Afternoon in the Garden - dive 34

The Garden Spot, Anacapa, Channel Islands, Calif. (from the Spectre)
April 5, 2009
Logged dive: No. 34
Max depth: 40 feet
Bottomtime: 30 minutes

This was the last dive of the day.
The captain, and most of the people on the boat, had been hoping to get to another spot popular with the sea lions.
But it was too choppy there.

Again, no sea lion paradise for me. But that is OK. This was a nice spot, too.
We did see a couple sea lions, again though they were on their way someplace else and did not stop to play.

This was a pretty uneventful dive. More stars, urchins, sheephead and garibaldi.
And a lot of kelp.

We hung out for a while, fed some more fish and then headed back while we still had plenty of air.
Mostly we got cold. The idea of a hot shower and a cold beer was enticing.
When MF gave the thumbs up sign to head back to the surface, I was fine with that.

All in all, it was a good day. It ended better than it started.
I would go back here again, but there are new places I want to try before that happens.

So, here are the last of the pictures from the Anacapa trip.

Four more dives under the weight belt.

MF and I are hoping to do some Orange County beach diving soon. Maybe in the next few weeks.

Conditions are improving - dive 33

Cat Cove, Anacapa, Channel Islands, Calif. (from the Spectre)
April 5, 2009
Logged dive: No. 33
Max depth: 30 feet
Bottomtime: 40 minutes

By the time we got to the site, things were definitely improving.
The sun was out, the wind was down and my stomach was settled.

The water at this site was flat, like a lake, and bright clear blue.

Of course it was still cold. No amount of telling myself it would be warm worked.

But this time I did not care.

Manfriend had fixed his mask, broken on the last dive, with some wire. We were ready to dive.


We submerged and headed toward the kelp bed. The kelp was thick but not unmanageable here.


Among the usual stars, urchins, etc., we saw this limpet. They are crazy looking. I really find them fascinating.


As we found the rockier area, another diver picked up a rock. As soon as he did this, a sheephead started stalking him.

The diver looked around and found what he wanted... a sea urchin. He used the rock to break it open, instigating a feeding frenzy.



This picture is one of my favorites: two big sheephead fish going head to head for some sea urchin. It looks like they slammed heads and exploded. The debris is just the sea urchin flesh.



Those fish pick an urchin clean in seconds. The diver opened a couple more for them. The whole time we were looking out for urchins, the big ol' sheephead was there.
Below is a little video of the feeding frenzy.

We also saw some sea lions here, but they were cruising through pretty fast and not inclined to play.

We surfaced near the boat into the perfect conditions. A couple other divers are seen at the back of the boat.

Before heading back to the boat I got a picture of the manfriend. The face says it all. That was a great dive.

Swimming in the Goldfish Bowl - dive 32

Goldfish Bowl, Anacapa, Channel Islands, Calif. (from the Spectre)

April 5, 2009

Logged dive: No. 32

Max depth: 40 feet

Bottomtime: 20 minutes

We should call this the dive that almost didn't happen and probably should not have happened.

After the dive at Rat Rock left me queasy I puked a couple times, but felt like I would be OK for this dive. Conditions at the site looked better.

The area was more sheltered and the surface, while not totally flat, looked much calmer than at Rat Rock.

We got back into our gear and waited our turn to take the giant stride off the boat and into the water.

I was in before Manfriend, starting my leisurely surface swim back toward the anchor line.

MF jumped in and popped to the surface ... with his mask in his hand.

Hmmm... that mask should be on his face.

The buckle on one side had broken, leaving the strap hanging, unattached.

We quickly consulted at the surface. I was going to head back to the boat with him, but he said I should find a new buddy for this dive and he would head back and see if he could repair the mask for the next dive.

I checked with some people in the water. They were part of a beginner class, but they had finished their skills on the earlier dive and this dive was just going to be a dive.

There was another certified diver tagging along since his girlfriend was in the class. The instructor paired us up as buddies and off we went, me and Joel, my new dive buddy.

We descended into about 40 feet of water. I was trying to keep an eye on where Joel was while making sure to give him good space to explore. Visibility was probably about 15-20 feet here, but a little murky.

It seemed like only a few minutes that we had been down there when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was MF. He had a mask on, but it was not his.

Cool. We could dive. I motioned to him that I was following Joel, my buddy. He motioned back OK and then indicated that he really could not see with the mask.

See, MF has what they call an optical mask. It's not a true match to his prescription glasses, but it is a lot better than a regular mask. So unless he was within a couple feet of something, he could not see too well.

