Herein lies the tale of a midweek getaway from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles to the laid back island of Santa Catalina with some cold water diving in the amber forest.
Back in February, Deborah and I participated in the annual Avalon Underwater Clean Up. All of the monies collected go to support the recompression chamber on the island so I bought a whole bunch of raffle prize tickets to do my part to support the chamber. The chance to win a prize never crossed my mind. Yea, right! Well, I did win, two free nights at the <A href=" Canyon Resort</A>!
The summer season on Catalina Island officially begins with Memorial Day weekend. Prior to that, things are pretty quiet. So, with time between giving my last final exam and the start of summer school, I figured we could do a quick mid-week getaway to the island for a little diving before the crowds started showing up for the summer. A call to the hotel and <A href=" Express</A> and all of the arrangements were made.
Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, California
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For those of you who don't know, <A href=" Island</A> is located, at least according to the Four Preps' song, "twenty six miles across the sea" south of Los Angeles. Most of the island belongs to the Catalina Conservancy who purchased the island from the Wrigley Family (chewing gum magnate). The quaint City of Avalon is about a mile square with a permanent population of less than 3,500. During the summer and on weekends the population can swell to more than 10,000 with boaters, day-trippers and overnighters. There is a lot to do and see on the island, but the main attraction for us has always been the great scuba diving available in the marine park at Casino Point. The park is in Descanso Bay next to the picturesque Casino building (a movie theater with ballroom on the upper floor, never used as a casino; go figure!). Protected from fishing, the marine life is more abundant and tamer here than in the surrounding waters. The park hosts a healthy kelp forest, normally great visibility, and several wrecks. Several years ago they built a stairway down to the water from the parking lot making entry/exit very easy. Many beginning and advanced scuba classes come to Avalon for their open water dives. Despite being enormously popular, even on a crowded day you usually don't see many divers while you are underwater.
Marine Park, Casino Point, Avalon
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<A href=" Express</A> offers several boats each day from San Pedro, Long Beach and Newport Beach. On Wednesday morning, we drove the van down to San Pedro to catch the 8:50 am express to Avalon. Dive bags, weights, tanks and clothing bags were strapped to our dollies for the trip. The trip to the island only took a little more than an hour. We quickly unloaded and reassembled all of our gear and pushed it up the ramp. Deborah waited for me while I took the hotel shuttle up to the Canyon Resort to check in. It didn't take me long to return to the express terminal and began the walk to the park. One of these days I'm going to make a cardboard sign that reads "Scuba homeless. Will work for air!" for when we push our dollies through Avalon!
Garibaldi (Hypsypops rubicundus) California's State Marine Fish
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The early morning fog burned off and it turned into a beautiful sunny day in Avalon. We essentially had the park to ourselves with only one other pair of divers. Gearing up, we walked down the stairs to began our first dive. The ocean was flat and the kelp was lying motionless on the surface indicating that there was no current. Descending, we moved slowly through and around the tall stalks of giant kelp stopping to take a picture or look at the usual suspects: garish orange Garibaldi, lots of big calico bass, blacksmiths being cleaned by senioritas, a school of mackeral hovering just outside the kelp in a river of silver, a spotted scorpionfish, a tiny Spanish shawl nudibranch, and an occasional sheephead. The wreck of the SueJac, a ferro-cement boat that sank in the 60's lies in the corner of the park with its bow in deep water. Only the hull is still intact, but there are some holes to peek in and out of and various wires and pieces to examine. We worked our way down to the bow in 90 feet of water before running short on non-decompression time and starting the leisurely multilevel swim back through the forest to the steps for our exit. The water was cold, 53 degrees below the thermocline; I love my drysuit! Visibility was an acceptable 30+ feet. On a good day in the fall, visibility can be a magical 100+ at Casino Point, a good excuse to return.
Calico bass aka Kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus)
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There is an air van in the park, but during slack season it is not open during the week. So, I put the tanks on one of the dollies and pushed them back into town to the green pier to get them filled at <A href=" Divers Supply</A>. Not a bad way to spend a surface interval.
Spotted scorpionfish (Scorpaena mystes)
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Our second dive of the day was to do a surface swim out to the buoy line at the edge of the park and then descend and do an underwater navigation to the wreck of the Valiant which lies several hundred yards outside the park. You have to get permission from the Harbor Master to do this dive. But permission was easy to obtain because of light boat traffic that day. The bottom outside the park is sand with some huge single strands of bull kelp lying just off the bottom. Deborah spotted a neat little nudibranch which turned out to be Janolus barbarensis. The Valiant is the remains of a private yacht that burned and sank in the 1920's. Only the bow and stern are still standing with the interior plates fallen into a heap. A healthy forest of giant kelp is growing on the wreck and the usual Southern California fish are attracted to the site. Lobsters hide in the wreck at night, but weren't too wary as the season closed in March! We returned to the park underwater and spotted a large mantis shrimp and an angel shark hiding in the sand.
