After several days of bad conditions, we’re finally back in the water to rescue more lobsters from their watery hell that they call life.<\/p>\n
Instructor John and I loaded the Red October and made a ride out to one of our secret deep lobster spots – about a quarter acre of man made reefs, i.e. dumped heavy construction material.<\/p>\n
The wind was barely blowing, but the surface chop was in excess of five feet and steadily rolling; if I wasn’t so macho, I would have gotten sea sick.<\/p>\n
We anchored perfectly on target, after trolling with a GPS for ten minutes.<\/p>\n
Logged SCUBA Dive #364<\/p>\n
SECRET LOCATION: 4a 75 73 74 20 6c 69 6b 65 20 74 68 65 20 6c 61 73 74 2c 20 6f 66 66 20 74 68 65 20 53 70 61 6e 69 73 68 20 52 65 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, Redondo Beach (I think), CA<\/p>\n
Solo Diving, SoCal Buddy Diving<\/p>\n
In With: 2800 psi
\nOut With: 500 psi
\nMax depth: 80 feet
\nWaves: Nauseating surface chop with light wind
\nVisibility: 10-15 feet
\nWater Temperature: About 58 degrees, slightly colder at depth
\nTotal Bottom Time: About 22 minutes<\/p>\n
The water seemed cold, especially after discovering a new ass rip in my wet suit – the consequences of too much underwater peeing.<\/p>\n
For the first five minutes, I didn’t see one bug, but as I found structure, I spotted lots of shorts.<\/p>\n
I pinned a legal looking bug on the gravel but it turned out to be short – it was released unharmed, along with an apology.<\/p>\n
There was a big reef structure in 75 feet of water, lined with monster bugs inside – the big ones are still staying home?<\/p>\n
I guess that’s how they got so big.<\/p>\n
I could not reach them.<\/p>\n
Along the side of a pipe, I spotted a large bug, pinned it and put it in the lobster liberation bag.<\/p>\n
Now the anxiety of getting skunked was over.<\/p>\n
I came across another large pipe – like a six foot diameter drainage pipe – with bugs underneath the hollows.<\/p>\n
One large lobster caught my eye; I shoved my lights at him and he shot back.<\/p>\n
I swam over the pipe; he was right there in the open, standing on the gravel.<\/p>\n
I moved my light to the side and pinned his silhouette.<\/p>\n
Yet another lobster who will soon no longer wallow in misery!<\/p>\n
I was down to 1000 psi and decided to troll around until I got to 800 psi.<\/p>\n
That last lobster that I liberated was flapping around in my bag really hard and then it went calm.<\/p>\n
I checked my bag and only felt one bug.<\/p>\n
Where was the second one?<\/p>\n
Did he crawl out of my escape-proof, spring-loaded bag?<\/p>\n
I felt again; the second bug was right at the top, waiting for me to open it once I rescued another lobster.<\/p>\n
I shook him down to the bottom of the bag and started my ascent to the surface.<\/p>\n
I came up slowly, but did not do a safety stop in the open water – I didn’t want a potential current to sweep me away from the boat.<\/p>\n
I hit the surface and looked for the boat.<\/p>\n
Where’s the boat?<\/p>\n
I did several 360s in the rolling swells trying to spot the boat – a 14 foot rubber zodiac has a low profile.<\/p>\n
Luckily, Instructor John has an extremely bright LED light mounted on board when we’re in the water, and as soon as I was in the right direction and as soon as a swell passed, I got a heading for the boat.<\/p>\n
I submerged to 15 feet and swam in that direction.<\/p>\n
John came back with one five pound bug – three lobsters total for the night.<\/p>\n
We literally surfed back to King Harbor, riding the incoming waves.<\/p>\n
No pictures tonight; my batteries died and besides, people tell me that one picture of me holding lobsters looks like all the rest after a while.<\/p>\n
Now, remember when I mentioned in my last post that we called the lobster dive Friday night due to high swells and wind?<\/p>\n
I found out that a friend of a friend actually went out that night because, “We needed lobsters for a barbecue on Saturday.”<\/p>\n
Apparently, visibility sucked, and someone ended up dislocating their shoulder climbing back into the boat.<\/p>\n
I hope those were some tasty lobsters, if they caught any at all!<\/p>\n
Speaking of bad conditions from last weekend, here again is another lesson on how not to exit Terranea Resort, presented by the famous Max Bottomtime.<\/a><\/p>\n