The Palawan Wreck, Off Of Redondo Beach, CA
Diving off the Island Diver

Solo Diving

In With: 2700 psi
Out With: 1000 psi
Max depth: 130 feet
Waves: Minor chop
Visibility: 20 feet or more
Water Temperature: Cold
Total Bottom Time: 12 minutes at the wreck, 12 minutes coming up; about 24 minutes total.

We were 20 minutes late leaving the dock.

Dan was waiting, hoping that Josh wouldn’t show up, so he could take his place.

Dan seemed a little pissed when he finally made it.

My wetsuit ripped at the seams in the back; I really need to start thinking about acquiring newer equipment.

Two tech divers went over and were going to run a line to the boat.

Captain Alec said that, if we wanted, we could just go down the anchor line and find the boat because, “we are pretty close to the wreck.”

I jumped over and swam to the anchor line and followed it down; I touched bottom at 130 feet.

I swam in the direction of where the boat was suppose to be and then the port side came in to view, about 20 feet from the anchor line.

It is covered with strawberry anemones; the top deck has been removed, so you can view the interior of the hull without actually doing a penetration dive.

I was getting really narced, really fast.

It’s like feeling the effect of drinking 10 beers all at once, so I really enjoyed the feeling, but I had to keep my composure because the only one who could help me was me.

I started to feel better once I got used to the pressure.

However, this deep I didn’t have much bottom time without going in to decompression.

I swam back towards the anchor line, but couldn’t find it; I started my accent slowly.

Not having a reference point to check the current makes me nervous; but I knew there was not much current, so I took my time.

The water coming up felt warmer and warmer and I felt better and better.

Breaking the top, I had to surface swim about 60 yards to the boat.

There was a debate when most of the non-decompression divers were on board as to where the next dive should be.

According to my tables, I had seven minutes of bottom time for a second dive at the Palawan; if we chose the Avalon Wreck, I would have 44 minutes.

We all agreed on the Avalon.

The tech divers were done, so they didn’t care.

Shanon was nice enough to take a marker and outline the increasing hole in the back of my wetsuit.

Veteran’s Park
Redondo Beach, CA

Dove With Nick

In With: 2700 psi
Out With: 1100 psi
Max depth: 79 feet
Waves: 1 foot slow swells, basically flat as a lake
Visibility: 8-10 feet
Water Temperature: About 55 degrees
Total Bottom Time: about 35 minutes

It’s time to do some time underwater.

Ed and Nick were supposed to come with me, but neither answered my call at 7 AM.

My girlfriend Jane and I made it down to Redondo Beach about 8:45 AM; Nick was there; I didn’t here any word from Ed.

About 15 divers were gearing up in the parking lot; reports were that conditions were “as flat as a lake” and that visibility “had been pretty good in the last few days.”

Nick and I geared up and walked down to the water’s edge.

Nick just walked in; so my debate whether to do a “figure four” on his shoulder or just walk in and put my fins on was already decided.

I defogged my mask with spit and ocean water and walked in to waist deep water where I fumbled with my fins to put them on.

The latches on my fins get stuck and it makes them difficult to just put them on.

We swam out and submerged in 20 feet of water and went West.

The agreed upon dive plan was to go no deeper than 80 feet and head back up the shelf when the first person reached 1500 psi.

At 30 feet we felt the cold lick of the thermalcline, then there it was…

…the darkness over the shelf that tells every diver, “Hey, this darkness means that you’re about to go over the shelf.”

We slowly proceeded down the shelf, the cold shooting through my old wetsuit; too bad I couldn’t pee.

We slowly went to 79 feet, Nick called a “hold here” – my gauge said we had a few more feet to go.

We went North slowly, looking at the small Halibut, occasional starfish and various trash that litter the almost barren Redondo shelf landscape.

We turned around and started heading South.

We came across a fish – Nick thought it was a Moray Eel – that had buried itself up to its neck in sand.

I had never seen that before and thought that it may be a grunion laying eggs?

There’s supposed to be an artificial reef that local divers have been building one cinder block at a time, but we couldn’t find it.

We went up the shelf and I dead reckoned where the hell to go to wind up at the stairs.

We stayed at 30 feet or so to out-gas and do our safety stop.

I started digging in the sand to see what I could find – a muscle shell.

We continued East, back to shore.

We surfaced at 15 feet, swam a little and took our fins off to walk ashore.

There’s a really sandy ledge before you get to shore that most divers trip on.

We cracked a few beers and packed in the parking lot.

I asked Nick if he was interested in deep diving the Palawan next weekend.

He said that without the proper training he doesn’t feel comfortable going that deep and he’s afraid of getting narced.

I asked, “You’ve never been narced?”

“No.”

“I was narced on our first night dive when I started going the wrong way.”

“Thanks for telling me that now; I thought you were just confused,” Nick said.

Ed called me and said that he got a little too preoccupied yesterday taking care of some bar business, but he would meet us down at Quality Seafood.

Beer, crabs, muscles and sea snails later, we left via Palos Verdes.

We stopped by Long Point to checkout the scene.

Dive Bum Don and Drysuit Greg were there enjoying the afternoon with a few beers.

There’s suppose to be a barbecue party here next weekend; I plan to be here.