Well, I’m pleased to announce that my dive buddy Dave and I have finally found a Technical Diving instructor that we’re comfortable with and we’ve begun classroom work in Advanced Nitrox and Decompression diving, with ‘real time’ decompression dives to follow next weekend.

For those of you who don’t know:

1) Technical diving is simply using alternate gas mixes, besides regular air, to go below the traditional limits of sport diving [ 130 ft. ] and reduce decompression time and narcosis, among other things.

2) My last foray into Tech diving left an unpleasant taste in my mouth from the instructor’s Marine Corps teaching style and what amounted to unsafe drill practices at deep depths while we were narced. I won’t go into the whole thing here. Suffice it to say that that type of SCUBA instruction may be fine for some, just not me and, after much soul [and Internet] searching, we found an instructor who fits the bill.

[Let's just say that Tech diving is stressful enough, without paying good money to be yelled and screamed at.]

3) To help you appreciate the ‘sacrifice’ I’m making for this class, allow me to remind you that I’m a life long [and committed] math-o-phobe, and Tech Diving is heavy on some pretty hairy math, OK? It’s only through the soft-spoken manner and near-saintly patience of our new instructor [well, OK, that and a decent calculator], that I’ve been able to make it through this class.

[Only a fellow math-o-phobe would understand how someone might fear a few light algebraic calculations more than a horrible death by 'The Bends' or a Great White! ]

Dive: # 1

Date: 11/24/05

Time: 12:26

Dive Length: 40 mins

Location: Yukon, Wreck Alley

Weather: warm and sunny

Viz at Depth: Good: 20-30 ft.

Temp: 61 F.

Max Depth: 100 ft.

Critters Seen: Large schools of Blacksmith fish, Senoritas, numerous Surf Perch, a playful seal at depth and the resident Lingcod, a large Sheepcrab, numerous Painted Greenlings, countless Metridium and Club-tipped Anemones

So…..what do vegetarians do on Thanksgiving? Go diving, of course!

We took the Scuba Do out to the Yukon, where the weather was gorgeous, the water flat and not single boat in sight–we had the whole ship to ourselves.

As we descended, we could tell viz was going to be good: we could see almost 30 ft. down the buoy line. With the whole ship to ourselves, we decided to descend down the buoy at midships, giving the choice of going either forward or aft, depending on the current.

We got down to the ship and were delighted to see that viz was excellent and current almost non-existent. We were immediately swarmed by huge schools of Blacksmith fish and Senoritas. We decided first to head aft, past the mortar bay, around the back, towards the giant propeller. Rounding the corner, we saw the huge clusters of Metridiums and Strawberry Anemones scattered about, along with all the ‘Kilroy was Here’ graffiti. As we hung there admiring the sights, a large dark shape suddenly appeared out of nowhere from above and sped by us like a bullet–a seal had spotted us and come down to play.

He zoomed this way and that, speeding upwards and then back down again, zipping around and between each of us, looking like a dark brown airplane, obviously delighted at having company. Our other dive buddy, Jackie, noticed something I had not: he was, at one point, actually ‘corralling’ the local schools of fish, keeping them in sight, where he could keep an eye on them, presumably for breakfast or lunch later. But it was funny: he would come at each one of us at high speed, mouth wide open, as if to bite, then dart away at the last second, when he was almost upon us, giving us all a start with this apparent ‘bluffing behavior.’ He was a real delight.

Leaving the seal to ‘corral’ his fish, we turned around and made our way back the way we came, past the propeller and around the aft section, towards midships again, pausing to
peek into the mortar bay again and head towards the radio tower. We noticed the resident Lingcod in this area, instead of his usual place near the propeller, or maybe this was different one. Passing the tower, we paused at Milt’s Tilt, where I spotted a rather large Sheepcrab. He tried to scuttle around the corner when he saw me coming, but I carefully placed him back where I found him originally, so Jackie and Barbara could see him, but he scuttled around the corner again, and this time I left him alone.

