Secret Location: 4f 66 66 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 68 69 6c 6c 20 6f 66 20 67 72 65 65 6e 20 74 72 65 65 73 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 74 68 65 20 67 61 74 65 20 68 61 73 20 61 20 6d 61 72 2e

Southern California Buddy Diving With Instructor John

In With: 2700 psi
Out With: 500 psi
Max depth: 50 feet
Waves: Pretty Flat, no current
Visibility: 15 feet +
Water Temperature: 55 degrees, sort of chilly
Total Bottom Time: 35 minutes

Finally, I am back in the water after several weeks; it feels nice to finally go SCUBA diving again!

I met Instructor John at the Marina; we were motoring out of the harbor on his zodiac around 7:40 PM.

We submerged at our secret location and went our own separate ways.

I went South bound, sort of towards shore; The vis was pretty good and clear.

Within the first 10 minutes I had bagged two fairly small lobsters and trolled for more.

I came across a sleeping Bat Ray that scared the shit out of me.

I peaked on the surface twice to get my bearings – this is the place where I lost site of the zodiac on opening morning.

Before swimming back to the boat, I remeasured my catch – they were both short!

Again, these things must shrink in the air; I threw them back and swam back to the boat.

John came back with three lobsters that he caught in the first five minutes when he went to check the anchor.

I have to start making “checking the anchor” a habit.

An uneventful, but pleasant night of SCUBA diving; I’m glad I still remember how.

On Saturday, I stopped by Veteran’s Park and checked out the conditions.

It looked pretty flat, but later dive reports told of “crappy visibility” and the swells apparently picked up again.

I was suppose to go lobster hunting with Instructor John Sunday night, but John dove while teaching an advanced course in the morning and said, “the swells are two to three feet, but the vis is only a foot.”

We cancelled the night dive.

Apparently, there is a net that has washed ashore at the Old Marineland; Max Bottomtime and a few others are trying to remove it.

I think it would be easier to just set the thing on fire, or have the construction crew dispose of it.

Picture and story are here on Max’s Blog.

Also worth noting, a couple of Divevets who were down in San Diego – Ken and Veronica – were almost left behind in the water by a Dive Connections boat.

Ken states in his post, “At 46 mins into the dive I hear engines fire up so Veronica and I decide to surface and see what’s up.

“When we surface I find that the boat has pulled anchor, pulled up the ladders and the gates are closed.”We make it to the boat and they claim that it was a recall because Veronica was down for so long (now they didn’t state a gate time but what ever).

“I must admit this got me a little fired up but I decide to let it go until the captain admits to me it was a miscommunication with the DM on the boat.”

That would have pissed me off to no end!

There have been times when divers and the crew wanted to throw me off a boat, but never leave me behind!

So, be careful on Dive Connections’ boats!

Apparently, they’ll leave you behind if take too long on your dive.

The vis down in San Diego was also reported to be about one to two foot.

The Divevets thread on this subject can be read here.