My Retirement Plan was "Go Diving", I decided to review how successfully I've been executing the plan. August, 2024

I retired (happily I was paid for the next nine months as part of my severance plan) on November 1, 2011. So this November 1 will be 13 years of retirement diving. So I'm doing some assement of how I'm doing on my retirement plan which was, and is, to go diving.
Below: My sweatshirt clearly states my retirement plan

I'm going to go through my diving blogs and count up my California dives and estimate the number of dives on the diving vacations that I've done since retirement. First, here's a list of the Liveaboard Diving Boat trips I've made, only the ones since the end of 2011 are part of the retirement diving count.
1. 1988 Little Cayman Diver Donna and I went to Cayman Brac for our honeymoon in 1978, this was shore diving and included twice crossing over to Little Cayman. We decided to go back to celebrate our 10th anniversary and did our first Liveaboard trip on Little Cayman Diver. It was excellent. Sadly, some years later the boat burned and sank, no casualties, fortunately.
2. 1992 Bay Islands Aggressor - it ended up just being a dive trip around Roatan because the boat completely broke down! We got half off on a makeup trip the next year.
3. 1993 Truk Aggressor - the wrecks were sensational!
4. 1996 Turks and Caicos Aggressor, our daughter Erika joined us, she was 14, she'd gotten certified at 12 in 1994. She and her fish identification course instructor saw a Marlin!!
5. 2000 Turks and Caicos Aggressor - this was a Humpback Whale a ten day snorkeling trip to the Silver Banks which are between Turks and Caicos and Haiti/Dominican Republic. I fabulous experiment, unforgetable. I knew I'd have to take Donna and go again.
6. 2000 Sea Hunter, Palau. Donna, Erika, and I were the only passengers on this small boat for most of the ten days. Wonderful. Especially memorable was the shore excursion on Peliliu, one of the bloody marine invasions against the Japanese occupiers in WWII.
7. 2001, Star Dancer, New Guinea Donna, Erika, and I together with oldest son,Matt, same age as Erika, of my college roomate Jon.
8. 2002, Turks and Caicos Aggressor, back to the Silver Banks with the Humpbacks, with Donna. We had an incredible long encounter on Valentine's Day with a lonely juvenile Humpback eager for company, incredible, unforgetable.
9. 2007 Tahiti Aggressor
10. 2011 Bilikiki, Solomons, my final dive trip before retiring
11. 2014 Seven Seas, Komodo, Indonesia
12. 2016 Undersea Hunter, Cocos Island, Costa Rica
13. 2017 Nai'a, Fiji
14. 2018 Southern Sport, Revillagigedos Islands
15. 2021 Nautilus Explorer, Revillagigedos Islands
16. 2023 Raja Laut, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
17. 2024 Nai'a, Fiji, next month!!
I decided to include my favorite dive photo with each year. Incidentally, the way I pick favorite dive photos is seven points for content/subject, 3 points for photo quality... Next, from my dive photo dives in 2012, 64 dives.
Below: Greg bought a RIB (rigid inflatable boat), a zodiac with a 40 hp Evinrude after I retired for our heavy diving to come. Below:

Next, I went to my diving blogsite to count up my diving blogs from 2013 until now, too bad I didn't start them sooner.

2013 30 blogs, they cover August through December.Plus from my dive photo dates 83 dives in total.

Below: Donna and I had a great long trip to Tulum, Yucatan, Mexico. One day we went out to snorkel with Whale Sharks, unforgettable! Donna with Whale Shark, Below:

2014 44 Estimated 40 dives with Seven Seas in Komodo, six shore based off Vanua levu, Savusavu, Fiji+ 48 Monterey= 97 dives in total

I chose one photograph to represent the year, below, its our liveaboard "Seven Seas" at anchor in Horse Shoe Bay, Rinja, where there were many Komodo Dragons that I'd dreamed of seeing my whole life on the beach with fantastic diving in the Bay. A scene straight out of King Kong:

2015 44 16 dives in Florida off my home town of Dunedin plus 59 dives in Monterey/Carmel= 75 dives in total

