Trip Report and Photos

Cortes Bank and Santa Barbara Island

The Sea Divers on the Great Escape

October 27 and 28, 2006

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

On Thursday evening a whole bunch of Sea Divers converged on the Great Escape for a trip to Cortes Bank.

The weather was mostly looking good. Statistically, only 1 in 5 attempts will make it to Cortes Bank. I've been there once and this was my 6th attempt - so I was due. If you figure that a trip to Cortes costs about $250.00, that means that those 5 tries to get there once cost about $1,250.00. Cortes Bank is not a cheap place to visit. Of course, if you don't get there - you get to go someplace else instead - but still.

In the morning, Captain Tim confirmed that we were at Cortes. (Um, I didn't tell him that I'd run into Chris twice during the night up on the deck - um, checking the GPS. Once early in the night, and once when we were about 2 hours out from out destination - past the point of no return - so we cheated and already knew).

The above pictured sunrise was really strange. The mainland fires gave the sunrise a very unusual red color. The sun was only visible for a few minutes at the horizon and then it disappeared again into the red sky.

Once anchored at 9 Fathom's, we got ready to dive. The sky now was a strange yellow color.

The water was beautiful. Very calm with at least 100 feet of visibility. My camera wasn't beautiful. I had sent the F100 into the Nikon Facility for an overhaul in preparation for a new and hopefully exciting year. It had just come back. The problems that it had been having were all fixed, but, it had a new problem with the shutter curtain. Almost all of my photos had a dark area covering about a third of the slide. All of the underwater photos in this trip report were affected but "salvageable". Some truly good photos went straight to the trash due to the service department screw up. *@#@%&$. From this experience I have learned - never even trust the Nikon factory service - test my cameras as soon as I get them back. &&#@$$&@. (The F100 is back in it's box waiting for the Monday mail for a second repair trip).

9 Fathoms was mostly covered with Bull Kelp - Nerocystis luetkeana with lots of Purple Coralline Algae as a ground cover.

After two dives, we moved on to shallower areas at Cortes Bank. It was here that we witnessed one of the human highlights of the trip. Bob Davis shed his wetsuit and went lobster hunting in his swim trunks.

I sat in the water waiting to get some photos of Bob. I figured he would last about 20 minutes. 40 minutes later, I spotted him under the boat. He not only wasn't shivering - he had a bunch of lobsters in his bag.

There were some good macro subjects at Cortes too.

After 5 or 6 dives - I don't remember how many exactly - things slowed down. We had a great evening shrimp and steak dinner. Eric was kind enough to help me track down and seal a leak in my drysuit. Thanks Eric! A terrific end to an awesome day.

The next morning we were at Santa Barbara Island.

There were lots of gorgonians and brittle stars.

The very last dive was my favorite. It was at a beautiful wall. Down at the sand I joined a large torpedo ray as he toured the dive site. I kept one careful eye on him and watched really closely for any sign that he might be getting upset with me following him around. After about a minute he didn't seem to notice me at all and just went about his business. I was hoping to see him zap a fish for dinner, but instead he would cruise over the gorgonians like a vacuum cleaner. I had some great photos of his moves with the gorgonians, but alas, the Nikon factory. (%$##$#&).

These are some of the "Bug Trophy" photos from Cortes and Santa Barbara Island.

A terrific job by Captain Tim and the Crew. Absolutely wonderful trip.

Until next time.