Logged SCUBA Dive #327

Secret Location: 4e 6f 72 74 68 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 74 68 72 65 65 20 6c 6f 6c 6c 69 70 6f 70 20 74 72 65 65 73 20 6e 65 61 72 20 74 68 65 20 67 61 74 65 73 20 6f 66 20 4d 61 72 2e
Palos Verdes, CA

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 2700 psi
Out With: 300 psi
Max depth: 60 feet
Waves: Minor swell chop
Visibility: 15 feet+
Temperature: 52 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 25 minutes

After a jinxed attempt at lobster hunting last Tuesday, Instructor John and I tried it again – this time in a different location!

The ride out in the zodiac was fairly flat; a DFG boat had pulled over a private boat entering the harbor as we were leaving.

We anchored in 60 feet of water and both of us descended around 7:45 PM.

I headed towards shore, hoping to liberate some lobsters in shallower waters.

Micro lobsters covered the rocks along with some shorts.

Visibility was pretty damn good – 15 feet or more and very clear; there was a slight underwater surge.

My secondary light went out, but I continued with my primary light.

About 10 minutes into the dive I was at 45 feet and wondered if I was going to get skunked – I hadn’t seen any lobsters worth grabbing for, and even the small ones were sparse.

My light waved passed a large bug, I moved my light to the side and my frozen hand of liberation made the pounce!

The lobster shot backwards and I ended up tearing off one of its antennas; I chased it, and in the process, I came across an even bigger lobster that I pinned against the ocean floor and bagged.

It was like grabbing a can of motor oil – no need to measure that one!

Five feet away, I spotted the original lobster – or at least another lobster that only had one antennae.

That lobster had no fight left in it and practically crawled into my bag.

Both these monsters were caught in 45 feet of water.

At 1500 psi, I turned around and headed back towards the zodiac.

In 50 feet of water, I pinned three more lobsters, but only one was legal, and just by a few millimeters.

I slowly surfaced with 500 psi of air, fairly close to the boat before submerging again to swim at 10 feet under the kelp to reach the faithful zodiac.

Instructor John followed a few minutes later.

John’s catch of the night was three lobsters; he went deep at first, to 70 feet, but didn’t see any so he went shallow and caught his stash at 45 to 50 feet.

Do I look macho holding my lobsters, or what?

My share of the gas was $15, so $5 per bug sure the hell beats the retail market price that would probably be close to $100.

The ride back was cold and choppy as the wind was picking up.

With a little more than two months to go in the season, I’m going to try and get out at least once a week.

Logged SCUBA Dive #322

Secret Location:  53 6f 75 74 68 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 6f 6c 64 2c 20 6f 72 69 67 69 6e 61 6c 20 66 61 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 6f 6e 6c 79 20 67 72 6f 77 73 20 70 69 70 65 73 2e, Redondo Beach

Solo Diving/SoCal Buddy Diving

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 100 feet
Waves: Mild chop with a steady current going North
Visibility: 15+ feet!
Temperature: 56 degrees at depth
Total Bottom Time: About 20 minutes

After out-gassing for a little over an hour, we “moved the boat closer.”

Again, I was the first one overboard and the second diver to reach the ocean floor at 80 feet.

I checked the anchor line, as I always do, but had no luck.

I proceeded South to the edge of Redondo Beach’s submarine canyon.

Lobsters were all over!

They weren’t huge, but they looked legal.

I decided to stuff my bag and measure them at the surface before swimming back to the boat;  I was deeper than I had planned (at 100 feet)  and didn’t want to waste time at the bottom.

With five lobsters in my bag I headed towards the boat and did a long and slow free ascent to the surface, praying that the current wasn’t dragging me to Santa Monica.

I surface a few minutes later about 60 yards from the boat, up current.

I measured my catch in the water and ended up throwing back four of the five.

I pose with my catch of the night – a REALLY expensive lobster… That’s right, hold it as close to the camera as possible to try and make it look bigger.

I had to remeasure my lobster three more times to stem off criticism from the other divers that “There is no way that bug is legal.”

Mirek caught one more, Bob I believe caught one or two more while the rest got skunked.

So, seven divers after two dives each caught a total of 11 or 12 lobsters.

Yeah, this season stinks!

The trip back was thankfully brief as we had to listen to Dan gloat about his five lobsters while half the boat got skunked.

Debriefing continued in the parking lot until about 11:30 PM; this being a stag boat, no conversations were off limits.