Date: 11/29/08

Location: Key Hole, North Island

Times: 11:47 pm/ 2 pm

Max Depths: 99 ft./59 ft.

Visibility: 50ft/’only’ 30 ft.

Mix: 32%/30%

Surface Conditions: calm

Current at Depth: Strong

Boat: private/26 ft. Blackman w/220 Horse Volvo engine

Marine Life: 4 Seals, Red, Gold and Brown Gorgonians, Purple Hydrocoral, Blacksmith, Senoritas, Sheephead [juvenile and adult], Gerabaldis, Keyhold Limpets,Opal Eyes, Purple and Red Sea Urchins….[ISIFS]: I’m Sure I’m Forgetting Something

Remarks:

OK, I’ll admit that when NOAA Jim told us earlier in the week that he had arranged for me and Barb to go out on his friends, Kathy and Bob’s Blackman boat to the Coronados Islands, to myself, I was like: “Ah…….OK. No Biggie.’

To be honest, although it has been a while since I’d been out to the islands, I’ve never been particularly impressed with the diving there, having done Lobster Shack and the little yacht there, which, while pretty, was just never particularly impressive….maybe it was the shallow depths, maybe it was just me.

Today was a different story. Jim’s friends Kathy and Bob are experienced boaters and divers and knew exactly where to go to find the Purple Hydrocoral and I was impressed, let me tell you. It rivaled some of the best dives I’ve done on Scripps……and the 50 ft. viz didn’t hurt either.

Bob and Kathy’s 26 ft. Blackman with the 220 horsepower diesel Volvo engine made good time out to the North Island and before we knew it, we were at Key Hole and the Lois Ann had, amazingly, beat us out there, so we had to wait for them to pick their divers out of the water, before we could drop anchor, right next to the Key Hole itself.

Now, NOAA Jim had given us an excellent, detailed pre-dive briefing before we went in: he said we would not be diving the Key Hole itself, but following the drop-off leading South and East towards the other islands, visible in the distance.

The idea was to follow ridge down to around 90 ft and then across the ‘crevice,’ to the other side, where the Purple Hydrocoral lay. He made it clear that there were strong currents at that depth and if we were to run into them, to not fight them, but just go as far as we could, and then come up before burning through our gas and Bob would pick up up in the open ocean. Fighting the open ocean currents would exhaust you.

His advice was right on. I’m glad we followed it.

What we didn’t know was that, on his scooter, he would be providing taxi service for us all.

Unable to rent a scooter for myself in time for this trip, I splashed in, along with Barb and the ‘VW’ [High Def Video Cam in the Gates Housing], with Kathy and Jim taking the lead, since they had the most experience diving in this area.

First thing we noticed was the beautiful 50 ft. visibility up ahead. The second thing we noticed was the spectacular
granite wall on our right, dropping away into 100 + ft. of water.

How do I know the viz was 50 ft? Because from 50 ft., we could see the bottom below us at 100 ft. True, vertical viz tends to be better than horizontal viz, but you’ll have to take my word for the fact that horizontal viz was just as good as the vertical.

So, these huge granite walls on our right were covered in gorgeous, lush Golden and Brown Gorgonians, some of them 3 + feet across, waving gently in the current.

It was like soaring through the Grand Canyon in an airplane on a clear day.

Huge schools of Blacksmith fish and Senoritas flitted back and forth in front of us as we swam South/South East, towards the ‘Crevice.’

And, to our delight, not one, but 3 seals had decided to come down to play with us, and zoomed back and forth in front of us, playfully charging us and then banking away at the last minute. What a treat!

So, as we made our way down towards the bottom and SE, it became apparent what a large distance we had to cover: the wall seemed to stretch endlessly in front of us, out into the open ocean.

I looked behind me and saw Kathy making her way slowly along the way and then looked ahead for Barbara and she was nowhere to be seen.

Where had she gone? Then, about 60 ft in the far distance, I saw Jim on his scooter towing her away from us.

Cool, I thought: he’s towing her towards the Hydrocoral. Nice touch!

Kathy and I kept swimming along the wall and I dropped down towards the sand at around 100 ft. to check out the large Rockfish that were swimming along the bottom as well as shine our lights into all the nooks and crannies along the way, home to Giant Keyhole Limpets and the occasional lobster.

Then, I heard the telltale sound of Jim’s scooter in the distance, growing louder as he approached.

Looking up, I saw Jim approaching at a rather high rate of speed towards me and then do a ‘U-Turn’ and cut around so that he was coming up fast behind me.

The next thing I knew, he was holding out his hand and I knew to grab it.

My speed quickly doubled and we were off like a shot, towards the end of the Crevice, far up ahead, at least 100 yards.

