Truk Trek, Part 2

A continuation of my dive journal, see also: Truk Trek, Part 1

Nov 15th Day 3
Dive 8
Hoki Maru. Gene and Judy, Paul and myself boogie into the water and down to the aft hold where there is a bulldozer, paver, trucks and other equipment. I missed the hold at first and drop over the side, but realize that at 128' I'm alongside the rudder. Oops. Back up and into the small littered hold, squeezing through the girders and drop down to the between decks where the equipment is. We manage to get our shots just before the thundering herd of fellow divers descends on us. Out and back aft I follow Gene into the steering station where the remains of the rudder gears and lines are. After that we break up and cruise around the wreck, not seeing anything too remarkable. Viz is much better here, maybe 80-100'. Finished the dive up the mast where the color is wonderful, I try to frame some divers in the structure to not much avail.

Dive 9
Fujikama Maru. This is a "money wreck" (what I call a dive site that you spend the money on a trip to see), lots to see and at a decent depth so there's lots of time. Sam, olur guide, leads Paul and myself on a tour of the engine room and machine shop. The wreck is more open then I remembered from last time, but still some tight squeezes, especially with the camera. We luck out and are the first to get to the machine shop and I get some good shots of the air compressor, nicknamed R2D2 that's pretty famous. After that I shoot the lathe and then back out to the engine room as the herd descends and spoils the viz.

We continue out into the superstructure and I frame some shots in the openings, definitely deteriorated since 4 years ago, with more marine growth as a result as the light hits it more. We duck out a window and then decide to go to the hold with the zero airplane fuselages. Dropping back into it there's lots to look at and I'm able to get some nice shots with he dome lens, still having some weird light flare issues, even pulling the strobe back and out.

Back out and I've used up my camera card, but linger a bit on the king posts, where there's very nice growth. I go into a couple mins deco, but clear by the time I get to 20'.

Dive 10
Paul and I head for the bow as I thought this wreck had some nice anchor lines going out that were covered with soft coral. This wasn't the case, but there was an interesting anchor still on the starboard side and as I shot it I spied a couple of grey reef sharks out in the gloom, as well as the school of snapper and jacks that the sharks were interested in. They circled around a bit, but never really came close, especially after a guide tried swimming out after them....no comment.

We poked around on both sides of the bow, it wasn't that interesting, but coming up to the top of the bow, the deck gun was pretty large and I took a few shots, waiting quite a while for others to leave the area...

Took a few deckscapes and then dropped over the side again after I saw a small school of tuna down near the bottom. Thought I might be able to drop down on them quietly, bu they were aware of me and lazily swam off. Likewise a few snapper wearily kept their distance.

I swam around the bottom at around 90' and thought I might wake up a large fish or something, but nobody was home. Came back up and swam around the deck, finishing the dive trying my luck shooting macro of some pink anemone fish, with about the same results as the rest of the dive...mediocre.

Came up, downloaded the pics to find that on the previous dive I had marred the dome lens enough that it was causing the camera to loose focus or for the marrs to show up on the shots...ARRRGH.

Dive 11
Evening night dive. Paul and I splash about 6 pm again and make for the aft of the Fujikawa, as we haven't toured it yet. Paul drops into the last hold and I follow after making sure it is pretty open and easy to find my way out of. It seems to be filled with saki bottles and other assorted cooking gear as well and what looks like a canoe or something.

We come out and find a few artifacts on deck and then I drop over the stern to see if anything is lurking there to shoot. Nothing but some nice small coral displays. We look around for a while, then at 1650 pounds of remaining gas, start to head back up towards the aft king posts as was our plan after hearing that the corals were nice there.

They are indeed, it's much more pristine, as most divers don't use it for a safety stop and haven't kicked it all to hell, as is the forward king post. I shoot some soft corals and small bright yellow tubestra tube coral. We motor back up to the forward king posts and find we each have a fair amount of deco obligation to clear. I wish they'd have set down a half rack of beer instead of an extra air tank there...