After playing around near the forward guns for a bit, our computers told us it was time to turn around. We had a leisurely swim back to the buoy line and a relaxed ascent back to the surface. It was so nice to have the ship to ourselves and enjoy the superb visibility and the seal who came down to play.

Dive #2:

Date: same day

Time: 3 pm

Dive Length: 45 mins.

Location: NOSC Tower

Weather: warm and sunny

Viz at Depth: 10-12 ft.

Temp: 59 F.

Max Depth: 100 ft.

Critters Seen: Large schools of Blacksmith fish, Senoritas, numerous Surf Perch, a seal at depth and the resident Lingcod, numerous Painted Greenlings, Club-tipped Anemones, Giant Spiny Starfish and drum roll, please: THE HOLY GRAIL of local sport diving: a GIANT SEA BASS.

After a nice, leisurely surface interval and a bite to eat, we made way slowly out to NOSC Tower, tied up to the buoy and dropped down over the tower.

Viz was not quite as good as at the Yukon, but it was more than made up for by the profusion of marine life, mostly the Club-tipped Anemones on almost every visible surface, to say nothing of Giant Spiny Starfish everywhere. We made our way towards the bottom and over the debris field, towards the tower itself. Today was Jackie’s first dive on it.

We made our we in and out of the various girders and crossbeams, admiring the thick schools of Senoritas and Blacksmith fish, as well us numerous kinds of Surf Perch: Rubberlipped and Black, as well as Rainbow, all around us, as well as quite a few female Sheephead, letting Jackie enjoy the sights.

At about this time, I slowed down to check out something in the near distance and, unfortunately allowed Barbara and Jackie to get ahead of me by a few yards. I say ‘unfortunately’ because when I turned to look back between the girders, I was startled to find myself face-to-face with a beautiful Giant Black Sea Bass, not 2 ft away me, just on the other side of the crossbeams, gazing at me calmly as if to say, ‘What are YOU doing here?’ . He was at least 4 ft. long, even allowing for underwater magnification and the human propensity for telling ‘fish stories.’

At this point, I’m ashamed to admit, I lost my cool and turned my attention away from him for a second and began gesturing frantically to my buddies with my light to get their attention. Needless to say, when I turned around, not 5 seconds later, he was gone. I mean GONE. Just like he had never even been there. Just like he had been figment of my fevered imagination. I mean, I didn’t even see a tail receding in the distance. He was JUST GONE.

So, naturally, Barbara and Jackie swam over, wondering what all the fuss was about, leaving me to spread my arms out like ‘It was THAT BIG, I swear!’ but having no idea what ‘it’ was. In other words, flailing my arms around like a complete idiot, with nothing unusual in sight. GADS! Luckily, Barbara had the sense that I had seen something and they were curious what it had been, so she brought out her slate and let me write with a trembling hand what I had seen. That made me feel slightly less idiotic, anyway. Both their eyes got wide upon reading what I had written on the slate and they began looking around, but he was G-O-N-E. We never saw him again. Oh, well: c’est la vie, eh?

We continued cruising around the bottom, admiring the profusion of Giant Spiny Starfish everywhere. They were so numerous as to almost cover the bottom, arms draped over one another, yard after colorful yard. We came across another Lingcod, as well as sizable Cabezon, near the edge of the tower structure. Slightly further on, a decent sized Scorpion fish as well.

Finally, it was time to begin ascending into the upper reaches of the tower, where we stopped to admire more Club-tipped Anemones and metridiums all up and down the structure. There were more Blacksmith fish here, as well as numerous Senoritas and the occasional Surf Perch. Jackie had a short fill, so we let her go up the line first, followed by us a few minutes later.

Another superb dive, with slightly reduced viz, but it was more than made up for by the Giant Sea Bass sighting. [Sigh.......]

All in all, a GREAT day diving!

Mike Bear

Dive #1: Ship Rock

Date: 11-13-05

Time: 10:20 am

Dive Length: 44 mins

Temp at Depth: 63 F.

Max Depth: 98 ft.

