Join Patty and me for our 2018 live-aboard dive trip to Santa Catalina Island and the Northern Channel Island chain. Located about 25 miles southwest of Long Beach, Santa Catalina Island is the home 
to over 70 dive sites. Lots of southern California divers regularly visit Catalina and shore dive from Casino Point in the town of Avalon, but many of the best dive sites are only accessible from a boat. Patty and I were fortunate to take two live-aboard dive trips there several years ago, and the diving was spectacular. In addition to the abundant Garibaldi, we saw giant sea bass, lobsters, horn sharks, bat rays, moray eels and too many fish to count.
Our 2018 trip will be aboard the Peace Dive Boat (www.peaceboat.com) based out of Ventura, California. The Peace is a 65 foot long, 22 foot wide dive boat that can comfortably accommodate 28 divers on multi-day trips. We will try to limit the boat to 20 16 divers, including Patty and me, so there will be plenty of room on the boat and not too many people at each dive site.
There are a total of 24 bunks on the boat, both single and double. Bunk assignments have not yet been made, so if you have a preference, please let me know. If you have a significant other / good friend that you want to share a bunk with, choose a double bunk. Otherwise, choose a single. You can download the layout of the bunk room here: Bunk_Assignment.
Diving from the Peace boat is more freestyle than you might be used to. It’s a lot like shore diving, where you are in charge of your own dive profile and the underwater landscapes to explore. The dive sites are very large, and even with 20 divers in the water, you won’t feel like you are in a crowd. Each buddy team chooses where to go based on the Divemaster’s recommendations.
We leave Ventura around midnight, September 12 and travel to Catalina for a couple of days of diving. We make a stop at Santa Barbara Island for a day of diving, and this includes a dive at the sea lion rookery. Talk about spectacular! Patty celebrated her 100th dive there. When the boat dropped anchor, the juvenile sea lions took it as a sign that it was play time! We were accompanied by more playful sea lions than we could count, and it was thrilling to see just how agile they are in the water. The other sites on Santa Barbara Island offered great diving, too but we will always remember the sea lions.
After a day of diving on Santa Barbara Island, we travel back toward Ventura (at night) and arrive at the northern Channel Islands. Depending on conditions, we may dive Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and / or Anacapa islands. All these islands have excellent dive sites and they don’t have a lot of diving pressure. See a short YouTube dive video here: Diving the Channel Islands onboard the Peace Boat
PLAN TO DIVE A LOT! We can do 5 dives each day (6 if you count a night dive) and 4 dives on our last day. If you do all the dives that are available, you can rack up 22 dives over a very short time. Of course you should stop occasionally to:
- Eat: great food before and after each dive
- Rinse: separate fresh water rinse tanks for your dive and camera gear, salt water hot tub for your body
- Drink: soft drinks from the tap, hard drinks from the bottles you brought aboard
- Entertain: DVD collection and monitors to watch movies, including the ones you just created
- Sleep: check out the bunk assignments and grab your favorite early
- Do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL!!! (if that is appealing to you, I have other trips where you can veg out, too)
Here are the details:
- September 12 – September 15
- 4 days / 3 nights
- All meals included, and the food it excellent!
- All soft drinks included. You are welcome to bring your own alcoholic beverages aboard if you choose.
- Trip cost: $900 / person (use the ‘Pay Me!‘ link above to send your money – send the money to me as a friend so there’s no surcharge)
Tanks and weights are NOT included – you need to bring your own weights and one tank. The crew fills your tank on the boat after each dive, with a maximum fill pressure of 3500 psi. Nitrox fills are also available for this trip. The Peace has an onboard Nitrox system that offers continuous, pre-mixed blends up to 40%. Nitrox is $8 / tank or $100 for unlimited fills for our 4-day trip, whichever is cheaper.
This trip will sell out quickly, so if you want to join us, let me know ASAP. Contact Cecil to sign up: cecil@pattyandcecil.info
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