Secret Location: 32 30 30 20 79 61 72 64 73 20 53 6f 75 74 68 20 66 72 6f 6d 20 74 68 65 20 6c 61 73 74 20 64 69 76 65 2c 20 6a 75 73 74 20 74 6f 20 74 68 65 20 6c 69 70 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 73 68 65 6c 66 2e

Night Diving, Solo Diving, Lobster Hunting – So Cal Buddy Diving with the Divevets off of the Island Diver boat

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 110 feet or so
Waves: Pretty Flat
Visibility: 15 feet
Water Temperature: Cold
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
Lobsters caught: 0

During the surface interval, we were debating about where we should go on our second dive.

My position was that if I didn’t limit, I would blame the person chartering the boat.

The conclusion was that lobsters are here, but we should just move the boat “closer.”

Oh crap, that’s all that I needed to hear.

Moving the boat “closer” usually means we aren’t going to catch shit.

I jump over after an hour and ten minute surface interval.

Oh man, the water was cold!

I submerged down the anchor line and went South.

I trolled and trolled and didn’t see any lobsters, not even a short.

I passed some metal boxes at 90 feet and started to go a little too deep, down to 110 feet.

I decided to turn around and head in.

Coming up at 100 feet I pinned and grabbed a HUGE lobster and bagged it.

Running out of time and air I started my ascent after 15 minutes.

During my ascent and safety stop, I must have been pushed by a current North as I surfaced on the other side of the boat, but fairly close to it.

Before heading toward the boat, I remeasured my catch… it was short!

It must have shrunk; I threw it back and started to swim towards the boat.

I was amazed that I didn’t get narced on either of these dives tonight, but I did have a slight headache after the second one.

I pose with my catch of the night.

As the rest of the divers came back in, they all reported about the same thing – that there’s nothing down there, not even shorts.

The beer flowed freely on the ride back and the party continued in the parking lot.

The Captain and the crew were filleting there “catch” on the pier.

The divers sat around and discussed how grossed out some were just thinking about eating road kill of the sea from the harbor no less.

Who knows, maybe all the shit water in the harbor killed that grupper?

Debriefing lasted a couple of hours.

Bob’s wife came by with a birthday cake for Bob – we did not know until then it was his birthday.

Dan handed out cigars and complained about my hat.

Secret Location: 4f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 53 70 61 6e 69 73 68 20 52 65 64 20 42 65 61 63 68 20 69 73 20 61 20 66 61 72 6d 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 70 69 70 65 73 20 61 72 65 20 67 72 6f 77 6e 2e

Night Diving, Solo Diving, Lobster Hunting – So Cal Buddy Diving with the Divevets off of the Island Diver boat

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 90 feet or so
Waves: Pretty Flat
Visibility: 15 feet, but dive bombing sea lions stirred the bottom
Water Temperature: Cold
Total Bottom Time: 20 minutes
Lobsters caught: 3

The boat a couple weeks ago was canceled due to conditions; but another boat that went out a few days before came back full of lobsters.

We pulled out of the deck a little after 7 PM.

While slowly moving through the wake free zone of the harbor, the Captain spotted a HUGE fish floating on the surface.

He turned around and his deck hand gaffed it and dragged it aboard.

It was a 110 pound Grupper.

I asked the deckhand, “What are you going to do with it?”

“It’s still breathing, so we’re going to fillet it,” he said.

“Isn’t that like eating road kill?” I responded.

“No, he’s still alive, a boat probably just hit him,” he responded.

The divers were wondering if we should throw it overboard to attract lobsters during our surface interval; but we were just joking.

I was the first one off and cried as the 54 degree water ran into my wetsuit.

I slowly went down the anchor line and went South; I stayed mostly in 80 feet of water.

After five minutes I had caught two lobsters and thought I wouldn’t have a problem limiting on this dive.

At 10 minutes I turned around and went back over the barren sand and pipes and caught my third one of the night.

I surfaced slowly, making a three minute safety stop at 20 feet.

When I broke surface, I could not see the boat, but I soon realized that a current had taken me further South when I was surfacing and the boat lights blended with the city lights on shore.

I had a nice 80 yard surface swim back to the boat.

A group of sea lions circled and bombed the divers.

The rest of the divers followed in with a moderate amount of small, but legal lobsters.