Dive Report - Dec 17, 2005
Brian, Phil, Elaine and I headed out for a day of local wreck & reef diving. The morning sky started off cold and grey but it looked promising for some sunshine later on. The first dive was on the wreck of the Jenny Lynne. Our plan was to spend about 20 mins at 140 fsw and do our deco on 50%. Of the handful of times that I've been on the wreck, this was by far the best conditions. Vis was a good 30 ft or so and the top 60 ft was really clear lending lots of sunlight to the normally very dark and spooky wreck. Someone's been working on her because I found a big crescent wrench with a suicide clip on it laying on the deck in front of the bridge. I've included a photo of the Jenny Lynne before she sank. This photo was graciously provided by Steve Lawson, a good friend of mine and a long time member of the California Wreck Divers.
The next dive was on Buchannon Reef near Old Marineland. Conditions were
stunning. We could pretty much see the bottom in 40fsw as soon as we
rolled off the boat. Lots of cool critters were out
including an octopus, a big cabezon, a swell shark egg, and a pipe fish. We found the pipe
fish hanging out under the sterndrive. We convinced him to shadow us as we took
him back to the bottom. It was pretty funny when I was trying to take a
picture of him and he got a few inches off my stomach. I can't even see my
stomach underwater so I had to guess where he was. My only clue was Phil
pointing and laughing through his reg.
Once we got out of the water at Buchannon, the goal was to head over to the FS Loop and hope that the amazing conditions would continue all the way around the peninsula. As I was taking off my drysuit, I managed to pull one of my wrist seals completely off! I guess I didn't do too well with the glue job on my recent seal replacement. Back to the drawing board... I was really bummed to miss the 3rd dive. Phil and Elaine reported beautiful conditions with 40+ vis. It's so rare that we have good vis on the "inside wrecks" that it makes missing the dive particularly painful.
The excitement for the day was not over. Elaine slipped while dragging her gear cart up the ramp at the marina. The heavy anti-skid coating cut right through her jeans, her tights, and about 1/8th inch into her knee! She was a trooper and didn't scream, yell, curse, cry or anything. I would have probably come up with a creative combination of all of the above. We got her back on the boat and decided to play around with the first aid kit. I cleaned the wound the best I could with the materials on hand and put a nice bandage on it so it wouldn't bleed too much on the way home.
Elaine generously restocked the first aid kit with the stuff we used on her knee and added a bunch of high-end medical supplies to our kit. Between the O2 that Jon Davies has loaned the Orion and the first aid that Elaine & Claudette have contributed, we're as well equipped for an emergency as most big boats. We also have redundant radio systems, redundant bilge systems, and nearly all of our crew either work in the medical field or are chamber volunteers. I'm lucky to have such wonderful and generous friends to go out and have a good time with every weekend. Life is good!
Wrecks & Reefs with Elaine - Dec 17, 2005 - Elaine Version