Trip Report and Photos

Diving with Ross O. - September 24, 2006

The Radio Tower, Hawthorne's Reef, and The Wreck of the Dominator

Story and Photos, © Elaine Jobin, may not be reproduced in part or whole without advanced written permission.

On the last Sunday in September, Ross, Dave, Mike, Mike (Mike x 2) and myself loaded all of our gear on the Orion and set off into the San Pedro Channel to eliminate all traces of "dry gill". "Dry Gill" is that horrible affliction with symptoms including - but not limited to - irritability, crabbiness, fatigue, general feeling of unrest, quarrelsomeness with friends, coworkers, and "significant others", and, an impending sense of inability to show up at work unless you get an entire quality day of time underwater. Friends, co-workers, spouses, etc. who are familiar with this illness can be recognized by preceding any interactions with you by a simple question "have you been out diving lately". If the answer is "yes" - you can see them relax immediately, if the answer is "no" - they seem to shrink and slink off in the other direction before you even notice that they have disappeared..

Our first health rejuvenating destination was a site that Ross calls the Radio Tower. It is called the Radio Tower because it looks a lot like an old radio tower that somehow ended up on its side in the ocean. Visibility at the Radio Tower wasn't very good, but it didn't matter, it was wet and soothing with pretty things to look at. Ross even found an old bottle that had become a home to a variety of critters including some nudi's..

Starting to feel better, we next headed over to what has become my favorite reef - Hawthorne's. Hawthorne's isn't too far from Old Marineland so I decided to spend this dive checking out the nudibranchs. There were lots of them, everywhere.

We made our last stop at a shallower site, The Wreck of the Dominator. Visibility here was good at around 30 feet but the surge was quite strong at times. The close to shore location of this wreck virtually assures that it is pounded by waves in storms - it is remarkable how much of it is still intact.

The excellent visibility made finding the Orion easy at the end of the dive.

When we returned to the dock and unpacked our stuff, we realized how much we had packed onto the boat that day. Not once had the Orion complained. Clearly, this boat was made to cure "dry gill".

Until next time........