East Starlight, Catalina, CADove with Nick

Dive #2 off “The Bottom Scratcher.”

Bobby the deck hand refilled our tanks after the first dive.

We traveled about 40 minutes to this site.

My surface interval was over an hour.

We entered the water around 12:30 PM.

Is that the Divemaster turning Nick’s air off as a practical joke?

Nick felt sort of rushed – I was the first in the water – and he forgot his weight belt when he jumped over board.

He found out really quickly that he couldn’t sink.

Nick called for his weight belt.

Nick wants his camera back.

Visibility was poorer here than at Ship Rock.

There’s a reef and a huge kelp bed going towards the shore.

We took our time looking around taking pictures.

Sheephead, Sea Bass, kelp fish — they all were there; sort of like Long Point, but much more compact and abundant.

What does everyone takes pictures of here?

Divers in kelp and Garibaldi!

We surfaced pretty close to the boat and swam in.

In with: 2900 psi
Out With: 1000 psi
Max depth: 63 feet
Waves: 0 feet; insignificant
Visibility: 30 feet
Water Temperature: Fairly Warm
Total Bottom Time: 30 minutes

Ship Rock, Catalina, CA

Boat Diving!

Diving off the “Bottom Scratcher.”

Dove with Nick

Okay, finally this is my fist boat dive!

We left Pier C in Long Beach around 6:45 AM.

We were all given a number to reconcile who was still underwater; I was lucky number 13.

We stopped at Ship Rock around 10:30 AM; that is NOT snow on those rocks.

I asked the Dive Master Sean what “the trick” was to Ship Rock.

He said, “Watch the current and you can go deep very quickly.”

Nick and I entered shortly thereafter.

We went down to the bottom just off the back end of the boat.

We touched bottom at about 80 feet; the anchor was at 110 feet.

I wrote to Nick on the clip board that I wanted to touch 100 feet.

He waited while I swam toward the bottom.

I touched 103 feet and swam back up to 80.

We made our way slowly up the embankment, observing and taking pictures.

Once on the surface, I signaled to the boat that we were okay.

“Bubba” the chase boat pulled us back to the boat.

I was cool, but the captain explained that he picked us up because of the women on board.

In with: 3000 psi
Out with: 600 psi
Maximum depth: 103 feet
Waves: Insignificant, 0 feet
Visibility: 50 feet
Water temperature: Cold at 103 feet, warm above 40 feet.
Total Bottom Time: About 30 minutes