LOIS ANN - A great weekend of diving.
Sometimes you just have to get out of the heat and dust of Phoenix and become a diving vagabond! I drove out of Phoenix on Friday night and drove through the darkness to San Diego.
On Saturday morning I boarded the Lois Ann for a three tank trip to Wreck Alley. It was an overcast morning with a breeze blowing so the trip out was a little bumpy and viz on the wrecks was very poor. We ended up doing one dive on the Yukon and two on the Ruby E.
THANK YOU to JR, Karma and Anna for their hard work on the boat...and their great attitude....and the best food on any of the boats heading out of Dana Point!
The Yukon was a wash out for me, very low viz and a malfunctioning camera. However, I like the Ruby E. There is a lot of macro life on her, and I can spend the best part of 50 minutes just looking at the life on the hull and in the sand next to the hull.
In the afternoon we headed over to the kelp beds for two tanks. WHY DO PEOPLE GET OBSESSED with the WRECKS? These were by far the best dives of the day....Seven Fathoms and Lazy Days. I saw 5 different types of Nudibranchs on both dives, more fish life, shrimp....sooo much more than the wrecks.
My day of diving always ends at the fish and chip shop three buildings north from the Lois Ann boat dock.....chowder, Yellow tail dinner, and an adult beverage....cannot be beaten. Then it was off to my truck for a short night of sleep before jumping back on the Lois Ann.
Somehow I had my dates all mixed up, and I had not seen that the Lois Ann was heading to the Hogan and ______ the next day for a tech dive....sooooo I had no tech gear, but no matter, a steel 100 will give me some reasonable bottom time with nitrox and some quick calcs using Deco planner.
The ride out was nice, the wind had dropped, seas were rolling but not bumpy, and we actually managed to drop an anchor at the Hogan. This was my first dive on the wreck and it will not be my last, viz opened up a little after 100 ft and we found the wreck at 126 ft. There was some different life down there - Anna and Karma found a wolf eel that refused to be photographed (see PNW tab for pics of wolf eels), but there were also several Northern Ronquils that I had not seen there before (see pics below), Vermilion Rock Fish and several other young rock fish. All in all, a VERY nice dive.
I have forgotten the name of the second dive that day....narcosis.....big debris field, covered in nets at 100 ft. Lots of small structural stuff but good critters for macro pics.
AGAIN...my thanks to Captain JR and Divemasters KARMA and ANNA for a great weekend.
See pictures below:
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Barnacle in Anenome
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Sand Dab
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Sand Dab
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Diamond back Nudi
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Star and Anenome
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Variable color and Blood Star
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Tube Anenome
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Two stars
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Star
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Puff ball Sponge
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Spanish Shawl
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Welk
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Sea Pen
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Scorpion fish and Tube Anenome
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Orange Nudibranch
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