CopyRight @ 1999
It was time for the Peace again. The Sea Sons had chartered
for a trip to San Nicolas Island. At first, people signed up
slowly, but as the weather improved through the week, the boat
filled up fast. I drove to LA and caught a ride up to Ventura
with Mel. The boat was pretty full with about 30 divers and it
seemed like most of them were the same people I had been diving
with over the years. They knew what was going to be a good trip
and they were there. Divers bounced around talking and preping
their gear as needed.
The boat left at midnight and it was so calm that you couldn't
tell when we left the harbor. As we came to the west end of the
island, morning started with a spectacular sunrise. Now the divers
were moving with more purpose. Some were suited already and Roger
was putting out the first breakfast. The kelp beds extend for miles
off the west end of the island and we were already in them. As the
engine speed cut, activity quickened even more. Divers were already
at the gate. Eric, the skipper, started to talk about the site by
saying it was mostly 80 feet. He was going to continue, but then he
remembered who the group was and just said 'the gates are open'. At
least, no one went over the railing, but these divers do not check
gear on the surface. The jump in and go straight down.
It was interesting to note the equipment. While there were
a few dry suits and a few people carried gear, most of the divers
had minimal gear, streamlined and setup for hunting lobster. The
majority of the divers were wearing backpacks without BC's or
floatation gear. This was to allow easy on and off of the tank
while under water for if they needed to go down a hole. These
divers do not have buoyancy problems.
A half hour later, the divers started returning with a
variety of bugs up to about a 7 pounder that John Higgins got. The
sun was even up some by now and Roger had a full hot breakfast for
everybody. The deckhands were checking people in by the numbers and
filling tanks. Divers were scooping water from the hottub and
pouring it down their wetsuits, as they would for the rest of the
day.
At this point the boat was about a mile west of the Boilers,
out from the island. That is where I was hoping to get to dive.
Eric moved the boat about 200 yards closer to the island for the
next tank. More divers were ready for this jump. Again the water
was going to be mostly 70 to 80 feet. The last dive had shown the
water temperature to be up and down from 50 degrees and certainly
chill. You don't notice it if you are swimming fast.
We all hit the water fast and headed out. The terrain here
was somewhat strange. It was the usual rock shelf with kelp
holdfasts and occasional rock piles, but there were many deep
channels. These were smooth sided and went down perhaps 20 feet
from the surrounding rock. I wasn't interested in going in them,
because they didn't seem to have much in the way of rock piles or
ledges for lobster to hide in. The bottom was flat rocks completely
covered in encrusting red algaes. On top of this were innumerable
small purple urchins, mostly less than 1/2 inch in diameter. There
might have been 100 per square foot. There were a lot of the
smaller laminareas (say 18 inches tall) growing about, but not the
dense fields that are sometimes common. The urchins did not try to
climb the laminareas, but if one got bent over to where the
'leaves' touched onto the rocks, it was quickly swamped by urchins.
Apparently, it is either hard or dangerous for the urchins to climb
the stalks (stipes) of the plants, but if they can get hold of the
leaves against the rocks, they just devour them. The bottom is very
clean of kelp debris. It all happens in slow motion, but it is
extremely dynamic.
Wherever there were rocks or ledges, there were larger Purple
Urchins (2-3 inches) and big Red Urchins, some that with the center
ball and the spines, make up a a package near a foot across. On
the rock piles it was common to find a large Giant Kelp
(Macrocystis) growing. These reach straight up into the gloom, to
the surface.
It is all incredibly lush and beautiful to see, but I wasn't
finding any bug. I went into some of the channels, but as
mentioned, they were mostly smooth sided or there might be a shallow
crack that appeared as a big black line because it was filled with
red urchins. As I went across one, I got a visual of a large bug
walking out in the open. While the visibility is fine, perhaps 50
feet, it is still early and the light is very dim. When I looked
down into the channel, I could see something, but couldn't make
out what. It had been my periferal vision that had been able to
recognize the lobster. It didn't matter. I was heading straight
down and hit it with both hands. It was between 3 and 4 pounds and
a very nice bug. I was out of air pretty soon after and went back
to the boat. I had gone south from the boat. The divers that had
gone to the west had found better terrain with rock piles and more
bugs.
The day continued like this. Each time the boat moved a bit
closer to the Boilers and into slightly shallower water. It was a
remarkably calm and clear day. It had been rough all year to this
point and few boats had been making it out here. Today was a great
dive day. Gate times were about 15 minutes so that we could try to
get in perhaps 7 tanks during the day.
