Last weekend i dove Catalina on Sun Diver but i haven’t written a blog about it since it wasn’t anything too exciting, i got some good pics but we did only 2 dives and i didn’t feel like writing a blog entry. Pictures
This weekend I went out to Catalina again on Sand Dollar which was chartered by Eco Dive Center. I am not a big fan of Eco but i have been on Sand Dollar before and it was a nice experience though it changed this time. The main reason for me hoping onto this boat was Kim and Anne from ValleyScuba were going to be there and the price was too good to resist. Otherwise i like to stay away from Eco dive center as much as i can. I don’t want to take the focus away from the main purpose of this blog and therefore the reasons of me not liking Eco and the boat on this trip are stated at end.
The previous night i checked Eco’s website and they said the boat was going to be full, i didn’t expect that and wasn’t too pleased about it. I woke up at 5am and after getting ready i reached the dock at about 6.30 am, I was probably the last guy on the boat. Kim and Anne were already there and luckily i found an empty spot right next to them. I setup my gear and then managed to find myself a bunk.
It was going to be a long ride out to Catalina and so i just tried to take a nap. I woke up when we were closer and then got geared up to dive. We were headed out to the west side of the island and Indian Rock was going to be our first dive site. Anne wasn’t too pleased about it because Eric, her BF, and herself have dove this place a lot and it is a invertebrate preserve so they weren’t able to hunt for lobsters here.
Dive 1:
The viz didn’t seem that good and hence the captain decided to move to a different spot. It was called Pebble and the viz was lot better here. I was planning to tag along with Kim and Anne. We had decided to go the deepest point of the dive and then just head back towards the shore were the shallow reefs were but the actual dive turned out to be something different 
We got into the water and I took a compass bearing for the boat something which i normally don’t do. We dropped down to about 60ft and started exploring the reefs there. Didn’t find anything too exciting initially just the usual Calif reef suspects.
We explored the boulders in the area, there were quite a few lobsters in the crevices and a lot of fish life. 15-20 mins into the dive we were not sure where to explore next and at that time i saw a seal behind Anne, he didn’t wanna play and was hanging out there. It happened all of sudden and i didn’t get time to take its pic, it wouldn’t have come out good since he was far anyway. I was pointing towards Anne, she had her back towards the seal, but i couldn’t get her to turn. We ventured little further out and i managed to find a tiny spanish shawl. It was nice finding a nudi but at the same time little frustrating because i can’t seem to find any other species 
Dive Details:
Max Depth: 68 ft.
Avg Depth: 45.2 ft.
Time: 38 mins
Air Consumption: 1608 psi
Min/Max Temp: 12.8 – 17.6 Celcius
We moved to a different spot for our next dive, it was going to be Lu Lu. i have no clue why this name was chosen for the dive site. I put on my rig and i saw that i was loosing some air, i did a closer inspection and there was some hissing sound coming from the tank. I tried putting on the rig again and taking it off several times but it didn’t help, the deckhand was new and didn’t have a clue so the captain had to take a look at it and when he put it on it seemed fine.
For this dive we decided to follow Eric and Craig, as we got into water i asked Eric to take a look at the tank to see if it was leaking or not i wanted to be 100% sure. Also i mentioned it to Kim that there might be a minor leak but i should be able to do the dive nevertheless.
We descended, Eric and Craig just took off into the depths, as we were following them I was thinking to myself why do they have to go farther out. There were plenty of reefs around the boat waiting to be explored, i was taking my own time following them. The viz was good and it allowed me to keep an eye out for Anne while following the group.
After a while they stopped exploring the reefs but then took off again. This time Anne and myself were left behind and Kim had a hard time following the guys. Along the way i saw couple of nice tube worms but the sad part was that as soon as i tried taking a picture they would hide, it was kinda disappointing. Anne found a big Cabezon (I think, after looking at the pic it seems to be scorpion fish and had something in its mouth) chilling on the rock and it didn’t mind me taking pics of it, It was kinda nice. There was also a big group of sheepheads playing around.