I think the Fujikawa Maru is in danger of being over-loved and dove. There is a lot there and everyone enjoys poking around in the moderate depths, but it's looking pretty beat up to my eyes. Broken coral, scraped areas and trashed holds seem to be the norm. Even then, it's still a great dive.

Nov 16, Day 4
Dive 12
Unikai Maru. The morning dive is on a freighter that has heavy bomb damage forward, actually splitting the ship in two. It's at moderate depths, so we start towards the stern, duck in a shoot up towards a missing skylight. I swim around the stern shooting heavily encrusted depth charges on the rails and some gangways and so forth. I then see some nudibranchs, and as it is the first I've seen and had time to shoot, I switch to macro mode and blaze away, lying on the deck at 100'.

Swimming alongside the cabin I see a small school of jacks going after some small fry excitedly. Continuing along towards where the bow was, I see another nudibranch in some green growth, and then a neat flat worm out in the open. It pays to look small sometimes, and most of the trip has been w/a.

I also shoot some artistically arranged gas masks and then play around shooting some sun balls behind the masts, but am unable to get Paul in the position that I want.

Sort of a "more of the same" dive, but a nice little wreck.

Dive 13
Pizion Reef Shark Feeding dive. We've been warned that we might not be able to do this, but skipper Nick is pleased to tell us at the morning brief that the weather is quite good and the trades are finally filling in to hold us off the reef while we dive. We motor about 1.5 hrs out of the lagoon and swing south to the low lying reef where they have put in a mooring. After chumming up the sharks a bit and briefing us on what to expect, we all get into the water and sit in a natural amphitheater around a tethered wire and when the fill a lift bag it brings down a large chunk of frozen tuna.

We are surrounded by lots of 5-6' grey reef sharks, a few smaller black tips and a large school of snapper as well. They go after it a bit at first, then in a huge ball of fish excitedly trying to tear chunks out of it. It's frozen very hard and each of the two chunks takes 15 mins to be fought over and disappear.

When the first chunk is being fought over they are able to pull the line over a bit practically in my lap. I gamely keep taking pictures, finally switching to a w/a lens. After my strobe arms are hit repeatedly and I have to punch several away from me, I decide to move over a bit, which is hard to do on the rocks. I also find that guide Charlie is riding herd on me, keeping them from hitting me in the head from the rear. I actually am fairly non-plussed, as after feeding the fish in the Seattle Aquarium it's not unlike the big king salmon bashing me around. Ok, these fish have teeth, but they are only after the food, and really don't concern me much.

Towards the end of the feeding a few much larger silver tips come in, including about a 11-12' female that the guides think is pregnant. She's the queen of the reef and takes no guff from the reef sharks. They are very elegant animals and even after the feeding is done I go down the wall a bit to 90' and watch them all swim back and forth. There was a huge temperature thermocline there, with the water 10-15 degrees cooler, and I think the larger animals like it.

I meander up to the shallows and pick up Paul and we poke around seeing some little reef fish that are all to shy to shoot. Four years ago this area was a very pretty shallow dive with lots more fish and hard corals, but apparently a couple of typhoons have hit it hard and it's pretty dead, with only a few small bits of coral alive amongst mostly dead rock.

We finish the dive sitting on the hang bar at 12' with the boat stern in 200' of water watching sharks go past in the crystal blue warm water.

Dive 14
Shankisan Maru. Coming back into the lagoon we anchor over the blown apart stern of this ammunition freighter. Swimming over the melted remains of the stern we find the middle section of the ship and continue to the holds. Once again I find that the ship's cargo has been scattered around or taken. Before there were huge mounds of bullets in the aft hold, with lots of untouched cases stacked around. Now they are a fine layer along the bottom, with just a few cases left along with some detonators. While they've enforced taking anything from the wrecks, they haven't enforced a no-touch rule and I think it's a shame to see such deterioration in the impact of the cargo to see.

