Dive #1 [actual: # 600]
Date: 7-23-06
Time: ~11:30 am
Location: La Jolla Shores
Dive Length: ~40 mins [haven't downloaded data yet]
Surf: 2-3 ft.
Viz in Shallows: 8-10 ft.
Viz at Depth: 12-15 ft.
Temp at Surface: 70 F.
Temp at Depth: 54 F.
Max Depth: 120 ft.
Mix: 28%
Critters seen: Blackyed Gobies, Speckled Sandabs, one Sand Bass and a school of unidentified bait fish traveling about 45 knots past us
I love the ocean: it’s a great leveler: especially of hubris; especially when its mine. It never lets you get too arrogant or full of yourself.
Barbara had to DM today at the Shores, so i had planned to show up and do a Reef Fish Count by myself. I didn’t need a buddy.
I had my redundant air source and wasn’t planning to go much below 30 ft.–what did I need a buddy for–right?
Got pretty full of myself. So, all decked out with my 120 ft. main tank [too hot for doubles] and my 30 cu. ft. pony bottle, I set out through the surf and madding crowds along the shore feeling quite pleased with myself and my cleverness at avoiding the silly buddy system. . Got about 50 ft. into the surf, when WHAM! a tiny little wave smacked into me and I lost a fin.
Operator error: instead of attaching each fin to its own strap, as I normally do, I had stupidly attached two fins to one strap and when I went to get one fin, I promptly lost the other one.
I trudged back into shore, head hanging down in shame, pretending to busily study my slate, as if the answer to my lost fin could be found there, hoping the tourists hadn’t noticed my 90 second dive, my only consolation being that I was in fairly good company when it comes to losing gear at the Shores.
So, dropped my gear at our spot and decided to retrieve the spare fin I kept in my truck, just for this eventuality, but I was less than enthusiastic about attempting another solo surf entry, lest I be humiliated by Neptune again.
Luckily, after a short 20 minute nap, another REEF diver named Greg wandered by: he was buddy-less as well, so in my new found state of humility, I proposed we got out and do a fish count together and he agreed.
We promptly suited back up and hit the water.
We kicked out until the trusty depth finder showed 45 feet and dropped down into the canyon.
We ended up a bit deeper than planned, but we headed North towards Vallecitos and noted the marine life we came across on our slates, which actually wasn’t much that time of day: some Blackeyed Gobies and quite a few Speckled Sand Dabs hopping about on the sand.
Towards the end of the dive, a huge mass of sliver bait fish hurtled by us like a speeding freight train, startling me so much that I dropped my little 2 inch pencil kindly provided by REEF.org and that was then end of that fish count, for me anyway.
We surfaced satisfied nonetheless that we had had a productive dive and I went over to the REEF tent to get my pencil replaced.
Good dive: thanks Greg. You were a good buddy.
Oh: and get this: went I got back to shore: I discovered that my fin had been found and placed on the sea wall! What are the odds of that?
So, many thanks from the bottom of my heart, whoever did that, if they’re reading this. No one ever owned up to it. It may have just been a tourist. But, thank you, whoever you were.
What a weird way to start the day!
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Dive #2: [actual: #601]
Time: ~5 pm
Location: Cabezon Cruiser
Surf: nearly flat: 1-2 ft.
Viz in Shallows: 8-10 ft.
Viz at Depth: dark and varied from nearly 0 to 12 ft.
Max Depth: 130 ft.
Mix: 28%
Critters Seen: numerous Rockfish, several large male Sheephead, several females, several Scorpionfish and a really cute baby Hornshark, about 5 inches long
Later in the day, Jackie kindly agreed to do a Cruiser dive with me, as it had been awhile for me.
Luckily, she also agreed to navigate, or we might never have found the darn thing.
So, we kicked out at the usual SE angle and dropped in about 45 ft. of water.
Dropping down into the canyon, we noticed it got considerably darker and colder [what a surprise!], with available light reduced, due to the angle of the sun this time of day, so it was really more like a night dive, than a day dive.
As we progressed downward, it got progressively darker and gloomier, with the viz dropping proportionally, until the viz was down to around 18 inches, so much so, that I grabbed Jackie’s elbow, so we wouldn’t get separated.
We continued downward into the murk, crawling hand-over-hand in the sand, literally feeling our way towards the Cruiser. We communicated course corrections quite well by moving our lights back and forth in the direction we felt we should go.
Finally, just as we were about to lose hope, we saw a couple female Sheephead patrolling about, which gave us a clue that we were near and, sure enough, within a couple minutes, we smacked right into Starboard side of the Cruiser. Jackie saw it before I did and probably kept us from colliding with it.
We raked our lights back and forth across the bow and pumped our fists in exultation at having found the little boat by Braille.
We spend a couple minutes on it, enjoying company of the local Rockfish that live there, as well as a couple of rather sinister-looking Scorpionfish I found attached to the Port side, all with a clear ‘don’t-mess-with-us’ look about them. So, we didn’t.
Then, it was back up the wall, in a North Easterly direction, until we reached the top of the canyon and were glad of it: my thin liner and the 53 F water had us both wishing for a warmer thermocline.
Which we got as soon as we hit the shallows and kicked in to shore, happy at having found the little boat once again and having had a good dive in the process.
Thanks to excellent navigation by Jackie and only moral support from me.
Amusing ending to the day: you know how, as you go back to your car at the Shores, to retrieve one item or another [such as a spare fin], you’re followed by this long line of cars, with people all leaning out their windows desperately calling out, ‘ Are you leaving? Are you leaving?’ as you sadly shake your head?
I passed one car parked in the North Lot today that appeared to be a father/daughter dive team who must have grown weary of this, and had actually hung a sign from the back of their vehicle: ” No, we are NOT leaving!” 
What a day!
Mike Bear
[Not necessarily wiser, but certainly humbler...]
