Two Harbors, Too Fun

Steve Smith and me Shoved off from Angels Gate last Friday in the recently refitted 13’ foot Boston Whaler the “Little Bit” for a few, fun, end of Summer days of recreational Dive’n’Sun at the Isthmus. We followed friends from the Single Mariners Club through the San Pedro Channel fog and were treated to spectacular weather Island side for our raft-up party in Emerald Bay.

E-Bay’s China Rock was busy daily with warm water, Sierra Club snorkelers and kayakers, and some O/W class boats, we stopped and said hi to Gary Jackson and the Psalty V crew. Here was a safe place where we also turned our new boating buddies on to their first time hookah dives, very fun, O/W SCUBA class is coming for them! I got personal best breathholds in the spring suit warm water. The night diving around our mooring was some of the BEST Bio-Lume ever, WOW! I’m not sure how to capture this on U/W video? Any suggestions? I made finger’n’fin ‘sparklers’ in the 70* water for an hour one night, here’s some footage from elsewhere:

The highlights for me were taking Steve over to the Wrigley (P)reserve and Blue Cavern area. We dove live boat (Thanks Capt. Rob), the Macrocystis was relatively sparse compared to last few seasons, but we were not disappointed. As a fisherman, Steve was blown away by the HUGE Kelp Bass and Sheephead, giant schools of everything, flying Bat Rays and stealthy Kelp Fish, abundant scallops, numerous Ab shells, as well as fat colonies of Bugzz. Large Moreys rounded out the dives. Steve now understands (P)reserves better than ever ☺. These small percentage areas really do supply the highest percentage of Island breeding stocks. (MPA’s work!)

We also ran into Jocko R. from Dive’n’Surf, he was out with friends for a fun weekend of photographing local diving pioneer Torrance Parker. http://www.underwater.com/archives/arch/033.01.shtml They were shooting classic hardhat diving in the Eagle Reef area, what a real treat! All you Voodoo gas freaks owe a nod to Torrance and his contemporaries who were the early mixed gas Guinea Pigs.

The sleep-on-the-deck weather makes me wanna rush back and get some more fine Fall diving in at Two Harbors, Hmmm…let’s see, Bucaneer Days, Holloween Haunt, Micro Brew Fest, Island Turkey Day??? Two Harbors is the ‘other’ Catalina, (and you can rent your own skiff ;~) Here’s a secret, you can also rent a cheap room “in town” in the off season, call the visitors center for details.

Sea Ya Out There!

• Re: Indian Rock, Duh! Divebum Don 08:18:27 09/30/09 (0)