November 8 (with update)

UPDATE: Above picture taken December 21. This is how the tide is supposed to be when you dive! Just wanted to show you the difference between 11/8 and 12/21 because I know the 11/8 pics by themselves didnt really look like un-divable water.

Above pic taken November 8. Too high and rough to dive :(

November 8

I decided to surprise my husband by suggesting a spontaneous overnight trip to Catalina Dive Park on Saturday night. I checked the weather- (sunny, warm), and was able to get hotel reservations (which has always been the hard part!). Everything was going so smooth! That is- except the water! Dun-dun-dun... We woke up bright and early Sunday morning- put on our wetsuits in the hotel room (which was right near the dive park!) This was a nice treat- to be able to get ready in a room instead of at the water or on a boat! I was beginning to feel spoiled! We walked over to the park- it was 8:15am. We had high expectations- 4 dives which included diving to some of the wrecks down there- which I had never done before. Imagine how cool those pictures would have been! But no one was in the water. The wind had kicked up over night and the usually calm park had huge swells and the water was crashing into the stairs where you enter. They were not allowing any divers into the water. BUMMER! Here we are, dressed and ready- with no where to go! We decided to catch the next boat home- only to find that they had cancelled ALL BOATS, ALL DAY. We were stranded!! Ok it doesnt sound horrible to be stranded on Catalina- but it was! We were freezing and did not pack appropriately for 2 nights- and I had to be at work the next morning- which clearly was not going to happen. But the worst part was that here we were in Catalina for 2 whole days- and we couldnt even dive! Oh the horror of it all!!! (Do you feel bad for us yet!??!) Anyway, here are some pictures... in the last one you can see the swell behind me- the water is usually flat- and on this day they were at least 5 feet. The top picture shows the water crashing up behind me over the stairs. It never even comes nearly that high... check out the stairs- they are completely submerged... Something tells me I wont be diving again for a while... :(