Monday, August 23, 2010

Dive Trip


I hit my 168 pound target weight and got into my scuba wetsuit for the first time in a while. My wife and I went down to Monterey to a beach called Otter’s Point which some of you may remember I used for Nick’s favorite locale in ‘Cold Blooded’. All my equipment checked out real well although I had to retire my old leaking Scuba-Pro compensator and get a new Tusa one. A sea otter swam around with me in the kelp bed at thirty feet down and visibility was great. The day was overcast but there are no bad days in Pacific Grove, near Monterey, where Otter’s Point is. I’m hoping Wild Child Publishing assigns another editor to ‘Cold Blooded’ within the next few months. Anyway, it was a good dive and we had a great time in Monterey. I’m looking forward to my younger brother coming out in September from Texas. We’re going diving at Point Lobos, also near Monterey, where there’s a cave that I haven’t been in since I took him there on his last visit. Only dive teams can dive at Point Lobos. You’re never supposed to go diving alone, but dive partners you want to dive with are tough to come by. As soon as my wife, St. Joyce (her nickname from my brothers and sisters for putting up with me for over three decades), gets her weight down, I promised to take her diving again.
The funny part of our dive trip happened at my wife’s favorite beach which is just a short walk from Otter’s Point. She took my kids down there a few months ago to show them where she wants her ashes scattered. It turned out the locals were having a memorial plaque put into a rock because John Denver crashed his single engine toy plane there and died. Her beach was packed with fawning fans. Oh man, was she pissed. Anyway, we walked down to her beach after my dive so she could spend some time sitting on her favorite rock. We had to walk past JD’s memorial plaque and what do you know a gull had crapped all over it. I immediately directed a video of St. Joyce pointing with grim face at the plaque stating this was what happened when you invaded her beach. I added an ‘Oh John, you been served, baby’ at the end. She was very happy.
We were in all the pictures and videos. Otherwise I’d post a couple, especially the John Denver bit but I don’t have permission from St. Joyce to blog her. I’ll have to remember that when we go back down there in a week or so. I’ll take some stills without us in them. :)

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like you've been having fun, Bernard!
    Poor JD! I'm sure he didn't know he was trespassing. ;)
    Luck with getting that new editor!

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  2. Yep, if JD would have known what kind of power St. Joyce wields with nature on her beach he would have crashed his toy elsewhere, Raine. :)

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  3. Shouldn't JD have been buried on a country road somewhere? Or in Denver?

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  4. More like Rocky Mountain High. :) His ashes were scattered over the Rockies, Charles. He just has a memorial plaque at my wife's favorite beach because he crashed and died there.

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  5. What a great trip you've had, Bernard. That moment when the otter swam with you in the kelp bed must have been magnificent.
    I was reading recently in the National Geographic magazine about the Bahamas blue holes and the people who dive in them. Fascinating and scary...

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  6. Diving there would be incredible, Vesper. I haven't dove without a wetsuit since Grande Island in the Philippines when I was in the service. The kelp beds are great spots for diving because they're like underwater forests you can creep through with the fish hanging as if in suspended animation amongst them. It's breathtaking... but cold. The otters and seals buzz around out of nowhere and scare the crap out of you sometimes. :)

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  7. Hurrah for St. Joyce and the seagull!

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  8. Yes, Bernita, a good time was had by all. :)

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