Dive #1

Date: 6/17/06

Time: 8:04 am

Dive Type: Local Charter Boat

Location: Oil Rig Off Long Beach

Max Depth: 46 ft.

Mix: 28%

Critters Seen: Strawberry Anemones, lots of Black Mussels, Giant Barnacles, Scallops

They say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so that’s one way of looking at this morning’s dive off an oil rig off of Long Beach. Based on that, we must be a lot stronger today!

Barbara and I drove down Friday night and stayed over night at a local motel, along with a couple other people, to avoid having to get up at a ghastly hour to make the drive up to Long Beach to be on the boat by 6 am.

We arrived a few minutes early and completed the usual paperwork and loaded out gear on board.

Before leaving the harbor, the divemaster and captain gave a pretty complete briefing on the potential hazards of oil rig diving, possible strong currents, boat entry, exit and hand signal protocol, so we can’t really say we weren’t warned; but, nonetheless, hearing about something is always a lot different from experiencing it for yourself.

After about a 45 minute ride, we arrived at the oil rig; actually, it was two fairly large ones, right next to each other. You don’t realize how big those puppies are until you see one up close. They are huge and tower over you when you are near them.

We had been told during the initial briefing that these were not decommissioned rigs, but fully operational ones…….and in fact, as we pulled in next to the one were were to dive, a crew boat was pulling in to drop off oil rig workers. I was surprised that the oil companies would tolerate dive boats dropping divers into the water while they were operational, but perhaps it is the fee paid to them by the dive boats that does the trick.

In any case, we were told that the dive boat would back up to a pre-determined corner of the rig and ‘live drop’ us into the water and we were to swim over to that corner before dropping down. The rig is anchored in 400 ft. of water, so obviously the boat can’t anchor and we were limited to one particular section of it and were not to dive inside it either, but stay within the radius of the corner we had been dropped in. Then, when we surfaced, we would signal that we were OK and the boat would come pick us up.

The reason for not going inside the structure, we were told, was that occasionally, rig worker accidentally drop tools or equipment from a fair height inside the structure and you don’t want to below when that happens for obvious reasons.

So, with a bit of trepidation, we geared up and got ready as the boat began backing towards the giant structure behind us.

I jumped in first, followed by Barbara and we made our way towards our ‘corner’ of the rig, per the instructions from the DM.

Despite the pre-dive briefing we had received, nothing could have prepared us for the current we encountered when we jumped into the water.

As soon as we hit the water, It became apparent that there was a ripping open ocean current tearing through the rig structure. It was all we could do to just get to our corner of the rig. Then, once we arrived there, we realized that we would have to kick as hard as we could just to stay in place. Another small group of divers was already there in a apprehensive little clump, hanging on to whatever they could to keep from just getting swept away. A couple divers formed human chains to pull in stragglers. If you let go of whatever you were holding onto, in our case, clumps of mussels attached to the sides, you would be gone.

Barbara and I decided the best thing to do would be just to get down below, where hopefully, the current would lessen, so we began dropping down.

The visibility was quite good: I would say 30 ft. plus, but the conditions below didn’t get any better as we descended, in fact, they actually got slightly worse, so our appreciation of the gorgeous viz was diminished a bit as a result.

As we descended down the huge structure, we could see clumps of divers huddled below us, inside the structure, trying to stay out of the current, which began really ripping at around 20 ft. and below.

I am always astonished after experiencing a current like that to be told later that it was ‘only’ 2-3 knots, because at the time, it feels like like 5 or 6 knots, but we have to defer to the more experienced ‘sea salts’ on things like that. So, 2-3 knots it was, but, boy, you could have fooled me.

As we descended, we could see the bubbles of the divers huddled below us being carried away at a pretty steep angle; not horizontally, but darn near close to that and that’s something you don’t want to see in the open ocean. They, too, were hand-crawling from one section of the rig to another.

It became apparent that not only had the current not diminished as we descended, but had actually picked up and we had to grab onto the sessile anchored to the sides of the structure to keep from getting swept away, in this case, more handfuls of mussels–and, they can be razor sharp, even with gloves on.

So, the first few minutes of the dive were spent just figuring out how to anchor yourself to the structure avoid getting swept away. Had we not been so preoccupied, we would have noticed [and, possibly enjoyed] the colorful marine life all around us: Strawberry anemones, medtridia, black mussels, huge schools of fish and Giant Barnacles everywhere.

It quickly became apparent that the first priority was to get ‘in’ out of the current and anchor yourself to a part of the giant structure that was protected. Some divers achieved this better than others. Part of the problem was, once you found yourself in an exposed area, it was nearly impossible to get ‘in’ to a protected area, unless you were already there to begin with.

