This is the fog bank Walid, Matt, and I encountered about 7 miles out from San Pedro on the way back from Catalina.
About 3 minutes after we entered the fog bank, right where the large ships make their turn to enter the harbor... We ran out of gas...
The last Catalina trip took 16 gallons... This one took 20 gallons to do 7/8ths of a Catalina trip... The last Catalina trip was just Matt and I (and we weren't taking on water for the entire trip back...). This will probably be the last time Matt listens to me, when I say, don't bring the extra 6 gallon gas tank, we won't need it...
We got to pull a Chris and get towed back into harbor by Vessel Assist.... Matt's hand held Marine radio worked great! (fortunately).
Vessel Assist was a bit backed up when we called so it took a little over an hour for them to get into our area. By the time they got around to looking for us, the seas had picked up quite a bit. Not terrible by any means, but the waves had gone from 1s - 2s to 3s - 4s and the period appeared to have gotten quite a bit quicker.
When Vessel Assist got out to us, we discovered one slight problem with crossing the channel in a 15 1/2 foot Zodiac, in dense fog... For Navy Seals this is probably not much of a problem... But for a small Zodiac, out of gas, right where the large ships make their turn into the harbor, it is not such a good thing...
15 1/2 foot Zodiacs are like Stealth Planes, they are practically invisible on radar. Fortunately Vessel Assist has some very cool tools for finding ships. They were able to find us by tracking the source of Matt's Marine Radio signal, and spoting for our dive lights, which we were waving back and forth.
The dives were decent. Compared to not diving, they were great. Vis was a bit low for Catalina, maybe up to just over 30' in some places. There was a lot of particulate in the water. Saw some decent sized lobster (They always seem to come back just a few days after the season ends...), a free swimming eel, and a very healthy looking Abalone. I snapped a picture of the Abalone, but forgot to remove the red filter. So the color is really off...
Sunday we made some modifications to the Zode, with any luck, we fixed the problem that was causing it to take on water when in motion. If we didn't, its not a big deal, it just means we need to take more gas with us when we go to Catalina...
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