Wreck Diving Road Trip

Photo by Clinton Bauder

Rob, Clinton, and I went down to LA for the weekend to do a little wreck diving (and family visitation). Nick and Jamie setup a boat for us to do some light tech diving off of, and Justin (visiting from Colorado) joined their team. The plan was to do the first dive on the Retriever (in about 130 feet), the second on the Palawan (in about 120 feet), and a third dive on the Star of Scotland (in about 80 feet). This involved a ton of gear, with some people bringing two sets of doubles and some of us just brought a lot of stages. We were on the Island Diver, and the boat seemed pretty full with gear for the 6 of us. The last time we dove in LA (on the Palawan), we were on the slowest boat known to man. This boat was much more reasonable, and we were out to the site in no time. The way that they planned to deploy us was to drop a shot line on the wreck and then anchor off of the wreck in the sand, letting the boat drift back to near the shot line (hopefully). Once the boat was anchored, we clipped our bottles to lines on the sides of the boat and tossed them in. Then we got into our gear, which was kind of annoying because the gear was on the deck on the way out and we had to hoist it up onto the benches to get geared up. Then we rolled into the water and put our bottles on in there. Then we swam over to downline. There was a bit of current on the surface. We didn't have scooters for this dive, because the site was supposed to be really small.

Photo by Robert Lee

We headed down to the line, and at the bottom, we found a whole lot of sand. And a lead weight bouncing along the bottom. Hmph. This is seeming very familiar. Rob suggested we swim a little to see if there was any sign of anything, but after about 10 feet, I guess he realized that was futile. So we returned to the line and headed up it. On the way up, Rob put up a bag, hoping this would signal to the other team not to bother coming down the line. We got to the surface and found the other team waiting (not sure if they saw the bag and decided to wait, or just happened to not have started down yet). We told the captain that we were in sand and he said we could stay in the water and he would go drop the ball again. Just as we were pondering the long swim up-current that this would involve, he told us he would tow us over to the ball once it was reset. I've never done that before, and always imagined it being not very comfortable on the shoulders. Indeed it is not, even though we were moving pretty slowly. Just as I was about to let go because I couldn't stand it anymore, I peeked above the water and saw that we were just about to the ball. As soon as the boat stopped, I made a bee-line for the line and our team was headed back down pretty quickly.

Photo by Clinton Bauder

This time we actually found something at the bottom of the line. The wreck is reminiscent of a rubble pile more than a wreck :) It is small, and broken into two big pieces. Between the two big pieces there is low-lying rubble strewn about. While the structure is nothing to write home about, there were zillions of fish on it. And it is pretty nicely covered in Corynactis and gorgonians. I couldn't believe how dense it was with fishies! As soon as we got down, the first thing I saw (other than the scads of fishies in the water) was a lingcod guarding some eggs. Neat. After looking at the half of the wreck that we dropped on, I poked around the rubble pile briefly and found a huge lingcod under there, and also a starry rockfish. Clinton apparently saw a bunch of starries, but I saw only that one. There were also a zillion juvenile half-bandeds. Near the end of the dive, we meandered over to the mast, and I noticed a line wrapped around it with a bolt-snap on the end. Ooh la la -- loot! I salvaged the bolt-snap, with Rob's assistance. I told him afterward that if I find that bolt snap with yellow tape on it, he is in big trouble. We ended up leaving the bottom a bit before scheduled (not really sure why, but we had kind of seen what there was to see). There was a little bit of current on the way up, but it seemed to get better as we got closer to the surface, so for most of the deco it was fine.

Photo by Robert Lee

For the next dive, we headed to the Palawan, which is really close. But by the time we got into the water, it had gotten kind of windy. It was a little snotty when I rolled into the water. We headed down and thankfully found the wreck. We had originally planned to dive bottom stages on dive 1 but not on dive 2. But with the extra "dive" down to the sand on the first dive, we decided to bring a stage on dive 2 (to share :P). Luckily we had brought an extra stage on the boat "just in case". I think planning to pass a stage bottle halfway through the dive is a bit strokey, but Rob assures me it isn't. The viz was not too good -- it was very chunky, especially bad in some spots near the bottom. We did one zoom around the outside, and then ended up spending most of the rest of the dive on top. There was quite a bit of current, but if you were on the deck, there was some protection from the structure. It was amazing how much current there was outside of the protection and then if you dropped down like 2 feet, it was basically totally protected. The wreck is totally colorful with Corynactis, and also has a lot of those spindly red gorgonians. But there were also the more lush golden gorgonians and some of those purple sea-fan-like things (not sure what the technical term is), and a few orange ones too. Last time we were on the Palawan, there were zillions of Cuthona divae and their eggs all over it. This time I saw a bunch, but not as many as last time. There were also plenty of fish on the wreck, though it didn't seem as fishy as the Retriever was. But maybe it was just the small wreck versus big wreck thing affecting my perception of the fishiness. I am pleased to report that I passed my half-empty stage to Rob without incident. But of course as soon as I started to stow the reg, I realize Clinton wants to take a pictures; so he got a picture of me with a reg in my hands.

Photo by Clinton Bauder

The deco was uneventful, though there was a bit of current. We would just scoot back into place a couple times a minute to stay with the line. The water got warmer on the way up, so it was toasty warm by 20 feet. The water also was much clearer at 20 feet, which struck me as pretty odd. The original plan was to do a third dive on the Star of Scotland, but the wind had really picked up, and with the current at the Palawan, we didn't think it was worth the bumpy ride to try it. So then we were talking about the Avalon, or a drift dive on some reef nearby. In the end, we rode over to the Avalon, and the divemaster was going to do a quick dive to see what the current was like. When the shot line immediately went for a ride after it was dropped, it was pretty apparent that there was a lot of current. And no one was feeling that attached to a third dive, so we just called instead. So we got back to the dock a bit early, but of course the LA traffic conspired to keep us from actually having any day left by the time we got back to Adrienne's house.

Photo by Clinton Bauder

Since I am a bit behind in my writing, I guess I can't post this without mentioning the next week's drama about this trip. Apparently we made some horrific tipping faux pas with the DM (I swear, we gave the guy a hundred bucks!), and so we all got called assholes by some guy on The Deco Stop. I believe the exact phrase was "asshole tech divers". I gather the original poster is a bit of an asshole himself, and doesn't get along with Nick. Well, I was telling Matt, if I had a nickel for every time I was called an asshole on the internet... and Matt said I could probably buy a new drysuit ;)

All of the day's pictures are here.