Anyhow, it was pretty much north side of Anacapa all day one for five dives. Conditions varied little from dive to dive with depths from 50 to 90 feet, visibility 40 to 60 feet, 50°F temperature, wind chop, and the ever-present current from noticeable to strong.

Bugs there were, with a take of about three dozen for the day, most just legal with a few two to five pounders thrown in. It blew, it rained, it basically sucked as a day. Diving was in the OK to good category. We made a run to Santa Cruz and it poured big time until we anchored about one mile southwest of Yellow Banks. For the relatively few who braved this dive there were slim pickings. Visibility was way down, less good for the photo and video-philes. Otherwise it was much the same as Anacapa.

Valley Arch was the choice for overnight, with no night divers. The anchorage was very comfortable with little boat motion. Sunday dawn was spectacular with obviously much improved weather likely for the day. Anchors pulled, we headed west, not very far, as the wind was still up and the southwest swells were still with us. We retreated to a spot about one and half miles west of Sandstone Point. This was a very ugly dive spot with lots of sand and small infrequent rock 'piles' here and there. Even the hardened bug hunters were unimpressed. The current was up and multi-directional causing several divers to miss the boat, the current line and almost the next point on the island. For the remainder of a great weather day we putzed around between the dive one spot and Smuggler's Cove just north of Yellow Banks. Once upon a time this was a great dive area but that's a whole other generation's story. Personally, I think it sucks, but we had no choice. Some bugs were found raising the two-day boat total to fifty plus -not bad, considering.

The two and a half-hour run back was warm, calm, and uneventful. Food fare was excellent, as was the attentiveness of the whole crew. The ownership change is truly transparent with a few noticeable improvements thrown in. The 5:00 PM arrival back at the dock was much appreciated, as it was Sunday at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday. Surprisingly, traffic was light. The Good - lots of bugs and the Sunday weather, the Bad - Saturday's weather, and the Ugly - dive one on Sunday.

THANKSGIVING DAY QUOTES
"All that for Anacapa?"
"So who was in charge of weather? ....Must have been McGuire, his other excuse was flimsy."
"Looks nasty, I'm going for a 10 foot bunk dive."
"Just like the last spot without Brittle Stars."
"We're working on our '99 tan very slowly."
"All kinds of sand, nice swim, found the reef with ten divers on it and one bug."
"That's a good specimen you've got."
"Where to now squire...?" "...I don't know, I don't know."
"Bruce Willis triumphs again."
"This is very ugly weather, very ugly!"
"Your piece of meat is a lot better than mine."
“Did you flash him, and I missed something?"
"You've never had this before."
"I'm so full I feel pregnant and I'm a male."
"This is a fine '99 Chardonnay."
"Can we watch a real video?"
"I can sleep anywhere."
"It's a Blue Ring Top Snail...Yeah, right."
"If you're looking for pretty, this ain't it." "Lot's of sand, small rock piles, ugly, but it can be good for bugs."
“My son and Allen corrupted me."
"You sho' have purdy lips."
"They're all testing their whistles now."
"You saw Brittle Stars?!? Really?!?"
"If it takes that many people to measure it, it's probably not legal."
"Long body, short tail."
“Glad to see you have the uncommon decency not to be watching that trash."

We followed this with two dives in Adam’s Cove near the west end of the island.  First dive in closer to the beach then the second.  Visibility dropped 10 feet and there was more surge from the swells still on the outside.  Fish were the order here.  We poked our bow out into the swells and decided later would be better!  Back east to Tyler Bight and then to Crook Point.  Conditions were much the same as the first dive but it was obvious that the outside swells were dying down.
We ran to Cuyler’s on the north side of the island for our final dive, night dive (no-one interested) and our comfortable overnight anchorage.  The pork cutlets were great, maintaining the outstanding service and food typical of the Peace.  The ownership change is transparent to the divers.

Saturday 6:00 AM we pulled anchor and headed northwest into the middle of nowhere, looking for Boomerang Reef.  A 30 to 40 minute Loran/GPS/depth finder search finally located the U-shaped razorback.  Spectacular dive with a huge variety of sea life including large scallops.  Depths to 150 plus with one small pinnacle at about 60 feet.  The pinnacle was home for one huge Mola-Mola.  Getting on the boat was a little sporty especially with bags of scallops or camera equipment.
Off to Richardson’s Rock where the swells were much more active.  Some of the larger swells were almost breaking over the shallower reefs, making for a quite intimidating anchorage.  Throw in a little chop and getting off the surface ASAP was very desirable.  Once into dive mode it was relatively comfortable with the usual large scallops and fish for the game takers.  As always a nice nice dive.  Return to the swim step was best made from immediately below rather than any kind of surface swim.
The final dive was back in Lover’s Cove which was a short dive for most.  The sun was in and out, unlike the very warm first day, and finally it succumbed to a heavy solid overcast.

