IMMENSELY HAPPY

I’ve said those words twice in that many days to Jeff. The feeling of happiness, contentment and being grateful are a bit overwhelming to me at times. Usually tears well up in my eyes as I say those words to Jeff. Don’t even ask about the tears shed during night watches when emotions are about as raw as mine can get!

We’ve been in Ventura since arriving late Sunday. We came to this area to take an Open Water Diver certification course with Channel Islands Scuba. I had found them online and after talking with the owner, made the leap; signed us up for a private course! Gosh, we were lucky with the choice as Mike, the owner, and his son Laz, were terrific. 

After taking many technical rescue related courses over the years, we have a bit of a high standard for instructors. Mike is a smart guy and truly knows his stuff! Yet, he explained both theory and application in a very easy to understand manner. When it came to the actual diving part he was patient and kept it low stress and fun! I have to tell you… after being an avid swimmer my entire life, this breathing underwater stuff is FREAKY! Oh, I’ll just put this big pacifier in my mouth that should be connected with the ridiculously heavy tank of air strapped to my back; add weights to INSURE that I sink and here we go! Jeff was a master diver years ago so this was just review for him; both he and Mike were super supportive and I couldn’t have done it without them!

It was an intense 4 days of instruction (usually a 2 week course but because we were a private class we did it in a short timeframe). We were up at 5:45 am and off to either the classroom and pool or the beach for our open water dives. Mike had planned for us to do a boat dive today to finish up but mother nature had other plans. The famed Santa Ana winds came up yesterday! WOW, they are weird. The whole area got covered in a brown cloud of dust (Salpare is dirty!) and they howled all night at 30-35mph. Needless to say, the dive boat cancelled the trip to the islands today. As sailors, its easy for us to understand weather delays so we went to Refugio Beach, north of Santa Barbara, and dove the reef. 

I’m not ready to take any underwater pictures yet as I’m still focused on breathing while doing the multitude of other things needed to stay at the right depth, keep track of Mike, keep track of Jeff, equalize my ears etc… But, among other cool reef critters, we did see a giant Sea Hare. These are BIG black slugs to those of us from the Pacific Northwest. And, I mean big - this thing was about 12” tall and 18” long. Jeff just told me that the water magnifies things… but I’m telling you; it was huge!  Pic below of what these critters look like.

Now that the class is over, we head out tomorrow for the Channel Islands National Park. These islands look remote (actually only 40-50 miles off shore which used to sound like a long way but hey, we are seasoned sailors now!), unique and beautiful. This will be the first time since we left Tacoma that we can really relax, take out the dinghy, Hobie and SUP and play around. We already have our permit to Santa Cruz island which is mostly run by The Nature Conservancy. If you want more information on these unique islands:https://www.nps.gov/chis/index.htm

We’ll spend about a week in the islands then head to Catalina! Friends keep sending me a list of “things to do on Catalina” so we are are excited to get there, too. We’re headed to bed soon as we’re both tired from diving and packing up to leave Ventura!

On course,

Fran and Jeff