Date: 12/30/09
Time: Approx. 10:30 am
Dive Length: 43 mins
Mix: 21 %
Viz: 3-5 ft. max. murky, dark and surgey
Temp: forgot to look: +/- 57 F
Dive buddies: Dave H. and Prof. Charles
Marine Life Observed: hundreds of Blacksmith fish, not much else visible; Strawberry Anemones and White Metridia
Highlights:
–We left the dock under steel grey skies and high hopes to take Prof. Charles out to the Elkhorn Forest at Wind ‘n’ Sea, only to find the Fuel Dock was closed, so we were forced to divert to the Yukon, given the amount of fuel we had onboard.
–Conditions in Wreck Alley today were not pretty, characterized by being dark, gloomy and green, with 3-5 ft. vis, max: so you didn’t miss much
–Once on the Yukon itself, we groped our way from the Bow, where we were moored, aft, towards amidships, through hundreds of Blacksmith fish all flitting about and trying to peer inside our masks. I took Prof. Charles over to see Milt Beard’s likeness under Milt’s Tilt and he took a photo and from here, I led everyone back towards the opening to the Honor Wall Room, where I descended first, followed by Dave and Prof. Charles.
–About 5 ft. in and down into the Honor Wall Room, on the right hand side, someone had tied a wooden block to the wall, which read: “Last Dive of 2009,” followed by something on the back I couldn’t quite make out in the gloom, perhaps who they came to see on the Honor Wall, a women’s name I didn’t recognize.
–After checking out the wooden block and some names on the Honor Wall, we all dropped down and exited at the opening near the sand at around 95 ft. and made our way forward, towards the bow, where we rose up and checked out the area around the bow.
–There was a smaller opening on the deck, just below the Dolphin Cutout, which had a strong current exiting from it and I cautioned everyone to keep clear, as the force of the water could actually rip the reg from your mouth if you encountered it at the wrong angle.
–From here we went up and over the Dolphin Cutout, to the opening just behind it, to an area I am not sure the name of, and we all dropped down into the huge room here at about 65 ft. Just below us, I could see the exit, mentioned above, and I saw that it was connected to another opening going deep inside the ship, with a strong surge going through it, which explained the torrent of water pouring out of the deck we had noticed earlier.
–After all this mucking about inside the ship, Prof. Charles and I, who had the misfortune to be on 21%, were beginning to rack up some deco, so we all agreed it was time to begin heading back up, so we all groped our way back to the ascent line.
–Upon arrival back on deck, I was dismayed to pour about a cup of water out of the left foot of my dry suit, so I was done for the day, but we decided to do a second dive on the El Rey. Unfortunately, we were unable to located the mooring buoy, so Dave and Charles decided they wouldn’t mind doing the Ruby E., so we headed on over there and I caught up on my emails on deck, while they did their dive.
–They reported similar low viz and surgey conditions on the Ruby E., so I wasn’t exactly heartbroken at having missed the dive.
–Welcome to Winter Diving in San Diego: Happy New Year to all! 
