The only thing not perfect with this day, is that there was really thick fog blanketing 90% of the South Bay; the air was warm, and the sea was calm – I mean flat as a lake.

Dive N Surf was there, with their club’s monthly beach dive along with the regular Divevets crew.

I paired up with Air Force Chris (formerly know as Not New Chris) and Dennis G.

Logged SCUBA Dive #392

Dove with Air Force Chris and Dennis G.
Off the Cove and to the right, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: Flat
Visibility: 15 to 20 feet
Water Temperature: 56 degrees
Air Temperature: 69 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 59 minutes

The entrance was too easy; we swam to the right.

I pulled out my camera and took a picture of Chris, with the Terranea Hotel in the background.

After a little more surface time, a duck landed next to me; I pulled out my camera to take a picture.

Why won’t my camera turn on?

Upon close inspection, I concluded that the root cause of my camera not turning on is a direct result of my camera case being half filled with seawater.

Yep, my camera case flooded – after many faithful, and sometimes unpredictable years of service – SCUBA Diving, River rafting, camping, Gold Prospecting – the macho-cam was dead.

Calling the dive because of this tragedy would be fruitless, so I continued.

We descended.

What a crappy time to have my camera flood!

The visibility was great – up to 20 feet in most areas.

Luckily, Air Force Chris was able to document highlights of the dive:

You can watch this video on YouTube by clicking here.

The “buddy system” in SCUBA diving makes more sense to me now; if one camera floods, your buddy with his camera can document the dive.

With no camera, obviously I have no pictures to post.

We circled back half way through our air and made an extremely easy and uneventful exit.

One topic of debriefing was with Chris From Detroit – Why is SCUBA diving in the Southern California scene such a sausage fest (a.k.a. male dominated sport)?

I mean, half the students who get certified here are women – so where do they all go once they get a C-card?

Chris From Detroit basically had the hypothesis that women who get certified either do it because they’re going on vacation to dive in warm water, or their boyfriend dives, or they take up diving to meet someone.

The latter reason intrigued me; Chis From Detroit continued, “Once they meet someone diving, their objective has been met and they stop diving.”

So that’s where they all go?

Debriefing continued until a little after noon.

I soaked my camera in 95% denatured alcohol and hung it in front of a fan to dry out.

The prognosis does not look good for my camera – I am searching for a new one.

AFP – The US Coast Guard said Tuesday it was investigating a Florida tourism company that left behind two tourists while they were scuba diving.

The tourists — Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta — were rescued by a private yacht which found them clinging to a buoy in shark-infested waters.

“The incident is under investigation,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Sabrina Elgammal told AFP.

“We got a call that the two people were picked up in the sea and there was no medical harm and they went back to port,” she said.

RJ Diving Ventures of Miami Beach took a group of 30 people, including Kline and Garcia, in a boat to scuba dive in the open ocean, the Miami Herald reported.

When Kline and Garcia surfaced, however, they found that the boat had gone.

“We were in shock,” Kline, 44, told the newspaper. “We could easily have died.”

RJ Diving Ventures did not respond to requests for comment.

The two said they clung to a fishing buoy and around 6:00 pm as it was getting dark they were spotted by passengers on a yacht.

“We could see two divers with all their equipment and an inflated red tube,” the yacht’s capitan Elie Trichet told the Herald.

“You could notice a strong feeling of relief” Trichet said. “They had been clinging to that buoy for two hours hoping somebody would rescue them.”

The original article can be found here: Scuba divers left behind in Florida