On Saturday night, Kathy and I made Jeff drive all by his lonesome behind us on the way up to Ventura – turns out you just can’t quite fit three people and all their scuba gear in one car, even if that car is a station wagon. (But sort of a small station wagon.) We made it up there just as people started arriving to sleep on the boat, nabbed some decent bunks, and headed out for margaritas at the dockside mexican restaurant before snuggling up in our sleeping bags:

I woke up the next morning as the remainder of the passengers arrived, but stayed in my bunk trying to sleep until I felt the Peace’s engines start. Even then, I thought I might manage to snooze until we reached Anacapa – but as soon as we got outside the harbor, the boat started rocking in a very stomach-unsettling fashion and I bolted for fresh air.

On the bright side, it looked like it would be a beautiful day, sunny and warm. There were plenty of friendly faces on the boat, including a few folks I’d dived with before. But within a few minutes, most of those faces started to look a bit green. It wasn’t a particularly rough day – I’ve certainly survived worse – but for some reason, it was unusually seasick-inducing, and I wound up visiting the boat rail more than once. :(

Anacapa was too rough, so the captin headed for the backside of Santa Cruz. Once there, he continued west along the island in calm seas, giving everyone a chance for their stomachs to settle. We finally dropped anchor at Flame Reef, and started suiting up to hop in as a threesome (Jeff, Kathy and I).

Another diver who I’d been chatting with quite a bit on the way out, Birgit, asked if she could join us since she was buddy-less today. It made a lot of sense, since if the visibility was crud diving as a threesome could be difficult, and we could split into two normal buddy teams. Birgit has about the same number of dives under her belt as Jeff and I, many of them in even colder German waters, so we were happy to have her as a buddy.

It turned out to be a good move, because as soon as we all jumped in we could see a) murky water, b) lots of kelp, c) a moderate current. Not ideal conditions for trying to keep track of more than one buddy! Indeed, by the time Birgit was a few feet down the anchor line, she was invisible behind kelp – and then I realized Kathy was still on the surface having some mask problems. I waved at Jeff to go ahead and follow Birgit (I figured they were a natural buddy team because they both tolerate cold longer than I can), and I headed back to the surface to help Kathy with her mask. It’s never fun to spend too much time on the surface, especially when the current is pushing you back towards the boat, and waves are smacking you in the face as you try to fiddle with your equipment! Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious, and a quick removal and replacement of the mask had Kathy ready to go on her way.

We dropped down the anchor chain and then swam into the current so we wouldn’t wind up downstream from the boat. We never did find Jeff and Birgit on this murky, surgy, currenty dive, nor did we find much else! There were a couple of big sunflower stars, which I don’t think Kathy had seen before, but nothing else of interest. It felt a little strange to be leading the dive; usually I let Jeff navigate, although I try to keep a sense of where I am. Come to think of it, this was the first time I’ve dived without Jeff since my certification dives. It was kind of fun to be the “boss” for a change!

Back on the boat, Jeff and Birgit said they’d watched a harbor seal having a snack – but sadly, didn’t manage to get a good picture before he bailed.

Dive #2 was a bit of an improvement – less current and more fish, but still pretty murky and surgy. Kathy didn’t have any trouble dropping down this time, but we stayed in two buddy teams anyway and didn’t try to all stick together. It’s fun to go diving with a relatively new diver, because the same critters that Jeff and I have seen over and over are still new and interesting to Kathy – or if they’re not, at least I can believe they are when I excitedly point them out to her underwater.

Kathy opted to sit out dives 3 and 4, while Jeff, Birgit and I decided to get one more dive in. I think Kathy was the smart one. We dropped down into 10 foot vis and largely barren rocks, plus a bit of a current and freezing temperatures (it was about 52 degrees all day, and on dive #3 I had finally had it). I thumbed the dive after a measly 15 minutes; German-cold diver Birgit probably thinks I’m a big wuss!

Back on the boat, we all got nice and toasty in the Peace’s hot tub. Why don’t all boats have these?!?!?

All in all, definitely not the greatest day for diving, and I’m bummed we didn’t get to show Kathy anything very interesting. Still, it was nice to be out and in the water again (aside from the seasickness), and to spend the day with other divers. I’d definitely like to dive with Birgit again, on a day when I don’t need to wimp out from cold!

Jeff’s pics are here:
http://gallery.thelaitys.com/v/underwater/uw-20050403_santacruz

And Kathy’s topside shots:
http://gallery.thelaitys.com/v/chronological/2005/20050403_kathy_peace

We’ll see if Kathy got any video….