Can anyone believe, or could anyone have predicted that I would be starting my 10th year of business? Well it is true and very interesting to me. When I talk of the past, everything has been at least 10 years ago, not just last year or the other day. Kraft shut down in 96’ and I quit often talk about working there as if it was yesterday.
Many things have changed since then. One major dive boat has been sold and rumors of at least 2 others on the table. A few other boats have left since I started with very few new boats in the industry. I recently looked at the only magazine that is here in So Cal and the biggest thing I see there is the difference of the amount of shops and clubs that are not here. There used to be about 3 full pages, and now it is down to ¾ of one page. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I guess only time will tell.
We have shut down for the year and will be starting back up on the 14th of Jan. In that time we have many, many repairs to make on the boat. As many of you know just by looking at the boats. They tend to get a little ruff by the end of the year. That is because we can only do repairs that we can fix in a week or less. So now the crew and I will be working on the things that will take a week or two to fix. Hopefully we will also have a new and improved galley. This may not help you out personally, but I hope it will keep the cooks from killing me. And remember, the happier the damned cooks are, the better they cook your food, and the less they pick on me.
As many of you know I get divers that complain because I will not always go to the intended destination. Please remember, I have never, and will never guarantee a destination. There are just too many variables. The weather being the biggest deterrent. Some divers want the right to be able to not go on the trip. I understand your point of view, but if we did that, we would either be out of business or have to charge 3 to 4 times as much as we do now, to cover the trips that do not make it. Also please remember that I have many years as Captain and many more as a diver. One very important thing that I have learned is when the conditions on the surface are bad; the diving is generally not very good. There are of course exceptions, but they are just that.
Sorry off on a tangent. The point was the last weekend that we dove, the conditions really turned bad. Not bad enough to cancel, so we attempted for Catalina. We made it both days, but it was not nice. The vis was ok but the ocean was just nasty. We had soup for both days, and Rob (the moose luvin, BMW hatin, cook) was giving a very hard time for picking soup for lunch. At one point I had one leg up, butt back, arm over, other arm holding a box giving Rob directions on a new lunch idea.
Hopefully this will not be the trend of the coming year, and that we will have a very good year. My Mother, the Crew of the Great Escape, and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, a safe time, and that you eat and drink too much…………………..

Until next time………….