Critters Seen: Red and Gold Gorgonians, indeterminate type of shark in crevice, 16 inch Ling Cod, Blacksmith fish, Sheephead, Treefish, Bluebanded Gobies, Geribaldi, Orange and Yellow sponges, large Wavy Topped Snails, Warty Sea Cucumbers and scallops.

We took a local charter out to Ship Rock, which as the name suggests, is basically a huge rock jutting up from the sea bed far below.

After an excellent site briefing from the dive master, we suited up and jumped in. It had been suggested that we swim towards the rock a ways, because the bottom dropped down fairly steeply and was over 150 ft. near the boat, so we took the DM’s advice and swam within 50 ft. of the rock before dropping down.

As we descended, the visibility was stunning: we could see the thick kelp forest 50 ft. in every direction. As we dropped down, we could see that the big rock was like an underwater sea mount, rising up from the sandy bottom far below, steeply up to the surface, with Giant Kelp forest anchored all up and down the rocky face.

Since our previous dives had been a bit shallow, we decided to start from the sandy bottom at around 100 ft. and work our way up the slope.

Since the DM had also advised that there was strong current on the opposite side of the rock, we decided to come up the slope in a zig-zag fashion, so as to not accidentally circumnavigate and end up on the wrong side.

Staying within ‘line of sight’ distance of the dive boat was greatly aided by the fact that the crew was blasting ‘Deacon Blues’ by Steely Dan from underwater speakers that could be heard quite a ways away.

So we would ascend up a ways in one direction until Steely Dan began to fade, then, we’d ‘tack’ the other way until it became louder. How cool is that?

The Giant Kelp forest was teeming with marine life: Red and Gold Gorgonians, Blacksmith fish, Sheephead, Treefish, Bluebanded Gobies, Geribaldi, Orange and Yellow sponges, large Wavy Topped Snails, Worty Sea Cucumbers and scallops of every type.

We hadn’t been down long when we came across another diver from the boat frantically gesturing with his light at his buddies, who, truth be told, were a bit far away, too far away and preoccupied with other things to see his light.

So, we stopped by, curious what he was looking at: we followed his light back into a dark crevice and adding our own lights, could clearly see that it was some type of bottom feeding shark, either a Swell or a Nurse. Unfortunately, too much of its body was hidden for us to clearly identify him, but it was definitely a shark. Personally, I think it was a Nurse, but we just can’t be sure without having seen more of it.

Then, after taking our leave of the diver and his oblivious buddies, we moved further on up the slope, careful to keep Steely Dan within acoustic range.

I came across a rather large [at least 18 inches] Lingcod and gestured for Barbara to come over and look. He popped out from a hole and cruised by us in a leisurely fashion until he was out of sight.

Sheephead could be seen, but were not nearly as large as the ones we have in San Diego. Blacksmith and beautiful little Banded Blue gobies were everywhere.
\r\nAfter a full and leisurely dive, it was time to begin heading back to the boat. Luckily we had taken an exact compass heading and, using the Steely Dan soundtrack blaring at us underwater, made a bee line for the boat at around 20 ft., doing a \’rolling safety stop\’ all the way back, until we popped up right under their step ladders, impressing their DM with our unerring navigational skills–PS: the music helped a lot!

Dive #2:

Date: same day

Time: 12:20

Location: Isthmus Reef

Dive Length: 47 mins

Temp at Depth: 59 F.

Max Depth: 85 ft.

Critters seen: Keyhole Limpets, White Serpulid Worm, Large Kelpfish, Blood Stars, Fragile Stars, numerous Orange and Yellow sponges, Blacksmith Fish, Sheephead.The next dive site was called Isthmus Reef and was a shallow, loaf-of-bread-shaped reef at around 30 ft., that was sometimes exposed during low tide, but dropped sharply off at the edges to almost 100 ft. This dive was a bit trickier, if for no other reason that when we arrived at the dive site, thick fog had moved in, reducing surface visibility to around 100-150 ft. in any direction, making it important that divers not stray too far from the boat, or risk surfacing in fog with no boat in sight. It was kind of fun though: we had never heard a dive boat use its fog horn to navigate its way to a dive site! Anyway, after another excellent briefing about the shape and distance of the reef, we all suited up and jumped in. Barbara and I aimed for the tall \’REEF\’ sign jutting up from the shallow bottom headed East, hoping for find the nearest edge, which we did. The end of the reef quickly dropped away below us, down to 90 ft. or more. We followed it down, through the Giant Kelp until we leveled out at around 85 ft. and began heading around the lower edge of it.

