Jock, Bob, Clay and Art went out on the 24th. They had beautiful conditions and 10-15 foot viz and .didn.t see a damn thing..
The Previous weekend Jock and Bob went out in Jock.s new and hand built boat. Somehow a tank wasn.t filled, and the best solution involved a boat run from Tomales to Bodega that included Bob running along highway one carrying his tank and wearing his wet suit.
So in the tradition of the club, this weekend will be another adventure. And (aside from fish), what more could you ask from a halibut dive?
Date/Time: Sunday, Sept 15th @ 10:00 A.M.
Place : Redwood Empire Martial Arts @ 3222 Airway Dr # 5, Santa Rosa
Price: $15 for any or all of the class components
Send check made out to Redwood Empire Divers and mail to:
Gary Baumoel
1009 McNear Avenue
Petaluma, CA 94952-5214
Contact Gary Baumoel at 707-763-8300 for more information.
At one-thirty we arrived at the marina and loaded our gear onto a rental patio boat and motored over to the end of the dock. The houseboat sank while tied up, not a tough job finding this one. We set to work putting the first round of lift bags under the hull; it was hanging on its side in thirty feet of water. As the port side rose with 8,000 pounds of lift bag, the dock-cleat broke off and the boat began to slide, nose first, into the drink. We quickly added another bag on the dock-side and stabilized the hull. Tom has a Honda water pump that shoots a three-inch stream of water at an amazing rate. We set it up and began to pump, half an hour later, no progress. Tom jumped in and swam around the downside.
The windows were open! We were pumping the lake!
Several more lift bags and lots of pumping later we were in business and ready to pack up. Tied in the next slip was this monstrous three story party barge with people coming and going. I was standing on the dock by the pump when a guy jumped off the fan-tail and started muttering to himself. Turns out, he was getting a jet-ski key out of one of those little buoy-looking holders and dropped his bosses' wedding ring in the drink. Tom searched the bottom for an hour - to no avail.
We hauled the house-boat up to the ramp and off to the dumps, we unloaded our stuff in the dark, I got home about 11:30, dog tired.
Tom invested a ton of money in a side-scan sonar with related computer system and more sophisticated equipment; he also incorporated the venture into AQUATECH and put out a few feelers for recovery work. The sonar can see the leaves on a tree at 150' on either side of the drag-field and down 150' from the plane-level. Tom flew to Texas for training on the new gear, we are waiting for our first practical application.
I expect I might have some more recovery stories for you in later issues.
The advantage to this .hang loose. philosophy became clear as we hit 128 and all of the kids were asleep. We were able to make one of our least eventful (in terms of stops for relief) crossings ever. Yeah for late starts and sleepy kids.
Arriving so late also meant that we were the late night excitement for the night owls. We were offered lots of help in locating a superior campsite.
The next day the hoards departed like, well, hoards. Molly and I went with Clay, Jed, Jeff, and Paul. Clay.s dolly is under repairs, so we were forced to the old fashioned expedient of elbow grease. Then we loaded it all up. And headed out.
Clay, Jed, and I in Clay.s boat. Paul, Jeff, and Molly in Paul.s boat. The seas were gorgeous! No wind ripples, and a slow and low swell. We had a great time motoring out to Simpton.s Rock. We cruised around with the GPS and the depth finder and decided to dive the deeper rock pile just North of Simpton Rock (GPS coordinates available on request!).
We geared up and got in. We had conveniently set things up so that each buddy team was composed of one diver from each boat.
We thought we had a 60. bottom, but that turned out to be a rather small patch of rock! The anchor was in 85. and we hit 92. on the dive.
The visibility was fantastic! Maybe even 30.. The topography was interesting and varied, and we all had good dives.
We then surfaced and hung out for a bit. Dave Batt kayaked out to us and chatted, and then went off to find a more challenging spot to freedive.
I spent the afternoon with Molly, Madeline and Spencer on the beach while Heather and some other women went off for some quality hot tub time.
The potluck was great! During preparations, Heather chatted with some new members who had been with us since Friday. It finally transpired that they were new members of the Marin Club, but they decided that we were a better place to be.
So Go RED!
Stony Point Roundtable Pizza
2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa
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
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.
Michael Mendoza - Vice President
Jed Douglas - Secretary
Bob Simpton - Treasurer
Rich Gibson - Newsletter Editor
RED Events Calendar 2002 September 9/5 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 9/7 Jock's Halibut Dive 9/15 10:00 am CPR class with Dick Walker, Redwood Empire Martial Arts @ 3222 Airway Dr # 5, Santa Rosa 9/19 - Business Meeting Location TBD 9/27-29 . New Date: Van Damme at the group site. October 10/3 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 10/5 Tomales, Halibut! 10/13-15 (or so) Member Dive: Gary: Peace lobster dive 10/17 - Subject to change Business Meeting Location TBD November 11/7 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 11/9 - Anchor Bay 11/21 - Business Meeting Location TBD December 12/5 General Meeting 7:00 pm Round Table 12/7 - Stillwater 12/14 Christmas Party!