The year included diving with my old Florida diving buddy Tim Metcalf. I also got Donna out for a couple of dives, I love this picture of her with a Goliath Grouper on an old shrimpboat wreck, below:

2016 38 21 Monterey/Carmel dives plus 22 dives at Cocos with Undersea Hunter = 43 dives in total

It's very difficult to pick one favorite picture for the year. The dive trip on Undersea Hunter to Cocos with Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow was incredible. Big Tiger Shark, lots of Scalloped Hammerheads, but one particular dive was into a bait ball being decimated by fish, sharks, and dolphins, and Brown Boobies. I love this shot of a Brown Boobie, below:

2017 47 25 dives with Nai'a in Fiji, 19 with the Vision in the Channel Islands, 48 in Monterey/Carmel = 92 dives total

Another fantastic dive year which included a trip on the Nai'a in Fiji to celebrate my 50 years of scuba diving, but my favorite photograph is of a male Cabezon guarding his mate's eggs, from the Pinnacles in Carmel Bay, below:

2018 41 18 dives with Southern Sport, Revillagedigos Islands, 17 with Vision in the Channel Islands, 37 Monterey = 72 Total

The most fun single day of diving of the year, one of the most fun, ever, was visiting a Sea Lion rookery in the Channel Islands on the Vision during a multi day trip organized by Richard Salas. I took this selfie at one point, below:

2019 34 17 dives/snorkels in Tonga, 13 with the Vision Channel Islands, 12 in Florida, 25 in Monterey = 67 total

Another great year of diving which included snorkeling with False Orcas and Humpbacks in Tonga and the incredible experience of snorkeling with Sperm Whales off Dominica, below is my favorite:

2020 14 Covid! 20 Total Dives, Monterey/Carmel only because of Covid

A very limited year of diving due to the Covid pandemic. Below is a picture of Greg with Giant Kelp on the Pinnacles (sadly, one of the few places that still has kelp due to the urchin plague which followed the annihilation of sea stars, especially the top urchin predator, Sunflower Stars, which are now locally extinct.)

2021 13 still Covid impacted..19 with Nautilus Explorer, Revillgigedos, 4 in Florida, 8 Monterey/Carmel= 31 total

A highlight of the year was a dive trip organized by Richard Salas on the Nautilus Explorer to the Revillagigedos Islands, about 20 hours by boat south of Cabo San Lucas. Below is a picture of a Giant Manta with two great dive buddies in the background, Guy and Audry:

2022 11 hmmm...Lots more dives than blogs, 15 dives at God's Pocket, BC, 27 with the Vision in the Channel Islands, 16 Monterey=58 total

Great local diving in Monterey/Carmel, a great dive trip to God's Pocket, and last but not least, a long trip through the Channel Islands on the Vision. Below is Guy from the Vision trip with a beautiful California Sheepshead in a magnificent kelp forest:

2023 29 36 dives with Raja Laut in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, 22 Monterey/Carmel = 58 total

I'd wanted to dive the famous Raja Ampat area in Indonesia for many years. Donna and I finally got there with Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow on the dive boat Raja Laut. I'd long wanted to see a Wobegong Shark, well, I saw many on this trip, they are fantastic, below:

2024 19 as of August 15, have one scheduled dive in a week on Beachhopper II, might get out with Greg again before Fiji trip. YTD 55 dives in 21 days at Crystal Blue Resort, Anilao, Phillippines, 14 Monterey, 2 Catalina= 74 dives YTD

Winged Argonaut riding a Salp, Crystal Blue Resort, Anilao, Phillippines

So my total dives since retiring is at least 776 dives since retiring. This works out to an average of 5 dives per month or about a dive per week. Not to shabby. I'll give myself a B+ for execution of my retirement plan, which is to go diving. Looks like I'll do over 100 dives this year with three weeks in Fiji next month!

