D/V Ocean Ocean Odyssey, October 27, 2006 San Clemente Island
Mt. Carmel High School

As we departed the harbor last night I marveled at the glass smooth ocean passing under our keel. Shortly before dawn we arrived in Pyramid Cove as ash rained down upon us from the fire burning over 150 miles to the east. An unfortunate side effect of the fire was a spectacular orange sunrise as the glowing mass slowly lumbered over the horizon and brought warmth to our chilled bones.

Man, I'm feeling quite poetic today! Where was I?

San Clemente Island, yes...scuba diving...wow! What a day! We spent the entire day at one dive site. That tells you how fantastic the day was. The water visibility ranged from 40 to 80 feet depending upon where you were swimming with the temperature at a balmy Fall like 64.5 degrees on the surface and 56 degrees at 80 feet.

I had the opportunity to make a quick dive late morning and found myself lying on the sandy bottom at 80 feet in awe as I looked up the face of a 50 foot wall with bait fish swirling about, sheephead peering into my mask and the sun, that I could see clearly, putting the entire scene into silhouette.

Oh, I caught you...you closed your eyes and were envisioning the scene! My job is done here...

Adios,

Captain Greg

D/V Ocean Odyssey, October 17 - 19, 2006 Guadalupe Island Shark Adventure
Days 2 - 4 of 5 with San Diego Shark Diving

Days 2 and 3 were very slow as we had sharks in viewing range for a combined 25 minutes for those two days.

Today, the 19th, has been much improved with our first shark arriving at 9:50am. We've had steady action for most of the day with three sharks visiting us so far and up to two at a time.

The weather has been gorgeous today with mild breeze and warm air temperature in the low 80's. The water temperature has been a steady 69 degrees all three days with the visibility at a tropical 100 - 130 feet.

As I write we have one shark, lovingly named Shredder, circling us and putting on quite the show. Shredder has been a staple at Guadalupe for the past four years and almost feels like family!

Today is our last day of sharkin', as we'll be packing up the show and heading north in a couple of hours. We'll be heading back out to this amazing place in 10 days, so stay tuned for more adventure from Guadalupe Island, the best place in the world to experience great white sharks!

Adios,

Captain Greg

D/V Ocean Odyssey, October 16, 2006 Enroute to Guadalupe Island
Day 1 of 5 Horizon Charters Shark Adventure

We departed our slip at H&M Landing this morning at 9:30am and slipped quietly out of the harbor with 14 guests excited about the start of their adventure to Guadalupe Island.

After a short 1.5 hour run south we ventured close to the shores of the north Coronado Island for a quick site seeing stop to view multiple species of birds and pinneped. The crystal clear water called our names inviting us for a quick dip, yet with 200 miles of water to cover by tomorrow morning we resisted the call of the siren.

One hour after leaving the islands we happened upon a pod of fin whales. Our encounter was an amazing one as these 65 foot long whales were curious enough to swim within 10 yards of Ocean Odyssey and a couple dived playfully under our bow, looking up as they went under to inspect our sleek hull.

As I write we are just over 90 miles north of Guadalupe Island and should arrive in the wee hours to our shark destination. Our hopes are high and the divers onboard are ready for an adventure of a lifetime! Stay tuned...

Adios,
Captain Greg

D/V Ocean Odyssey, October 14 & 15, 2006 San Clemente Island
Days 2 and 3 of 3 with the Bottom Bunch Dive Club

Our last two days gave us some outstanding diving at San Clemente Island with water clarity up to 100 feet and temperature between 63 and 65 degrees. Fall in the Channel Islands is the best time of the year to experience regularly clear water and great diving conditions. The last two days of this trip were no exception.

The only downside was a bit of wind on Saturday that made it a challenging to locate a safe anchorage, yet overall San Clemente was her vintage spectacular self!

Tomorrow we are off to Isla Guadalupe for another adventure into Sharkville...hope to see you there!

Adios,
Captain Greg

D/V Ocean Odyssey, October 13, 2006 Santa Barbara Island
Day 1 of 3 with Bottom Bunch Dive Club

What a show! As I'm writing we are travelling south east toward San Clemente Island and are standing witness to an amazing lightening storm over Los Angeles. The entire sky 30 miles away is crackling with energy and light!

Alright, you didn't sign on looking for a weather report for L.A. so here's the report from a rainy yet beautiful day at Santa Barbara Island (SBI). Today's diving was...mediocre at best. Visibility ranged from 15 - 40 feet, with a bit of surge due to a west swell. The water temperature on the surface was 62.5 degrees and in the mid to low 50's at depth.