We tried to do the dive this way, but again, it was not going well.

Joel was off here and there, with no apparent regard for where I was. MF was there, but not seeing clearly. And my queasiness was sneaking back in.

The area was a little rocky, a little kelpy. There were fish such as garibaldi and sheephead here, as well as the usual starfish and urchins. Plus more sea cucumbers.
But I was too distracted to really enjoy what is probably a very nice site. I did not get too many pictures here.

I found Joel and indicated to him that MF and I were going up, but that he should stay with the class. After a couple tries at this he got it.

MF and I returned to the surface and made the swim back to the boat.

Really, not a good dive at all.

It turns out he had borrowed the mask from one of the desk hands. But that was not going to work for the next two dives.

Another deck hand took a look at the mask and offered up some wire to make a crude repair.

That seemed to work. So, set for the next dive, we headed to the galley to try to get warm and to get some lunch.

I was freezing after this dive. I just could not get warm.

I tried some food, which helped my temp and my nausea. Then we went back out on deck where the Spectre has fashioned a basic hot tub. We could not get in with our wetsuits on (and since we wanted to try the last two dives we did not want to take them off).

But we could put our hands in the warm water. This helped warm me up a lot. I also took off my dive boots and got some sun on my feet, which helped.

Once everyone was back on the boat, we were off, headed to the third dive site.

Anacapa adventure - dive 31

View from our room at the Holiday Inn Express at Ventura Harbor

Finally, about a week later, I am getting the Anacapa dives in writing. I should have done it last Monday, but I was... Well, I was doing something. I can't really remember right now.

So, here's how it goes...

We are in the process of having furloughs at work. I have to take five days off between April and June. I wasted no time. I took the first Saturday in June (normally a work day).

The plan was to find a dive boat for Sunday, then spend Saturday night wherever the boat was.

I picked the Spectre, out of Ventura Harbor. It was going to Anacapa, a new trip for me. Manfriend had been there before, but was up to it again since it had been a while.

We got everything packed and ready early Saturday afternoon and headed up the 405 to the 101. It was a clear, sunny day with a bit of wind. It looked perfect.

After getting to Ventura we went directly to the harbor to check out the boat and decide if we wanted to sleep on board. The boat was scheduled to leave at 7 Sunday morning.

It looked like the boat was not back from that day's trip, so we went to take a look at the beach area.

After that little detour, we went back to the harbor and found the boat.

This is six of the bunks in a very small space.
They were very short and narrow.

This was our bunk. Since we didn't plan on sleeping there,
we only took one. But this is considered a double. We used it
mostly for storage, though MF did rest there at the start of the trip.
Once you are wet though, there is no going below deck. After the
first dive we did not see it again until we were
headed back at the end of the trip.

We took one look at the cramped bunk spaces - the bunks were about 6'2" long and MF is 6'9" long - and decided to stow some towels and other stuff on one to reserve it for the next day, but that we would be better off getting a room at the nearby Holiday Inn Express at the harbor.

To save some time the next morning we did set our dive gear on deck.

We had dinner that night at Winchester Grill in downtown Ventura, then headed back to the harbor to a restaurant called Margarita Villa for, what else, margaritas.

Soon enough it was time to sleep... early. We wanted to be back over at the boat by no later than 6:30. It was a quick 5-minute drive from the hotel.

Sunday morning came quickly and soon enough we were back on the boat.

The ride from Ventura to Anacapa is only about an hour and 20 minutes. It was a pretty smooth ride, though a little wind had kicked up overnight.

You can barely make out Anacapa in the distance as we set out.

The captain took us around to the back side of the island first, but the current and wind were too strong there, so he headed back toward the front side, stopping at the northern end of the island at a site called Rat Rock.

Rat Rock, Anacapa, Channel Islands, Calif. (from the Spectre)

April 5, 2009

Logged dive: No. 31

Max depth: 80 feet

Bottomtime: 35 minutes

There was an advanced open water class on the boat, and one of the dives they were required to do was a deep dive. The captain said this site was about 40 feet to one side and down to about 100 feet to the other.

The surface was very choppy. We jumped in and headed to the anchor line to descend.

I was holding onto my memories of the great dives we had in November at Santa Barbara Island, but this was not to be the same.

We chose to go to the deep side for a bit, then head back to a shallower area.

