Saturday, 12/08/01, Open Boat.
Off to Catalina, nice crossing, nothing extra. First stop was "Black Rock". Vis was good, some very smart bugs were spotted, none were taken, and then the stories. Big bugs, really big bugs. Oh, the stories that come from divers lips. Second dive we stopped at "Parsons Landing". A couple of divers went to the wreck, but most the kelp behind us. Some nice Calico Bass were seen, along with a couple of nice Bat Rays. Vis was about 30'. Last dive was at "Bird Rock". Great diving, with great vis.
Sunday, 12/09/01, Reef Seekers trip to SBI.
These are the trips that I wish I could have stayed home for and read about someone else doing it. We left the dock at 02:00, normal time. For the first 3 hours it was like a lake. Flat calm. I got up at 05:00, made my coffee, checked the manifest, inspected the deck, and went to the wheel house. As I climbed the ladder I noticed instantly, that it was very cold. I went into the wheel house and Dave yelled shut the door. Boy is it cold. Could you buy a new heater? At this time the swells started to pick up. I asked Dave how long they had been this way and he said it just started. Dave went to bed and I continued to SBI. As I got closer both ends of the island were bad. I stopped at Ken's Cave to try and make the first dive. I did not like the look of the wind. We sent John, the DM in to check out the water. He came back, and said only 15' vis. Bad. The wind was getting worse so Ken and I decided to go to Catalina.
2 ½ hours later we arrived at Catalina. We anchored at Eagle Reef, made a dive and all hell broke loose. While we waited for Ken to get back on the boat, things had gotten worse quickly. After Ken got on board we lifted anchor and headed for home. This was a trip for the books. While we made it home, no one was hurt and no damage to the boat, except for my nerves, we had an interesting time. Waves were extra big, close and nasty. Not a trip that I would like to do very often. If I never have the opportunity to run a trip like this again, it would not hurt my feelings.

Captain Tim