Han Simpson's First Two Open Water Dives

Han was a little late getting to my apartment, then I missed the turn into Ryan's. Actually, the construction crew had blocked it off and I needed to enter at the Park Tower Building, then drive next door to Ryan's. Eventually, we got there.

Ryan was ready and wanted to hunt lobster. Han was a little under the weather, still, I think. He didn't have much to say. We got geared up and walked down the driveway, across the street and got into the water. Ryan and Han both wear booties and have open heel fins. They finned up on the beach and walked backwards through the surf. Of course, Han fell down. Tide was low, so they had a ways to walk, but. eventually, we all got into deeper water, where I finned up.

I decided to take Han in along the sand on this first dive, and we descended in about 8 feet of water. We headed East and at least started out on the 100 degree bearing. I found a familiar area and turned South, assuming we had missed the blocks because of current set, and we had. We found them and then headed up the gun-sight, over-compensated and ended up a little South of the Gray Mid-way Rock, but I found that, too. We ended up at the Big Coral Knoll, though we went in East of the Perpendicular Rocks. Ryan wanted to chase lobster and did catch one. Han and I swam around trying to get him more relaxed and calmer in the water. I turned the dive when Han got to 1500 psi, but we stopped just past the blocks and went through most of the skills before swimming into the beach. Bill Evans was on the Tower. My computer stopped. Dead battery, I hope. Estimated times

Took about an hour for our surface interval. I brought tomato Soup, which tasted really good.  Then we geared up and got back in. Again, both Ryan and Han finned up at the beach before entering the water. Tide was really out this time and they had a really long walk backwards into the surf. This time, when we got to deeper water, we swam on the surface to the blocks, then descended and headed up the gunsight to the Fish Camp Rocks, where Ryan left us to chase lobster. Han and I swam out to the Ledge and down to about 35 feet where we practiced taking the gear off and putting it back on. He did fine. We swam back, picked up Ryan and headed back in to the beach. This time I was cold by the end on the dive.   .

Night Dive off Tower 2

I got stuck at the Causeway bridge, but got to the beach by 5:15 pm.  Darryn came at 5:30 pm and Luis was right behind him.  Darryn read the review questions and answers and we discussed how we signalled underwater at night.  We geared up and got in the water.  We swam out past the swim buoy to descend. Luis had a bad regulator hose, but it wasn't as bad as it looked, apparently.  We swam East slowly and turned South in 24 ft of water and swam over some reef to the beginning of the Jacks.  We then headed East along the Jacks and turned the dive at 1500 psi.  Darryn saw a turtle.  I found a small spotted moray eel.  Not terribly cold, but I was chilled for most of the dive.

Water Temperature was 75 degrees; Dive time was 100 minutes; consumption rate at an average depth of 17 feet was 25.87 psi/minute; SAC rate was 17.07 psi/minute; RMV was 0.44 ft3/minute.  

I set out to Recover the Plow Anchor Luis spotted a few weeks ago

I left the apartment just before 8:00 am and got to the beach about 8:12 am. Geared up. Wore long pants this morning. The surface was cold. I got in the water and swam out to the swim buoy to descend. Took the lift bag and decided to look for the plow anchor. Headed due East to the sand along the 100 degree bearing to the Jacks. When I came to the sand after 10 minutes, I swam 1 minute North and then headed back West. I made 3 round trip passes, then just kept going East on the sand to deeper water and turned South. I did not spot the Jacks, but headed SW. I found a nearly new Aqualung mask near the swim buoy, but I put it on my head backwards and it apparently fell off while I was swimming as it was gone when I turned due West and headed for the beach.  So I didn't find the plow anchor I was looking for and I lost the mask I found.  Great search & recovery dive.  Dive Time 101 minutes; SAC 17.89 psi/minute; RMV was 0.46 ft3/minute.

Luis and I dive the Yankee Clipper Jacks and swim with a Loggerhead Turtle

Luis wanted to make two dives this morning, but I only had the energy for one, so I offered to let him make a solo dive first, then I would make the second dive with him so the lifeguards would let him in the water. He decided to make only one dive. So we did.

Same basic pattern: we descended just after the swim buoy and head more or less East until we got to deeper water and then head South to the Jacks. Today, we spotted a Loggerhead Sea Turtle as we got into 25-26 feet of water and swam with it a little. Luis may have gotten some pictures. I decided that I would buy a mk iii and worry about what the new mk iv can do later. I was shivering uncontrollably by the end of the Jacks and I just swam West for the beach.

Bottom Temperature was 73 degrees; Dive Time was 100 minutes; consumption at an average depth of 18 feet was 28.71 psi/minute; SAC rate was 18.58 psi/minute and my RMV was 0.48 ft3/minute.