Posted by JonD on September 22, 2001 at 22:10:59:
The Great Escape departed from 22nd St. at 1 a.m. Saturday bound for Clemente as chartered by Ocean Safari -- which surprised me as I figured the military would be rearranging the landscape at SCI on overtime this week.
Despite the moderate swell and a few more than moderate swells, I managed to get a pretty good night's sleep before getting up at 6:30 a.m. The sight out the galley window looked surprising like the east end of Catalina -- that was probably because it WAS the east end of Catalina. The Navy had closed SCI sometime after our departure and SBI was too rough to serve as a fall-back. So frontside Catalina would have to do.
Our first stop was Torqua Springs (sp?) where we were promised the possibility of black sea basses. This lifted my spirits because BSB were one of the main reasons I'd wanted to go to SCI. I had my video with me and I was hoping to get some shots. In the past, it's always been everybody else on the boat who gets to see them while I go the other way. I figured bringing a camera would only make my jinx a certainty.
Nonetheless, my hopes were high as I headed off along the outside of the reef scanning the kelp for a giant form. After swimming for probably 20 minutes and burning almost a third of my air I was about resigned to the fact that today was not the day.
Just as that thought was passing through my head, I looked left through a stand of kelp and came eyeball-to-eyeball with one of the giants.
As much as I was anticipating this encounter, I wasn't really prepared for how large, curious and unafraid these fish are. They are amazing! The only other time I've ever seen one was at Long Point, Palos Verdes and it was on a juvenile -- it just didn't have the same effect.
I shot video for about 5 solid minutes, following it in and out of the kelp -- getting within inches of it. Finally it parted company and I watched it swim off to join up with two others. One of the others was about the same size as the first and the third was quite a bit larger.
I swam after them but they left me behind with a couple of lazy strokes of their massive tails.
Buzzing from the encounter, I started hearding back toward the boat. All of a sudden, I looked around and the three of them are steaming through the kelp in a line like a freight train coming straight for me! They broke off the charge a few feet from me while one took off, the larger one and one of the smaller ones hung around for another 5-10 minutes, allowing me to get even more great video.
About then two hunters from the boat arrived and I was afraid that one of them might try to make a shot but fortunately they were content to observe and let the fish be.
Eventually, the fish became bored with our presence and went on their way.
What a dive.
The second and third dive were fairly routine frontside dives but the icing on the cake was the fourth stop at Lulu's.
I dropped below the boat and figured I'd scout the sand rather than the reef on this dive. About 5 minutes in, I spotted a really small bat ray, which immediately took off. I followed with the camera running and a few yards on I spotted another bat ray, and another and then three more .... Altogether there were probably 20-30 rays basking on the shallow sand. As I approached they each lifted off and I filmed dozens of them flying in all directions. After they departed, I continued the dive, turned and the exact same thing happened again on the way back to the boat.
All-in-all, it was an excellent trip. Many thanks to Ocean Safari, Capt. Tim and the crew of the Great Escape.