Another 2-day trip this weekend. Sea Divers, a very good club. A quick speal for them. If you are interested in joining a club, I would suggest this one. They are very friendly, are not afraid of a little ruff seas, and in general have a great time, along with great prices. Anyway we started out at 22:00 hours on Thursday night. We headed for Cortez Banks. After 4 hours I knew that we would make it. That is usually where it turns ugly, if it is going to. At o'dark thirty we arrived at Tanner Banks. I dropped to hook on a drop off around 80'. At 07:00 the first diver hit the water. We through out the current line from the anchor to the stern, but John D. only made it half way to the bow. He could not find the line. Well what does one expect from John. The current had pushed the line under the boat. We found the line and off everyone went. Beautiful bottom, red and purple coral, nice ravines but no bugs. Enough of this, this is a bug trip.
1-½ hours to Cortez, the Westerly was here already. Jim called to tell of free divers in the water and that they catching bugs in about the 50' range. I dropped the anchor at SS1 and in the divers went. A few bugs were caught here. Off to SS2 and a few more. After moving around the outer regions of Cortez I pulled in close to let everyone who wanted to dive the wreck. There was a large long swell running and the wreck was precarious at best. A few more bugs here.
Back out to deeper water. Found a spot in 60' that looked really good. Bingo. The Mother Lode. An 8 + pounder brought up, several limits, other large crustaceans. Several divers made a second dive here a brought up a few more. All in all the Sea Divers grabbed about 112 bugs from Cortez. Nighttime is closing fast. Now the decision to go or stay. We opted to stay the night, leaving at 02:00 and head for Clemente. This was the calmest I can ever remember it being here. It was great.
Saturday, the 27th, we are at 5 fathoms reef on the backside of Clemente. A few bugs brought up, but most of what everyone saw were shorts (no). Then to the Sand Dunes and a few more here. The quote of the trip, "you know I don't see that well under water, they all look legal". Then off to West Cove. After a quick encounter with the Navy, we anchored for the last dive of the day. A couple more were caught, and a huge Black Sea Bass spotted. Finale count on bugs 128, not too shabby.

Sunday, the 28th, off to SBI for a night/day dive with Ocean Safari. We left at 24:00 and had a very nice crossing. The first dive was at Webster's Point with a few bugs brought up. Vis was great. Then to Gabe's Cave for the second dive. A couple more brought up here. Also great vis. The third dive was at the inside Arch. No bugs but the vis was fantastic, everyone loved it. The Fourth dive was near 3 Sisters. Several bugs were caught, and still great vis. A good way to end the day. The ocean was flat calm and the air temp was pleasant.

Captain Tim