We continue along checking out some airplane engines and so forth and then swim up to the bow for a look to see if there's any interesting growth off the bow. Turning back, I swim up amidships and find a cleaning station with a couple of jacks or small tuna being cleaned by small colorful wrasses. As the wrasses pick off parasites, the jacks shiver with delight, quite amusing to watch.

I loose Paul about that time and later find he ascended up the mast and then back to the boat. I continue on down the starboard rail, or what's left of it, and am rewarded with some large schools of black turbans and even quite a large, bump-headed parrotfish. I finish the dive shooting some nice soft coral and in the dusky light swim back trying to find the anchor line in blue water and after discerning the Odyssey, I see the anchor line which makes it easy to ascend and do deco. To cap the dive, I swim past a large barracuda hovering under the boat in near dark, as I make my way to the hang bar. I'm a bit worried about Paul, but they spot his bubbles just behind me and he's on deck a couple of mins later.


Continued on Truk Trek, part 3
Photos: Truk Trek - Part 2 photo set

Truk Trek - Truk Lagoon Dive Trip - Part 1

This was my second trip in four years on the Truk Odyssey. Over the course of the week we would do 20 dives. For a very detailed look at the history and diving there look at my first Truk Trip Report

Travel days Fri-Sunday morning.
Uneventful, but long. We flew down to LA and stayed at my cousins, then out again the next morning early. On to Honolulu, lunch on a 3 hr layover and on to Guam, another 5.5 hrs. Walked quickly to the next flight and arrived in Chuuk around 9:30 pm. Got through customs and had to wait until the last bag (mine) got taken from the plane. We were on board by 10:30.

Truk Odyssey Boat
There have been some fairly major changes in personnel on the Odyssey. Besides the crew Captains Lenny and Cara weren't on board. They are off building a new house in Colorado. Lenny will be back in March, but Cara has moved on to dry land it seems. The boat felt a little strange without their strong presence, but they had left it in the capable hands of young Capt Nick and crew. Overall, there was no difference in the diving or overall experience on board. The boat is aging and needs some new furnishings, I think the same bedspreads (and it felt that the same mattresses) were there four years ago. Still it's a huge, comfortable boat and one of the few liveaboards that you can dive from directly, without having to load into a dive skiff or inflatable. Great food and knowledgeable, good natured guides complete the picture.

Chuuk
The island state remains very poor and run down. Probably worse than a few years ago. The airport is still being worked on four years later. At least the waiting room has a/c and they have a back-up generator now. The people just don't seem to have much initiative and are upset that the western powers aren't giving them much of a handout now that they are independent. We learn that incest is fairly common-place. On the whole it has never recovered from the loss of pre-war prosperity they enjoyed while a large Japanese military base.

Nov 13 - Day 1
Dive 1 & 2. After a fitful 4-5 hrs sleep we were up, had breakfast, a dive brief and dove the Heian Maru. It's a very large cruise ship turned sub tender. I dove with guide Andy and we made it down to the huge screws, took a couple of shots and the camera battery died. Toured the periscopes and made the best out of a frustrating situation. Similar problems on the second dive this time with the strobes. It seems that all the batteries I charged in Seattle had gone flat. The Heian is large and has some interesting torpedoes to see, etc. but not much growth. Viz is poor, maybe 40' at most

Dive 3. We move onto the Yamaguri Maru and I finally get all the devices working and take some nice w/a with the dome lens, even in bad viz. The viz is worse so far this week than the last time, 30-50 feet at best. Paul and I ditch the guide and do a 70 min dive with brief deco. Some very nice soft coral and growth.

Nov 14 - Day 2
Dive 4. We move to the Fumitzuki, a destroyer and the only real warship to dive here that's in recreational depths. Paul and I split forward as the group goes aft, which works well and we avoid the herd. Coming back a giant stingray flaps past and I blow off some bottom time waiting for him to settle in and take a couple of shots. Having a hard time figuring out lighting with the dome lens, either too tight or not enough on the subject. By in large the photos go ok, conditions aren't best for the dome though.

