Girls Gone Diving Bonaire Day 2

Today I hit 200 hours underwater. This is a pretty neat goal to have reached. We did four dives today, breathing Nitrox and none of us are near as tired as we are breathing air. Saw a lot of neat things and had wonderful dives.

Girls Gone Diving Bonaire

Spring Break 2010 and I'm off diving in again. Girls Gone Diving started the trip in Curacao for three days and then came on to Bonaire. Girls Gone Diving consists of Connie, Sylvia, myself and Phil. (Token male). Wanted to post some of the pictures Sylvia took since this is her first time with a camera underwater and her Mom will love seeing them.

Knott's Merry Farm

Before Christmas break ended I took my Grand kids, Andy and Chrissy to Knotts. We were lucky to have their parents, Karen and Lonny join us. It turned out to be a great day. We started it out on the Ghost Rider roller coaster, which turned out to be bigger and faster than any of us thought. We survived it and went on to other adventures. Lonny is the only one who rode another big coaster, while the rest of us did things like the Gondola, and the Log Ride. The Swings turned out to be the hit of the day. Since there wasn't a big crowd, the kids were able to ride it again and again and again etc. All in all a great day.

Catalina in December

The weekend before Christmas found six of us crazy divers spending three days diving off Casino Point on Catalina Island.
Connie, Phil, Sylvia, Don, Edie and for the first time, my youngest son Ron. Ron is a newbie who almost doubled the number of dives he's done this weekend. We did 9 dives, with Connie, Ron and Phil doing all nine. I didn't do the night dive. I was tired and cold and it seemed like a good idea to provide shore support.
Ron does a great job and is a natural at this sport. He was very thankful to Phil for the use of his 120 cubic ft tank because it meant he was not the weak link - oh I forgot, it was renamed the benchmark. He had to give it up for Don on Sat so he used Phil's 100 and Phil used a rented 77. (Phil still beat most of us on air, even with a 77)
The water was cold and Ron wasn't dressed for it but hung in there and did all of the dives. He didn't say a word at the time, but later told us it took him three days to warm up.
This weekend Ron had a number of firsts: first night dive,(very impressed), first time at 100 ft, (not impressed).
On the last dive of the weekend Phil decided we were going to look for this Electric Ray that hangs out around 100 ft. The current was strong and we were doing a lot of swimming at depth and Phil was running out of bottom time and was booking it back when Ron found, not one, but two Rays. Phil had to come back to see them, and gave Ron two thumbs up for finding them. None of us went down where they were since we were all about in deco. We were all stoked that Ron found them. Other than the fact that Ron was cold, it was a perfect weekend.

Tall Ship to Catalina

What a great weekend. I was invited to go on the Tall Ship, Tole Mour. It is pronounced, toll e, more. We left out of Long Beach on Sat. morning. Of course we didn't leave on time because a bunch of us got lost on the way to the parking lot and then again as we were walking back.

Once we got out of the harbor, on the other side of the breakwater things got interesting. We learned how to put up 8 of the sails. We all got together and pulled on ropes, using muscles I'd forgotten I had. Like the ones just below the ribcage, both front and back.

We were exposed to some of the activities students are able to do when they are aboard ship. One of them was climbing out on the very end of the ship. We strapped on a harness and hooked ourselves up and then climbed over the rail and made our way over the rope net to the view at the front.

The most challenging thing we did was climb the 70ft mast. Not only was it high, but the ropes where you had to step were very far apart at the start. Then when you got up to the top, the foot holds couldn't fit a kids shoe in them. But I did it, and I came back down the other side. When a number of us got back down, we started comparing our wobbly knees and shaking hands. It was the first time I've had a chance to do something like that and I was determined to do it all. I didn't allow myself to think if I was scared, I just did it.

Sunday was snorkeling day. I haven't been in the water in three weeks so I was happy to be wet. We saw lots of good stuff, but I don't have an underwater camera, so I don't have fish pictures. Connie has already figured out which camera I am going to get, now I just have to get it. I don't want to wait till Xmas, since we are going diving next weekend.

After the snorkel, we put the sails up and headed back. On the way out we saw a Minke whale and a pod of dolphins. On the way home we saw two whales and they breached right next to the boat. Beautiful

Anacapa Island

Connie and I went to Ventura to spend two days diving for Reef Check off the Explorer. We were able to complete the surveys and still have time for a couple of "fun" dives. We left to go up after Connie's square dance and got there about midnight. We spent the night on the boat both Friday and Sat. When we got back Sat. afternoon we headed over to see Tim and Sally Jo. It had been three years ago in Maui since we saw them. We had a great time. They have a beautiful family and it was fun to visit.
Sunday we were back out trying to find sites to dive that didn't have a ripping current going on. We found it at Landing Cove. This is just right of the landing for the ferry that brings visitors to Anacapa. Ron and Martha, this is where we climbed the stairs from the boat.
We ended up doing three dives again on Sunday, but only one survey. The other two were for fun. It was interesting that both Connie and I felt lost without our survey gear. It was like, "where do we go". We did finally figure it out and had a couple of good dives.
I included the picture of the boat, even though that is neither Connie or I jumping in, because it gives real meaning to the phrase, "giant stride".

Diving Hill Street

September 28th Connie and I went to San Diego and dove the Hill Street Site for Reef Check. It was so foggy they couldn't find their way. They usually know where it is from looking at the shore, but we couldn't see the shore. Finally found it with the help of a cell phone and GPS.
The water was cold, which we did not expect. The captain said it had been 67 degrees lately, but we recorded 54 on some of our computers. Connie was blue after our second dive. Her body was warmer because she used her heat packs, but that didn't help her lips.
Both dives were good dives, but they had very few fish and inverts. Lots of seaweed though, lots.
After the dive we went to Magic Squares and danced two sessions. By the time we got home we were wore out. We were suppose to get up and dive Sunday at 7:00 for a shore dive and let's just say, it didn't happen.