When we pulled into the backside of San Miguel, the morning was nice. There was a light fog, but the sun promised to poke through. In the lea of the island, the swell was only a few feet. All in all, it was good diving conditions. I, on the other hand, was in no condition to dive. I felt miserable, thinking that after organizing this trip, I was the only one who wasn’t going to be able to dive. That is hardly leading by example. Then, through the haze of nausea, I realized that I actually was leading by example. You have to know your limits, and I had hit mine. The worse thing would have been to “tough it out” and jump in the water. I skipped the first two dives and sat on deck sipping water to prevent dehydration. After a couple of hours I was feeling better. By the time the third dive rolled around I felt well enough to suit up and hit the water.
There was a lot of kelp, but once we dropped below it conditions were quite nice. The water was cold (52F) and clear (40ft vis). The site was beautiful with lots of overhangs. The best part was that everything looked healthy. There were fat copper rockfish hiding in the reef and a couple of fast moving sea lions checking us out. The most interesting photo subject was a type of aggregating jellyfish that I had never seen before. In fact it was hard to see at all since it was almost perfectly translucent with pale green nodules. I waved to show to my dive buddy, who proceeded to pass his glove completely through it, shredding it to bits. Evidently he thought I was pointing at something else and hadn’t seen the jellyfish at all!
When we surfaced, conditions had changed dramatically. The swell had picked up and the wind started to blow with gale force. Fortunately we had navigated well and surfaced upwind of the boat. The ride home was exciting. 10ft seas and gale force winds tend to add to the adrenaline level. Galley items flew around and the refrigerator began to dance across the floor. Fortunately I hadn’t removed my drysuit, because I still had a few more dates with the side rail where, in addition to the indignity, I was blasted by sheets of green seawater. Maybe drysuit brochures should list as one of the benefits that they “protect you from rogue waves while heaving your guts over the side.”
When we passed Santa Cruz into the inner channel, conditions changed dramatically. The wind and waves vanished, and the sun came out. By the time we got to the harbor it was flat calm. So if our “outer island” trip had ended up at Santa Cruz, as they tend to do, it probably would have been a pleasant day filled with diving, instead of our little adventure.
Here is the best of the few frames I took that day. It is a copper rockfish. Click on image for more details.
