Lobster hunting off the “Island Diver” boat with the Divevets Group

Secret Location: 4a 75 73 74 20 6f 66 66 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 53 70 61 6e 69 73 68 20 52 6f 75 6e 64 20 42 65 61 63 68 2c 20 74 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e

So Cal Buddy diving with Roland B./night diving

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 300 psi
Max depth: 100 feet (briefly)
Waves: Light chop
Visibility: 15 feet
Water Temperature: About 55 degrees Fahrenheit I would say
Total Bottom Time: 45 minutes

It was raining slightly.

I finally met Roland B., one of the founders of Divevets.

“Ax” and “Steph” were there, so were Dominic, Tony, Jimmy The Bags Man and someone else.

Dominic caught me putting my BC on the tank upside down.

Ooops!

Some of these divers had never seen me before.

The boat left at 8 PM or so.

I explained to Roland how crappy of a buddy I am when it comes to lobster hunting.

Roland said, “Me too” and buddied with me as “same day, same ocean.”

I was the first off the boat, maybe second.

I went down the anchor line and to the South East – and trolled and trolled.

At about 95 feet, I spotted what was left of some metal pill box with part of the lid collapsed.

Under it was two hopefully legal lobsters.

I lifted the lid, up came silt and a crab that jumped on the lobster – for whatever reason.

How heroic!

They retreated.

I couldn’t grab them; I have a phobia of grabbing for things in confined places because of eels and such.

I kept trolling, but was running low on air after 30 minutes.

A seal or sea lion buzzed me for a few minutes.

I surfaced very slowly doing a safety stop for about a minute at 20 feet or so.

I surfaced about 70 yards from the boat and swam back without incident.

Out of eight divers, two legal lobsters were caught.

Yellow Tail Point, Catalina Island
Diving Off The Mr. C with the Divevets

Solo diving

In With: 2800 psi
Out With: 1500 psi
Max depth: 25 feet or so
Waves: Insignificant
Visibility: 25 feet plus
Water Temperature: Cool
Total Bottom Time: 35 minutes

After a nice, real barbecued cheese burger for lunch and another hour surface interval, it was time for a third dive.

I was getting cold and wanted beer – and my third dive, figure-out-the-tables brain-fart made for a short, shallow dive.

Again, I forget the compass headings, but I went to the right off the boat.

Sand, rocks, fish – I found another Abalone shell.

Somewhere along the dive I found a mini arch that I swam through; that was the highlight of this dive, I guess.

I found the boat without surfacing, but hung out at the bottom so I could get 35 minutes of bottom time.

I surfaced and cracked open a beer and hung out with Joe and Mirek.

Shanon and Bob returned with one lobster each.

The boat was slow getting back, but that gave us more time to party.

I hung out with Joe, Mirek, Bob and a few others.

I noticed that there’s condensation under my watch face.

I met this one lady who is planning to start a diving club at a private High School where she works.

I raised doubts about her being able to do that because of the liability.

I look so macho on diving boats.

Mirek pointed out that I’m only “half American-Polish” because it took me two tries to open a beer with a wrench.

Also, he said, no Pollack would say “beer please” but “hey woman, get me a beer.”

The ride back was just as cold as the ride over.

We got to see the sunset as we entered the harbor…

An enjoyable day of diving!