Potato harbor, SC Island 10/14/12

I was lucky enough to return to Santa Cruz Island again this year, and remembered to bring mask & snorkel this time!

Had a few hours of chill time in Potato (that is near the west end of the island, right at the border of the no-take zone) in the middle of the day. Swell was up, & the locals said the vis was junk. They were so right, it was only about 30ft vis

Dove for about an hour in 12-15ft & saw lots of cool stuff, but forgot & left my camera on the beach! there were all the usual suspects: Garibaldi, Opaleye, Calico bass. Lots of small urchins, and some big fat limpets. I looked for halibut over the sand but it was empty.
Inspected what we thought was a ghost lobster trap & found it was indeed a lost trap. It was fully buried in the sand so no danger to the bugs though. If I had had a knife I would have cut off the float & line. I expect one of the kayak guides will, once word gets around that it is a lost trap.

Really a great time, and I was surprised at how easy it was for me, considering I haven't done any diving for a few years. I wore only boardshorts & a neoprene vest & was plenty warm (water temp was about 68)

I get why you guys are so into this whole dive thing now

Cool dive Sean! Get any fishing in while you were down there?

Thanks for sharing your diving trip with us Sean.

Ohhhh I thought you dove and carved.....

Cool to see you getting out and enjoying the water bro 

Nice Sean, I bet it was beautiful out there, wish I could see it   . Glad you got some h20 love.  Having recently been diving in Hawaii and finding all kinds of cool.stuff.in the rocks and caves, and swimming around with turtles, I TOTALLY get the dive obsession! Before I thought you guys were a little bit nuts, but now, me thinks yall are completely nuts!

theres islands in sc?

Cool dive Sean! Get any fishing in while you were down there?

No, it is mostly a closed, no-take zone out there. It is about a 3-4 mile paddle in either direction to get out of the closure area. i saw some spearos (one with a gorgeous custom carbon fiber blue water gun) and a handful of guys with fishing rods (nothing serious though) and no of them brought in anything during the weekend.

theres islands in sc?

I was on Santa Cruz Island, which is one of the western islands in the Channel Island chain. We took the Island Packers ferry from Ventura Harbor. We went mostly for the sea cave paddling, but also got in a nice 5 mile hike and the swim time at Potato. I have some paddling pics which I'll post up once I pull them from the camera, and I'll put a write up in the general talk section.

Cool dive Sean! Get any fishing in while you were down there?

No, it is mostly a closed, no-take zone out there. It is about a 3-4 mile paddle in either direction to get out of the closure area. i saw some spearos (one with a gorgeous custom carbon fiber blue water gun) and a handful of guys with fishing rods (nothing serious though) and no of them brought in anything during the weekend.

theres islands in sc?

I was on Santa Cruz Island, which is one of the western islands in the Channel Island chain. We took the Island Packers ferry from Ventura Harbor. We went mostly for the sea cave paddling, but also got in a nice 5 mile hike and the swim time at Potato. I have some paddling pics which I'll post up once I pull them from the camera, and I'll put a write up in the general talk section.

ok i thought there was islands in santa cruz ca,thanks

NICE!!!!

 

Making my gills itch.... 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Right on Sean! You are welcome anytime.

You don't want to be on Bigjims group email list though?! Just saying.