Swimming hard this morning. The LA County sheriff’s helicopter taking off over my breathing shoulder. Watching it whupping by every time I turn my head to breathe. The helo is carrying a stiff. A diving stiff. Some 33-year-old was diving for lobsters all night. Third dive. Rapid ascent from 85 feet said his dive computer, but he had lost contact with his buddy, so no one knows why. DOA at 4AM. They put him in the chamber and took him down to 160 feet anyway. They’ve saved some pretty dead divers that way in the past. But not this one.
It’s kind of sobering. I figured out what happened when the helicopter turned off its engines after it landed. If there is someone alive, they keep the rotors going, and take off as soon as they can. But not this morning.
But I keep swimming. Turning the corner into Chalk Cove and the hordes of boats anchored there.
This weekend is Buccaneer Days at Two Harbors. A long tradition. Everyone comes into shore dressed as a pirate and they drink grog and eat meat and be obnoxious. This morning they mostly had hangovers.
100 strokes past the buoy means 0.8 miles. My favorite harbor seal comes under me on the way home and peers with his big eyes at me. Always startles me, cause he is so big compared to the fish I see. But he reminds me of our cat, Blue. Startle is what he wants to do.
Last night we had a big dive. “We” became not just John and Dan and me. We recruited three more certified divers. One from our class last June (Jacob), one is an assistant for the CSU invertebrate zoology class (Andy). One from my childhood (Mike), who also happens to dive out here a lot and is ok’d to dive with me.
We scrounged up (borrowed, and bought) extra running lights and dive lights and charged up both cameras. Last night was the start of the lobster season. That’s why people were diving after midnight. The season actually starts at 12:01. We wanted to get behavior data from the Out-Of-Preserve lobsters before they got spooked by all the divers. So that’s what we did. Happy to say the ‘hypothesis’ is still alive. Close to 30 presentations of sea hares to lobsters at these three sites. No attacks, 2 or 3 weak pounces. These guys have plenty of food. Don’t need to eat sea hares. The map shows the same stuff as last time, only I’ve added blue dots from last night’s dive. Cool, huh?
So that means we’ve got 5 dives outside the reserve, and they all point to the same conclusion. Lobsters don’t want sea hares out there. Tonight we go to the preserves.
But there is a catch. The NOAA weather is forecasting monster winds tonight. Cmon. I’m looking at the ocean. It’s just a normal westerly. Fine, says the forecast, but late tonight is a GALE. A gale? What the hell? This is Catalina. Southern California. We don’t have friggin gales. Must be some mistake. But they’ve been saying it now for 24 hours at least. They aren’t backing down.
So, I put the little dinghy up on its chalks on Siwash. Lashed the awning down. Ran the engine. Strung an extra line to the mooring chain. Gerry says the chain will hold, but the line might chafe. Best to have an extra strung. I’m leaving tomorrow. But the gale is supposed to peak midday tomorrow.
Stay tuned!
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