first ones off the boat also), but the crew never complained. Service (food, fills, help on the boat, dive site briefings) was excellent, and a nice tip was left.

• Re: Anacapa on the Peace - photos Chris 11:46:41 07/10/06 (0)