Since me and Anne were by ourselves, we didn’t try to follow the others into the ocean and decided to head back towards the boat. We explored the reefs for little more and then headed back to the boat.
Dive Details:
Max Depth: 54 ft.
Avg Depth: 32.5 ft.
Time: 46 mins
Air Consumption: 1740 psi
Min/Max Temp: 12.4 – 20 Celcius
For our final dive, We headed out farther west and Anne got excited because we were going to get out of the preserve and she could hunt for lobsters. We were going to anchor but then the conditions weren’t good so the captain decided to head back. We came back and anchored at Indian Rock, back to where we had started in the morning.
We weren’t going to follow Eric and Craig for this dive and decided to head out on our own, we decided to do a long swim around the big rock which marks this dive site. This time when i put my rig back on, i wasn’t loosing any air which was a good sign. My camera battery was almost dead but still i decided to take my camera with me to see if i could get some pics.
We dropped down and were following Anne, she took off in the direction of the rock and we had a hard time catching up with her. It was really nice though, the Eel grass was few feet high and it was a very dense jungle out there. We were in 10-15 feet of water and the surge was pretty powerful but at the same time it was fun. I just love hanging out in the surge zone, we had to work with the surge to swim.
We were in about 6 ft of water now and i couldn’t help resurfacing and as i popped my head out of the water i saw that we were in a completely different part, i couldn’t see the dive boat and was little worried. I signaled Anne to surface as well and talked with her about my unwarranted concern since she knew exactly where we were. The rock didn’t seem that big to me from the boat but it was really huge and i was reassured of our location :).
We swam towards the boat, going around the rock and let the surge move us to where we wanted to go and it was fun, when we got to the other side of the rock i found a halibut chilling in the sand.
Kinda sad to see tracks made by fins, some divers don’t mind it or are not conscious of the fact that they are dragging their fins. It wasn’t us, that i am sure
We then just explored the reefs nearby and even though we had plenty of air left, we ended the dive early and it was a good thing because the people on the boat were waiting for us. Got back on the boat and had to wait like 15-10 mins to take the shower because there was a water problem in one of the heads and then had to wait for another half hr to get food. Finally it was time to take a nap and head back home but not before i tried bargaining for a new car :).
PS: The views expressed are personal and its not influenced by anyone else.
Since I have mentioned that i wasn’t too happy with the dive center and the boat, i think it will be a nice idea to state the reasons out here. Earlier before I had an experience with this guy Ron from Eco on Spectre sometime in April last year. Coming back from one of the dives i dropped my camera by accident, Ron found it and gave it back to me. It was very nice of him. Later in the day he asked me to help out with the rescue class they were teaching and he made it a point to mention that since he had found my camera i had to help him. He didn’t have to mention that i would have helped him anyway.
For this trip, i booked it online and so i called Eco Dive Center to let them know i am a vegetarian and they asked me to let the boat know. It was fine by me but then after cpl of hours i got call from the shop and they asked me to confirm my registration and also asked about my diet preferences. I didn’t bother to call the boat now since i thought that eco guys will let boat know but i was wrong about it.
When i went to have breakfast, the cook offered to fry me an egg and i said that i was a vegetarian and he was like ok. After the first dive there was chilli for everyone but all i had to be satisfied with was chips, thats fine. At the end of the dive for the main lunch the cook made veggie marinara sauce which was great. Unfortunately it was also pitiful in terms of the quantity, it would have barely sufficed one person let alone 3 people sharing it.
The dive boat didn’t have enough crew, there was the captain, cook and just one deckhand who didn’t have a clue. He seemed to be a new guy who was not trained to even check for a leaking o-ring. The cook had to help him out with refills and hence there was delay in him preparing the lunch (its my guess). It was a full boat with 34 people on it they could have easily used an extra person but it wasn’t to be the case. I think this is the last time i am going to dive off sand dollar and use services of eco dive center.