Hello From Catalina!

[dwashbur]

Kathy and I are down here with Janna Nichols and the REEF crew to do some surveys for the week. We went out to the dive park today to do weight checks. I put my wetsuit on for the first time in years, and for a moment I wasn't sure I remembered how. But we got it done, had a great dive, and I saw my first ever lobster, and Kathy found me a California moray. I hope this is a good portent of things to come!

[Ryan Nelson]

I will be diving casino point tomorrow, how have conditions been?

[YellowEye]

Cool! I would love to hear a report. A bunch of my friends are going in 2 weeks to the Channel Islands!
We're going with Andy Lamb and a bunch of other cool folks!

[dwashbur]

Ryan, it was gorgeous yestreday. 70 feet down we could still see the surface, and we found the moray during our safety stop. There's a two-spot octopus out there somewhere, too, Janna and Claude saw it the previous evening. As far as water conditions, they're saying a system is supposed to be coming in, but from the west, so we should be pretty protected on this side. Enjoy!

[ScubaJess]

Hello Dave,
Thanks for the update! I'm so excited for our trip in 11 days. Have you seen any sea turtles? I hear they might be moving up that way.
Have a fantastic trip! That's really cool new about the Octos and Moray Eel!

[YellowEye]

Hi
Hope you're having fun! Do you recommend drysuits or wetsuits?
I hear it is pretty warm down there now?

[dwashbur]

No turtles yet, but we're still hoping. We're using 7mm wetsuits and doing just fine. We have 14 people on the boat and it's about half and half between wet and dry. The water is about 70-75 degrees, so it just depends on how cold one tends to get. We have one person in a 3mm wetsuit and that's not nearly enough. But our sevens are working nicely for us.

[Ryan Nelson]

Dove the dive park yesterday before the storm. Vis was 90ft vertical to surface, and at least 50 horizontal. We didnt see any turtles but heard about them.

I was quite toasty in my drysuit, but you wouldn't catch me diving wet ever again...

[dwashbur]

An ex-marine on our trip told me yesterday's trip was what the Marines called a "learning experience in flexibility." Because his 12-year-old son was sitting next to him, I said, "I thought the Marines called it a Charlie Foxtrot." He grinned and said something about young ears. But that's pretty much what it was.

Today I'm sick and had to stay behind. Kathy is out on the boat having the time of her life, at least I hope so. We're supposed to have high winds again tomorrow while we do one more boat trip, then once that's done, it appears that the weather will settle down. Of course.

Anyway, here's the story of yesterday.

First dive day in Catalina:
The boat we were supposed to be on sank last winter, so they got us another one. Unfortunately, the day before we were supposed to go, they discovered they double-booked that boat. So we had to come up with yet another one, this one coming all the way from Long Beach. The shop brought tanks and weights and all, one tank for each of us because there's a compressor on the boat, and they'll just fill our tanks between dives.
We got to the designated place and there was no boat. Instead, shuttle boats from a cruise ship were dropping people off in a constant stream. So they moved us to the next spot, and the boat finally got there.

Trying to sort all that out meant we got out of port two hours later than planned. Throw in the fact that there was a huge storm coming in and things were pretty bouncy. We got to the first site and he told us we were in about 40 feet of water. We entered and went down the anchor line into 80 feet. I'm wondering if this guy knows how to count. And since they gave us aluminum 80's, we got a 30 minute dive. But that wasn't the best part.
I was jammed up against a rock, looking into a little crevice with Kathy right next to me, when my regulator mouthpiece came off. Again. Second time. I couldn't get to my octo - again - so I grabbed Kathy's. We got things sorted out and surfaced. We fixed it on the boat and sat down to wait for our tanks to be filled.

The compressor died.

We had to put in at another port and rent a bunch of tanks. Meanwhile, the day was getting very late and the storm was getting closer, so we went to an alternate site that was right next to that port. This dive was only 25 feet at our maximum depth, so we got a nice long one. And Kathy and I saw two bat rays! It would appear that we found them because we went the wrong way after we dropped, and found ourselves out on a big sand flat. The nice thing is, we can find stuff in a place like that.

Back on the boat, we had to go back to that port and drop off the tanks. Then the plan had been to head back to Avalon, pick up yet more tanks, and go for the third dive. Kathy and I had already decided that as quick as we got to Avalon and the dock, we were going to bail on the rest of the day. But the captain got word that Avalon had flags out to indicate a gale was coming, so they FINALLY called the third dive.

The end of a perfect day: we got all tied up, people were getting off the boat, when one of those shuttle boats came in, tried to park next to us, and slammed into the side of our boat. When we left they were still checking for damage.

You cannot make this stuff up.

[ScubaJess]

OOH man, that sucks! I'm glad you guys survived! Be safe out there. I hope the rest of your trip goes better. What dive charter are you on?

Bat Rays sound really cool! Did you get pictures?

[oldsalt]

An ex-marine on our trip told me yesterday's trip was what the Marines called a "learning experience in flexibility." Because his 12-year-old son was sitting next to him, I said, "I thought the Marines called it a Charlie Foxtrot." He grinned and said something about young ears.

In my day, the saying was Semper Gumby.
-Curt

[dwashbur]

I don't know what the charter is. The shop is called Scuba Luv, and the boat is one that they were able to grab from Long Beach at the last minute.

Here's a couple of pictures of the bat ray Kathy found yesterday. This guy was digging a huge hole in the sand; that's how they feed. We were able to find them by looking for the big silt clouds they kick up. The pictures haven't been edited at all so they're huge, and I don't know about the quality, but it's a start. We're shooting hundreds upon hundreds of pictures and video, so it's going to take a while back home to sort everything out. But in the meantime...

[dwashbur]

Still feeling a bit iffy this morning, but I'm going to load up on medications and go on the boat, and I'm going to get at least one dive in if it kills me!

[dwashbur]

I did manage to make all three dives the last day, and it pretty well did kill me. But I got better and we did another shore dive at Casino Point the next day. It was unbelievable. I've posted most of my pictures to my Facebook page, and later on I'll try to see if I can link to them here. Right now we're sitting around the hotel room, waiting until time to head down to the boat to return to the mainland and make our way home. This has been one of the most rewarding trips I've ever taken.

[dwashbur]

https://www.facebook.com/dave.washburn. ... 555&type=3

I don't know if this will work or not, but it's worth a try. Here are some of our pictures from Catalina. They're posted to my page on Facebook, so let's see if a link to the album will let people see them. If not, I'll come up with Plan B.

[RoxnDox]

Link works. Great photos!

Jim