North of Three Sisters off of Santa Barbara Island, Calif. (Channel Islands)
Nov. 1, 2008
Logged dive: No. 19
Max depth: 42 feet
Bottomtime: 35 minutes
Between Santa Barbara and Sutil islands are three rock formations, the Three Sisters.
This was the second dive spot for the day.
The divemaster pointed out some kelp beds off to the side toward Santa Barbara Island.
Since kelp usually provides good cover for lots of fish, we headed that way.
Visibility on this dive was no where near as good as the first.
We saw a lot of kelp. There were some fish there. But really, it was just a lot of kelp.
And the visibility was not at all good. At one point I stopped to take a picture and when I looked up, MF was gone. I could see only about 10 feet in any direction, and it was all kelp.
After a split second of WTF??? panic, I settled down and swam a short distance in the direction he had been heading. I remembered the dive training that said to look for a minute then surface if you don't find your buddy.
Luckily, I didn't have to search long. In the moment it felt like a long time, but really, it probably was only about 20 seconds before MF came swimming back my way.
He had a worried look on his face, but it probably nothing like the look I am sure was on my face.
I definitely do not like that feeling. We stuck much closer after that as we turned back to head to the boat.
MF took a picture of me in the kelp.
This is a shot of what is basically like the root ball of some kelp.
On the way back to the boat we saw a jellyfish. There was another one farther away at the surface. MF said they looked dead since they were not really pushing through the water the way jellies move. Mostly they were just floating along with whatever current there was.
A shot of the boat as we swam back to get onboard and head to the next site.
Really, the name of the boat sums up the trip.
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