Nudibranch (Janolus barbarensis)
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We called it a day after the second dive. The dive store in town, <A href= Luv</A>, filled our tanks and agreed to store our dollies and dive gear overnight. We walked up the hill past the Country Club admiring the wild flowers that are in bloom along the road in the brief period between the end of rainy season and the summer drought. It was gorgeous with the smell of aromatic eucalyptus trees perfuming the air. We cleaned up and walked down the hill into town for dinner at Steve's Steak House, a new place that we hadn't tried before. The steak and the salmon were very nice and the early bird special included dessert! Then it was back to the hotel for a quiet evening and a good night's sleep.
M/V Scuba Cat
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The next morning found us back at <A href= Luv</A>. We had decided to try and do a couple of boat dives. Alas, the minimum to run a boat was four. Fortunately, they had just referred two other divers to <A href=" Divers Supply</A> and we quickly caught up with them to book a trip on the MV Scuba Cat. The group quickly grew to six with the addition of a couple more. The boat holds 24 divers so this was going to be great with such a light load. We introduced ourselves to the other divers: Jim and Becky from North Carolina, who were in California on business and had come over to the island to try the diving; Gary from San Diego, who had not been diving for a couple of years but wanted to get back into it; and Dr. Bill, a marine biologist/videographer who lives on the island. The dive master Ron and captain Rick completed the group. One of the additional joys of scuba diving is meeting new, interesting people who share our passion for the underwater world.
Jim, Becky, Gary, Deborah, Ron (DM), Dr. Bill
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The first dive spot was Long Point, located at the widest part of the island, about four miles NW of Avalon. Fish migrating up and down the island have to pass by the point and it's a great place to see schools of bait fish. The kelp is thick and the rocky wall slopes down to the sand providing lots of holes to explore. We spotted several big sheep crabs, a few lobsters, shy calicos and sheephead, and the usual friendly Garibaldi. Noticing a cloud of silt in the water, I swam over and saw two "sticks" poking up out of the soup. There were two bat rays feeding on the bottom, stirring up so much debris that the visibility dropped to zero and made it impossible to take a photo. Making our way out to the point and deeper water, we were rewarded with huge schools of blacksmiths and mackerel that periodically passed overhead and blocked the sun. I entered the kelp over huge boulders looking for lobsters and eels in the holes. Moving slowly we circled back under the lush canopy to the edge of the forest and back to the boat.
Jack mackerel school (Trachurus symmetricus)
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During the surface interval, Ron handed out sandwiches, chips and soft drinks. We chatted with our new friends about what we had just seen and where we wanted to dive on our next trips. After talking to Jim and Becky, I think we should plan on a trip to North Carolina to see the sand tigers; my life list keeps getting longer instead of shorter!
Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera)
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The second site was Hen Rock located back towards Avalon from Long Point. The Scuba Cat was anchored close to the kelp growing next to the shore and inside a white-washed rock littered with Brown Pelicans sitting in the sun. This dive was similar to the first dive, with a large school of bait fist, healthy kelp, Garibaldis, etc. Gary and Dr. Bill reported seeing a Black Sea Bass, but Deborah and I weren't so lucky.
Sea fan aka Gorgonium (Muricea californica)
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That evening, we enjoyed a leisurely dinner at Café Prego (the calamari is delicious) and sundaes at Big Olafs before walking up the canyon to our hotel. The next morning, after breakfast at Joe's we walked out to Casino Point where seven divers in different groups were gearing up to visit our fish friends in the park. We were scheduled to return to San Pedro on an early Express boat and didn't have time to do one more dive. That will just have to wait until next time. The incoming boats were disgorging hundreds of visitors coming to the island for the long weekend. I'm glad we were able to make it mid-week and avoid the crowds. We are truly blessed to have this romantic island off our coast!
Blacksmith school (Chromis punctipinnis)
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26 Miles (Santa Catalina)
The Four Preps
- Words and Music by band members Glen Larson and Bruce Belland
Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance, romance, romance, romance
Water all around it everywhere
Tropical trees and the salty air
But for me the thing that's a-waitin' there-romance
It seems so distant, twenty-six miles away
Restin' in the water serene
I'd work for anyone, even the Navy
Who would float me to my island dream
Twenty-six miles, so near yet far
I'd swim with just some water-wings and my guitar
I could leave the wings but I'll need the guitar for romance, romance, romance,
romance
Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance
A tropical heaven out in the ocean
Covered with trees and girls
If I have to swim, I'll do it forever
'Til I'm gazin' on those island pearls
Forty kilometers in a leaky old boat
Any old thing that'll stay afloat
When we arrive we'll all promote romance, romance, romance, romance
Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance, romance, romance, romance
FADE
Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin' for me