| We just returned from our
camp-aboard weekend on the El Duque (August, 2003). We did a couple
of dives on Friday afternoon, moving north up the coast. We spent
the night across from San Pedro Nolasco Island in a calm, protected
bay. We spent Saturday at San Pedro - some of the divers doing 6 dives
that day. One of our first sites was a dive at South Point - we went
to ride "the chute". There was a sea lion with a piece of
netting around her neck. It looked like it had been there for a while,
and the fur on her neck was dark and discolored for an inch on each
side. The netting has been chewed or torn off to a length of about
4-6" circled around her neck as a necklace.
Daniel Vance and Billl Kelley both took blunt end scissors down on the next couple of dives, hoping to be able to get close to it to try to help. Daniel actually touched the sea lion briefly, but was unable to attempt any rescue. The animal appears to be fat and healthy, but it makes you wonder for how long, as the netting has got to be stretched to its limit, and, sadly, isn't breaking. She was just as curious as the others and we all took the look in her eyes as being sad and wanting help from us. The rest of the weekend was great. Mike and I saw a turtle on both
dives at South Point! We had never seen so many sea lions being so curious
and wanting to play with us. They were swimming within a foot of our
faces before somersaulting and swimming away. Several of them seemed
to be fascinated with the snorkelers On Sunday we dove both the tuna boat and the ferry before returning to the harbor. The crew, boat and fellow divers were great. The weather perfect. The food was plentiful and good. We had rain on Friday from Tucson to Hermosillo and wondered how much we'd get during the weekend. None. Six of us slept on the bow with nothing but stars over our heads. It was nice to see the stars, Mars and the Milky Way again, as we can't see them in the city any more. The boat had a fresh water rinse on the bow, as well as a shower that worked just fine. We left San Carlos at 2:00 and were back in Tucson by 8:30 last night. The border crossing took 31 minutes. I was hesitant to go on this trip, but it was fun and we would recommend that the club try this again next year. If it would've rained, sleeping arrangements would've been bad with 17 of us including the crew on board. Combining the two clubs was fun. IBM had 5 from their club on the trip. We missed you guys - I think you would've liked it. Cheryl |