Two Very Good Dives on Metridium Mountain and VT3 with Beachhopper II August 10, 2024

Guy Foster and I got out for two very good with Beachhopper. For a change, I decided to shoot macro instead of my usual wide angle, it was a good day to make that choice, visibility was only about 12 ft, very green. Guy, getting ready for the Nai'a trip in Fiji next month, wanted to try out his new Backscatter Stropbes with wide angle...it was a good day to shoot macro... Below are some photos from our first dive site of the day, Metridium Mountain. To see the rest, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BEN3nNy8ibNqsSUPA Metridium Mountain is in 65 ft of water. The water was very green and it was quite dark on the bottom, the fact that it was a foggy overcast mording didn't help. I was very glad I'd decided to shoot macro for a change, I wanted to also try out having a Gopro mounted to my camera, I even remembered to shoot a couple videos! I quickly decided to take a couple of macro closeups of the many Metridium (aka Plumrose) Anemones that give the site its name, below:

Below: Some Cup Coral Shots, the Cup Corals are about 3/4 inches across

I was very happy to come across a Hilton's Aeolid Nudibranch, about between 2 and 3 inches long, below:

Later, I came back to the Hilton's Nudibranch, because it was near Beachhopper II's anchor. I got this shoot of it with a Coraline Sculpin, below:

The Coraline Sculpin was beautiful, below:

Below: Yellow Spotted Cadina Nudibranch, I haven't seen many of these.

Below: Red Sea Cucumber filter feeding followed by a White Sea Cucumber doing the same

Gopher Rockfish face, below:

Below: Cockerell's Dorid Nudibranch, another type I've rarely seen.

White-Speckled Dorid Nudibranch, below:

Below: Snubnose Sculpin

Our second dive was at VT3. I was amazed, again, at the many many Candy Striped Shrimp scattered across the site. Below:

Here's one parked next to a Black Eyed Goby:

Knobby Sea Star with a Blunt Nose Sculpin, below:

Strawberry (aka Club-Tipped) Anemones, each about 1/2 inch across, below:

TBD Sculpin, 4-5 inches long, below:

I also used this dive to try out my new Shearwater Peregrine Dive Computer, it worked well, was very easy to read. So Donna and I will have working dive computers for Fiji next month!

Great dive on the Pinnacles with fun surface action from two Humpbacks "kelping" after we surfaced. July 31, 2024

Greg Hoberg and I took his RIB down to Carmel Bay and dived the Pinnacles yesterday. It was a great dive wiht 25 to 50 ft of visibility in chilly 49 degree water, we were both shivering hard after surfacing. Once we were back in his boat we were entertained by a pair of Humbacks for nearly an hour. They were playing in the Giant Kelp "kelping", rolling and doing spy hops. We suspect they were scratching themselves on the kelp. Below are some photos from the dive, to see more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6uFZWdHGoENbikQM9 Below: Greg practically landed on top of one of the many Egg Yolk Jellyfish drifting by on the current. Once we reached the bottom, we were, once again, greeted by a plethora of Blue Rockfish.

Below: Photo bombing Gopher Rockfish with a Treefish

Below: A Kelp Rockfish

The site has amazing density of invertebrate life, below:

The Kelp forest had been expanding wonderfully on the Pinnacles, it had reached maybe 40% of pre sea star wasting/urchin plague extent, but it seems to be shrinking again and it was obvious the Giant Kelp is under massed attack from hordes of ravenous sea urchins, again. Below:

Below: A cooperative, good sized Lingcod

It's a wonderful dive site, with great visibility and ruffed terrain, swimming through the kelp forest is magical. Below"

Below: Greg photographing a Gopher Rockfish, them being carefully supervised by it while taking more pictures.

Below: Yellow Edged Cadlina Nudibranch in foreground.

We had a nice encounter with an unusually patient China Rockfish. Below:

When we surfaced, shivering, from our dive we discovered that there were a pair of Humpbacks playing in the Giant Kelp. We just hung out and watched for about 45 minutes. They ranged from 100 yards away to 30 ft away. They were moving slowly and playing in the kelp. They spy hopped a couple of times, obviously checking us out. Greg pulled out his smart phone and videod some of the action: