Missy and Me and... Dive #2 The Sue-Jack

After a reasonable surface interval we grouped once more for our second dive at the park. Conditions weren't fantastic... in fact there was quite a bit of surge and the vis wasn't stellar either. However, we went out past the outer edge of the kelp forest and dropped down into about 70 ft of water heading towards the south end of the park. That is a sure way to hit the wreck of the Sue-Jack. I previously always spelled it Sujac until I recently read the obituary of the owner of the vessel, which went down in the early 1980's while I was in Chicago for an extended stay. The wreck rests between about 60 and 90 ft, so moving along at 70 ft puts you smack dab into it if the visibility is really poor. Ouch!

The divers wanted to drop down below 100' past the wreck so we did. We then did a multi-level ascent profile until Missy and I ended up returning at about 35 ft. Missy picked up several empty beer cans (not hers) as we returned. Unfortunately she lost sight of ne when I dropped down to film something. When I returned, she was nowhere to be seen so I reconnoitered the area for a minute, and found the empty beer cans scattered on the sand and gravel bottom. I did a safety stop and surfaced to see her heading up the dive park stairs so she was fine... had just run her air down to 750 psi and didn't want to land on the steps in the surge with the beer cans. Someone might wonder!

We called it after that dive due to the poor conditions. I drove the "Dr. Bill Mobile" back to my house, got a nice hot shower and joined them at Antonio's before they caught their boat back to the mainland. All in all, a good day with good company and a good dive buddy.

11:53 AM - 6/8/2006 - post comment