Scuba Diving club,
Southern California
Sea Sabres
Oil Rig Eureka
By Joe Deutsch
The boat dive for June was
to visit the oil rigs on board the Sun Diver out of Long Beach. I was really
looking forward to this dive because Walt talked so much about how great it was
diving on the rigs. I showed up at the dock at 6am. While unloading my car,
Walt showed up and he introduced me to Ray Arntz, captain of the Sun Diver
(Note to myself - Never introduce yourself to the captain while holding a GPS -
I swear it was only so I could find my way to the dock).
The
Sun Diver is a very nice dive boat. It is set up very well to accommodate
divers. We had 21 divers and I didn't feel crowded like I have on other boats.
The boat has a rack for gear that extends over the side which allows more free
deck space. The crew was very helpful, filling tanks - didn't have to wait for
a tank to be filled. The galley had good food (soy and non-soy burgers) and
lots of drinks. It was a great day for a boat dive. The weather was
warm and no wind. It was hazy in the morning, but the sun came out later. The
seas were calm, little swells and no chop. It was a very pleasant hour long ride
out to the oil rig. First dive was on the oil rig Eureka, which sets in 720
feet.
Since
you can't anchor there, we were basically going to do a drift dive. We were
split up into two groups. I was in group two. Usually the early bird gets the
worm, but in this case, the second mouse gets the cheese. You throw the first
group in and then you get status report when they get back on visibility, how
deep to go, etc. Also when we were first pulling up, there was a blue shark
cruising around looking for a meal, so group 2 was willing to send in group 1
as a sacrificial snack. You know blues love divers, crunchy on the outside,
chewy on the inside. There was a slight current running, so Capt Ray positioned
the boat up current to drop off the divers AFAP (As Fast As Possible). All 10
divers were lined up ready to go in. It looked like a Navy SEAL's helo drop -
"GO! Splash! GO! Splash! Pause to hand down camera, GO! Splash! Our scouts
in group1 reported back that visibility cleared up below 60 feet. Our group
lined up to go in.
By
the time #11 jumps in (me!), the boat had drifted down current past the rig, so
I had to swim against the current to get to the rig. The sea lions come out to
greet us while we are swimming to the rig. The structure was beautiful, loaded
with mussels and all those scallops! Went down to 110 feet. Horizontal cross
members at 50 feet and 120 feet. Looked like a crystalline stricture. At 110
feet, I could see down another 50-80. I tried to take pictures, but my little
Canon sport camera, which is only rated for 15 feet, would not take pictures
because the pressure depressed my shutter button and would not release it till
I got back to 80 feet. After surfacing, we played a little "Simon
Says" with the boat. "Simon says STOP!, Simian says kick like mad! The
second dive was on the dual rig Elly-Ellen, which under water, looks like the
Eureka oil rig. The two rigs have a catwalk between them. For the third dive,
we headed over to Catalina to find the elusive giant black sea bass. Last time
we went looking for these guys, I was the only diver who didn't see them. This
time, I was going to find them. finally saw one about 6 foot 200 lbs (I think
it was THE one that everyone saw) as it cruised past me about 10 feet
away. The water at Catalina seemed colder at 20 feet than the oil
rig at 110 feet. Had a smooth ride back to Long Beach. It was a great day of
diving.
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Updated September 15, 2003