I was watching the Boilers closely to see if it looked
divable. That reef is just naturally rough in a very rough piece
of the ocean. Also, it has been visited many times since it was
named 'Bull City', but one never knew when you might get lucky
and that's a great place to do it. It was not rough now, though
spray would occasionally fly up from the rocks along the 100 yards
or so of the main reef, as the waves alternately exposed and
submerged the shallowest areas. We were still about 3 miles from
the shore of the island, which still put us about a mile off the
reef. We were moving closer with each dive though. About the fifth
tank we got close enough.
The Boilers is well named. The front of the reef rises
straight up from the bottom in about 50 feet of water and comes up
just to the surface. The sides of the reef are very steep and
angular. When the swell hits these sharp rocks, they splash
straight up. The area is a boiling churning ridge of white water
that extends for a few hundred yards straight in the way of the
incoming swell. Between the rocks are channels and flat areas from
6 to 12 feet deep. It's always a wild swim. Oh, you also have to
know how to swim into the reef though. It's only got a few passable
routes to the shallow areas behind the face of the reef.
Anyhow, I had been hoping that I might get a chance to dive
there on this trip. Since my last dive there, I had wanted to try
to get to the backside of the reef. I thought that that might be
the hot place where the bugs really hung out. I do know from
experience not to try to make too long of a swim to it though.
There are always currents there. The boat was anchored about
50 yards west of the reef. The day was so was calm that it was
barely boiling. How rough that is is a relative thing. How rough
does it look to you? It isn't what could be called calm. I really
didn't know the way in from this side and I didn't want to do a
swim through the currents. Also I was on the opposite side of the
reef from where I wanted to be. So I was going to skip it and take
it easy to the northern side and not pass to the reef. Remember,
when you get to the reef, much of it is a vertical wall. I was
just puttering along at about 50 feet with about 40 feet of vis
when I saw a diver on my right and one in front of me to the left.
Apparently, the diver to the right was Shel. The diver on the left
was Mel so I yelled at him, but he was going up a 20 foot vertical
rock face and didn't hear me. I didn't want to go up the rock,
because I knew it led to the steepest face of the reef. This made
me move to the right... towards the center of the reef. Well things
got rough and things got shallow and surgey. I knew I was inside
the reef. Oh well.
I came up just to be sure. It was only about 12 feet deep and
I was certainly in it. What could I do? I headed across to the
back. The rock is conglomerate made of stones the size of a fist
and smaller. I dare say the waves wear it quickly. There was very
little life here. It's just too rough most of the time. There were
some small plants and many very small purple urchins, but this
place gets regularly scoured. There are crevasses in this area,
but that was not where I wanted to look this trip. Going east, I
came to bigger rocks that were scoured, but were covered with a
bit of the opportunistic small brown scummy algae that grows back
on bare rocks within days of the waves calming. It was about 15
feet deep and this was still a primary area where the waves break
on normal days. Nothing can hang on here for long. I wanted to get
to the rocks and reef debris that was past this.
Soon it was about 25 feet. The rocks were bigger and there
was kelp as well as lots of fish and other life. I went left and
sped along looking for lobster. There was great structure that
could have provided cover for a lobster just about anywhere. Since
it was shallow, my air was really hanging in there, but I knew I
had to save enough to get back across the reef. Swimming through
it on the surface was not an option. Vis was really good and there
were lots of big Sheepsheads as well as Calico bass. I saw three
nice sized scallops, but had no iron. I was looking for bug.
Actually, observing the ecology of the area, again it was the small
purple urchins, that were the commonest critter. When it
was time to return, I moved back towards the reef some and followed
my compass back. I could have crossed the reef here, but I wanted
to be closer to the boat when I came up. Also, this is the one of
those spots where you can come around a corner and find a bag of
bugs. Well, I had no such luck this time. I was moving back into
the shallows of the reef and still hadn't seen leg nor antennae.
The growth on the rocks of the main reef was really lush on this
side. Fish hang out in the ledges at the bottom of the rocks. I was
at about 15 feet or so, but these rocks stick up near or to the
surface. As you go on, you hang on to the bottom plants and hope
that the crack you are following goes through the reef, not to the
top of it. Another fun thing was that I went over a spot about 5
feet deep and figured that I may or may not be past the reef. It's
hard to tell... I wasn't. I moved down and on. The crack I was in
went through the reef fairly deep at say 15 feet, so that was no
problem. Then I was at sheer rock face that is the front of the reef.
As always I was continually looking for lobster, including in the
deep ledges along the front base of the reef.
It was that time. I headed out from the reef and surfaced. No
bugs. That's OK. It was a spectacular dive just the same.
