Sandiego, 1999
Author: Suzuki

www.blueescape.com

STATS
Water Temp – 53 Degrees
Vis – 15 feet
Thermal Protection – skin, 7mm wetsuit, hood, gloves, boots
Boots and gloves were tropical thickness
Air Temp – 60-70 degrees (warmed up as the day wore on)
Air Mixture – Regular Air on both dives (No Nitrox)
Dive 1 – Ruby E.
81 Feet
21 Minutes
Surface Interval – 1 hour 8 minutes
Dive 2 – Kelp Beds
73 Feet
21 Minutes

DIVES
Ruby E. originally the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Cayne
Not sure the depth of this wreck. We stayed up on the deck of it.
We tied up to the bow. There’s a buoy on the bow and the stern.
3 of us were diving (Tom, Steve from Sacramento, and myself).
We got to the bow easily enough. Then Tom headed to the hole in the bow to take a look inside the Ruby E. (The dive master told us we could penetrate the wreck.) I took a look at Tom then looked back to check on Steve.

I was very surprised to find him holding his weight belt. I kept an eye on him and he appeared to be doing fine getting it back on by himself. That’s until a surge pushed him into the ship’s rail and the anchor line. I went over and held him by his tank to keep him from getting slammed around too much more. I also got his weight belt under his tank for him. Tom then saw both Steve and I get knocked around a bit and he came over to hang on to Steve’s BC on the opposite side of me.

Steve got his belt on just fine. However, his strap was coming out of the buckle. I let Steve try to fiddle with it 3 times. I know he had to do this by feel, but I also know you don’t help a diver unless they appear to need it or they ask for it. So after the 3rd time, I touched Steve’s hand and he moved it away from the buckle.

I had to take the strap completely out of the buckle and rethread the thing. Finally, we got Steve’s weight belt all situated. Off we head to the stern. Tom in the lead, me in the middle, and Steve snapping pictures like crazy.

I could tell I was sucking air big time, but I knew it was because of the surge and fighting with Steve’s weight belt. I also noticed the other 2 were sucking air just as fast. So no biggy.

We got to the wheelhouse and Tom moved to just inside the doorway. Then he started fussing with his weight belt. Not the buckle, just tried to push it up on his hips. All of a sudden he was sucked in – like he got shot in the stomach by a cannonball. Arms out – legs straight out – WHOOSH!

You should have seen his eyes. I was hanging on to the side of the Ruby E., so I didn’t get pushed by the surge as much. But Tom easily moved 8 feet. The surge moved him back to his original spot and Tom got away from the wheelhouse to hang on to the side with me.

I think I managed to take 3 pictures. Once I get them developed I’ll let y’all know how they turned out.

We passed the wheelhouse going towards the stern and I decided to cross over the mid-section of the ship and get on the port side of her. I motioned to both buddies and they OK’ed back. I hauled ass across the boat afraid a surge would shove me backwards into whoever was behind me.

All 3 of us got over to the port side fine. We swam back towards the bow and Tom motioned he was ready to go up. I checked my air and had Steve check his. 1100-1200 psi for he and I. Tom had a little less than that. All 3 of us headed to the bow. My intent was to go all the way around the bow holding onto the rail. Well, Mother Nature would have none of that.

I finally gave up fighting with her and just let go, hoping to land near the anchor line. I caught the surge and luckily, did land right near the anchor line when I grabbed the starboard rail. Tom and Steve soon followed.

We ascended with no problems. Because of the surge, low vis, and fussing with our equipment all 3 of us smartly decided NOT to penetrate the wreck.

I saw some ‘fat’ starfish on this wreck. Seabass, wrasse, rockfish, and a snapper/schoolmaster looking fish. This is an excellent wreck that I would like to explore again - hopefully, to penetrate.

(Steve lost his weight belt when he tried to tighten it. He accidentally hit the quick release and it fell off him.)

Kelp beds off Point Loma
My only goal in diving San Diego was to see a Garibaldi fish and a sea lion. That’s all I wanted.

Well, the sea lions I saw before the boat even left the pier. Then we saw about 4 more at the kelp beds. But none while we were actually diving.

We get to the kelp beds, suit up, and head down. I’m the first one on the anchor line. The line itself is tangled in a kelp stalk. So occasionally, I have to move the leaves away to make sure I’m holding the anchor chain and not just a kelp stalk.

Got to the bottom with a little bit of difficulty. This was our first time diving in kelp. We had read about it and watched the Imax movie about it. So we knew to stay relaxed. Sometimes a leaf or ‘branch’ would grab us, but we’d calmly get it off us and keep descending.

The reef at the bottom was pretty cool. There was a small ‘valley’ between two reef ‘hills’.

