Vision Day 3, San Clemente Island November 7, 2018

The third day of our wonderful six day Channel Islands trip on the Vision, found us at San  Clemente Island.  We had beautiful dives there in thick Giant Kelp forests.  We were diving right off a fake bombed out town that the Navy Seals use for training.  We jokingly referred to it as "Osama's 2nd Home"....The kelp forests were full of fish which was a joy to see.  I saw many, many juvenile California Spiny Lobsters but didn't see any large ones, that made me feel better about the fact that I didn't bother to get a lobster license for this trip....Sea conditions continued to be very calm for our day of diving but winds came up sharply as expected late in the day and we had a rough crossing back up to the northern Channel islands Wednesday night but thankfully the captain knew a calm anchorage for the wind and sea conditions.

 Sure saw lots of large California Sheepshead on this trip!

                                        Island Kelpfish, about  5 inches long.  If I wasn't lazy, I'd edit out the strand of kelp....

    Since I was diving alone without my supremely capable underwater compass navigating frequent dive buddy Greg Hoberg, and since it was a large, dense kelp bed, I was very pleased to find the boat's anchor during my attempted compass box back to the boat.  So I could do another smaller circuit without saving air beyond what I would need for my safety stop...

    Back to the Vision.

Safety stops are really enjoyable when you are hanging in a sunlit kelp bed.

For more from my San Clemente Island dives please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AYth9q338EDooFTR9