We tour aft passing the group and take some interesting angles amid the wreckage. I turn and go up with 5 mins of deco, Paul stays a bit longer and amasses 20 mins. Killeen runs almost out of air and the guide shares air with her as he brings her back to the extra tank on the hang bar. I stop her buddy from going up too fast. These divers don't dive that often and the depths are stressing their experience. Everyone is ok, and a lesson is learned.

Dive 5
Shinkoko Maru. Paul and I wait and let the group go ahead of us, then drop down and tour the shallower bow area and main cabin areas a bit. Very nice growth on this wreck and interesting angles. Lots of beautiful soft coral and large gorgonians. I mostly continue to shoot w/a with the dome lens. Again the viz is quite disappointing, as it was very nice here the last trip. I experience a weird problem with the left 240z strobe either not firing, or not firing at full power. I finally recycle the power and it seems to work ok. Later I find that the full power setting is only giving out a very weak flash. A very large school of batfish entertains us eating jellyfish to our delight.

Dive 6
Decide to go smaller with the normal lens and we make it to the stern area. I shoot some great lionfish shots, maybe the best of the trip so far. They are around here, but not as prevalent as the Red Sea or Sulawesi where they are considered pests. Found the stern telegraph and take some shots of it, see a large puffer but couldn't get it to stand still. Checked out the king posts covered in beautiful corals. Many more soft coral colors here than Indonesia.

Dive 7
Night dive at 6 pm. Paul and I avoid the group again and drop on the wreck. I had remembered the night dives as the best thing here, and am not disappointed with all the coral open and covered in bright hues. I lose track of Paul and get turned around and never quite make it to the king posts. I found out later he had his lights fail. I putz around mostly just looking at all the colors and after thinking I'd shoot macro, and wishing I'd brought the w/a dome for the colors. Got attacked by a school of friendly batfish on the way up in the dark.

Continued to: Part 2

Photos: Truk Trek, part 1

Reveling in the Revelligegedos

Manta Ray at San Benedicto

I went to the Revillagigedo Islands (only gringos call them the Soccoros) in Mexico in November, leaving from Cabo San Lucas and going 250+ miles out to sea. I went on the Solmar V an aging, but luxurious, liveaboard dive boat, around 112’ long. Club members have re-christened me Juan El Rocha de la Mar.

The 4 islands (we went to 3) are very remote and are called Mexico's Galapagos. They are volcanic and one volcano last erupted in 1952 on San Benedicto. One is nothing more than a rock way out to sea, but the diving there is great!

The Solmar V was very nice, but had very small cabins, 2 people couldn't stand up at the same time. But we only slept in them. Pretty noisy with the engines or generator running. Beautiful woodwork and most amenities, wide screen TV and DVD, bar, etc.

But 5 star meals (totally gourmet, steaks, fresh mahi-mahi, etc) and great crew, fantastic diving in very remote locations. One divemaster I knew from La Paz; mi amigo Nelson.

We did 4 dives a day (no nitrox either) in rough seas out of an inflatable. Long 27 hour run back to Cabo.

By in large we had very good conditions, fairly calm, only the last two days back at San Benedicto Isd was windy and rough (3-5' seas). Couldn't get back to El Boiler. Warm days and 80F water. We went out to Rocha Partida, an additional 73 miles from there for 3 dives on one day, traveling at night.

Saw several schools of hammerhead sharks, but always at a distance, some silkys, lots of white tips, etc. But they tended to be shy, except when we were snorkeling, which was disconcerting (whales left, sharks moved in), amazing how fast you can get back in a panga! Lots of small and larger fish like jacks and tuna, reef fishes, lobsters everywhere. Few invertebrates. We sang the whale shark song, but didn't see any. Snorkeled with a large pod of false killer whales and took video with the F810. See: False Killer Whales Video (requires Quicktime 7).

