Dive #7 (2026): Sailboat Cave
Dive log
Stats
- Max Depth: 13.6 m / 45 ft
- Average Depth: 8.7 m / 29 ft
- Duration: 41 minutes
- Water Temp: 15.0°C / 59°F
- Gas: Air
- Tank(s): HP100
- Pressure Start: 208 bar
- Pressure End: 104 bar
- Surface Consumption Rate: 17.5 L/min
Notes
Five dives over two days had left me tired. My drysuit had taken on a small leak during the second dive that morning, leaving me damp underneath and slightly chilled going into this one.
Bence entered first. As the crew handed down his fins, they missed the handoff — a ScubaPro Jetfin, which sinks, went straight to the bottom. He descended to retrieve it. I did a giant stride from the stern to catch up.
We converged at 45 feet on a sandy flat, ran our checks, and signaled go.
We finned toward the island’s steep cliffs, where the captain had said the kelp and the life would be. The afternoon sun came through at an angle, throwing long beams into the water column. The bottom rose as we closed the distance.
At one point I found a rock ledge shallow enough to hover above and look straight up — waves breaking in the shallows, rhythmic and slow from below, the surface fracturing and reassembling with each pass.
Bence had stopped. A kelp bass was swimming directly into his camera, undeterred, apparently more curious about the lens than concerned about the diver behind it. I held position nearby and drifted through a school of blacksmith, watched a sheephead work the rocks, and kept half an eye on the garibaldi — bright orange and deeply unimpressed with all of us.
We called the dive at 45 minutes and ascended back to the boat.
One of the things I like about the Spectre: ice cream and cookies waiting on deck after your last dive. Bence picked up a few beers for the hour back to Long Beach.