Today was the second sunny day of the trip. I was the Divemaster again for our group since they both seem to rely on me to lead them. I briefed Ken and George on what we would do. We decided to dive along the west edge of the Cove near where a bunch of sea lions were sunning on the rocks.
The first dive, we were really shallow throughout the dive, only 17 feet for maximum depth. The visibility was awful - 5-10 feet. I took a couple of photos of lobsters and Garibaldi, but nothing much else before the drama struck.
California Spiny Lobster
I told them to let me know when they got to 1800 psi. Apparently, George misunderstood me and thought we would turn around at 1800, so when I did not move immediately to turn around, he bolted for the beach.
I was afraid he actually would run out of air, so I followed along and Ken followed me. He went right into the rocks and then back into the Cove right by the sea lions. When a couple of them slipped into the water near him, he checked his air and discovered he still had 1500 psi and decided it would be alright to dive a little more.
While he was trying to take a photo of a sea lion, he got a little too close and it really snapped its jaws at him. He went into reverse and was really making tracks backwards to get away at that point. He chased Garibaldi all the way back to the beach trying to get a photo. I was at the surface just swimming along behind him to keep an eye on him. When we got to the beach, he still had 1000 psi and Ken and I had 2000.
I gave him some advice that he needs to learn to trust those who have more experience until he gains enough of his own to know that he will be OK. At that point, we all got out and were done with that dive.
After a fairly long surface interval, we went back for the second dive. Gordy joined us and offered to be George's buddy. I accepted. After getting into the water and finally getting George's fins on him, I told them to put snorkels in and swim out with me a ways. We swam out a couple of hundred yards and then I stopped. I told them, for George's sake mostly, that we got clear out to where we were without using any air. They should end their dive with 500 psi, but they could end it anywhere they were and did not have to be back on the beach. With 500 psi, they could surface, establish positive buoyancy and then make the surface swim back to shore.
Gordy took off like a shot and George went with him. Ken and I soon lost them in the poor visibility which left us to do our own thing. That was nice, actually. We enjoyed a long, relaxing dive and saw lots of "bugs" - lobsters. The visibility was still really poor, but we had a good time and Ken gained more confidence in his diving as well.
Garibaldi
California Spiny Lobster
California Spiny Lobster
California Spiny Lobster
California Spiny Lobster
2 comments:
The Garibaldi sure are a brilliant yellow aren't they? Are you ready to come home yet?
I was ready on Thursday evening. Just waiting it out at this point.
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