Dive #254 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

Don finishing up on the green at the Mayan Palace Golf Course
Photo by Rich Torkington in Mexico 2007

Our rental house at Las Conchas
Photo by Rich Torkington in Mexico 2007

Image of Tucson Beach and our dive path
From Google Maps 2008

Dive Journal: I’ve just returned from a family reunion in Santa Barbara, but Don and I have a dive getaway planned for Rocky Point.

We make the 4-1/2 hour drive down and head straight to the Sun ‘n Fun dive shop for a couple of tanks. After stowing our luggage at our Las Conchas rental house, we head directly to Manny’s Trailer Park to check out conditions. We are surprised to find that the trailer park is no longer there, replaced by a large dusty lot surrounded by a strip of construction tape. We eventually squeeze the SUV through the barriers and drive over to the boat ramp.

We are disappointed to find the surf choppy and the visibility lousy. Further, the medium-small surf is breaking at the same spot of a large break across the concrete boat ramp, which will make the entry and exit more difficult than it needs to be. After some deliberation, we decide that the risk-reward ratio is crappy, and abort our plan to dive here.

We head over to Vista del Mar hotel and find the conditions similarly bad. We settle instead on fish tacos and cervezas at Coctel Mary’s.

We eventually head back to the dive shop and inquire about other sites. They suggest several off Cholla Bay, so we head over there, figuring that even if the dives sites are bad, we can always spend the afternoon at JJ’s.

Our first look is at Tucson Beach. It is a sandy grade down to the water, with rip-rap rocks on either side at the water line. This beach faces north and is protected from the winds. Visibility is unknown, but at least not churned up due to the chop. The waters appear quite shallow here and there are a few dozen swimmers wading about.

We suit up and struggle with what to do with the SUV key. It is electronic and can’t be submerged, so in the end we decide to simply wrap it in clothes in the back of the SUV and leave the vehicle open. We enter the water and the temperatures are great, in the low 80s.

Visibility, however, is crap, maybe 5 to 7 feet. We make a go of it, heading first straight out to from the beach, then head for a rocky point to the east of us. Depth is only about 12 feet and the bottom is mostly sand. The rocky point, however, provides more interest, with young cabrilla, wrasses, and sergeant majors. Don and I can’t stay together at all due to the poor vis, and both of us often surface to try to find the other.

At one point I run into Don underwater, but on second look I realize I’m not looking at Don at all. It is a sea lion! This is the first one I’ve ever encountered underwater on a dive, and it looks at me curiously as I stare for a few seconds. I quickly turn at look for Don, trying to call him over, but when I turn back, the sea lion is already gone. Cool, though.

Don finally surfaces and has some trouble with stomach churn. After getting through that, we head back parallel to the beach, possibly intending to explore another rocky point. We decide, however, that the poor visibility and shallow profile don’t really warrant much more effort, and veer back into the beach.

It is a good-to-be-diving-again dive, but not much more than that. Two-little-men.