As I write this we are anchored up in Seal Cove on the backside of San Clemente Island. This will be our night dive location and hopefully are starting place to go to Cortez Banks in the morning.
First stop this morning was at 9 Fathoms off of Castle Rock near North West Harbor. I was a little worried about stopping hear. The navy web site says it is open, but they tend to chase you out anyway. Well we anchored, but the current was just too strong. We then moved closer to Castle Rock and made our first dive. Vis was not the best but way the hell, it beets working. We then moved over to a place called “booster rocket reef” and the dive there was very good. We were just going to start the second dive here when the navy came over and told us we had to be 300 yards off shore. I told them that we were, and then they said we had to move to 500 yards. I asked why, as the charts and their web site says 300 yards. One of the navy personal kept one hand on his M16, as if that would make a difference. At one point the navy man asked me if was going to move and I told him yes, I just wanted to know why. Any one want to guess the answer?
Get ready it is a classic…….”I am just following orders”.
We then moved down to 5fathom reef and dove there. Is was very nice and good vis. We then moved to Seal Cove area and dove a nice new wall. Then over to “Swiss Cheese”. The divers that followed direction, which were most of them, and the DM found it. The other DM that went where he knew it was did not find it. After this dive we moved over to “Seal Cove” dove here for the evening dive and the night dive.
We left there at about 3am and headed for “Cortez Banks”. The weather report was not good but Ken along with others said they had never been to Cortez. I thought it was worth the gamble. The swells were tolerable, and around 7:30am we pulled up to the banks. The first dive was just behind the huge kelp bed, in about 80’ of water. The vis was great. They said could see the bottom of the boat from 70’ with ease. We opted for another dive here before moving to the “Meadows”. They are just as they imply. It looks like a plush meadow that goes on, for seams, forever.
Made the next dive in 60’ were the terrain looked good. The last dive was one of the spots I use for Bug Hunting. I was curious to see if non-hunters liked the area. They did so I will include it in the regular dive sights.
We had a very good steak and shrimp BBQ dinner and left around 7pm for SBI.
The trip was a little rough, but 7 and ˝ hour latter we pulled up to Santa Barbara Island. We moved over East End Kelp for the first dive. The vis was just ok, but the water had dropped off to 49’. We then moved over to “Sutle Island” and the vis was not that great again.
The last two dives were at “Webster’s Point,” AKA the second rookery. The vis was not very good, but the sea lions were out in force.
Captain Kim took us back to port, once again with out incident, and JR had a good snooze.