waste o time place

OK> now this is going to be from memory since I just about stopped writing every day while I was on the boat. I was just either too lazy or... too busy! haha. Luckily I have the moblog images and the occaisional tweets that may have helped a bit!

2010 july 21

as usual woke up early and had the first breakfast as we cruised over to the dive site. omg. the water seemed like it was going to be cold too but as we were headed to the Eureka Oil Platform, I decided not going in was not going to be an option.



So yeah. i did the first one. and yeah. it was cold! But I saw some neat things, even harbor seals that played in the water though most were just chilling out where they could.







I skipped the 2nd dive. Brrr! But after lunch, we headed over to Santa Catalina where the sun decided to make an appearance. Some of us got to dive around Long Point and then afterwards we were offered the option to dive again, or hit Avalon - I did the latter where we found establishments that served beverages that were made from alcohol. *hic*







mango margarita ! and some shots of tequila from melody...





then it was back to the boat.
i had dinner and then ended up going to bed.
i heard lots of the others that went ashore entertained themselves and the other divers by dancing and drinking a little bit more.
dirty divers!

there were hangovers the next day! haha

2010 july 19



Early AM rise - 06h00. Showered and then got dressed for the first breakfast and first dive briefing. Lots of sea lions on the surface got me excited to jump in regardless of the much colder temps. Off near the small beach on the island were larger seals. This time used my 1mm suit under the semi-dry. Lots of sea hares and some kelp. Star fish, urchin and a crab. Didn't run into any sea lions among the kelp though. Short dive. Got a bit cold but bearable with the suit. The double layer did end up compressing against my arms though which slowed down circulation so it was constantly in the back of my mind. Oh, and low vis. Not the best dive of the trip so far.





About to hit dive spot number two now. I think I'll take a siesta. The sun is still not shining yet. There are still sea lions popping up out of the water. It'd be great to play with them but I can't see jumping in right now.
Second dive underway. Still seem to be the same conditions only even more sea lions popping up above the surface. They seem like they are ready to play and as much as i'd like to play with them it's just too cold and i'm a bit tired. There is the option to lower the kayaks but one of the crew says it's a bit too foggy and difficult to see us if we end up going out too far so they suggested we wait until the next stop. Which is fine.
cuyler harbor. (north) to prince island. 2 dives
Ended up passing out for the 3rd and 4th dives as well. so only one dive for me today in the cold water!

2010 july 17

Woke up with the waves hitting the porthole and eventually stopped near the Coronado Islands.

At North Coronado island, we all had breakfast and then geared up for the first dives of the trip and day after the meeting. The water temp was a little warmer than expected.




My diving suit is a new one. It's a ScubaPro 6.5mm semi-dry suit with hoodie and gloves. The boots I'm wearing are Aqualung and don't actually go with the suit but they worked out fine. Steel tank full at 3400 - nitrox. Unfortunately I was weighted down with an additional 14 pounds. First dive of the day felt comfortable enough. Suit works great although there's some leaking at the wrist - the interior of the suit gets wet up to my forearms. At the legs, my ankles and lower calves get wet but the middle part and back are fine as the neck and hood create a pretty nice seal. Initially the water seemed cold but it wasn't really - or else the suit is doing its job quite well! I'd be curious to know how it'd work with the proper boots.
This first dive was pretty awesome, saw a smattering of fish, but also quite a few sea lions that decided to come out to play. One swam around me quite a bit and then at one point when I was near the bottom, one swam up under me and stopped. Then while I looked at it, it started to do some barrel rolls while keeping eye contact! Fun! It seems like if you react to play with them they stick around. If you do nothing they get bored and swim away to find someone more engaging that will play with them. :-)



Second dive was pretty much the same but saw a few other things. This time though, I was having problems equalizing with my right ear. Eventually it got sorted out. Saw some sea hares and other large slugy things. Again, then sea lions came out to play.
Both dives went well enough during, but near the end I was having problems popping up too quickly around 20-25 feet. Seems the issue might be the BC - need to try and completely dump the air out of that thing, also, i'm sinking too quickly. Need to drop some weight.
For the 3rd dive of the day, the ship cruised over to some kelp beds. I skipped this dive.
Then we headed into the USA and into Shelter Island in San Diego to go through customs. After that, back to sea!