Pacific Dive Adventures

I’ve been in San Diego for a month now.   Mostly been getting settled.  I had to get checked in to my new job.   I also had to find a place to live and arrange delivery of my household goods and my motorcycle.   I’ve been spending quite a bit of time un-packing and getting my place organized.  I’m also working on getting up to speed in my new job.

Despite all that I did find time to go make a few dives on February 21st.    I had a great morning diving with Waterhorse Charters on the Humboldt.  Conditions were not the best as San Diego had been receiving an unusually large amount of rain.

We left the pier just after 7AM.  It was only a short 15-20 minute boat ride.  I would guess it would normally have been a little quicker but as soon as we left the shelter of the breakwater, we started hitting some fairly serious swells.   The first dive was the Yukon.

The Yukon at 366 feet long is one of the largest wrecks in California that can be dived on.   A decommissioned  Canadian Destroyer, it was prepared specifically to be dived on with access points created all over the ship.  It was sunk in 2001 as part of an artificial reef project created by the San Diego Oceans Foundation.   Known as Wreck Alley, this ongoing project was started in 1986 by the San Diego Diving Council and the California Department of Fish and Game.   It consists of a group of wrecks that are only about 2 miles off of Pacific Beach.  Wreck Alley also includes the wreck of the Ruby E which we would dive later that morning.

After tying off to the buoy, we received a thorough dive brief.  Then we started entering the water.  Entry was by giant stride off the platform.  Once I had my camera, I was tossed a line and pulled up to bow where the boat was tied off to one of the buoys over the wreck.  There I followed the line down to the wreck.  Since the wreck is sitting in over a 100 feet of water and the visibility was maybe 10 feet.  This was the only way to go!

It was nice to be back in the water, even though it was a bit cooler than my last dive in January in the Philippines    I found the conditions to amazingly similar to Japan.  With a water temperature of 58F I was happy to be wearing a drysuit!   The depth of the wreck makes nitrox a good choice.   Something that I will definitely think about the next time that I dive there.   My maximum depth on this dive was 91 feet.  The Yukon is lying on it’s port side and I restricted my exploration mainly to the top of the wreck which is approximately 75 feet deep.  Run time was 33 minutes.

The second dive was the Ruby E which was only a short distance away.  A former Coast Guard cutter, the Ruby E was sunk in 1989 and sits upright in about 85 feet of water.   At 165 feet it’s still a nice size wreck even though it is a bit smaller than the Yukon. There was quite a bit of surge apparent even at depth and I was getting bounced around a bit while I taking photographs on the main deck. Max depth was 76 feet. The water temp was still 58F and visibility remained around 10 feet.  Run time on this dive was 36 minutes.

The last dive we cruised over to the Point Loma Kelp Beds.  This was the most enjoyable dive of the morning for me.  I was seeing significantly more life.  I got some nice nudibranch photos.  More fish life (and larger), not to mention a couple of eating size lobster!   My maximum depth on this dive was 71 feet with a run time of 38 minutes.  The water was slightly warmer, up to 59F.  Visibility was also better, going 15-20 feet on this last dive.

Waterhorse Charters runs a first class operation.  We were well taken care of.  The crew was knowledgeable, gave thorough briefs on each site, and was extremely helpful.  There were hot drinks to warm up in between dives.  You could even have hot oatmeal if you liked.  During the surface intervals, they served salad and hot soup.   Hot drinks and hot soup was especially welcome given the water temperatures!   I will definitely dive with them again!

The Humboldt makes regular trips to Wreck Alley, the Point Loma Kelp Beds, and the Coronados.  Additionally they make trips to a sunken P38 from WW II which went down in 1943 and the Hogan which was sunk for target practice in 1945.  As these are both deep wrecks they are for experienced dives only.  Their website can be found at: http://www.waterhorsecharters.com/

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Trip Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.