Oh, for those who care, some more pictures from Catalina are here:

Our mission for this Saturday was to test the camera enclosure, and make sure that it was seaworthy before we trust it with our replacement D-Rebel. We’d given it the tried-and-true Bathtub Test already, but we really wanted to take it down deep and make sure nothing leaked.

Not wanting to potentially waste a 3-dive boat trip, we decided to just head out to Casino Point, where we could do as many dives as we felt like (depending on weather, water conditions, and the functionality of the camera enclosure).

This morning, my alarm went off at the strangely civilized hour of 7:30. Usually, our trips to Catalina begin with a 4:15 alarm, so this felt just, well, weird. As we rolled our gear bags down to the car, there were other people awake and about! And the sun was shining! I didn’t feel like a real diver.

We hopped the 9:15 ferry from San Pedro, and I must say, it was quite a ride. There was 4-6 foot swell, and we were in one of the smaller ferries. It wasn’t nearly as bad as being on ANY DIVE BOAT, and I feel very sorry for anyone who made that crossing today. But we got a few good stomach-lurchers in, and there were constantly huge streams of spray arcing past the boat as we crashed into the trough of each swell. It was actually kind of fun (I can say that, because I didn’t get seasick today. Other people were not so lucky.)

We were feeling a little lazy, so we hired a cab to take us and all our gear (there’s more gear than there used to be since we bought a Pelican case for the camera enclosure) through town to Casino Point. It feels downright decadent to take a taxi; like somehow, you’re not a REAL California diver unless you’re willing to lug all your sh*t across cobblestones for 15 minutes.

At the point, we discovered a surprising number of classes working on their certifications – lots of newbies cluttering up the stairs. It was also darned windy, making the temperature in the shade something like VERY COLD.

This was our first dive since we returned from Bonaire, and man, it’s hard to get back to California diving. Not that I don’t love the kelp forests, but MY GOD IT’S FREEZING! My feet were freezing when I first stepped down into the water off the stairs to rinse my mask; my lips froze the instant they touched the surface; the rest of me was a complete icicle for the whole 20 minute (was it even that long?) dive.

Basically, we just headed down. We followed the reef south until we came across the wreck of the SuJac at about 90 feet, then I indicated to Jeff that I’d had all the cold I was willing to put up with, and we returned to the stairs and surfaced.

That’s it. No exciting dive stuff to report. And as we huddled by our gear in the windy shade of the Casino, I informed Jeff that one dive was plenty for me today, thank you, and at least we’d ascertained that the camera enclosure was fine. My whole body felt the way your hand feels after you’ve stuck it in snow – kind of a stinging/burning kind of cold. Ugh. This is why we don’t live someplace where it snows (and tell me again why we DON’T live somewhere with warm water?)

We took another cab back to the ferry and stored our bags there (for anyone keeping track, the taxi and luggage storage costs have now made this trip pretty much as expensive as a day on a dive boat), and went for some lunch and stroll-around-Avalon time. Oh, and ice cream:

While we were tooling around Green Pier, a very friendly seagull approached, making odd little barking/grunting noises. He perched on a trash can and posed for us for a while. I know seagulls are boring, but I just couldn’t resist a few pics:

So, not our best dive trip ever, but still a nice way to spend a Saturday. I think we might have to cut back a little on diving in the winter; we’re getting too spoiled by our trips to warmer climes! Either that, or we need to start saving our bucks for dry suits before next winter rolls around…

My first-draft edit of Kathy’s rose picture:

Kathy sent me a DVD today with all the RAW images from Friday, so I can go nuts editing the ones I like. It’ll be interesting to see which ones she and I pick differently, and how we edit them. I’ll post a gallery of my finished products (with appropriate credit to the actual photographer, of course), and maybe some sort of compare/contrast gallery as well if our results are different in interesting ways.

Last night, I spent a few hours at Kathy’s with her friend Zena, modeling for Kathy. (She got these kick-ass strobes and fancy backdrop for Christmas, so she can set up a temporary studio in her apartment). I also got a few Kathy/Chaco shots in of my own. :) Kathy’s promised to set me up with lots of the RAW images to play with, but in the meantime she sent me a few previews: