Questionable Day At Old Marineland – But Still A Good Dive!
Logged SCUBA Dive #332
Old Marineland, aka Terranea Resort
Dove With Not So New Chris
In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 1400 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: Choppy at the shore, but very manageable
Visibility: 5 to 10 feet
Temperature: 57 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 40 minutes
I was going to call today, based on the dive report from yesterday, but waking up at 6 AM, I thought, “I have nothing better to do than to check the conditions out, at least.”
By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX BOTTOMTIME!
Max has shown how diving can make a 50 year old person look as though he is only 49!
Just kidding!
He looks a lot younger!
Anyway, from the coast it looked pretty calm, so Chris and I went to the main gate of Terranea resort.
The Security Guard scoped us out and gave us the standard lecture, “You guys can go down and dive, but have to go straight down to the beach… you can’t drive around the property or walk around the buildings and any trash you make, you have to take out with you.”
We agreed.
Turn out was extremely low – Me, Not So New Chris, Todd and “Moderate Bob.”
Chris and I went off the cove and swam towards 120 reef and submerged.
The vis was actually a lot better than I had expected – five to 10 feet…
My camera was having problems – it froze and stuck on certain settings that made the menu loop.
After fixing the stuck button with my knife, I started to have some kind of weird problem where my camera kept freezing – that was the bad news.
The good news – there wasn’t anything spectacular to take a picture of.
My camera stopped working after this great looking picture.
I probably need to lubricate the camera housing and change the batteries.
Chris and I toured 120 reef, spotting a few short lobsters, Sunstars, Sheephead and Garibaldi.
We never lost one another and it was an enjoyable and uneventful dive; we headed in after 40 minutes to an easy exit.
We had managed to park down by the pool at the sea side.
Debriefing was purely of the liquid kind and lasted a couple of hours – there weren’t enough people to warrant breaking out the grill.
Hey Jeff I was planning on coming out this Sunday but I am sick as hell right now. Looks like I didn’t miss much anyways…
Comment by kenny r — February 23, 2009 @ 8:06 am
Too bad you missed Saturday. Full house, but conditions sucked. Of course, you dived the 120 Reef, so even in calm, clear water it would still suck.
I may be able to get in by next weekend, so I’ll give Obama a call and get these crappy conditions straightened out. I’ll tell him you said hello.
Comment by Phil Garner — February 23, 2009 @ 10:10 am
Good to see you finally made it back down to Marineland. Its been a good while for all of us. February has been pretty terrible for diving. Thanks for the report.
Comment by Frank — February 23, 2009 @ 1:17 pm