{"id":5087,"date":"2019-09-24T06:25:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T13:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=5087"},"modified":"2019-09-26T19:04:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T02:04:39","slug":"first-dive-santa-barbara-island-off-the-pacific-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=5087","title":{"rendered":"First Dive – Santa Barbara Island Off The Pacific Star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

September 21, 2019*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sunrise
Sunrise Off Of Santa Barbara Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I awoke to the boat moving with the engines still on… so I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the boat was moving with the slight swells, and yes, the generator was on, but there we were, anchored off of Santa Barbara Island at a place called “The Rookery.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a great breakfast of bacon and eggs with coffee, I started to get ready for my first dive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Rookery Off Of Santa Barbara Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I turned my air on, air was heard leaking out from my first stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuck! This again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just had to get my wrench and tighten down one of my hoses, but I got some strange looks when I was working on my regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elwood the Divemaster gave the dive briefing and asked if anyone needed a buddy… everyone was fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was number one on the roster and number one off the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #511<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Rookery, Santa Barbara Island, CA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In With: 3000 psi
Out With: 400 psi
Max depth: 42 feet
Waves: Slight Chop, but pretty calm
Visibility: 15-30 feet depending on where you were.
Water Temperature: 61 degrees at depth
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 47 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I submerged and swam North-West through a myriad of kelp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kelp
Kelp Forest Off Of Santa Barbara Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kelp,
Kelp, fish and reefs of the Rookery, Santa Barbara Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conditions last week were reported to be “green and shitty;” this is obviously a big improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A sheephead off of Santa Barbara Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a very nice uneventful dive, until, out of nowhere, I was maliciously and deliberately attacked by a Sea Lion…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sea
Sea Lion Attack!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A Sea Lion goes for the kill!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Sea Lion encounter can be watched on YouTube: Training Tiny The Sea Lion To Attack<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heard the boat, and made an easy return…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Pacific Star as seen from underwater. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Approaching
Approaching the swim step.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I surfaced right at the swim step and after a slight struggle getting my fins off, crawled back onto the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Divers
Divers return from the first dive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More dives to come! Stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n*Due to lack of internet access, and too much to do to write while it is happening, there has been a delay in these posts. Pretend you are in 1990.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 21, 2019* I awoke to the boat moving with the engines still on… so I thought. Yes, the boat was moving with the slight swells, and yes, the generator was on, but there we were, anchored off of Santa Barbara Island at a place called “The Rookery.” After a great breakfast of bacon and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5087"}],"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=5087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5087\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}