CopyRight @ 1997
This is summer diving. I was at Catalina on the Raider. When
it is not lobster season, that boat just lacks spirit. I was well
informed that season was 13 days away. This was just a scouting trip
actually. We had already done a dive where we planned to be for the
opening night.
We had reports that by tomorrow night, hurricane Linda might
start showing her windy face. For the trip out and back, it was nice
wind and seas, with a few high clouds. Basically, it was a calm
beautiful day. Since it was after Labor Day, there were relatively
few boaters about.
Now though, it was time to check out Ship Rock. It is not so
good for bugs, but it is pretty and a good spot to look for Yellowtail.
This is one of two rocks offshore of the Isthmus at Catalina. Ship Rock
is about 3 miles from shore. It is sharp and jagged, sticking out of
the water about 30 feet, but I think that it is a bit smaller than that
at its water line. There is some shallow (less than 20 feet deep) reef
on the island side of the rock. On the mainland side of the rock, most
of the reef is more like 30 feet. From there, the bottom tends to drop
off in ledges all around the rock until about 60 feet, where it tends to
drop off steeply to deep water
It was a warm enough day, about 70 degrees with the El Nino
conditions, that I was only wearing my wetsuit jacket. That makes for
a nice light weightbelt. We anchored on the mainland side, such that
the wind was blowing the boat away from the rock. We had a problem
with that later.
We all hopped in with our guns. Just to make a bigger mess, I
had a camera as well. I swam down along the kelp to about 30 feet to
get a look around. Visibility was near 100 feet. Everything was
covered with golden laminarea algae. There was school after school of
fish, some with great colors. These are big clouds of anchovy, perch
and thousands of colorful juveniles.. I have no idea what species.
Mel did see a school of barracuda. We were all looking for yellowtail.
I saw one big green ab, but quite illegal to take. When I stopped for
a minute to take a picture, I was immediately surrounded by about a
dozen bright orange Garibaldi. There were some medium sized Calicos.
Worth shooting, but way too wary. They vanished down the reef about 60
feet away. There were Sheephead too, but they were too small to even
think of shooting. I swam all the way around the rock and checked out
where a sailboat broke up on the reef on the island side. Being out
in the current like that, life around the rock is amazingly abundant. I
followed the anchovies down a vertical cliff to 90 feet, then went back
up to the warmer water. It did get chilly below 60 feet. In the rocks,
under the rocks and around the reefs, fish of every kind were everywhere.
Visually, it was one of the most amazing dives I have ever made.
I came up at one point, just to climb up on the edge of the rock. I
noticed that the boat was gone. I decided to go back down and continue
closer to where the boat was supposed to be. When I came up again, I was
staying near the rock until I knew where the boat really was. About then,
I saw the boat coming towards me from about a half mile away. The anchor
had slipped into the deep water and the boat took off. Luckily, Alex had
been nervous about it and was up to it before it got away. Interesting
caution on anchoring on pinnacles. If the anchor slips off the side, you
are in big trouble.
Yellowtail? None of us saw any this trip. It was a short day of
summer diving. Well, who cares? You do have to get into the water though
and it was pretty. The bugs will be there and that's really what it is
all about. The long, cold, wild nights of bug hunting would start soon.