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

Ross O's. boat, the Orion, was a perfect place to spend the day before Christmas. Ross & Beth, and Phil & Merry are part of my amphibian family. We had a wonderful, peaceful day.

We went to Hawthorne's for our first dive. I saw something here I"ve never seen before. Ross swam by with a lobster on a leash. He had forgotten his game bag and didn't want to go to his Christmas dinner empty handed.

Soon one lobster on a leash turned into two and his Christmas dinner was secure.

My next surprise from Ross came when he slipped through an incredibly small hole in the reef.

I looked through the hole and saw that there was a large opening on the other side. I decided to swim over the reef instead of through it. In route, Ross's bubbles were oozing through other smaller reef holes - creating silty geysers in the water column. I was so busy watching the geysers I almost missed the Giant Black Sea Bass that was sitting in front of the large opening on the other side. I caught a glimpse of him, but not a decent picture.

Next, we watched some painted greenlings mate. Then we found a large old anchor. and Ross posed for some photos.

Back on the boat, we motored around trying to pick our next site. There was a lot of variability in visibility. We finally settled on an area that had some large waves breaking near by but offered clearer water. This site was between Cardiac Hill and Old Marineland. Ross was soaked from a leak in his drysuit and sat out this dive with Merry. It was Phil and I in the water.

This reef had lots of slots, overhangs, and narrow swim thru's. When the sun is at the "right" angle in the sky, it is probably a very beautiful dive site.

On our way back to the dock, we went past Bill's Bait. This floating concession was over run with sea lions. Some of the structure looked damaged.

It was a good opportunity to get some silly looking sea lion photos. I also noticed that Sea Lions must "shed" or something when they grow new coats. Some of the Sea Lions in the group photo above looked like they had half a hair cut.

There was also a dead Brown Pelican and a dead Sea Lion pup on the structure. Sad sights for Christmas Eve.

The good news is that Phil got his towel back for Christmas (along with a vintage Marineland Plate).

Merry Christmas to all. It looks like this is the last trip report of 2006.

Until next time.........