After a full and leisurely dive, it was time to begin heading back to the boat. Luckily we had taken an exact compass heading and, using the Steely Dan soundtrack blaring at us underwater, made a bee line for the boat at around 20 ft., doing a ‘rolling safety stop’ all the way back, until we popped up right under their step ladders, impressing their DM with our unerring navigational skills–PS: the music helped a lot!

Dive #2:

Date: same day

Time: 12:20

Location: Isthmus Reef

Dive Length: 47 mins

Temp at Depth: 59 F.

Max Depth: 85 ft.

Critters seen: Keyhole Limpets, White Serpulid Worm, Large Kelpfish, Blood Stars, Fragile Stars, numerous Orange and Yellow sponges, Blacksmith Fish, Sheephead.

The next dive site was called Isthmus Reef and was a shallow, loaf-of-bread-shaped reef at around 30 ft., that was sometimes exposed during low tide, but dropped sharply off at the edges to almost 100 ft.

This dive was a bit trickier, if for no other reason that when we arrived at the dive site, thick fog had moved in, reducing surface visibility to around 100-150 ft. in any direction, making it important that divers not stray too far from the boat, or risk surfacing in fog with no boat in sight.
It was kind of fun though: we had never heard a dive boat use its fog horn to navigate its way to a dive site!

Anyway, after another excellent briefing about the shape and distance of the reef, we all suited up and jumped in.

Barbara and I aimed for the tall ‘REEF’ sign jutting up from the shallow bottom headed East, hoping for find the nearest edge, which we did.

The end of the reef quickly dropped away below us, down to 90 ft. or more. We followed it down, through the Giant Kelp until we leveled out at around 85 ft. and began heading around the lower edge of it.

This reef was more like a Scripps Canyon in miniature, with steep walls down to the bottom, with numerous rocky crevices, both vertical and horizontal, cracking its sides. A real wall dive in the middle of a kelp forest. The part near the bottom was an urchin barren, having been pretty much picked clean by sea urchins, but the upper reaches and crevices teemed with marine life: Blood Stars, Fragile Stars, numerous Orange and Yellow sponges, Blacksmith fish and Sheephead, as well as the ubiquitous Blue Banded Gobies. The horizontal crevices were big enough to actually be small caves into which you could stick your head and see what was inside: Gerbaldis, Black and Purple Sea Urchins and numerous starfish. We wended our way through the Giant Kelp and marveled at all the marine life. At one point, I came across a truly giant Giant Kelpfish, about 18 inches long, alternating between kelp green and a lighter shade, scooting between the fronds of the Macrocystis, hoping we couldn\’t see him due to his superb camouflage. I frantically gestured for Barbara to come over and look, which she did. He continued to artfully duck between one stipe of kelp and another, masterfully blending in to his surroundings. We followed him from one kelp clump to another, admiring his amazing beauty and grace. After a while, he seemed aware that we were tracking him, but meant him no harm, so he\’d pause briefly to let us check him out, and then, he\’d be off again to the next crop of kelp. What a visual treat he was.

As we ascended towards the top of the reef, we became aware of the fact that the current was picking up and the tops of the Macrocystis were beginning to bend in the current, so we adjusted our compass heading towards the direction of the boat. Just as were getting ready to head in, Barbara found a large and rather pretty Christmas Tree-type worm, displaying his radiant white operculum to us, in and out, in and out. I say, ‘Christmas Tree-type’ because we\’re not sure it was a Christmas Tree worm and, may in fact have been a Serpulid instead, according to our marine life ID books.

