February 3, 2013*

We were eating a light snack of fruit, chips and dip during our surface interval when the question about the second dive was asked.

Where should we go next?

Stay here, or to another oil rig?

When most didn’t care either way, Dan made the comment that, “You guys vote like women.”

The captain suggested that we stay for a second dive since, “Conditions won’t be any better at the other rigs.”

So, we stayed.

Donna apparently found a more suitable, less macho, dive buddy, so I paired up with Dan.

Logged SCUBA Dive #431

Dove with Divevets’ Dan, “SoCal Buddy Style”

Eureka Oil Rig, California, USA

In With: 2250 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 52 feet
Waves: Pretty calm
Visibility: Eight to 10 feet, but cleared to 20 feet at depth
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 26 minutes

We descended.

This was my second dive with my new BCD… I grabbed what I thought was a purge value and ended up pulling my weight pouch out.

Luckily it was empty, as I still use a weight belt.

By the time I got down, Dan was gone… well, same ocean, same day, so oh well, we’ll do it “SoCal buddy style.”

There’s a floor of beams around the 60 foot mark.

I spent most of my time at this depth, cruising around the horizontal beams, trying to take some good pictures as my camera was warning that the battery was very low.

If I wasn’t so macho, swimming around underneath all those dark beams may have spooked me out.

I slowly surfaced just as Dan did.

We started the dive and ended the dive together, so that’s good enough in my book.

Some divers brought back some big scallops.

I was also fortunate enough to meet Carl, a friend of one of the hottest celebrity divers in the world – Paris Hilton.

He apparently has even been to her house; meeting him was better than previously meeting someone who did catering for Paris.

Maybe one day I will actually get to meet Paris Hilton, or better yet, even dive with her.

On the way back, it was recommended that I dive in Estonia this year; I am planning to go to Poland and got into a friendly argument when someone told me, “You know Poland is land locked?”

Uhm, no it isn’t.

Now for the tragic part…

With ten divers, how much beer did you think the boat had?

If your guess was one can of Tecate, you would be correct.

Luckily, I brought a few Bud Lights and Donna had a few Tecate bottles, so debriefing was light, but that was probably a good idea on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Pacific Star has a big deck – well, with ten divers it seemed pretty big…

And even though their tasty breakfast burrito sat like a rock in my stomach, and they only had one beer in stock for ten thirsty divers, the Captain and crew are very competent, I will be glad to go on another dive trip on the “Pac Star.”

*Posting of this has been delayed because of the Super Bowl.

February 3, 2013*

I haven’t dove in over a month, but bought a new BCD and boots; I was planning to do a test dive on Saturday at Veterans Park to test my new gear.

I saw a post on the Divevets Facebook Page that said they have a boat going to the oil rigs on Sunday morning, to be back in time for “Super Bowl Sunday.”

I never dove the oil rigs, and I must say, I could not pass this up.

The boat was the “Pacific Star” a.k.a. “The Pac Star.”

The boat was to leave at 7 AM sharp, so I left the Long Beach Ghetto at 6:18 AM.

I was driving South on the 710, ready to cross over the bridges to San Pedro when I ran across the “Detour Freeway” signs.

Don’t fucking tell me, you closed the bridge?

I passed the signs, only to make a turn off to the Queen Mary, a U-turn in Downtown Long Beach, to be brought to another detour that took me along some surface streets by Berth 55 to be put on the bridge.

Shit, I almost didn’t make it, but I did.

Okay, so it’s a Divevets boat, but had no idea who would be on it.

To my surprise it was Donna the Hot Biker Chick, Divevets Dan and seven other, mostly Wednesday, divers.

Six other people who made reservations stiffed the boat owner; they were no-shows.

The boat had ten divers, and for a boat that big, it was almost a private charter.

We were slightly delayed because the boat stopped to watch two whales boinking each other.

After passing a security check and getting permission from the Oil Rig, the transportation company and the Coast Guard, we approached the oil rig.

Having done all this, this assured us that we would not get strafed with 50 mm machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades on approach.

Logged SCUBA Dive #430

Dove with Donna The Hot Biker Chick, Divevets’ Dan and Carl

Eureka Oil Rigs, California, USA

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 600 psi
Max depth: 121 feet
Waves: Pretty calm
Visibility: Eight to 10 feet, but cleared to 20 feet at 60 feet
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Air Temperature: 74 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 24 minutes

This was a first in my diving history – this was the first dive on water so deep, that I couldn’t reach the bottom and expect to make it back alive; the ocean floor was said to be 731 feet below.

I borrowed someone’s light after being told that I needed one.

“Crap, it’s during the day, why do I need a light?” I asked.

“Trust me, it’s dark down there,” I was told.

The oil companies scrape the first 20 feet of their supports, but below that is an enormously deep artificial reef full of fish, white and strawberry anemones and scallops – tons of scallops.

After descending through a crap layer of about 40 feet, visibility cleared to 20 feet plus.

I stopped when I thought I had reached 80 feet… I looked at my gauge and confirmed that I was sort of close… only off by 41 feet, at 121 feet deep.

There wasn’t too much horizontal exploration as the vertical ascent through all the beams and supports made the dive interesting.

We slowly ascended to the surface underneath the rig, and just as planned, we waited for the Dive Master to give the OK for us to swim towards the boat where we would be thrown a line and towed away from the rig so we could safely board.

Our second dive awaited us after an hour surface interval.

*Post delayed because of the Super Bowl.