WHAT a GREAT TRIP!

Vegas · 06-16-2008, 07:40 PM

WOW!
If you get out to California, and want to spend a couple of days diving
the northern Channel Islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz)
the No Respect is the way to go!!
Captain Lou does an incredible job as a one-man show, Keeping all six of us divers fed, comfortable, and free to dive to our heart's content!!

A great boat, fantastic captain, and amazing dive sights gave us a fabulous trip!

the first day we did 4 dives all around Anacappa....some kelp diving, some
beautiful reefs, and critters of all varieties! We were looking to do a night
dive too, but after the wonderful meal Captain Lou cooked for us, and getting
cozy and warm on the couches...one by one we dozed off, and the time to
dive came... and went ...

The second day held three more dives - wow! More reefs, amazing critters,
and gorgeous sights to see!

I'll tell more about each dive in subsequent posts, but
some of the highlights included sightings of a GIANT sea bass or 2,
a HUGE kelp crab, several bat rays, a couple of things I'm still trying
to find the names of, and two of my favorites.....
a GIANT Pacific Electric Ray - Wow!
and the best of all ..... the Octopus!!

These weren't dives for beginners, and Captain Lou did a fantastic job of finding out our experience level, matching the dive sites to
our experience and abilities, and giving us thorough briefings on each sites
and their conditions.

Watch for more details ......

**dalehall** · 06-16-2008, 07:44 PM

Awesome.. Did anyone get any pics??

ryan · 06-16-2008, 10:08 PM

I would love to see some pics

Vegas · 06-16-2008, 10:36 PM

the good news is we did get some pictures....the bad news is we were worried about the camera so we only took it along on our first two dives....but....the Good news is we saw the octopus on our second dive!

We haven't downloaded them yet - but we think we got a few good shots of our 8 legged friend!

ryan · 06-17-2008, 07:53 PM

pics! (dale, those cooper river pics are sweet btw)

Vegas · 06-19-2008, 10:53 PM

I'm trying to post a couple of pics - not the best, but here they are:

The first is Captain Lou and Amy with Anacapa in the background

2. Kelp and a fan
3. Limpit surrounded by brittle stars
4. is our friend the Octopus - I hope you can see him! (look for his eye)
5. A bat star (I think) surrounded by brittle stars

those brittle stars cover the bottom in some places like a carpet!
It's kind of creepy - when you slow down for a minute and realize the
entire ocean floor is moving......

ryan · 06-20-2008, 05:11 PM

awesome!

Vegas · 06-20-2008, 05:22 PM

I wish we had been able to take the camera on more dives -- we did 7 dives in two days, and only had the camera for the first two....

Oh, ya!
I was going to post a more detailed dive report wasn't I?

Vegas · 06-20-2008, 05:54 PM

Our first three dives were at Anacapa...
Let's see if I can remember the names of the dive sites....

yes!
first dive was at "Landing Cove", all six divers entered the water in
a nice FLAT ocean, very mild surge, about 35' vis, water in the mid 60's.
There was lots of marine life (some in the photos) in and out of the kelp,
and Captail Lou had directed us to a beautiful swim-through, that we had no trouble finding.
I was delighted that I had thought to bring along my flashlight, when we
swam-through I shone my light to the left side and saw about a trillion
fish, perch and such, of all sizes, well camoflaged but easy to see with my
light hanging along the side waiting for us to swim by.
A beautiful dive - enjoyed by all - and a great start to a Great trip!

Dives #2 & #3 were at a site called "Fish Camp".
Two divers decided to stay on the boat and warm up for dive #2...while four of us entered the water. Vis was over 40+ feet here, and one of the first pair to enter was running out his reel to get it wound back up more neatly, so the second pair (my buddy and I ) had a nice break from having to worry too much about navigating. We stayed along his line (and really never went all that far from the boat anyway) occupying most of our time following the little octopus in the pictures around from rock to rock. We were so excited we watched him for over 10, maybe even 15 minutes, before it occurred to either of us that we hadn't even tried to take a picture!
When we started snapping photos is when it seemed like he started getting
more active (and probably scared)....finally he shot a little ink at us and swam
under a rock. We both figured if he shot his ink, we've probably scared him
much more than we would have like to, so we would let him be.

Surfacing, I couldn't help but exclaim, "THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER!!" -- the poor folks stuck with me in the car all the way from Vegas had heard me say no less than a dozen times how much I would LOVE to see an octopus! I couldn't believe our luck!

I have to say this dive really illustrated for me how much MORE you see when you take your time, rather than swim-swim-swim...our friend's line ran right over the rock we found the octopus on...and right next to
the one he had hidden under when we left him....and our friends swam right by him twice and never even knew he was there!

Vegas · 06-20-2008, 06:09 PM

Dive #3 was at "Fish Camp" again --
Air temp in the mid to upper 60's, water in the mid to lower 60's.
The sun was finally starting to peak through the clouds a little, and
it was turning into a Beautiful Day!

the Seas were still nice and Flat, no rolling around, and only a mild surge
to deal with. There was a little bit of a current coming up, but nothing
to be really concerned with as long as you paid attention and kept it in mind.

It did, however, cause us to adjust our dive plan (as we had originally thought
we would go back and see if we could find the octopus again so the others
could see him) as swimming into the current to start, took us in the opposite direction of our 8 legged friend.
So trusting that poor little critter would be happier to be left alone anyway, we headed off into the current, admired some scallops the size of dinner plates, Sea stars of every shape, size and color, a great many fish darting
in and out of some patches of kelp. Twas a nice dive, all six of us stuck
together this time, and all rode the mild current back to the boat and surfaced together.

We talked about our hopes to do a night dive once the sun set, so our Captain then took us to "Smuggler's Cove, North" by Santa Cruz, where we would be staying for the night.

This way we could do an afternoon dive to explore and get a sense of
the area in the daylight, then plan a dive for after dark.