One booby of note.  John D., for whatever strange reason on the Richardson’s Rock dive, attached himself via a 10 foot line to the anchor chain in order to hang-off for a few minute safety stop.  The plan was seriously flawed, as John found out when a large swell came through and essentially jerked him out of the water.  Nice going John.  So  we made San Miguel, two major advanced dive pinnacles and covered most of our plan.  Great stuff.

Tim anchored over the Avalon and Kathy and I went in to confirm we had it. Not so, a square pattern to the south and east showed no Avalon. We surfaced and tried again this time to the north. Bingo. The still intact bow appeared out of the gloom. Marker cup released, we swam from bow to stem. No current, bottom visibility at 25 to 30 feet, much murkier above 50 feet or so. Water temperature was in the low 60's, very comfortable dive. Surface conditions were about as good as it gets.

Regrouping, we decided that the Dominator was divable, not very often the case, it has to pretty much flat calm. We anchored 150 yards from the visible stern portion, requiring a good swim before encountering bottom sections, ribs, plates and other debris. I had not dived the wreck in fifteen years and it has become much more a total part of the reef The stern posts, drive shaft etc. are still intact, sans plates, but things are so jumbled that unless you're a real Liberty ship historian, it's difficult to picture the whole. Nice dive in great conditions.

Due to a strange variety of "oopsies" in the non-Sea Diver contingent it was decided not to make a reverse profile attempt on the Olympic and to stick with shallower dives close in to Palos Verdes. Tim B. picked a spot right under the Point Vicente Lighthouse which yielded a few scallops and some nice diving in the reefs, small canyons, and plateaus typical of the whole area. Flat calm remained, sun was hot and the view was primo California. What more does one need?! Several dives were made in this vicinity and divers dispersed into the sun and relaxation.

We were back at the dock by about 4:30 PM -great for a Sunday dive with chance to clean-up
Sunday night, in lieu of early Monday or later!!
Just a real nice day away from it all.

Arrival at Begg saw slightly choppy conditions but well within diveable range for most on board. We anchored on the shoulder to the east of the pinnacles. Contact with the reef occurred at about 55 feet, with potential depths well beyond normal sport diving range. Visibility was 50 feet or so increasing to 70 plus just below the 100 foot depth. Temperature decreased from 62°F to 57°F at depth. Scallops galore, most in the 6" to 8" range at 55-75 feet and 7" to 9" at depth. We accomplished three dives at Begg in decreasing surface chop.

We then moved into the San Nicolas environs diving an "unknown" spot on the West End with 45' of water in 20 to 30 feet visibility - not a great spot. The fifth dive and sixth night dive were in Dutch Harbor, our overnight spot with similar conditions to dive four. Water temperature was in the low 60° 's, with not much game at either spot.

Five A.M. Saturday we were on our way back to Begg Rock. The ocean was calmer than the previous day and we anchored a little farther east. It became apparent that a strong current was running. This made the first dive somewhat strenuous but manageable. Dive two (or three) had little or no current to contend with. Conditions were otherwise much as the day before.

Scallops limits taken and surprisingly few varieties of fish to spear the fifth (or sixth) dive at Begg Rock (in two days) becomes less than challenging. Kathy D. and I decided to go "deep" and try to pick off one "trophy scallop". Deep we went, no trophy!

Bananas were on board, apparently causing a series of non-major events. About a half dozen computers went down, including my primary before the first dive on Friday. Lights, ab irons, game bags, and knives were lost in abnormal numbers. One of the boat compressors died after feeding "tasty" air to many divers. The anchor got stuck. Dived in the worst current in a long time. My face mask floated off my face at 65 feet... plus other sundry stuff. By the middle of the second day of diving the banana user was looking a little concerned!!! Despite having bananas smuggled into his galley the new chef rose above this potential for disaster and managed to prepare several extremely tasty meals. Nice trip!

Early June was not bad weather wise, a little breezy at times but we expected good weather for the San Clemente dive. It was bumpy on the overnight run and early AM showed Great Escape pointed at the front side not Nine Fathom Reef. We eventually tucked in just south of the Navy restricted Area near the Blockhouse. It was reasonably calm with no current. Kathy D. and I dropped off the starboard side (away from the island) and drifted down to 90 feet or so in poor visibility before we realized we had missed the reef and wall. A 90 degree turn revealed the wall. Overall visibility on the reef was about 25-30 feet, 60° F temperature and no fish of any consequence. A 'Ho Hum' kind of dive. Some on board must have liked it as they were down for 50 minutes!!

We moved about 5 miles north and west, skirting the Restricted Area and anchored in about 50 feet of much clearer water. Nice spot with heavy kelp, leaning underwater from a medium current at the surface. The surface current was to be a factor the remainder of the day making it difficult for our two spear hungry skin divers. Below there were "millions" of small fish of all varieties typical at San Clemente. Good sign for the future, but little good for spearing. Water temperature was 59°F and visibility in the 50-60 feet range.

Next choice was the outer edge of Northwest Harbor. Ripping current with poor visibility say 10- 15 feet. Larger fish were available but they were tough to see!! A short move south failed to provide a good spot as we immediately dragged anchor in the current.