Unfortunately, I had started my descent on the outside of the structure and was never able to located a ‘protected’ area to find ‘shelter’ from the current. Barbara managed it better than I did.

As it was, we simply clawed our way from one sections of the giant metal leg to another, frantically grabbing onto clumps of marine life or mussels to keep from getting swept away. I would grab a fistful of mussels, only to have the current rip me from the structure, mussels and all, until I was carried down to the next part of the structure, where the scenario would be repeated again.

We felt bad about the impact we were having on the sessile, but sometimes you just have to put yourself first!

With one hand holding a death-grip on the metal bar or a fistful of mussels, Barbara gamely tried to take some photographs while we were down there, but the battle against the current was just all-encompassing: you just couldn’t concentrate on anything else. Finally, she called it quits and folded it in to her BC, but not before getting off some blurry shots.

Other divers managed better than we did: Jackie and Kathy managed to work their way down to a 100 ft. or so and actually have a dive, but they also later reported the constant battle against the current.

We ended up just being ripped from one part of the structure to another, still holding our fistful of mussels from area we had just come from.

After clawing our way from one ‘bar’ to another and never really getting out of the rip, we decided this just wasn’t fun anymore and called it quits and began ascending. We had only made it to 45 ft. Don’t even ask how long our dive was.

Naturally, I had forgotten that depth had provided at least some respite from the rip and, as we ascended, it became worse and at around 25 ft., I lost my hold on the structure and was simply swept away. The last I saw of Barbara was, as she stuck her head inside the structure and allowed herself to be pinned against a giant bar, which ironically, gave her some relief from the current.

At around 17 ft., I found a section of the giant leg to get a death grip on another handful of mussels to do my safety stop, before it ripped off in my hand, carrying me finally to the surface, where I was able to get the attention of the boat.

They signaled me to stay in place and wait, which was hard, fighting the current, but finally they revved their engines and backed in to pick me and a couple other divers up, who surfaced a bit wide-eyed from their battle down below.

I clambered back onto the boat, tired and relieved to be back on a solid surface. Barbara was picked up a few minutes later.

When I asked the DM if it was always like that down below, he replied: “Nothing I said could really have prepared you for what it was like until you experienced it.” Yeah: no duh, buddy!

After more wide-eyed and exhausted divers were picked up from the rig, many vowing that that would be their last dive of the day, the captain made the best decision he could have all day: he told us were were going to Catalina. A cheer actually erupted from the divers on the boat, so relieved was everyone to get out of that current.

What does that tell you?

Dive #2:

Location: Catalina, Twin Peaks

Time: 10:10 am

Dive Length: 50 minutes

Max Depth: 75 ft.

Mix: 32%

Crittes seen: Huge schools of Senoritas, Blacksmith, Sea Pens, Sheephead, Blood Stars, Yellow Dorids, Macrocystis and several very large Sheepcrab.

After a 45 minute or so ride out to Catalina, with everyone exchanging stories about their battles with the ‘monster’ current at the oil rig, a group of relieved and happy divers arrived at Twin Peaks, Catalina and jumped in the water, ready to really enjoy themselves this time.

Barbara and I splashed in and decided to swim parallel to the boat, on the edge of a rather large Kelp forest.

The bottom slopped downward from the edge of the Kelp forest, at about 25 ft., to around 80 ft., towards a sandy bottom, strewn with
small rocks and extremely large fronds of kelp, which provided shelter to lots of different types of life, Sea Pens, Sheephead, Blood Stars, Yellow Dorids, Macrocystis and several very large Sheepcrab.

We made our way Eastward, along the bottom, with Barbara snapping photos and me amusing myself finding Dorids for her to photograph, of which there were quite a few.

We saw huge schools of Senoritas, Blacksmith fish, as well as numerous Kelp Bass, playing hide and seek among the kelp fronds.

We ran into Jackie and Kathy who made it clear with appropriate sign language that they had seen a huge Giant Sea Bass, which made us a bit jealous, since we had a camera and they didn’t.

A bit further down, I found a sizable Sheepcrab for Barbara to video, so that was a lot of fun.

Finally, after about 50 minutes of puttering about and enjoying ourselves, we decided to begin heading back to the boat and call it quits for the day.

We had a good ride back on the boat from Catalina and everyone ended up satisfied at the way the day had ended.

We really had no cause for complaint, as the boat crew had warned us what it might be like on the oil rig and Mother Nature was just ‘doing her thing.’

But, I can tell you this: very few divers on that boat would have volunteered for a second dive on that rig!