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Monthly Newsletter of the Redwood Empire Divers of Northern California December 2002

RED Home Page

December General Meeting:

December 5th, Round Table, 7:00 PM, planning for the Christmas party, and seasonal cheer!

No Dec Business Meeting

It is December, we have holiday planning and stuff, so no business meeting.

Christmas Party

Excitement is building for the massive and wonderful RED Christmas Party! The Christmas party will be Sat 12/14 at 6:00, at Charles Dollwett's house, 4632 Bridle Trail, take Highway 12 East, Left on Farmers, Right on Montgomery, straight past Mission (Old Mexico Restaurant on Left), stay in right lane, Take first right on Jackson, first right on Bridle Trail, third house on left 4632 Bridle Trail. Charles says that there is a snowman in the front, and that this instruction will make sense once you get there. Call Charles at 537-7055 if you get lost.

PLEASE park on street, don.t block driveway because it is shared with house in back.

Bring a potluck item to share, and serving spoons. The club will provide Turkey, Ham, and soft drinks.

Gift exchange: if you wish to participate, bring a $10 or so gift. Mark it for adult or child.

Christmas Raffle

The Redwood Empire Dive Club would like to thank the wonderful people and businesses that have donated this year to the Christmas raffle.

This Month's Club Dive: Stillwater

Well the November dive was to put it lightly, blown out, and last year.s December dive to Stillwater was blown out, but people keep saying that Winter offers some of the best diving on the North Coast, if you can get in between storms.

Let's see if we can prove that theory.Meet at Stillwater Saturday 12/7 at 8:00 A.M. and we will all have a splendid time.

Opening Day Lobster Report

by Jed Douglas I was on the Peace the weekend after the mighty storm and conditions were a lot better than I expected. Pretty calm water, sunny days and 25 to 50 foot vis. Didn't get many lobsters but got a lot of scallops and a bunch of cool creatures for my fish tank.

Finally joined the polar bear club. That involves getting naked in the hot tub, then doing a lap around the boat in the moonlight (while naked), and doing the lobster dance naked in the galley. Luckily, there were quite a few gals on the boat and I brought a keg of beer. I also won a $100 certificate in the raffle towards next years trip so will probably miss the club lobster trip yet again.

Oh well, happy everything . Jed

Dave Batt Dives.

Since the November Anchor Bay dive was stormed out we planned our alternate dive for Sunday 11/24. Unfortunately, conditions looked no better so John called around to make sure no one was planning to go, and be the only diver, and I sent out an email. Well Dave Batt replied with this message.

.So we went out today (11/23). Ended up at Salt Point-South Gerstle cove. Could have dove anywhere in Fisk Mill. Vis was 6 to 8 feet with easy entrance and exit. We walked around to the point south of South Gerstle but before we could get our gear on the park rescue team drove out to us and spent 15 min. talking us out of diving there. At least they let us load our gear in the pick-up to deposit us back inside the cove. I guess I'm getting old. I did manage to bag several nice rock fish and one squeaker ling. The ling was confiscated by local warden we all know and love with a stern warning. If you want to get that last ab tomorrow should be just as nice at Fort Ross, Salt Point, or Fiske Mill..

I would like to point out that his .nice day. involved a 15 minute lecture by the rescue team to try to get them to change their dive plans, and also that when Batt says .nice day for diving. that this should be discounted a tad. I overheard this telling comment at the last meeting: .There are thirty foot swells out there. I guess no one is going in, except for Dave..

Schedule of Dives and Events for 2003

Also see The 2003 schedule We had a productive November business meeting, at which we laid out the calendar for next year. In this newsletter is a handy sheet for you to pull out and post on your refrigerator, or the dog.s rear, whichever you look at more.

We start in January with Monterey. Last year the club went to Monterey in January for a small but very fun weekend. A half dozen REDites dove the Monterey Express on Saturday, then had a fantastic seafood meal that evening and finished up with a nice long excursion on Saturday at Lover.s Cove.

This year we could get the same luck!

We move on to February at Fort Ross. Last year Paul and Clay had their boats out, and Bob Simpton and Rich Gibson joined them for two good dives and some real nice Ling Cod.

March we go to Stillwater and have the traditional RED St. Patrick.s day party. Yumm.

April We move to Salt Point for the opening of Abalone. Then May we dive the spectacular Arena Rock, weather permitting.

June and September we are at Van Damme and Russian Gulch, pending camping reservations. July we are back to Monterey for the early Halibut, or whatever we want.

Also in July we have a Sunday dive planned for Kari.

August has us trying again for a Doran Beach campout, and Jed is sponsoring a halibut dive.

In addition to the September campout, Jock is planning a member sponsored dive to Santa Rosa Island for the Lobster opening. He wants to take his new boat to Santa Rosa Island, and what better excuse than a member sponsored dive?

October is the club Halibut dive in Tomales and then Gary.s lobster trip on the Peace.

November: Anchor Bay. This year and last we were stormed out of Anchor Bay, but the year before was wonderful. Actually, last year not everyone was stormed out. Jock and Dave Batt did a dive. Dave got a concussion, and Jock hasn.t walked the same since.

Also in November, Gary is planning a crab dive.

December brings us full circle on our plans, with Stillwater and the Christmas Party.

Nasty Message About Dues

The time has come to purge the rolls of members who have not paid their dues. This means that starting with the January issue, you won.t get a newsletter if you have not paid your dues.

Harsh? Probably.but it just costs too darn much money to send newsletters out to folks who won.t fork over.

And on a related note.

Inquisitive message about our website and email

The Redwood Empire Divers website is at http://www.redwoodempiredivers.com

About 60% of the folks on our newsletter member list have email. Are there more of you hiding back there who have email but don.t get my club announcements?

Is there anyone out there with a hankering to do some web design, who would like to take on part of the task of improving our web presence?

Is there any interest in setting up an email list, such as the BA Diving list, at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ba_diving/

Please let me know.

Gratuitous Pictures:

Having run out of words before space...I added filler pictures. But you on the web never run out of space...See all sorts of pictures

Member Roster

Member List - password protected. The username is an acronym for the club, and the password is a vernaculer expression for a particularly fine example of something that we hunt. If these hints are inadeqate, email me Rich@chilidog.com and I'll send you the password.

GENERAL MEETINGS

Start at 7:00 pm at:

Stony Point Roundtable Pizza

2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

DIVES!

Single day dives meet at 8:00 am (except when they don't). Alternate dives take place at the same time and location as the first dive, but only if the scheduled dive is canceled.

WEB SITES

RED Site: http://www.redwoodempiredivers.com

Jed Douglas RED WEB: http://www.webperception.com/jdouglas

Rocky's Home Page: http://www.sonic.net/~rocky

(with great tips on Abalone!)

CA Dept of Fish & Game: http://www.dfg.ca.gov

California Coastal Buoy Map: http://www.oceanweather.com/~oceanwx/data/cal.html

Club Equipment

Videos - Tom Stolzheise

Marine Radio - Michael Mendoza

O2 Kit - Jed Douglas

Fish & Ab Log - Jed Douglas

Picnic Supplies - Dave Batt

Contact these members for use of the equipment.

Club Officers

Jock Doss - President

Michael Mendoza - Vice President

Jed Douglas - Secretary

Bob Simpton - Treasurer

Rich Gibson - Newsletter Editor

RED Events Calendar 2002


December
12/5 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table
12/7 - Stillwater
12/14 Christmas Party!