This reef was more like a Scripps Canyon in miniature, with steep walls down to the bottom, with numerous rocky crevices, both vertical and horizontal, cracking its sides. A real wall dive in the middle of a kelp forest.

The part near the bottom was an urchin barren, having been pretty much picked clean by sea urchins, but the upper reaches and crevices teemed with marine life: Blood Stars, Fragile Stars, numerous Orange and Yellow sponges, Blacksmith fish and Sheephead, as well as the ubiquitous Blue Banded Gobies.

The horizontal crevices were big enough to actually be small caves into which you could stick your head and see what was inside: Gerbaldis, Black and Purple Sea Urchins and numerous starfish.

We wended our way through the Giant Kelp and marveled at all the marine life. At one point, I came across a truly giant Giant Kelpfish, about 18 inches long, alternating between kelp green and a lighter shade, scooting between the fronds of the Macrocystis, hoping we couldn’t see him due to his superb camouflage.

I frantically gestured for Barbara to come over and look, which she did. He continued to artfully duck between one stipe of kelp and another, masterfully blending in to his surroundings. We followed him from one kelp clump to another, admiring his amazing beauty and grace.

After a while, he seemed aware that we were tracking him, but meant him no harm, so he’d pause briefly to let us check him out, and then, he’d be off again to the next crop of kelp. What a visual treat he was.

As we ascended towards the top of the reef, we became aware of the fact that the current was picking up and the tops of the Macrocystis were beginning to bend in the current, so we adjusted our compass heading towards the direction of the boat.

Just as were getting ready to head in, Barbara found a large and rather pretty Christmas Tree-type worm, displaying his radiant white operculum to us, in and out, in and out. I say, ‘Christmas Tree-type’ because we’re not sure it was a Christmas Tree worm and, may in fact have been a Serpulid instead, according to our marine life ID books.

Heading back in, at around 30 ft., we notice the current really beginning to pick up now, rendering the tops of the kelp nearly horizontal and we were concerned about ending up too far from the boat, so by prior arrangement with the DM and boat captain, at our safety stop, Barbara deployed the orange SMB we had brought with us just for this purpose. This would allow them to spot us easier in the fog as well as, hopefully avoid overhead boat traffic. For some reason, don\’t ask me why, on this dive, the underwater soundtrack chosen for our entertainment on this dive by the boat crew was Mexican salsa music. A bit bizarre, I know, but there you have it.] Jared and Kelly happened to be passing by and seemed to glance at us in alarm, wondering, I imagine, what in the heck we were up to with the orange thingie underwater. I gave them a big “OK” sign and went back to assisting Barbara deploy the SMB. When we surfaced, the good news was that the fog had lifted completely while we were down below. The bad news was were were not quite as close to the boat as the thought we were, so we had a bit of a swim ahead of us to get back, but it was well worth it, believe me.All in all, I have to say that diving in Catalina is superb and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the rich marine life present in such abundance in the Giant Kelp forest.

Heading back in, at around 30 ft., we notice the current really beginning to pick up now, rendering the tops of the kelp nearly horizontal and we were concerned about ending up too far from the boat, so by prior arrangement with the DM and boat captain, at our safety stop, Barbara deployed the orange SMB we had brought with us just for this purpose. This would allow them to spot us easier in the fog as well as, hopefully avoid overhead boat traffic.

[For some reason, don't ask me why, on this dive, the underwater soundtrack chosen for our entertainment on this dive by the boat crew was Mexican salsa music. A bit bizarre, I know, but there you have it.]

Jared and Kelly happened to be passing by and seemed to glance at us in alarm, wondering, I imagine, what in the heck we were up to with the orange thingie underwater. I gave them a big “OK” sign and went back to assisting Barbara deploy the SMB.

When we surfaced, the good news was that the fog had lifted completely while we were down below. The bad news was were were not quite as close to the boat as the thought we were, so we had a bit of a swim ahead of us to get back, but it was well worth it, believe me.

All in all, I have to say that diving in Catalina is superb and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the rich marine life present in such abundance in the Giant Kelp forest.