Highlight of the trip was diving with a 20' manta ray and a large pod of dolphins vying for our attention at the same time. One dolphin swooped the manta out of frustration!

My trip photos are at: Revillagigedo Islands trip photos

Dances with Wolf Eels


Members of the dive club met on Sunday, Oct23rd at Day Island wall near the Tacoma Narrows, a high current dive site. This is a tricky neighborhood situation so we try to car pool and be discreet.

Divers were getting out as we were getting in. I lead my dive buddy Paul Riggs who hadn't dove the site before. We kicked out and I knew we were late, as we drifted north with the ebb. I hate it when your not 2 mins into a dive and you know there's problems. It was supposed to be a low exchange afternoon, so there was hope.

We submerged and swam hard out cross-wise to the current in search of the wall. We went over a couple of ledges at 65' and I though the wall would drop off soon, but we had missed it to the north a bit and had to circle back from 90', kicking hard. When we did find the wall we'd used up a third of our air. Continuing south, the current let up and we could relax a bit.

The attraction here in the murky depths are wolf eels. Lots of wolf eels, we lost count at 10. They have condos in the hard sandstone/mud walls along the lip. I had brought a bag of old chicken to see if they liked it. The answer was YES!

Poking my HID light into a hole I got an immediate response. He went after my light! Then flew up and was in my face. He was about 6' long or so. I dug out my food from my pocket and had to pet him gently out of the way so I could open it. Like an over-eager puppy; down boy!

Held out bits to him, which he found and gulped down and then went nuts again. He was twirled around me trying to get at the bag, chicken flying in the current. Paul was slightly below me, enjoying the show. Then the wolfie went after Paul's hand. They have teeth, but his were not pronounced. Paul didn't know what to do and I was laughing so hard I flooded my mask.

We continued the dive finally, and tried a few other eels to little success, they seemed shy. Also saw a couple of medium-sized GPO and lots of Red Irish Lords who loved the treats.

We swam for quite a while along the wall and I realized we'd gone past one geographic turn around spot, so we went up over the lip and partially rode the current back until it backeddied and we had to kick like hell again.
Ended up just about right, other divers had a hard kick back in.

But feeding that big friendly fella was a memory that will stay with me for a while.

Getting Crazy at Keystone

Old Keystone Pier
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

I lead the first of what I hope will be ongoing club photo dives at Keystone Ferry Jetty on Whidbey Island today.

We had 16 or so divers show up and probably 10 cameras or so! I had suspected that there were a lot of people that had cameras, but weren't using them. Keystone is a great photo site with lots of current and life.

Unfortunately when we got there there was another huge class already there from Silent World, like 15 cars full. OMG! And the calm, partially sunny, day that was promised didn't materialize. It was cold, cloudy and very windy, kicking up a 2' foot or so chop. This is a fairly steep round rock beach, so the chop can be a little treacherous.

Several of us decided to dive the old pier that is just to the south of the jetty and avoid the students. Others went on the jetty and said the most prevalent marine life they saw was other divers. But most all of us had a good dive.

A late arriving group decided to do a drift dive from the pier to the jetty. This is quite doable, but you must stay shallow like 30', or you will get shot right past the jetty and into the state ferry lane, not a good idea. Very unfortunately they did exactly that - went to 55' around the jetty, had the ferry go right over them in 40' of water, then swim back around the end. I climbed out on the rocks to assist one diver who decided to climb out. One of the divers was very upset, scared, and it took a while to talk to her and make her feel better. So I only did one dive.

But the dive was excellent, except for the surge and strong current in 13-22' of water! Very clear viz, had me trying some close focus/wide angle shots, a first for me with the Ike/Fuji F810 system, as we don't get these conditions often. While the subject matter could be more spectacular, I was quite pleased with the shots technically and the stock lens on the F810.

My thanks to all who came and particularly Jim McGauhey who brought his rolling RV party wagon and saved us from the cold winds! It was also nice to meet several new divers in the club and dive with them. And a personal thanks to big Carl Harrington, my dive buddy and fin man extrodinare!

