The Palawan Wreck, Redondo Beach

Diving With Mike C. from the Divevets.

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 1100 psi
Max depth: 120 feet
Waves: Pretty damn calm
Visibility: 30 to 50 feet, spectacular!
Water Temperature: Sort of cold at depth
Total Bottom Time: About 25 minutes

To stay in practice and make sure I still know how to boat dive, I signed up on the Island Diver for a half day of wreck diving.

Due to the depth and current at the Palawan, the boat was limited to the people with Advanced Certification whom the Divemasters knew.

I got a good laugh when someone pointed out a liability release form who listed the relationship of the diver’s emergency contact as “bitch.”

My dive computer was still set to metric measurements.

I told Dan, “So I shouldn’t go any deeper than 130 meters?”

Dan looked at it and was able to figure out how to change my dive computer to feet and Fahrenheit.

Who the hell thinks in metric anyway?

Think gas is expensive on land?

But look, you get a 20 cent discount if you buy $4100 worth of diesel fuel!

There were no chicks on this boat as very few women are macho enough to do such a deep cold water dive.

I buddied up with Mike C. who had dove this wreck before.

A self portrait off the back of the Island Diver.

Down the anchor line, we saw practically the entire ship at a depth of 70 feet; the visibility was spectacular and there was no current at that depth.

I started taking pictures of the ship and other divers when I noticed they were all fuzzy.

The air temperature was almost 80 degrees and humid and when I descended to that depth and 62 degree water temperature, my camera had fogged up.

Fuck!

We headed to the bow; Mike even penetrated the hull a little ways.

The visibility and scenery was spectacular, but unfortunately, my camera was rendered useless due to the condensation.

Luckily, thanks to the buddy system, you can see Mike’s pictures of the dive here.

We spent a total of 12 minutes at 120 feet before heading to the anchor line for a slow ascent to the surface.

I spent three minutes at 50 feet and five minutes at 15 feet to out gas.

A great dive!

Captain Dick asked us where the anchor landed.

Someone said, “You did a great job, the anchor landed right inside the wreck.”

“Inside the wreck?”

That is probably the reason that the anchor got stuck.

So now, the joke was, “Dick can’t get it up!”

Dan and Bob geared up to go down and free the anchor.

Within 10 minutes, the anchor was freed and we were on our way to the Avalon.

Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA

Dove With Angelshark

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 85 feet
Waves: Mild swells
Visibility: 20 feet
Water Temperature: Comfortably cool, but chilly at depth
Total Bottom Time: 45 minutes

This was some sort of unofficial bay “clean up dive” where divers bring ashore a bag of trash and then party in the park to celebrate.

I took Angelshark up on the offer to buddy up with her; we met in the crowded Vet’s Park parking lot a little after 7:40 AM.

She and other chick divers admired the Duster; it’s hard not to.

This was Angelshark’s first ocean dive in a dry suit – that sort of made me nervous, as I have no experience with them.

She briefly explained how they work; it’s just like operating a BC jacket, except the suit is one big air jacket.

Angelshark has been diving for three years and has over 600 logged dives!

“I go diving four times a week, sometimes two or three times a day,” she said.

We walked out, put our fins on and swam about 50 yards out before submerging.

Me and Angelshark prepare to submerge.

We descended in 25 feet of water; I followed her over the shelf.

I wasn’t sure where we were headed, just down to pick up trash.

I kept accidentally bumping into her, not knowing where exactly we were going.

We picked up trash at 85 feet, I was getting a little narced.

A crab hides in a fox hole.

We went up the shelf; this is what Angelshark looks like underwater.

There’s still plenty of trash above the shelf.

I followed her back down the shelf to 80 feet.

We both had 80 cubic feet tanks, but she has smaller lungs.

I pointed out that I had 1200 psi and we were at 80 feet; I started heading in and she followed.

Up the shelf and after a nice slow swim and safety stop in, we were in shallow water.

Angelshark took a fin off before she could touch bottom.

“I take one fin off first so I can just worry about the other one when I can feel the bottom,” she said.

I tried that approach and did not like the lack of control while being in the surf zone.

I again, as always, tripped over the one foot sand step.

Angelshark helped me up and on my next step tripped over my trash bag.

A non-macho exit in front of a hot chick is hard to live down.

Angelshark accidentally caught an octopus, which crawled out of a piece of trash; she had to argue with a Korean woman about why she was “throwing food” back into the ocean.

“It was so small, why would she want to eat it?” Angelshark asked.

My bag of trash; Vet’s Park is a lot cleaner now than in previous years.

Wrinkles from the Old Marineland site greeted me; I had brain fade because I didn’t place the face outside of that spot.

I apologized and said that I must be getting Alzheimer’s.

Scubaboard.com was having some kind of “Beach Crab” event.

Wrinkles and I walked over and checked the scene out.

Wrinkles is quite popular in the local diving community; she has a dive named after her – the “Wrinkles Dive” every second Saturday of the month, I think.

“The ‘Wrinkles Dive’ used to be whenever I wanted to go diving, I would just post and people would show up.

“Now, it’s commercialized to the point I can’t even make my own dives,” Wrinkles said.

Another great day of diving with a great buddy!