3/7/2010 - I See Boat Diving In My Future

March 20, 2004. That was the last dive day of the Giant Stride. The ensuing six years have involved paying off credit card debt, mostly due to the boat repairs, and saving every penny toward my next boat. A lot of planning has gone into the next boat, especially the past four years. We wanted a catamaran for the stable dive platform. Merry wanted a marine head. I wanted a pilot house to get out of the elements. We settled on the C-Dory Tomcat and began saving. We have not gone on any commercial dive boats, our vacations have been to San Diego, Santa Barbara and Catalina. We even cut way back on Sorrento's, which was the biggest sacrifice.

Last month we were able to achieve our dreams. We spent nearly every penney we had, and most we will ever have, but No Pressure is now home in Redondo Beach. We added lettering, a brass clock, bottom paint, two VHF radios and tank racks. Unfortunately, we've had sinus infections for more than a month. We haven't missed any diving due to the constant bad weather SoCal has experienced this year. Our last dive was January ninth. Once the ocean clears, and our sinuses, we plan to make up for lost time.

I've missed the many offshore sites I used to dive. It will be good to revisit them, and to discover new dive sites as well.

This weekend we finally took the boat out of the slip. It was a short run, but our friends Scott and Margaret Webb took some photos with Merry onboard their boat shooting video.