The Vision's captain took advantage of calm seas to cross from Santa Catalina Island to Santa Barbara Island overnight. They up anchored at 3 am to arrive at dawn. I slept so soundly that I neither heard the anchor lift nor noticed the minor motion of the boat underway in calm seas, I woke when they dropped anchor just before 7 am. We dived three sites at Santa Barbara Island: first was two dives at Sutil Island/Yellowtail Alley, the second site was "The Arch", extremely well named, the final site was near the Sea Lion Rookery where I made a night dive which was more entertaining than necessary with frequent dive bombs out of the black by sea lions...
Sutil Island, Santa Barbara Island
The Sutil Island dive site has beautiful giant kelp forests and lots os California Sheephead. The water temperature was cooler than Catalina, 58 degrees...though still a lot warmer than the 52 degree and below temps typical in Monterey and Carmel where I dive frequently. I don't think I've mentioned that this knuckle dragging Neanderthal wetsuit diver was one of four (out of 22 divers) wetsuit divers, the rest were comfortably warm in their drysuits....I had to strip off my jacket top, peal down my farmer john to my waist, dry off, put on my big wonderful diving boat coat and warm cap and drink lots of hot chocolate and tea between dives to make four dives in a day...Below are some more shots from my two dives at Sutil Island site, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bUgg0LcjBuKsPcv93
Large male Sheephead
A Golden and a Red Gorgonia...I should remember to take a natural light picture of these to show how much lighting them up with a strobe brings out color....there's no red at these depths.
An Island Kelpfish warily watches a strange clumsy creature maneuver for a photo.
You've probably noticed a dearth of other divers in my shots. I dived solo on the trip and typically didn't see other divers until I was close to the boat on my return - and at that point real interested in going up for my safety stop, getting out of the chilly water, and grabbing a hot chocolate.
We had excellent visibility, obviously.
Lots of sea lions at these sites off Santa Barbara Island
Back to the Vision!
Our next dive was at "The Arch", as you will see, it is extremely well named.
The first view you get of the Arch is very memorable. A large group of fish enjoyed hanging under the arch.
Another Giant Kelpfish, before this trip, in all my years of diving, I had only encountered two of these, on this trip I encountered several. They are a really cool looking fish and they move like kelp waving in the current and surge.
To see more from this dive at the Arch please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jMTK3G4gewH8Hjea2
During my night dive near the Sea Lion Rookery I was frequently dive bombed out of the dark by sea lions. They were having a great time but I could have done with less visits!
Gorgonias
Another Giant Kelpfish, the first time I'e seen one on a night dive.
An "Orange Blob", yep, that's its common name, its a type of sea slug. To the right of the Orange Blob is a California Cone, to the left is a Chestnut Cowry.
Yet another beautiful Giant Kelpfish
To see more from this dive please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7qhmdW79BxUjpQJi1
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