Palos Verdes has been muddy for the last week, and driving by Old Marineland Saturday, it didn’t look like conditions would change for Sunday Services.

I was offered a chance to help with a top secret mission – I would get free food, drink, a Divemaster’s pay and would get to do my tiny part in helping to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice, or at least help to keep the world safe for democracy.

I wasn’t sure why I was offered the spot – maybe my cage fighting abilities or superior IQ?

Maybe because I work cheap and I’m expendable?

Maybe because the driver wanted to use the carpool lane?

The place where we went is so top secret, the government denies the place even exists; where it is, I’m not exactly sure as I had to wear a blindfold for an hour while being driven in the back of a windowless van.

There is a spot on the way in to the top secret government facility that has a bunch of painted rocks on the side of the road; the unclassified story behind the rocks is that they are painted by Army and Marines as they are deployed.

Whether the rocks’ real purpose is to communicate with space aliens, or maybe form some kind of code when seen from the air, is pure conjecture.

Where we had to go was slightly outside the top secret city…

Are those big ass bullets, or what?

Missed it by that much…

A person stands in front of a tank – his identity has been concealed for national security reasons.

We finished what we went there to do and decided to debrief at the secret bar inside the secret government facility that doesn’t technically exist.

Air conditioning, beer and football in the middle of hundreds of miles of 100 degree burning dangerous desert is a welcomed luxury.

We actually spent more time debriefing than working – sort of like my traditional 45 minute dive, followed by three hours of debriefing.

Except for the blindfold, the drive back was pleasant and uneventful – at least that’s what I remember.

I was told that I can talk about my part in the secret mission in 2159 and that I should commit suicide, before being tortured, if I am ever captured by Al Qaeda.

Sorry again for the delay in this post, but my 486 at home crashed again and I’m trying to repair it – hopefully, without burning the valuable motherboard.

Yes, the headline is correct, so without going in to our boring dive at first, you can read about the skull and the event here, or you can watch the following, on scene coverage…

To watch this video on Youtube, click here.

Logged Dive #349 – Veterans’ Park
Redondo Beach, CA

The Annual Underwater Clean Up

Dove With TwinDuct

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 84 feet
Waves: 2 to 5 feet, sporadic
Visibility: 10 to 14 feet, pretty clear
Water Temperature: 55 degrees at depth
Total Bottom Time: About 35 minutes

While volunteers cleaned the beach and surrounding areas, TwinDuct and I geared up and entered just off the pier…

The plan was to clean the trench that is a few dozen yards South of the pier.

That area is basically where all the half dead fish go to die – last year we found a lot of trash and fish skeletons.

If a piece of trash was something’s home, we left it alone.

TwinDuct patrols for trash.

We did such a good job cleaning last year that, aside from a hand full of plastic bags and a bucket, there wasn’t much trash this year.

This was just another typical, uneventful Redondo Beach dive, but looking for trash and not looking at trash.

We had no problem exiting with our heavy bags of debris.

The underwater trash pile was fairly small this year.

The trash was so exciting, some even video taped the collection heap.

During the debriefing, we were told that “Someone found a human skull.”

My brother promptly grabbed his video camera and shot the above footage.

The skull finding was the topic of conversation – “It still had hair and teeth…” “It was wrapped in linen and then in a bag…” “The Divemaster who found it is quite shaken…” “It was probably a mafia hit…”

To ease our trauma, one of the divers showed off her tattoo.

Around noon, the Redondo Beach Police showed up to talk to the Divemaster who found the skull; the Officer did his best to comfort the diver as he gently explained that the skull was made out of plastic!

Some say it may have been part of a ritual, I think it was a practical joke aimed at this event.

After all, all the voodoo rituals I have seen never used plastic props, and apparently the skull was without sea growth, so it had been tossed in the ocean within the last few days.