The divemaster had said that while it was choppy at the surface, it should be OK once we descended. It was not. It was still fairly surgey. Plus I had a lot of problems with my mask fogging up, which made it tough to see. I kept having to tip my head down to let water in the top of the mask then tip my head back to clear the water out to defog it.

All in all, it made for a nice little case of vertigo.

I was determined to tough it out as long as I could, but the foggy mask was too much after a while. It was actually worse than the surge. If I could have at least seen clearly, I would have been OK, I think.

Anyway, other than the surge and fog, the site was rather nice. There was a rocky reef area in the shallower side of the dive area. There were urchins, big starfish and vibrant purple and orange nudibranchs.

And there were sea cucumbers everywhere. I did not get a lot of pictures here since I was having trouble seeing. Really, I am surprised I got anything clear at all.

There was little kelp in this area, mostly it was the rocky tail of the island stretching under the surface to form the reef.

After struggling a bit and being very cold, MF and I gave each other the thumbs-up sign indicating we should head back to the surface.

We surfaced not too far from the boat and waited our turn behind another group of divers to get to the swim step, all the while bobbing and bouncing with the chop of the water.

By the time we got back on the boat, was definitely queasy. Not good.

After shedding my gear at my station, I headed to the bow of the boat to get some sun and catch my breath. MF brought me some water. I was starting to feel a bit better.

But then the puke came. Yup. Nice.

But it did help. I figured I would be OK by the time we reached the next dive site.

Next post... dive 2 for this trip.

A glimpse below the surface

I had seen a mention on another Web site about a new IMAX movie at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. It is called "Under the Sea 3D."

I mentioned it to Manfriend and we watched the movie trailer.



We decided to see if there were any showings Monday since we both had the day off work. We were in luck. We got two tickets online to the 1:30 show.

(Note on the tickets - The fine print on the tickets says parking is $6. It is really $8 now. The guy at the entrance said they raised the price at the start of the year. This reminds me now that I was going to call the Science Center to let them know they need to update their Web site.)

We had some computer chaos in getting our print-at-home tickets printed, so we were running later than we hoped. By the time we go there a long line had formed. So our seats were not the best.

Next time we need to leave earlier so we can get seats in the middle. I think it will make a big difference.

But, as for the movie...

This is a 40-minute 3D film that focuses on aquatic life in the waters off Papua New Guinea, as well as Cape Catastrophe and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

You get your obligatory great white shark and sea lions and sting rays. But there are some other, more interesting creatures, too.

Some highlights:

Sea dragons
Sea snakes - the creepiest, but really beautiful. And the 3D was good here.
Juvenile catfish swimming in a wave over the ocean floor - MF loved this scene.
Frog fish - crazy-looking creatures
Potato cod - just a big prehistoric-looking fish. 3D was good here, too.
Garden eels - this scene was mesmerizing for me.

MF really liked the 3D graphics. Even down to the titles and credits, the 3D graphics were good. I think with seats more in the middle they would have been even better.

The movie was narrated by Jim Carrey. At first I was worried he would be, well, Jim Carrey. But it was a pretty subdued narration with only a couple lame, family friendly jokes in there.
The main thing I noticed about the narration was that it was slightly preachy in parts, talking about global warming.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is an important issue.

But yeah, it was a little preachy. Maybe they figure since the audience is mostly kids they can get them to start thinking about the issue early. Which is not a bad thing, I suppose.

And really, it could have been a lot preachier.

I did like that even though the movie is geared to kids (yeah, yeah... but the adults were enthralled, too) the filmmakers did a decent job of making it realistic but not too scary.

They showed the mating process of cuttlefish. Not anything too graphic or nasty.
And they also showed things eating other things. Again, not too graphic, but part of the cycle of life.

Of course, when they showed the great white shark and then the cute sea lion puppies and said "The sea lion needs to be ever-vigilant about the great white" I was thinking "Noooooo... they can't show a baby sea lion being eaten."

And they did not. Which is good. Because a lot of little kids would have been traumatized. Not to mention the nightmares I would have had.


As for the theater experience... Well, I would have preferred fewer kids. Maybe going on a school holiday in the first weekend the movie was open was a mistake on my part.

The place was crawling with kids. And the showing was sold-out. So we were cheek by jowl in that theater.

Kids were standing in seats trying to reach out and grab 3D fish as they swam by; they were yelling out "Shark!!!" when one appeared onscreen; they constantly asked questions.

I was hoping for a more peaceful experience. I think a child-free showing would be extremely popular.

