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Posted by Eric S on August 30, 2012 at 20:38:06:
In Reply to: Really great except for one thing... posted by seahunt on August 30, 2012 at 13:48:47:
It was a great time, one of the best.
A few of us went up Wednesday which is a first.
We went for a dive at about 2:00 PM.
We went just south of Albion by Bull Rock but in closer and just a tad south. It’s still part of that reef.
It was nothing but walls, all vertical. The pinnacles were from 25 feet straight down to 90 feet and this was fairly close to shore.
Great dive! About 45 foot vis, lots of fish, saw a couple huge Puget Sound King Crabs (one in the video)
I bagged a red and a few king size scallops.
We actually did two dives back to back there it was so good.
Jim has it marked, we’ll have to take you there some time. On the way back to the marina the fog literally sat down on the water. I mean it was maybe 100 foot topside vis if that at some points.
We were motoring along slow when right out of the fog we came upon an urchin boat anchored with divers and lines in the water. There was a captain topside screaming his lungs out as soon as he saw us that he had divers in the water and we needed to back out as soon as Jim threw it in reverse the motor stalled. He re started it and tried it again and it stalled again.
Something was wrong, he could start it, the motor wouldn’t go up, he could turn it, something was seriously wrong! We saw lines in the water just a few feet away and then the horror hit me that we may have sucked one of the divers lines up into the prop!
I leaped to the back of the boat and saw that it was our equipment line that had gotten wrapped up in the prop. Apparently stupid me had forgotten to pull up the equipment line after we were finished with our second dive and as Jim was trying to back out of the urchin diver zone is when it wrapped in the prop. I quickly took a knife and cut it loose. Meanwhile the skipper of the urchin boat is blowing a gasket ordering the compressors to be shut off and just about having a stroke. We yelled over that it was all OK it was OUR line that fouled and everything was fine. He calmed right away and in fact one of the divers offered to swim over and undo our fouled line if we needed. We assured them we had it handled and we backed out and were on our way.
Talk about Sh_t hitting the fan! Thursday we free dove all day for abalone.
Friday was a tank dive in the cove. Conditions picked up so the cove was the only option. I got a nice ling which ended my dry spell.
All that fish got beer battered in Longboard and scarfed hard.
Saturday I free dove all day. I wanted a box crab really bad. I took my kayak and went out to Albion point and free dove it for about 4 hours. I never did find a crab but I did manage to bag a nice ling and a cabby, and a big fat blue.
The problem with these parties is there’s always waaaay too much food, and most of it gourmet.
I did some scallops in a white wine, olive oil, butter, lemon, garlic, reduction. As the reduction was reducing in a sauce pan I hot seared the scallops in a skillet so the inside of the scallops were still raw. Then I dropped them into the reduction and sautéed them off for a few minutes to let the slow heat just touch the inside. I placed the scallops on a plate and drizzled the reduction on top and garnished with fresh basil.
Oren even baked a two layer chocolate cake in Dutch ovens and we made vanilla raspberry dark chocolate ice cream in an ice cream ball that you kick around the campground for about an hour and the ice and salt inside the isolated chamber makes the ice cream freeze in the other chamber. Those things are cool!
I brought pre marinated Carne Asada from a Mexican market I go to and that found it’s way onto the grille.
There was so much other stuff I can’t even begin.
Don’[t even get me started on how many ways abalone was done. I can’t even be in the same room as one after that! The Tiki Bar was a smash hit, of course. A bunch of good timin’ drinkers we are, North Coast Style.
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