{"id":2976,"date":"2014-02-04T07:58:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T14:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2976"},"modified":"2014-02-04T17:41:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T00:41:35","slug":"scallop-hunting-under-the-eureka-oil-rig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2976","title":{"rendered":"Scallop Hunting Under The Eureka Oil Rig"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 2, 2014*<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and I have the same opportunity as I did last year – Go on the Pacific Star for two SCUBA dives under the oil rigs and be back by the game.<\/p>\n

This was suppose to be a divevets<\/a> function, but I only knew a handful of people.<\/p>\n

Either I’m losing touch with the group, or there are a lot of new members recently.<\/p>\n

Just like last year, we had to go through an extensive background security check to be anywhere close to the oil rigs.<\/p>\n

The first dive I planned to collect some scallops for a Super Bowl party and test my camera housing for leaks – I replaced the gasket and re-greased the housing.<\/p>\n

I did take the housing on a test dive, but only to 40 feet – this is the ultimate test.<\/p>\n

\"Dive<\/p>\n

We got a short briefing on the dives and dive procedures, including a bit about scallop gathering – “We are going to ask you to cut the meat out of the shell, don’t bring the whole thing up – you’ll have 50 unneeded pounds of shell with you.” <\/p>\n

\"San
\nThe San Pedro Light House.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Eureka
\nThe Eureka Oil Rig.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the short ride out, it was time to dive.<\/p>\n

The rigs are in 600 feet of water, so the boat has to drop and pickup without anchoring.<\/p>\n

I jumped over and swam underneath the rig before submerging.<\/p>\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #460<\/p>\n

Solo Diving\/SoCal Buddy Diving<\/p>\n

Eureka Oil Rig
\nBetween Catalina and San Pedro, CA, USA<\/p>\n

In With: 2900 psi
\nOut With: 500 psi
\nMax depth: 101 feet
\nWaves: Slightly choppy
\nVisibility: 40 to 60 feet!
\nWater Temperature: 59 degrees
\nAir Temperature: 67 degrees
\nTotal Bottom Time: 24 minutes<\/p>\n

The water was choppy, but as soon as I went under, it calmed down – visibility was excellent!<\/p>\n

I would say 50 to 60 feet of visibility – perfect for spotting scallops, that are literally all over the columns under the rig.<\/p>\n

I found a big ass scallop at 60 feet, took my knife out and jabbed it into the scallop to dig the meat out.<\/p>\n

The scallop closed, I twisted it, and my knife broke in half!<\/p>\n

Well shit!<\/p>\n

They asked me to cut the meat out before coming back to the boat – that’s like when the cops ask you if they can search your car.<\/p>\n

It’s not mandatory.<\/p>\n

OK, I might be a little heavy, but what they hell, I started prying the scallops off, whole, and putting them in my lobster bag.<\/p>\n

After 20 minutes, I had a heavy bag full of scallops.<\/p>\n

I reached the surface and gave the OK sign about 20 times to the Dive Master who was waving a hard hat at me – I found out later he was trying to return a hard hat that one of the workmen on the rig had dropped.<\/p>\n

The boat picked me up, and the Dive Master was not very happy to see whole scallops coming up on the boat – he sort of bitched me out.<\/p>\n

\"King
\nThe King of Scallops<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Broken
\nMy broken dive knife.<\/em><\/p>\n

I checked my camera housing – and it didn’t leak!<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for the second dive post, with underwater pictures of the Ellen Oil Rig.<\/p>\n

*Posting has been delayed due to the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl Party and the needed recovery from the events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 2, 2014* It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and I have the same opportunity as I did last year – Go on the Pacific Star for two SCUBA dives under the oil rigs and be back by the game. This was suppose to be a divevets function, but I only knew a handful of people. Either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14,8,9,3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2976"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2997,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions\/2997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}