This is what Shel told me after the dive.... I had swam through the Boilers and was coming back around the right side at 57 feet when I saw this nice bug in a hole back in the rocks. My pressure gauge was already pegged, but I wasn't having trouble getting air, so... The bug was back out of reach but I thought 'well, I could move this rock and I could move this rock and then I could move this rock and there I am'. The main thing was not to get excited and start breathing hard. I took off my tank and put my bag in my other hand. It already held two bugs. I then dove in the hole and was able to get a good grip on the bug. I got out quick and headed for the surface with my tank hanging from my mouth by the regulator. Three kicks and I was up to about 30 feet. Since my hands were full, I used my fin to turn my gauges over so I could watch my ascent rate. Once on the surface, I shoved the bug under my arm and got hold of my tank. Then I could turn on my side and spit out my regulator so that I could get some air. It was a nice 5 pounder.
After the Boilers dive, the boat anchored about 120 yards
off the point at the west end north. It's like a little penninsula
that sticks out 50 yards at high tide and much farther under
water. It's almost never calm enough to dive there. Now, you
aren't supposed to get anywhere near that close to San Nicolas
Island. The Navy will get nasty about it and there is more radar
along that shore than you would ever imagine, but... Once long ago,
I got into the tidepools along the shore and had the best lobster
dive I ever had. So as you can imagine, I wanted to get to shore
and fast. It wasn't going to be a casual dive this time either.
I hit the water in about 40 feet and along with 3 other
divers, went scraping towards shore. It got shallow pretty quick as
I headed for the the point, but there were a couple of channels
about 20 feet deep running through the rocks towards the shore. I
followed one in, which seems the natural thing to do because you
can already see the waves breaking above you at the edges of the
channels. The channels are about 8 feet wide at the bottom and
piled with large rocks. There could be bugs there, but I was more
interested in the tidepools. Just as I was going to go up over the
rocks I saw Chris Grossman (who does diver.net) working some rocks.
I went over and offered a hand. He signaled that it was a big bug,
but it seemed to be gone far out of sight, into the rocks.
I was as near to the tidepools as I figured I would get, so I
headed up the side of the channel. I came over the top holding
onto the rocks and the small clumps of golden weed that was able
to grow a bit there. It was the same conglomerate as the Boilers
and it looked as wave beaten. The top of the reef here was at about
3 feet. The vis was incredible. There were a number of young sea
lions playing in the waves and swell that was washing over the reef
off the point. They seemed to be having a good time flying back and
forth in the surge. I was mostly holding on, but really, if you
aren't riding the surge, you aren't going to be able to control
yourself and move around in here. There are holes the size of a
dishwasher or there abouts, that are worn in places where the rock
was just a bit softer. In the bottom of these holes are bowling
ball sized rocks and bigger, that are too big to wash out from wave
action. When the big waves come, they can roll around in the holes
like a mortar in a pestal. Undoubtedly they enlarge the hole. They
can also make a hole into weird shapes of quite sterile, worn rock.
I figured that right now there could be a bug in any of them and
I was going to find it.
I kept methodically covering the area. It was very shallow
with all different kinds of deeper spots. I tried to stay out of
right where the waves were breaking. It was rough enough already.
The sea lions came over to check me out and see if I wanted to
play. I was a bit busy at the time, but I did bark at them some.
In the shallow water, the sunlight makes everything vividly
colorful including the green anemones, the golden algaes, the
urchins and the small red encrusting algaes. You hold on
when the surge is against you. You push off when it is going
your direction. You fly like a bird in the fast moving shallow
water.
In the shallow waters I like to see the Giant Green Anemones
because of their brilliant emerald coloration. Here I was seeing
some that were vividly yellow in color. I also came across a Giant
Pisaster star that was a beautiful golden color.
Well, I covered as much of the area as I could and didn't see
much in the way of lobster. I slowly worked my way back and forth
deeper until I was at about 12 feet. It was a long tank at that
depth, even with a lot of exertion. Already the muscles on the
inside of my thighs were saying something about cramps and it
being a good time to finish this swim. I headed into deeper water
towards the boat. I was still looking and seeing all kinds of neat
critters and plants, but no bugs. Finally, going along a rock
pile, I got a glimpse of a nice lobster back in some rocks.
Unfortunately, it was in a well protected hole. The rocks were
about the size of a microwave oven, so the holes between them were
too small for me to fit into and the bug was in about 4 feet. The
bug had about three holes in front of him and then a real nice
little hole behind him to back into. A quick grab was not going to
get near him. I just kept on swimming... a little ways.
I came back and since I knew I could never get to him through
the front, I wanted to see if there was any way to get behind him.
