Old dives

Cypress Sea at Monterey

Both the sea and the boat were gray. The Alacosta dive club dove on the Cypress Sea out of Monterey on Monday, May 27, Memorial Day. Everybody showed up on time, which must have been a miracle. Some of the divers attempted 3 dives. Steve Shub, the dive chair, kept warm in his new dry suit, though few other divers felt close to warm. The divers were fed and given hot drinks, which distracted some of them from the cold. Alacosta plans to dive on the Cypress Sea again soon, either New Year's Day or President's Day.

Van Damme dive is calm

A few times a decade, Northern California offers fine diving. June 22 and 23 were among those days. The sea was calm. Visibility was good, sometimes 20 feet, and the diving was wonderful.

Nine divers rode in the Latex Queen from Van Damme to the underwater shelf in front of the blue house. They dropped the anchor, and began their dive. The divers saw Metridium from about 30 feet to 90 feet. Nudibranchs were everywhere. The water was filled with small creatures, perhaps fish, perhaps shrimp, perhaps space aliens. Peter Lasell spent 15 minutes lowering himself down the anchor line, clearing his ears, and lowering himself before he could enjoy the dive. The anchor was dropped at about 40 feet, but slowly moved to 90 feet, hanging free from the Latex Queen. By the time the divers returned to the surface, the Zodiac had drifted a few feet. The boat was still within swimming distance. All divers agreed that the water felt colder than usual for this time of year.

After the tank dive, 7 of the divers returned to the ocean for abalone. The kelp was thick. There were many small $\frac{1}{4}$ inch crabs floating in the ocean. They resembled tadpoles until disturbed, when they spread briefly spread their legs. Abalone were captured, and the group returned to shore.

On Sunday, 7 of the divers returned to the location of the Saturday tank dive. The diving was wonderful again, but still cold.

Tom & Cindy's excellent adventure
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How we dove the BUIs on the Cuan Law
Tom & Cindy Casey

The Cuan Law, 105 feet of spacious, comfortable tri-hulled (45' beam), was our ``home'' for a week of superb adventures. Our group of 9 departed SFO at 7 AM, Friday, May 31st, for the Virgin Islands. Friday night was spent at the West Indies Inn on St. Thomas (USVI). We partied at the Chart House before retiring to rest up for a day of touring and/or shopping on Saturday in Charlotte Amalie for the required t-shirts and optional gold, liquor, and electronics. We set sail for Tortola (BVI) on the infamous water taxi after lunch. ``Sebastions on the Beach'' was our Saturday stay, where we got our snorkels wet before diving on good food, great grog, and a fabulous sunset. Caribbean service was typical--gratuity is automatically added to the bill, so the service sucked. Oh well, Don't worry, Be Happy, or, as the locals say--Don't work, Be Happy!!

Sunday, we boarded the Law and lunched to a fabulous spread of salads, cheeses and cold cuts. The Cuan Law is a remarkable vessel--spacious rooms, almost as ``big'' as Catalina's wooden cabins, all with private heads and showers. The food was gourmet and plentiful (special diets or dislikes were cheerfully accommodated). The bar was $40 additional for unlimited 24 hour access. English beer on tap, wines and a large assortment of liquor and liqueurs. A feast to say the least!

If you didn't dive, there was waterskiing, windsurfing, kneeboarding and lots of time to sun your buns. A video room was available to view movies or critique my daily underwater videos. Nondivers were offered a dive resort course for $50 with at least 5 to 6 dives available during the week. Good deal!! The weather was perfect. Scattered clouds, consistent trade winds and an occasional 2 minute squall. Day time temperatures of 85 degrees and nights in the 70's were very comfortable.

Oh yeah--diving! Good diving! (read: not great world class diving). Visibility was 50 to 90 feet. a generalized Caribbean plankton bloom was responsible, but it added to the marine life. Diving started Sunday after boarding with a shallow check-out dive--once being ``recertified,'' we were free to dive the ``max'' out of our computers and roam all dive sites freely or stick with a ``guide''. Predive orientations were both historically interesting and geographically detailed, which made all the dives enjoyable. The plankton brought large schools of small ``silver sides'' (bait fish). Consequently, it was common to see large tarpon, turtles, jacks, but alas no ``confirmed'' sharks. Coral, sponges, and fans were plentiful with the typical assortment of warm water reef fish, angles, butterflies, trumpets, rays, damsels, tangs, and triggerfish.

One full day was spent at Peter Island diving the famous 300+ foot RMS Rhone (aka The Goliath in the notorious wet t-shirt movie ``The Deep''). The morning dive was on the 150' bow section. The afternoon dive was on the shallower stern section and a night dive on ``The Deep'' bow section. The Rhone was a great wreck dive. The predive history and briefing made this a very special experience.

A typical day was to awake at 7 AM as the generators were fired up, set sail at 8 while breakfast was served, anchor around 9, dive at 9:30, possibly sail again to a second dive site, lunch, afternoon dive, appetizers at 5, dinner at 6:30, night dive around 8:30 or 9. Other afternoon activities included waterskiing, island exploring, snorkeling, or possibly, a second afternoon dive. If you've avoided doing a live-a-board dive vessel because of cramped quarters, bunk beds, rolling decks, ``gorilla'' diving, stinking diesels, and poor food, then avoid no further. The Cuan Law (and Lammer Law in the Galapagos) is a great experience and and ``excellent adventure''.