Sucia Part Two

Lawson Bluff
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

We returned to Sucia Island again the weekend of Sept 10-11th. (see first trip: Scallops and Tigers and Nudis - Oh My! Sucia is one of the northernmost San Juan islands. This time we came in force and loaded for "bear", or nudibranchs anyway. We were apprehensive about the weather, as it poured rain on the drive north, but cleared by Mt. Vernon and was beautiful, except for just a little rain at night.

Fellow Marker Buoy Club member Greg Wilson has a fantastic, bright red 16' Zodiac with a 25HP motor, just made for diving. He, Chip Petit and I loaded it with 9 tanks and all our dive gear, then towed it behind my 28' sailboat Maggie May. It was dubbed the Dive Barge and probably weighed over 1200 pounds loaded. The cool thing was that even loaded, it still towed well enough to sail and we had a good time going and coming! Greg and I feel like we've worked out a great solution for diving; I have the comfortable "bunk house" and he has the fast dive platform. The Zodiac easily got up on plane with 3 divers, gear and 6 tanks.

Steve Lodge and his boat along with his son, girlfriend and Carl Baird met us up at Sucia on Saturday morning. We dove at Little Patos Island across from Sucia and then back to Lawson Bluff on the north side of Sucia. I wasn't too impressed by Little Patos, but I think we dove too far away from the point. Visibility was excellent, really opening up nicely to 40-50'. We saw lots of Copper rockfish and small invertibrates. The only bummer was when Greg was pulling his rig off, he managed to snag and loose his Cochran wrist computer into 150' of water.

For the second dive, we did Lawson Bluff again. I'm getting this site wired and have found the perfect little cove to pull into, put our gear on, and do an easy shore dive from the rocks. We also found a treasure trove of scallops there and collected a bag of Pectins for an or'sderve! The depth is easy and we found lots of photo subjects. Lawson was a much richer site, lots of Dendronotus nudibranchs, Copper and Puget Sound rockfish, with a few large Ling Cods cruising by. I shot macro on both dives, yet with the visibility opening up nicely, I'm starting to yearn for a wide angle lens, it was much better than two weeks ago.

We were going to get up and do an early dive on Ewing Island, but were lazy and just decided to have a big breakfast and head home; spending the early afternoon sailing and enjoying the sunshine!

Scallops and Nudis and Tigers, Oh My!

Tiger Rockfish
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

Club member Steve Lodge and I staged a boat dive in the San Juan Islands to Sucia Island, my home-away-from-home, over the weekend.

There were 5 divers from our club, 3 on my sailboat "Maggie May" (myself, Jim McGaughey and Carl Baird), and Paul Riggs and Steve on his powerboat "Makushla". We met up Friday, spent a bouncy night at anchor, and then moved around to the other side of the island to Fox Cove and found a mooring there. Steve and Paul tried doing a dive to find some crab to no avail. We transferred 10 tons of dive gear to Steve's boat and motored around to the north side of the island and dove Lawson Bluff and then Ewing Island. Weather was gorgeous - in upper 70's and sunny.

There are nice walls and ledges with large boulders that have fallen off the sandstone bluffs above on these sites. We tended to have fairly square dive profiles, but not overly deep at around 55-80 feet. I dove on 32% EAN, that gave me long bottom times on my steel 98. Lots and lots of schools of fish, from small Puget Sound Rockfish, Quillback Rockfish in every size, Kelp Greenlings, large Ling Cod and so forth. Unfortunately the viz was so-so, maybe 15', so they were hard to shoot. Currents were light.

Photography-wise it was up and down for me.

I shot a couple of rare nudis not found south of the islands, and shot a Tiger Rockfish, also a rare and timid species. BUT I made a major mistake when switching into RAW mode I forgot to change the ISO back to 80 from the default 200. This is one feature I've stumbled over before on my Fuji F810, it takes two places to change back and forth from RAW and you have to remember to change the ISO back. So the photos are pretty grainy. Dimwitted at 70'.

