Diving at the Coronados
January 1st, 2005 by James
The Monday after Christmas, Sarah and I went diving at the Coronado Islands aboard the Ocean Express, operated by DCI. This boat was the only one available that day, and I’d have to say that it wasn’t the best for an open-water trip like that. Totally open, with only a small v-berth for dry storage. When I changed lenses down in the v-berth, I had water dripping on me through the leaky fore-hatch. But enough about that - the boat did the job. The crew was great and we had a good time. I was diving in my dry-suit for the first time and Sarah was using a rented 7mil wetsuit that was quite good. Needless to say, she was still cold, while I was toasty warm. I LOVE this drysuit.
The conditions at the Coronados were fabulous, with good visibility, and GREAT light from full noon-day sun. The first dive was at Lobster Shack - the sea lion rookery. It’s a fabulous place to go and play both for the divers, and the sea lions…:-) This was my first dive with the Aquatica housing for the Kodak ProSLRn and I was very pleased. With this lens and port combination, the housing was easily handled. Here are a few of my favorite photos:
Afterwards, we motored down to the Middle Grounds for a dive on a shallow shelf with good relief. I shot macro here with the Nikkor 105 to see how it performed on the Kodak. Here are my favorite images from the dive:
The ride back was very bumpy as a long-predicted storm moved into San Diego. We made it back to Mission Bay just in time to avoid 6-8 foot seas on our stern, but what we did take made for a bumpy slewing ride. It was still a great trip.
For a full gallery of pix, check out: Coronados 12-04 Gallery
Posted in General |