Due to a low pressure system passing over the region we were stuck with a consistent southerly breeze and an occasional rain squall. Rainbows and beautiful tall clouds were present for much of the day.

We dived Sutil Island for two morning dives on the wall and kelp forest of it's west side. Probably the best dives of the day were on this wall. Deep caves, large boulders, sea fans and a lush kelp forest decorate the wall.

Our third dive found us at Robert's Reef, were I had the opportunity to jump in with a buddy. We dropped to the rocky bottom below Ocean Odyssey and swam for a couple hundred yards across a moonscape of large rocky outcroppings and boulders. Sea urchins have decimated the kelp forest in this area at depths of 40 feet and deeper but even so, the bottom is covered with life. Sea stars, cucumbers, brittle stars and massive sea anemones are everywhere. The arms of the brittle stars make for a surreal landscape as they reach toward the surface awaiting there next detritus meal.

During our dive we encountered numerous large spiny lobster, but were outsmarted by these wiley crustaceans. Hence their reason for being so large. As a matter of fact, most of our lobster divers were outsmarted today except for a lucky threesome that found a few legal sized bugs on the night dive.

Tomorrow will find us tucked in a San Clemente Island where our divers are hoping for clearer water, sunnier skies and the dive of a lifetime!

Adios,

Captain Greg

D/V Ocean Odyssey, October 11, 2006 Guadalupe Island Shark Adventure
Day 4 of 5 with San Diego Shark Diving

Hello Shark Watchers,

Today was our final day at Guadalupe and we are just about to weigh anchor and head to our home port of San Diego.

The sharking was a little slower today than it has been for the other 2 days. Our divers were still seeing sharks, just not at the rate of the other days. It may have been due to low light conditions with our overcast skies, or who's to say.

One of the sharks that we did see today was the largest male on record for Guadalupe Island. This behemoths name is Bruce and he is approximately 15-16 feet long and he demands your attention. He is the alpha shark here at Guadalupe, he does not have to compete for food and by his lack of scaring and smooth skin you know that no other shark fights with him.

Well with that being said I am going to sign off. Captain Greg and I will be taking Ocean Odyssey out Thursday night for 3 fun filled days of lobster diving.

Captains Dina and Rick

D/V Ocean Odyssey, October 10, 2006 Guadalupe Island Shark Adventure
Day 3 of 5 with San Diego Shark Diving

Hello Shark Watchers,

What a day! We started off by deploying and quickly retrieving our cages as a freak gust of wind blew us clean out of our cozy little shark spot! So we picked up and re-set and after all was done we had our first shark 15 minutes later.

Very good day of sharking! We had our ever faithful Scar, and 3 others with us the entire day. We had one young boy shark who was new to this whole game and it was very amusing to watch him. I say young because he was approximately 7-8 feet and not very girthy. The only word to describe a very juvenile Great White Shark is to call them "zippy". They are constantly battling the larger sharks for food so they have to be quicker and more opportunistic. So this little guy would one second be there and then he was gone and there he was again. Over and over.

We were also lucky enough to have a shark come clean out of the water fairly close to us! As usual, I missed this spectacle, yet for the luck few that were witness, the event will remain emblazoned into their memory for a lifetime.

It was another warm day on the deck of the Ocean Odyssey with the air temp at 85 degrees and the water temp a cozy 71.

Stay tuned for tomorrows accounts at Shark Island.

Captains Dina and Rick

D/V Ocean Odyssey, October 8 - 9, 2006 Guadalupe Island Shark Adventure
Days 1 and 2 of 5 with San Diego Shark Diving

Well, howdy do shark divers! We departed San Diego yesterday morning and arrived to Guadalupe Island early this morning.

Fantastic day of sharking as we had activity for most of the day with multiple sharks with us on more than one occasion. We're seeing sharks in the 11 - 14 foot range with regularity. The big females should start to arrive most anytime now with 15 - 17 foot behemoths joining into the fun at times!

Todays weather was fantastic with the air at around 80 degrees and the water not much cooler at 71 degrees. The visibility has been averaging 80 feet.

Stay tuned for more action from the deck of Ocean Odyssey tomorrow!

Captain Dina

D/V OCEAN ODYSSEY, October 7, 2006 San Clemente Island
Day 3 of 3 with the Rowley's

We made a nice calm 45 mile transit from Santa Barbara Island to the eastern end of San Clemente Island overnight and found that the leeward side of the island was to be our first destination.