I also managed to create a fog inside my case when shooting hard towards the end of the second dive. I forgot to add in silica gel packs, maybe got a tiny bit of water when changing batteries.

Had a great dinner Sat. On Sunday Steve, Paul and Jim went out on Jim's RIB dingy to do another drift dive with Carl doing surface support. I stayed back on the boat and made a huge brunch for everyone. Although overcast, we had a calm passage back to Blaine, got back to the dock, and had most of the boat unloaded before the rain deluged us. Jim had had some car problems towing his boat up, so his wife met them to take the boat in tow, so Jim could limp home.

So win some, loose some, great weekend, we're going again in two weeks. Practice makes perfect!

Diving Miguel

Barncle amid Strawberry Anemones
Originally uploaded by Pixel Letch.

I snuck out for a day of diving off The Peace in Ventura while on a family visit to So Cal. Most Wednesdays they run a long trip that leaves on Tues night and goes to San Miguel or the oil platforms or someplace cool. A bargain at $90 for 4 dives, air and 3 very square meals, snacks, etc. The Peace diveshop can arrange to have whatever rental gear you need delivered to the boat, ready to go, as was the case with my HP100 tank.

We were lucky to have calm conditions. My friends had tried for three times to get out to this location and were turned around by bad conditions. The skipper Eric told me that with almost any wind it becomes very rough. The boat left Tuesday night at midnight for the long run out, which was uneventful and allowed for most to get some sleep.

Topside temps were cool for us drysuit divers, as it was overcast most of the day. Didn't even see San Miguel until the third dive. The viz wasn't much better below, due to huge clouds of krill, but it was patchy. Bunch of hunters on the boat, gear and some of their attitudes are left over from Sea Hunt I think...

Fellow photographers Matt and John are definitely gear heads, oh ok, I'm jealous of their DSLR systems. But I'm gonna start wearing garlic around my neck when I'm around John, I don't want to pick up his gear failure karma. He blew up another ($700) DS-125 strobe and had his seals fail on his drysuit (they repaired 'em with duct tape and PVC cement for the day!). Arrgh, too late, I've had a screw to my latch strip on my camera housing. Lucky it didn't interfere with my dives.

We did 3 dives at San Miguel and one at Santa Rosa; Boomerang Pinnacle (which looked exactly like Vancouver Island; strawberry anemones everywhere), The Canyons, my favorite, small valleys leading off for miles; but nudibranch heaven right under the anchor! Pt Bennett, about as far west as you can go in the Channel Islands, my least favorite dive, not much little stuff. Then one dive on the way home at Santa Rosa; Little Wilson’s, not a bad site. The last two were in kelp forests with lots of fish, but no Garabaldis, as it is too cold. Weird to see cowries along with strawberry anemones. The Humbolt current comes south and just reaches these islands, not unusual to find a 10-15 degree or more temp
difference between San Miguel and Santa Cruz. Very similar water temps (56F) to Seattle. But it's definitely California, as I had several inquisitive sea lions check me out, I think they were intrigued with the HID light.

I should of gone with Nitrox, as on the last dive I went into deco and had a 6 min obligation, even though I stayed at 50' (oh ok, it was for 55 mins). I forgot that a lot of the dives are a pretty square profile here, not much shallows to end your dive on.

The Peace is a great boat, wonderful crew, lots of food, very comfortable - even with a crowd of 23 divers. There's bunks down below for the 7 hour boat ride each way. Even has a small hot tub! Sure could use a dedicated camera table.

I had a lot of fun with my Fuji F810/Ike housing/Ike DS50 system. I just shot macro. After 6 dives I'm finally starting to get more consistent with my focusing with the Inon macro lens. Hard for an old fart like me to focus with only 1/2" depth of field and surge, even with the viewfinder magnifier.