Diving Anacapa Island with the Vision November 11, 2017

During the night the Vision journeyed north from Santa Catalina Island to Anacapa Island - back into its "home" territory, the northern Channel Islands, so that we could make multiple dives and still leave in time to get us back to port in Santa Barbara by 5 pm.  The first dive was at Coral Reef Pinnacle, the second site was Portuguese Rock.

Coral Reef Pinnacle is a bit deep, it was 70 ft to the top of the Pinnacle and it was easy to break 100 ft on the slopes so I paid close attention both to my saturation and my draining core temperature through my compressed wetsuit.  Here are some photos from my dive at Coral Reef Pinnacle, to see more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GWxGv3iC9SbTcmM92

                        The Pinnacle is shrouded in tens of thousands of multi-colored brittle stars!

                               Treefish

                             Treefish with more brittle stars.  Lots more.

      Photo bombing Senorita on the left and a camouflaged Cabezon on the right.

Cabezon with a juvenile Sheephead, you can just make out a couple divers in the background (the top of the Pinnacle became well populated as folks avoided to much nitrogen saturation), you can also just make out the Vision in the top background far above us.

                                                 Spiny lobster

                                          Another Cabezon up on the shallowest part of the Pinnacle

 Back up the anchor line for my safety stop and soon after, back aboard the Vision for my second breakfast!

Our second dive site of the day, and the last for our six day trip, was Portuguese Rock.  It's a beautiful, shallow site and we had great light and great visibility.  Could have made two dives on this site and I sure was tempted but I was facing a 400 mile drive home that night so I wanted to dive, shower off, eat an early lunch and get in a good nap during the three hour trip back to the dock.  Here's some pictures from this dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UsOGCat4zeZ8Wev62

Great light, beautiful stands of Giant Kelp, calm conditions, no significant current.  Portuguese Rock was a great final dive site for a great trip.

Beautiful Island Kelpfish

Pacific Whitefish, another new fish subject for me

Another, and the final, Giant Kelpfish for this trip.

I managed to get a half decent picture of this tiny, colorful, nudibranch, Mexicanis portorae ,  less than a quarter inch long, with my wide angle lens...

Spanish Shawl Nudibranch, about 1 1/2 inches long, again, not bad given I was shooting with my Tokina 10-17 mm fisheye wide angle lens.

Another, and my final, for this trip, beautiful Island Kelpfish

    Back to the Vision for my final boarding of the trip.

Great trip, great weather, great conditions, great photo subjects, some of which were new to me, outstanding food and plenty of it!  I'm already signed up for Richard Salas' trip next November.