Anacapa Island aboard the Spectre - January 26th, 2007

I took a vacation day on Friday and booked a mid-week 3 tank dive trip to Anacapa Island aboard the Spectre out of Ventura Harbor.  I got up at "0 dark:thirty" and drove the 1 hour drive to Ventura to be at the boat by 7:00 AM which was due to launch at 8:00. The boat only had 13 divers with a capacity for 40. This would afford lots of elbow room for everyone.

We arrived at the first dive site called Coral Reef around 9:30 and I had a pleasant 63 minute dive at a max depth of 52 feet. I saw lots of lush kelp growth and the sunlight streaming through was beautiful as giant schools of Opaleye swam with me. I also revisited a spot where multi-colored Spiny Brittle Stars carpeted a large patch of the reef. The best was yet to come.

Dive #1: Coral Reef

Giant Kelp forest

Hundreds of Spiny Brittle Stars

Spotted Rose Anemone

Dive #2: Sea Lion Rookery

Skipper Ted had told me that the young sea lions were active out at Anacapa, but this really turned out to be an amazing experience. When the boat approached the spot where they were resting on the rocky shore in the sun, they scrambled into the water "en masse" to rush up to meet the boat. I estimated there were about 25 to 30 in this group and they put on quite a show, not to mention great attempts at imitating the clumsy scuba divers who managed to maintain their interest for about a half hour. I felt as if I were one of them in that all too brief encounter.

The party animals

Take off that mask and kiss me...

Perfect neutral buoyancy

Dive #3: Coral Reef

I really hated to leave the sea lions, but they were off to a new adventure and we returned to Coral Reef to dive the other side of it. I saw a Spanish Shawl laying eggs, lots more beautiful kelp and on the way back we had some common dolphins swimming off the bow of the boat. All in all, a really nice trip. The ride home on PCH bypassed all of the usual Friday 101 traffic. The boat docked in Ventura at about 4:30 PM and I was back home and rinsing my gear in about an hour. 8-0

Spanish Shawl laying eggs

Kelp close up

Common dolphin surfing the bow wave

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