Sure enough, through a hole in the rocks, I could see his tail
about 3 feet down between the rocks. He had moved back a bit when
I swam by. I am a bit hard to miss. He was just a bit into his
inner hole, but not all the way. I started knocking little purple
urchins down the hole, trying to make them hit his tail. These
were so small that they fell like dandilions. I didn't want to
wave at them because if the bug felt the motion of the water, he
would worry about what was above him, not behind. Truthfully, I
had tried this and variations of this, many times before, but each
time, the bug had just about invariably moved back into their inner
safe hole. I decided to look for some small rocks to drop in. I had
to look a little ways. When I came back to the hole, the bug wasn't
visible. I didn't know if it had gone in or out. I looked from the
front, low down where the front holes were. He wasn't visible in
the first two, but as I came around the rock to the third one, I
almost hit his antennae with my mask. I backed off quick and out he
came. He was still in a safe position, so I backed around the rock
until I could only see his horns and front legs. He came all the
way out of the hole, still in a good position to dart back to
safety, but there was a rock in front of him. When he had climbed
all the way onto it, I pounced with both hands. A nice 3 pounder in
the bag.
I continued on until I figured I was as near the boat as I was
going to get and then surfaced. It was about 60 yards away. There
was only a mild current, but I was done swimming. The current line
was out about 25 yards from the boat. I went for that. I even
managed to get to the boat without tangling and bringing the whole
float with me... as I usually did. That was a nice dive. Incredibly
beautiful in the shallows and a nice bug to top it off.
The next dive was another one just off the west end in an area
that is usually too rough to dive. It was getting dim, but it was a
fun dive because it was in a thick kelp forest with lots of ledges
and rock piles. The fish were thick with large Calico Bass and
Sheepshead everywhere. There were also numerous species of perch.
The bottom had places for a million bugs to hide, but they just
weren't to be seen.
After this we went on to Dutch harbor to anchor for the night.
Roger was cooking big chunks of pork loin on the bar-b-que. The
crew was well enough organized that they made a crowded cabin
into a comfortable convenient dining hall. Not suprisingly, people
were hungry when we started on the salad. By the time the cheese
cake was done, we were mostly near unconcious.
Now on every previous trip, I have made the night dive at
Dutch harbor and every time I got skunked. I'd swim to shore or
some other long cold swim and see beautiful terrain, but zilch
bugs. Well, I've been doing a lot of night diving recently, so I
figured I would pass this time. Tomarrow would be a long day....
A few people did go in and they saw bug....
Night on the ocean is exotic. The stars shine brilliantly and
the sea lions come to play in the boat lights. We could hear the
noises from the elephant seals along the shore. You stay up to
experience it, but soon it's time to hit the bunks. Wake up will
be early.
This morning it is different. Time is limited. We will be able
to do no more than 4 tanks before we must start the long trip back.
We're still diving the same area, moving slowly from deeper to
shallower. It's rougher today and the tide is lower. The Boilers is
seriously boiling. Also waves are breaking in an area on the south
and west of the reef where you don't normally see waves break.
On about the third dive, the boat was anchored to the north of
the Boilers which is the usually easiest side to enter on. Both Mel
and Shel said that they headed into the Boilers. Shel said it just
looked too rough to be worth going in and Mel went in until he got
slammed on a rock. It seemed like time to leave at that point.
On one of the dives, Shel released a couple of the larger bugs
that he had caught as well as the biggest bug of the trip, a 9
pounder. He had traded some of his smaller bugs for the big one so
that he could release it....
The last dive, the skipper said that we were on the edge of
the Badlands if anyone wanted to go south. I of course went there,
but somewhere along the way, I got unhapppy with how I was
navigating. I didn't want to surface way away from the boat on the
last dive, so I didn't continue far in. I didn't mind, because the
rest of the area was beautiful kelp forest diving anyway and I
really didn't expect to find much these days on the deep flat rock
of the Badlands, but I had to go there for old times sakes. It just
wasn't like diving there with the Animals, 15 years earlier.
It's time to hang suits, put away gear and go for a dive in
the hottub. There is no south swell, so things stayed calm as we
left the island. People talk and then head for the bunks. After a
few hours they start to show up on deck again for the evenings
finale. The water is incredibly smooth and clear. Jellyfish can be
seen as we pass. Porpoises come flying towards the boat from the
sides and then go for a ride on the bow waves. Baitfish fly from
the water as the porpoise come upon them.
The club members are starting to get silly and try to take
group pictures of the club. I watch, always an outsider. No one
speaks of the regrets about the end of the trip or the creeping
hand of time that has changed us all through the years of diving
together. Still, the days diving has made us all so aware of our life
and memories of the past dives that have defined so much of our life,
that we cannot deny or ignore its passage. We will do this as long
as we can and we will remember this magic as long as we live.
The sun sets with a wonderous show of soft colors as we pass
the east end of Anacapa Island. The night falls gently. We all feel
cold in the wind of the boat's passage through the glassy water, but
no one wants to leave, for the moment and the beauty are something
special that will surely be gone before we can come back. Perhaps,
the cold was from more than the wind.