All in all though, it was worth the price of admission, the drive to downtown and the masses and masses of kids.

And I think I want to go again. Maybe in a month or so. And get good seats. Maybe an evening show. Maybe after the kids have all gone to bed.

If you want to know more about the film, including some cool behind-the-scenes footage, check out the movie's Web site.


And a couple newspaper reviews with differing opinions:

New York Times review - mostly positive

San Francisco Chronicle review - more harsh

Getting paid to dive

Way back in November manfriend and I went on a boat diving trip to one of the Channel Islands.
We both took a lot of pictures and I wrote a lot of words.

And this weekend it was the cover story in the Orange County Register's Travel section.

You can read the story by clicking here. There are 30 photos in the slide show there, all of which were posted here first back in November.

The layout appears below.



Yay! It was a lot of fun to write about these dives. I guess it is fun to write about something that is so enjoyable.

Next up: I may try my hand at writing a food article.

28, 29, 30 - addendum

I was trying to post these last two videos in the previous entry.

It was taking too long. Maybe I had too many other photos and videos in there already.




This is a little video above is of the crazy yellow-fin snappers at Coki Beach during our last beach dive.

They were literally on our fins and in our faces.

This is what happens when people feed the fish.

Really, it's amusing.




I took a moment toward the end of our beach dive at Coki to look up and check out how the light was filtering through the water.

When I did, I saw this guy swimming at the surface.

It did not take him long to swim deeper, coming within about 1o feet of me. Then he meandered leisurely on his way.

OK. That is all for the addendum.

28, 29, 30

OK. Wrapping it up, boss.

These are photos, videos and details from the last three dives of the St. Thomas trip.

We did our two boat dives, then, wanting to see the Coki Beach area by day after the night dive the previous evening, we talked Peter into giving us a couple full tanks to do a quick spin around Coki.

Before the dive we hung out with one of the beach cats.



Then off to the first site.


Grassy Cay, St. Thomas, USVI
Nov. 14, 2008
Logged dive: No. 28
Max depth: 65 feet
Bottomtime: 52 minutes

Below is a video snippet of manfriend's macho back roll.




And then the second site.


Lovongo Cay, St. Thomas, USVI
Nov. 14, 2008
Logged dive: No. 29
Max depth: 55 feet
Bottomtime: 50 minutes

And finally Coki to finish off the trip.


Coki Beach, St. Thomas, USVI
Nov. 14, 2008
Logged dive: No. 30
Max depth: 45 feet
Bottomtime: 35 minutes

From here on out I get lazy. You just get a photo blog. Captions, if I write them will be under the photos. And there are a couple little videos in there.

So really, you should keep reading.

We actually saw these dolphins later into the second dive. But I wanted to post them toward the top here to make sure people stuck around long enough to see them. Manfriend took the photo. I was too in awe to collect myself enough to use the camera. Plus these babies were cruising by pretty fast.
They were also far away, but he got a decent shot.

MF, who is fascinated by anemones, took the two photos above.

This is MF's picture of an eel that I spotted tucked into a crevice.

I like this shot of coral, also by MF. Something about the grayness of it is so nice.

From here down are my shots. They will not all have captions.

This is a detail of a sea fan. I like the lacy look of them.

On the beach dive from Coki, we were followed, quite closely, by a large group of yellow-fin snappers. Turns out they get fed by the snuba people and the snorklers and some divers. So they did not just really, really like us. They were moochers.

What IS it? So fascinating.

This video is of a tube worm swaying with the current. They look like plants or flowers until you get too close and they WHOOSH! pull themselves back into their tubes.

That is the tube some sort of tube worm retracts back into.

My eel picture.

Yes, another.

Stop light parrot fish. Love these guys.

Again, what the heck IS it?

My two brains. I liked the contrasting colors of these brain corals. A meeting of the minds.

Here is the turtle from the Coki dive. I looked up, just to see what the light looked like, and saw him swimming over head. As I shot the video, he swam deeper, coming down just to the side of me. This is some really nice footage.

This guy runs a daquiri stand at Coki Beach. He was quite friendly and made a mean daquiri. He said this concoction, the Island Girl, was the specialty. It had strawberries, pineapple, mango, banana and rum. Maybe some other stuff. But once I heard rum I really stopped listening and just said "Yes, please!"

And yeah, it was awesome. This was my end-of-diving treat.

Now, even though I have been home for more than a week, it is just about time to bring this blog back to reality.

One more post, probably tomorrow, of some here-and-there shots around the island.