I was still hanging onto the anchor line about 20 feet from the bottom. Getting knocked around pretty good by the surge. I look to my left and see Steve just shooting pictures like mad. He’s like a fish over there. The surge takes him and moves him, but brings him back.

So I let go. Wow, much better! I descend to the bottom and check out the fishes. Took some shots of a sheephead (west coast ones are prettier than east coast ones). Tom then flashes his light at me.

I look to find him 1/2 under a ledge. I figure he’s found a bug and go down to peek. I look under the ledge and see a fish – nice size. At least 12 inches. Then Tom flashes the fish with his light. WOAH! It’s orange! It’s my Garibaldi!!! I was taking pictures as fast as the camera would reset the flash.

Tom tried to coax it out, but the Garibaldi didn’t want to budge. Finally, Tom nudged him with the flashlight and it came out to settle between the 2 bits of reef. More pictures.

The Garibaldi finally got tired of me and swam away. We then swam over the reef to find Steve near a small ledge/wall. Found a tore up lobster trap beside Steve. (No bug.)

I was ready to go up. Saw my fish and I was done being beaten by the surge. Tom was ready to go up way before that, but he wanted Steve and I to enjoy ourselves. Steve reluctantly gave me the OK when I motioned I was ready to go topside.

Steve started up first, me second, then Tom. Tom and I used the anchor line, Steve did not. But I had him in my sights. Then I got into a cluster of kelp. It’s a weird feeling to see nothing around you except kelp. I calmly got myself out of that mess and spotted Tom close to me. But no Steve. We got to about 20 feet and I motioned to Tom that I didn’t see Steve.

Well, Tom motioned the same thing, but I misunderstood him. So Tom and I argued for about a minute or so. Me thinking he was saying we needed to do a 3 minute safety stop, and me motioning back that we had to surface because I couldn’t find Steve.

Looking back on it – it’s quite funny watching 2 people argue under water.

Anyway, we surface and I tell the dive master (who’s hanging over the bow) that I can’t find Steve at the same time Tom tells him we didn’t do our safety stop.

Bill (our divemaster) tells me Steve’s right behind me. I turn and, yup, he’s right there.

Bill told us to go ahead and come aboard. If we felt bad, we could have oxygen. None of us had any symptoms. (Although Tom and I both probably felt we needed a drink.)

Turns out that when Steve’s tank got below 1,000 it made him positive. Then a surge came and pushed him up like a cork. Since he was already surfaced and knew Tom and I were heading up, he stayed at the surface. Plus, Bill could see our bubbles.

OBSERVATIONS
It was my first time diving with a hood and a 7mm suit. It was Tom’s first time diving with a 7mm suit. Tom had 26 lbs. in his weight belt, I had 28, and Steve had 32. The weight belts had different buckles than what all of us were used to. I’m also only used to wearing about 16 lbs. That’s with a skin, 3 mm 2-piece, and no hood.
The hood didn’t bother me at all. I was very comfortable wearing it.

Tom and I are used to integrated weights. We hadn’t worn weight belts in a LONG time.

You mathematicians may want to Email me the formula for figuring how much weight I should have been wearing. (I figure I only needed 22 or 24 lbs.) (suzuki@scubadiving.com)

I figure with less weight and one more dive, I would have been more comfortable with the surge. I’m used to a little surge moving me a few inches to a foot or 2. But not a surge that moves me up to 10 feet.

The only time I was cold was during our surface interval and a little bit at our first safety stop. Tom said he was cold the whole time.

THE BOAT
This boat was awesome!! It’s got room for 22 people. Compressor on board. Hot and cold showers on the port and starboard sides of the boat. 2 heads. TV and eating area inside. A V-berth. It sliced the water like butter.

In between the dives I would use the hot shower to warm my hands.

THE OPERATOR
Blue Escape went through a lot of trouble for just 3 people. Manny and Matt (the father/son owners) are wonderful. And Bill, the dive master, was very nice.

During our SIT they had bagels, cream cheese, cantaloupe, oranges, soda, water, hot chocolate, and coffee for us.

Matt (who was our captain) and Bill didn’t let any of us struggle with our gear. One of them was there always to help us get our hoods into our wetsuit, or to help us velcro our wetsuits, or to help us get our fins on.

After the second dive they had chicken soup for us! That was much needed after hurrying out of the wetsuits and changing into dry clothes.

And we even had cookies after the soup. Remember – there were only 3 of us on this trip. I would have been quite happy with just the fruit and bagels. The soup just made everything even more cool.

Bill also took our gear down to the boat and brought it back up to the shop for us.

Tom reached his 50th dive on this trip, so Manny gave Tom his stickers and Bill signed his log for him. I reached dive 96, so all I got was a stamp on my 2 dives. (-:

Yes, the dives could have been better. But I enjoyed them all the same. It was a new environment for me and I did learn from the experience. I’ll gladly go back.

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