The walls of the Window Pinnacle offered up a fantastic dive, with the visibility in the 70 foot range and the water temperature close to 66 degrees. Clouds of blacksmith filled the water column and our divers enjoyed the almost tropical clearness and beauty of this offshore pinnacle.

After this first amazing dive I needed to keep the level up to meet expectations so we spent the remainder of our day diving the eastern end of Clemente at China Hat. I found time to get into the water and immediately found the dive to be down right fantabulastic! The vis was a hazy 80 feet and the temp was a consistent 63 degrees throughout. On the right day, China Hat can be one of the best dives in the world. Today wasn't that day, but I caught glimpses of it here and there. Wow, and I do this for a living?!

We'll that's all for this adventure into the wild blue. We're off to Guadalupe Island tomorrow for a bit of sharking. Captain's Dina and Rick will be at the helm and on the computer for this excursion. Stay tuned for more high adventure from the wheelhouse of Ocean Odyssey!

Captain Greg

D/V OCEAN ODYSSEY, October 6, 2006 Santa Barbara Island
Day 2 of 3 with the Rowley's

Well, the weather report held true and our conditions essentially sucked the entire day. Wind, current and swell plagued our every move and kept my dive site choices to the not so choice few.

After really huffing most of the day, the wind backed off late afternoon, the swell calmed a bit and we got in one good, relatively calm dive at the Boilers. A couple of lobster were captured and the sightseers enjoyed the small schools of halfmoon, large sheephead and assorted perch that call these shallow rocks home.

Our night dive was the best dive of the day, yet unfortunately the wind decided to wake up again which made our second night dive not so pleasant. The lobster were out in force on this dive and our quick handed divers brought home the goods. The largest of the night was a hefty 5 pounder, but most of the bugs brought aboard were just a smidge over legal.

I had a chance to make this particular dive and found it to be one of my most memorable night lobster dives ever! Everywhere I turned big ones were peering from the rocks. So where was this secret lobster honey hole? You know, I can't seem to remember. But if you're on our next trip, my memory may improve enough to get us back on that secret spot...

I hope to see you onboard!

Captain Greg

D/V OCEAN ODYSSEY October 5, 2006 La Jolla, California
Day 1 of 3 with the Rowley's

We departed our slip at H&M Landing late this morning and made the 90 minute run up our local coast. The first day of this trip is a warm up day for the dives to come.

The coastal dive conditions weren't too bad overall, with very little surge and vis in the 20 foot range. Water temp hovered near 65 degrees all day.

As I write we are traveling heading west north west to Santa Barbara Island. The weather report for this tiny speck of land is not the best, but our group of lobster hungry divers is up to the task and ready to catch dinner.

Stay tuned for more tales from the bridge of Ocean Odyssey!

Adios,

Captain Greg

D/V OCEAN ODYSSEY October 3, 2006 Sunny San Clemente Island
Day 4 of 4 with Dolphin Scuba Center

LOBSTER OPENER

Upon arrival to the island at 1:30am, I noticed something peculiar. The boat had stopped: pitching, yawing, rolling and otherwise gyrotating in an uncontrollable fashion.

The calm water of Pyramid Cove called our name today. A handful of bugs were captured at each of today's dive sites and the water was clear and 66 degress.

We'll be back out again Thursday morning for two and a half days and will be on the prowl closer to home looking for new lobster diving locales. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from the the wild blue yonder!

Adios,

Captain Greg

D/V OCEAN ODYSSEY October 2, 2006 Cortes Bank
Day 3 of 4 with Dolphin Scuba Center

LOBSTER OPENER

Spending the night on Cortes Bank in not so ideal conditions can be quite an experience to say the least. Imagine yourself attempting to sleep during a 7.0 earthquake for 8 hours. You get the picture...

We started day 3 once again all alone as we are the only dive boat on the Bank. Needless to say, I am far from disappointed in being the only dive boat out here!

Our first three dives produced few legal bugs in territory that historically produces fair amounts of lobster. But a torrid afternoon made up for a slow morning with our total days count of legals approaching the century mark. The weather today was a bit improved over yesterdays, but still made for tough exits from the water as the boat pitched to and fro. Todays water temperature mirrored yesterday at 66 degrees with the clarity at close to 100 feet.

For those of you bug divers that have dived the wreck, she's still there but is going down fast. Better get out to the Bank before she turns to a flat piece of reef!

The gang has decided that they'd like to head to San Clemente Island calm water for the last day of their trip, so as I write we are high tailing it in a northeast direction. Tomorrow's bugging will more than likely be unproductive, but every now and again we surprise ourselves and find a few legals. Just refer to day 1 of this trip as an example.

Adios,

Captain Greg