Santa Barbara Island with the Vision November 7, 2017

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

Vision Diving Trip, Santa Catalina Island, Monday, Nov 6

I've just returned from a six day diving trip on the Vision dive boat out of Santa Barbara, November 6 -11.  Sunday, Nov 5 I spent driving from Healdsburg to the boat, 402 miles, 7 hours, in order to board the boat for our 10 pm departure.  I woke up just before dawn to find the Vision was approaching Santa Catalina, it has been too rough to overnight at Santa Barbara Island.  Our first two dive sites at Santa Catalina were Shiprock for the first dive then Bird Rock for two day dives and a night dive.  We had 60 ft of visibility at Shiprock, 64 degrees at the surface, a cooler 59 degrees at 80 ft.  I spent a lot of time shallow on this dive because it was bright, beautiful, and there was no sea surge.

It had been a year since I was in the Garibaldi's territory so I once again shot way too many pictures of the perky damselfish.

It was great to dive shallow with bright light and no swell and thus no sea surge.

A sea urchin with bluebanded gobies, a pretty, colorful fish found in the Channel Islands but not up in Monterey and Carmel where I usually dive.

Yellow Zooanthids (a type of sea anemone), sea urchin, and more bluebanded gobies.  I only used my wide angle fish eye 10-17 mm lens on this trip so I'm pretty pleased with my pictures of small subjects without using my 60 mm macro lens.

Shiprock, from my wet camera case on the deck of the Vision at the end of my dive.  To see more pictures from this dive, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/JTnlF0tg4X7iTcBA3

Bird Rock, Santa Catalina Island

                                          Bird Rock, Santa Catalina Island

                                          Red Gorgonia

The Bird Rock site has a long winding plateau ringed with swim throughs and grottoes, it is beautiful.

Lots of small spiny lobsters on this site.  I saw a couple legal sized lobsters on my night dive but didn't bother catching them, expecting to encounter larger ones on later dives...but never did...

This dive also has beautiful kelp stands and a plethora of fish.

I'm really pleased with this Garibaldi letting me photo his "good side" with the Vision and its inflatable skiff on the surface in the background.  For more pictures from this dive please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/IlW5quZm5ZhsIuSw1

Bird Island, 2nd Dive

  I was occasionally dive bombed by curious sea lions, I'm thrilled by this photo I managed to get of one, it's a great action shot, he's well lit, you can clearly see both flippers out to allow him to make a tight turn.

Yes, I would say there were a plethora of Blacksmiths!

                                          Golden Gorgonia

                                         Another grotto at Bird Island.

A Giant Kelpfish (perhaps immature) cleaning (I think, I've read that they clean Giant Black Sea Bass) a Garibaldi.

    An adult Giant Kelpfish.  Before this trip I had only encountered Giant Kelpfish twice in my forty years of diving Monterey and Carmel, on this trip I encountered Giant Kelpfish on several dives.

To see more photos from this dive please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8gQmBVTdrwaLQA9C3

Juvenile California Spiny Lobsters on my first night dive of the trip.

                                     Horned Shark, the first one I've photo'd, I think.

                                       Spiny Lobster with some sleepy Blacksmiths.

                                          Scorpionfihs

To see more from this dive please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/MekvnPIXlFXLGk8q2