Little Corona dive
Friday, March 14, 2008 (20:37:27)

Posted by Gary

On Saturday March 8th, I arrived at little Corona Beach a few minutes before 7AM. I looked at the calm water and watched a pod of dolphins swimming around. I was looking forward to my first dive of the year....
(Click on Read More at right, to read the rest of Gary's story!! --->)

Lori arrived and soon after that Allen, who I met briefly at the Mardi Gras party at Dennis & Linda's home. Then Kartherine our fourth and final diver drove up in her Porsche 944.
We all walked over to observe the water and decided it was a beautiful day to dive. Lori pulled out her cell phone to call and see what time everyone else would be arriving. Lori noticed she had missed a call Friday night from Patricia informing her the dive had been called off due to poor conditions. We decided as long as we were there and the conditions looked good we would go ahead and dive.
We suited up and easily made it out to where we decided to drop. We weren't very far apart but the visibity was only 8-10 feet so once on the bottom Allen and I did not see Lori and Katherine. We looked around one minute then surfaced. They were also up about 20' away.
We stayed closer together the second time time as we went down, we dropped right next to a lobster trap that had 2 lobster and 2 crabs in it. From there we swam through the kelp and over to the reef, staying close together.
The visibility got a little better and we were having a nice dive when a little over 25 minutes into the dive we noticed Katherine was missing. We waited one minute then surfaced, She was waiting for us on top, we asked if she was alright and she explained her weight belt fell off and she went up. Fortunately we were only in about 24 feet of water.
Lori waited on top with Katherine while Allen and I retrieved the weight belt. We were right in the middle of a canopy of kelp so when we went back down to finish our dive and head for shore Lori lost her fin in the kelp. At this point we crawled across the top of the kelp and headed for shore.
I feel bad for Lori losing a fin, other than that we had a good dive and I have a new appreciation for my weight harness. For me it was fun just to get back in the water.
After the dive we went out to a fantastic omlette restaurant that Lori recommended. Lori and I had a good time getting to visit with Katheine and Allen over a nice breakfast.
-Gary Pike