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Susan Carter, the dive chair, lost her snorkel and flashlight in a battle with the kelp. John Purnell and Susan only hinted at further problems with their team experienced with compasses.
Michael and Sheila Ford, who may be new Alacosta members, were nice enough to post above water pictures of the dive on their web site.
If you weren't one of the lucky few that made the trip to Catalina this year, you missed world class diving, some fun times and just a few challenges. The challenges all seemed to relate to boats: we had more than the usual problems putting the Latex Queen together, and more than the usual number of mechanical problems from the engines (or are they called motors?)...The engine troubles led to the trip motto, ``Doing Well Under Pressure'', now immortalized on an exclusive trip shirt, thanks to Steve Smith's willingness to take the one boat that didn't hex us (The Achilles, running with the Long Shaft) all the way into Avalon on a T-shirt buying spree. The bad boat karma continued right up until the last day of the trip, when the Miss Christie showed up four hours late to take us back to Marina Del Rey, leading to never-confirmed rumors of a mutiny ...
Still, everything else about the trip was unforgettable enough to erase any bad memories of the inconvenience of a midnight drive back up Highway Five...Starting with the diving! Veterans of the trip agreed that the conditions might have been some of the finest overall encountered by Alacostans at Catalina: the water was flat enough to water ski (Emerald Bay Ranger Brian Pierce was in fact spotted doing just that!), there was only one dive with any current at all, the vis was outstanding, and best of all, the water was as toasty warm as during the El Niño years, but without any visible impact (yet at least) on the health of the kelp! There were some memorable critter sightings, including a fleet of bat rays at Arrow Point, enough lobster to feed an army had they been in season, a beautiful solitary leopard shark, and a huge halibut right in Emerald Bay that somehow turned into a tiny sand dab when Brian Tubb finally went searching for it with a speargun...
Water temperatures were between 68 to 71 degrees at the surface, and only dropped to mid-sixties below the first thermocline. Temperatures might have reached into the low sixties at the second thermocline at about 100 feet, but given permissible times at such a depths divers were able to forgo hoods and gloves and various parts of their wetsuits on most if not all of the dives, and many regretted not bringing along their Hawaiian three mils...
Indeed, it must have been the warm water temperatures and balmy air that contributed to a new Alacosta record of not just one but two night dives during the week. Now, if only Michael Daily and Janet Myers could just remember that back up lights are a good idea when leading a dive after dark...
There were a few other embarrassing moments even during day light hours as well. Notable nominees for the ``Hey, you will read that in the Blurb'' Award include trip co-chair Rocky Rockafellow, who learned the hard way that dropping the buddy's weight belt when one is reentering the Zodiac will qualify one for legendary Blurb status, especially when one promises one's wife and dive buddy that, ``I've got it, I've got it!''. And of course, Rocky's dive buddy/wife, Marcia Marcellini, learned that believing one's spouse when he says that he has his hand firmly around the weight belt is a bad idea, especially when one can see something heavy and black sinking into the depths...Nonetheless, all's well that ends well, since Simon Kisch was just itching all week to practice his skills with the lift bag, and finally got his chance to successfully play ``Search and Recovery Diver''.
Unfortunately, however, it gives yours truly, Susan Carter, a certain amount of pain to admit that even Rocky's weight belt fiasco wasn't enough to erase her legendary status as the Queen of Lost Lead: Somehow (don't ask, I don't know and anyways I'm not telling) she managed to get herself hopelessly entangled in an inverted position in the anchor chain at depth...and while images of a Mafioso type of death played through her head during the not-so-brief time it took her dive partner John Purnell to finally clear his ears and come down to untie her, she also got to watch her extra pocket weights fall out and drop out of sight...Susan also won the Hopeless Optimist/Space Cadet award for thinking she could drive the Achilles all the way back from Two Harbors to Emerald Bay without attaching the gas can to the engine...
In addition to various adventures and misadventures while diving there were one or two bittersweet moments as well: notably Charlie Cleland's retirement dive. Charlie decided that his wetsuit was too heavy to ask Roy Benedict to continue help get him back into the boat after diving, and claims that he is hanging it up. We are hoping he will reconsider at least for tropical dives on expensive live-aboards where the staff do all the work getting divers in and out of the water, but Charlie claims such decadence never was his style anyway...So, while we will miss him in the water, we are sure Catalina hasn't seen the last of him yet: someone has to be there to tell bad jokes during happy hour and to get those engines running again!
Alacostans also had lots of fun in off-gassing hours... Mike Daily went all out in providing smoked abalone and ab paté happy hours. John Purnell brought along his latest toy, an eight inch telescope, and those willing to get up at five in the morning were treated to memorable views of the rings of Saturn and moons of Jupiter, as well as a glimpse of the Andromeda galaxy. Perhaps best of all, we were happy to learn that Brian Tubb is quite an accomplished musician, and plays requests on his guitar! Everyone agreed that Brian's two impromptu concert/sing-alongs were highlights of the trip, especially his rendition of ``Santa Catalina''...
``Twenty-Six miles across the sea'': Don't miss it next year, as the good times (if not actual romance) are a-waiting for you there!
p.s. For those of you who did make the trip: As we go to press, we are still waiting to hear back as to whether we will receive a discount on the Ms.Christie for the problems we encountered. Expect a full trip accounting from your co-chairs after that remaining question is worked out.
We saw a large amount of hydrocoral and jellies during the two dives. The return boat ride was quite rough.
NEWS FLASH -- Rick has found abs! Lots! Eating was real good...location is secret, but will give Alacostans a hint, it's somewhere up the coast north of Salt Point and the club's ace ab hunter reports good takes in shallow water, mostly female (but then Rick's always been a lady charmer anyway!), ab hunt was Sept. 17 and deliciously successful...
John Beland and Tom Whitakker attempted a canoe dive somewhere in Monterey. They were unwilling to provide specific details.
John Beland and Bill McDowell recently dove Pt. Lobos midweek.
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