Spot five was back real close to spot two with little change in conditions. Some divers soldiered on others, including us, had quit and were looking for sun, which was elusive for awhile.

Tim B. tried to find good spots but Nino leftovers prevailed. There was also little entertainment in the booby stakes. However, a day out diving, cruising, and sunning beats a LOT of other options. Let's hope Mr. Niflo is DEAD!! On to the July two day to Begg Rock.

Peace, with skipper and soon to be new owner Eric at the helm, left Ventura Harbor around 1:00 a.m. When I awoke at 4:00 - ish I noticed we were anchored and decided unless Peace had recently been outfitted with some ultra-smooth high power nuclear engines.. .there was no chance that we were at the far end of San Miguel. We ended up on the front side of Santa Cruz where the combination of a large south swell and northwest wind was making the three conspicuously absent Sea Divers (A.P., J.D. and E.S.) look like they made the right choice!

Capt. Eric decided that MAYBE things would be a little better on the backside and piloted Peace around the point through numerous touch-and-goes and gained a not insignificant amount of airtime for his log book. Fortunately, there were no pukers on the boat and the only casualty during the run was a freshly baked pan of brownies who's seat belt someone apparently left unfastened during the trip. Once on the backside Capt. Eric demonstrated his helmsmanship by driving Peace deep into the painted cave, which if you've never had the experience it's a must see!! Considering the wind and sea conditions this was a uniquely testicular display of the Captain's piloting prowess.

The wind followed us to the backside but a few nooks and crannies were available for us to tuck into and do some diving. Most of the areas looked very similar with reef sloping to sand and numerous cracks and crevices for the adventurous to explore. Water temperature was in the mid to upper 50° 's. A few scallops were brought up on every dive. In addition some precision marksmanship was demonstrated on the part of some of the spearfisherman. The apparent philosophy being that ANYONE can hit a big fish!

Peter L. was the only real 'booby' of the trip as he managed to jump in off the bow with his glasses and left his mask on the deck. The fact that he had to continuously clear his 'mask' must have been the big tip-off. Chris G. had 'booby' potential tho' for his expression of abject horror when a spider crab was involuntarily tossed into the hot tub with him narrowly missing Chris's family jewels. Despite the wind the weather cooperated and sun prevailed.  The boat had an extremely light load (13 passengers). That combined with the outstanding service and camaraderie of the Peace crew once more made the trip worthwhile.

Catalina - Ship Rock / Blue Cavern / Bird Rock on the Great Escape
No report

We left the dock as planned, just after 11:00 PM, on the belief that "it's better further out". We went smooth to fairly bumpy and 2:30 AM saw us heading south on the backside of Catalina!! Early light we were running along the front side of San Clemente heading for the calm of Pyramid Cove many miles away from San Nicolas. With the boat near full we were ready to hit the water before the crowd. The first dive spot was just outside The Boilers in Pyramid Cove, in calm, light current (into the cove), 57° F, 50 or so foot visibility water. The vertical walls contained many cracks with many, many, small bugs. Even at 80 plus feet we only saw undersized "teenagers". We presume bugs mate early in life as there were no moms, pops, or other larger family members to be seen!! Nice dive though, especially having not been in the water since late November. The variable clouds were slowly dissipating and, although still early, warmth was coming on.

The second dive, in almost identical water conditions, was in the west area of the cove. Here reefs dotted a sandy bottom at about 50 feet. Less of them, but the same small bugs. One halibut was found in the sand. A short run back around Pyramid Cove saw us looking for Steve's Pinnacle (or Reef). We finally hooked the top and 30 divers hit the water within a few minutes causing a minor traffic jam around this very nice pinnacle. Bubbles everywhere. Sea life disappeared, wouldn't you?  The tip of the reef is at about 25 feet dropping to about 140 feet on the outside. Water temperature was at 59°F, quite comfortable for March.

By now the sun was quite warm and several divers decided to sun instead of dive. Dive four was about one quarter mile north west of Steve's Reef. Depths to 45 feet, no current and not much else!! A nice but not spectacular day of diving over we left at just after 1:30 PM. Rock and roll was the order of the day for the run back except for a brief period in the lee of southeast Catalina. We docked back at 22nd Street about 7:20 PM. There were no boobies of note on this trip, but El Nino unfortunately did it's thing!

Santa Barbara - Sutil Island on the Great Escape
The dive boat was is in dry dock for storm related repairs so the trip was canceled.

On Tuesday 3 February in the early morning, high winds that preceded the first major downpour caused the 22nd Street Landing's dock to break setting the Great Escape, Encore, Reliant, and Maverick either loose or banging onto each other.

The event was precipitated after failure of one of the outer pilings.  The Reliant finished up on the rocks with bottom and side damage, the Great Escape and Maverick banged together for some period of time causing sufficient damage to the Great Escape to require dry docking for hull repairs. The Maverick's swim step and rear rails were destroyed. The Encore somehow managed no significant damage.

One Sea Diver couldn't take no for an answer. On the evening of the scheduled dive he was reported to be standing on the remains of the dock with his thumb extended outward.