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Posted by Max Bottomtime on June 05, 2011 at 08:00:55:
In Reply to: Re: Howland's Reef - Catalina Island posted by FrankPro1 on June 05, 2011 at 01:19:08:
I tried something different yesterday and paid for it with sucky shots.
We hadn't dived for a month so it was one of those days when we felt compelled to dive. We pounded our way through the easterly swells to White Point, but the vis was so bad we headed back toward Marineland. Just as we approached Abalone Cove we heard a call about a boat taking on water near Pt. Fermin. I turned the boat around, but the coordinates broadcast by the Coast Guard were closer to White Point. By the time we got there the fire boat had already gone alongside the waterlogged boat near the Long Beach breakwall. There were a few more calls later in the day from boaters having problems. I love listening to VHS during the first few weeks of "boating season".
After anchoring at Howland's, the wind came up and I considered pulling anchor, but it calmed enough to make the dive. We made one dive, then headed for home.
We played with a large pod of common dolphin and tried to get close enough for photos of two Risso's dolphins, but they wouldn't allow that. As we crossed the northbound shipping lane we spotted what we thought was a balloon. It turned out to be a lost marker buoy. We'll clean it up and place it on the Marineland platform so it can be dived from the beach again. I'll add a warning on it about the submerged structure so that squid boats won't drop their nets there, unless someone steals the buoy as they did the last two I put there.
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