Got an invitation to dive off one of my instructor's boat yesterday. I haven't done much boat diving this year yet, (I haven't done any this year actually) so I figured it would give me a chance to do some fun diving and relax. So, took Sunday off and headed down to the marina to hook up with Scott, Kandi, Neil, Susan and Kelly for a fun day of diving. Josh was on the boat as "captain for the day" watching over us.
Scott has a pretty nice boat. It is 36' long and very comfortable. As we left the harbor, it was evident that it was going to be a nice day. Considering the crappy winter we had, the warm sun felt so good. By mid afternoon, I was enjoying the rays topside. He and Kandi had plenty of food for us and were awesome hosts for this great day of diving.
His setup is pretty typical of private dive boats I have been on. We gear up on deck and giant stride with a bit of a drop into the water. He had a nice ladder to climb up and we lifted our gear from the swim step, upto the main deck. While water is the true equalizer, getting out of the water proves how good of shape you are in. Unfortunately, I need to spend a few more hours a day to be able to master that part of the day.
3 great dives...Dalco Wall, Z's Reef and Sunrise. I saw 1 octopus but was skunked by wolf eels. Everyone else had fun too. It was still pretty cold in the water (45-46 degrees) but it is evident that spring is here. The top 30 feet was full of algae...a bloom ready to happen. The one thing I really noticed was the amount of scallops in the water; especially at Dalco Wall. The lack of GPOs surprised me. At Z's, Canary Rockfish seemed to be everywhere and hiding in the holes normally saved for GPOs and Wolfeel. Lingcod season is also fast approaching because they were everywhere too. Sunrise Reef never disappoints; always tons of cool stuff to see there. Because of water temps, my dives were about 45 minutes long. I just get too cold; no matter what suit I am diving to stay down longer.
Thanks to all my friends who made yesterday's dives and day off work so enjoyable.
0 comments:
Post a Comment