X-Scooters are designed to tow up to 2 divers at a time.

Before I knew it, “NOAA Jim’s Underwater Taxi Service” had pulled me far ahead, much faster than I would be able to swim by finning alone, and had deposited me right on top of a huge granite plateau at around 85 ft., covered in gorgeous bright purple Hydrocoral, where Barb was happily filming away with the VW.

I alighted next to Barb and marveled at this huge field Purple Hydrocoral, stretching as far as the eye could see.

It was absolutely stunning.

Next thing we knew, Jim was off like a shot, to pick up his next ‘customer,’ Kathy, who, through no fault of her own, lagged far behind along the wall, simply because of the underwater distances involved here, at least several hundred yards.

In just a couple minutes, we could see “Jim’s Taxi Service” approaching, with Kathy in tow and gently deposit her next to us in this gorgeous Purple Hydrocoral Garden.

The 3 of us swam slowly around this Purple Hydrocoral ‘Garden’ for a few minutes, filming and admiring its beauty, before it was time to begin heading back. We knew we had a long distance to cover and at this depth, we needed to get started.

As soon as we began heading back Northward towards the boat, we hit the ‘headwind’ that Jim had warned us several times about.

It grew stronger and stronger, the further Northward along the wall we swam.

Telltale sign: the beautiful, lush Golden Gorgonians embedded along the wall, which we had admired on the way over, were bent down, vibrating like a blur in the current. Not good.

As we kicked forward, none of us were moving an inch and we had several hundred yards to go to get to the boat.

Jim’s warning was coming to pass.

I looked up ahead and saw him making headway against the ripping current in his scooter: he did a U Turn and began coming back towards us: I pointed to Kathy and told him to pick her up first and he understood immediately.

He zoomed around, held out his hand, she grabbed it and they were off, in the direction of the boat.

By now, I noticed I was starting to ‘huff and puff’ against the current and I knew this spelled trouble.

I remembered Jim’s words: “Whatever you do, don’t fight the current. It will win every time. Come up if you have to and Bob will pick you up in the boat.”

That was fine with me. I immediately slowed my pace and moved over next to the wall and began latching onto rocks and pulling myself hand-over-hand along the way. This immediately calmed my breathing and reduced the danger of CO2 build up.

Then, I heard the sound of Jim’s Taxi Service again, as he zoomed by me to pick up
Barb, who was lagging far behind me, pushing the bulky VW in front of her. I was concerned about her and the monster video camera, trying to make headway against this wicked current. It turned out later, my concern was justified.

He picked her up and zoomed off ahead of me, leaving me to continue making me way back hand-over-hand, along the wall.

I slowly made my way past more Gorgonians, their ‘heads’ bent down in the current, until I was past the 85 ft. mark, where it seemed to lessen a bit and I was able to finally let go of the wall and head back out into open water, towards the boat.

I was really glad I had brought my HP 120 with a ‘fat fill,’ because I was going through gas at a prodigious rate and knew I could never have made it using a 100, like Kathy and Barb.

Jim buzzed by one final time, after having dropped off Kathy and Barb near the boat and I signaled that I was OK and didn’t have any further need of his ‘taxi’ service and he signaled ‘OK’ back and zoomed back off in the direction of the boat.

But, I’ll tell you, I was still breathing hard when I finally got back to the boat and when Barb climbed aboard, she was immediately struck down with a crippling CO2 Headache, followed, if you can believe it, by a migraine–man: talk about one-two knockout punch– man, that must really hurt!

We immediately put her on pure 02 that they had on board and she took the migraine medication she had brought and wrapped a towel around her head and was OK after about 20 minutes.

I was sure she was done for the day, but to her credit, the double headaches subsided enough after an hour for her to actually make a second dive with us.

Dive #2:

Our second dive was basically right under the boat at Key Hole, at around 50 ft., and consisted of me, Kathy and Barb just cruising around between the giant boulder here and admiring all the Purple and Red Sea Urchins, Key Hole Limpets, Senoritas, Opal Eyes and cute baby Sheephead and Garibaldis that swarmed all around us.

Jim had burned through most of his twin 72s shuttling everyone back and forth along the wall at 90 ft. with his scooter on the previous dive and wisely decided to sit this one out.

After about 50 mins underwater, the sun was beginning to get low in the sky and it began to grow dark on this side of the island and we collectively decided to start heading towards the surface, after being joined to by a couple of the same seal that had joined us on the first dive.

Despite the ordeal of the rippin’ current and C02 headaches on the previous dive, we all surfaced happy as clams with the realization that we had had one of the best days of diving in recent memory–thank you, NOAA Jim for the great ‘taxi service’ and Kathy and Bob and your great Blackman boat!