Shining Star

[asaxon]

Star 4.jpg

So when lobster season ends, what do you do? You take your dive buddies out so they can take pictures. We ended up going locally instead of to the islands due to trailer problem but to our surprise, the visibility was amazingly better than two weeks ago at the end of lobster season. It was 35-40+ feet which for SM bay is remarkable but still a bone chilling 50 degrees on the bottom at 70 feet.. We dove on some photogenic sites, the last of which was the Star of Scotland which rests in 70 fsw. She was commissioned as a Q ship in WWI, the HMS Mistletoe and ultimately came to rest in SM Bay in 1942. She is home to all sorts of amazing marine life including black sea bass and on occasional great white shark, aka “The Landlord” passing by. The attached video (click on link) was taken by my dive mates over the last couple of years and gives the history of the ship as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amIJ-...eature=related


Starfish.jpgCrab embrace.jpgCrab with eggs.jpgStar5.jpgStar 1.jpgStar 2.jpgStar 3.jpg
Of course, the Admiral can not eat pixels so along the way I took a lovely set of rock scallops for dinner.

[slanttop357]

Thanks for sharing that is awesome, do you guys ever look for treasure ?

[inchr48]

Just lovely! You're a blessed man, Andy.

[palladin]

neat photos, Andy! That water looks amazingly clear...

[asaxon]

I have to admit it is NOT that clear. Those photos were taken with very wide angle so it makes it look like the vis was 100 feet. It was not. But 35-40 foot vis in SM Bay is great. As for treasure in terms of gold, silver etc, no we don't look for it as there is very little on this coast (as opposed to the East Coast, the Med etc) plus all wrecks more than a certain age (like 5 years old) are property of the State. One of my dive buddies, the fellow in the pics on the Star, wrote the book "Shipwrecks of Southern California", now out of print so I'm well informed on the subject.

Yes, we are "blessed" and I know it.