Catalina Island - The Sea of Cortez Travel

Sea of Cortez Scuba Center

Catalina Island

$650.00

April 2006
June 2006
August 2006

Catalina Island is one of the eight Channel Islands found off of the coast of California and is 22 miles from Long Beach. You will arrive there aboard a ferry and stay at the diver friendly historic Bay View Hotel in Avalon Bay for 3 nights. The hotel has outdoor hot/cold showers and a scrub out area for diver convenience. 3 days of 2 tank diving ( lunch included on 1 day), 1 night dive and extra dives are available for $ 40.00. The trip costs include round trip ground transportation from Tucson to Long Beach and the ferry ride to Catalina Island.

Santa Catalina is the third largest of the eight Channel Islands and is 21 miles long. Diving can be done almost anywhere along the coast (conditions permitting). Catalina is the only Channel Island with a city, Avalon and the only island with a hyper baric facility, located at the Isthmus in the Wrigley Marine Science Center. The town of Avalon is small, very picturesque and very tourist/diver oriented. The ferry arrives several times a day and there is a small airport.

Catalina island offers diver a "best of" of California diving. Shark diving, seals, sea lions and kelp forests communities. Farnsworth Bank, a very fishy sea mount just offshore the island, is encrusted with rare purple corals and yellow colonial anemones. Diving here is everywhere from 20 feet to 200+ feet. Water temp ranges from 50°F to 70°F and visibility averages 60 feet.

Boat Dive Sites

Casino Point Marine Park

Just off the city landmark, the Casino. An easy dive with generally excellent visibility, a couple of small wrecks and lots of curious, diver friendly marine life. Orange Garibaldi, tiny red and blue Catalina Gobies and Green Moray Eels are common in the area.

Bird Rock

Bird Rock is an easy dive, offering all depths and a wall (possible currents) on the seaward side. Kelp can be thick.

Ship Rock

Ship Rock can be either an easy or an advanced dive, depending on conditions. Thick kelp, clear water and filled with schools of Blacksmith, Garibaldi, Senioritis and juvenile Sheep head. Many of the rocks are encrusted with bright yellow anemone's. It resembles the corals one finds in the tropics. In the shallows you will find what remains of the Diosa del Mar.

Eagle Reef

Not far from Ship Rock there are three underwater pinnacles here that come within 3, 15 and 30 feet of the surface. The kelp is lush and visibility outstanding.

Farnsworth Bank

Divable only when conditions are perfect, this site is on the windward side of the island. 1.3 miles off Ben Weston Point. About 1,100 yards long by 600 yards wide, Farnsworth has several pinnacles, one of which comes within 50 feet of the surface. The bottom is at 200+ feet. Farnsworth is an ecological reserve which protects its numerous colonies of Purple Hydrocoral and while these healthy colonies are the area's most famous resource, it also offers a wealth of other marine life.

Wreck Dives

The Valiant

A 163 foot long steel hulled luxury yacht, The Valiant burned and sank in Descanso Bay in December 1930, four years after she was launched. Over the years she has been extensively salvaged. (Since this wreck is right offshore and more than 50 years old, it is illegal to take anything from it now.) Although collapsing little by little, the wreck still looks like a wreck due to the protected location on the leeward side of the island that she lays on. She can be dived from boat or shore but either way you need permission from the Abalone Harbormaster. The Valiant lies upright on a sandy slope, facing due north, with her bow in 90 feet of water and her stern in 60. These are her recognizable sections as the amidships have collapsed. There is rarely a current here and the water is almost always calm. Visibility ranges from 20 to 60 feet and this is an excellent first wreck dive. Photographers will love this site as the hull is covered with macro life. Scallops and Chestnut Cowries attached to its surface have a reddish tinge, owing to rust from the hull.

Diosa del Mar

In 1990 the Diosa del Mar was nearing the finish line of the 10th annual Fireman's Race in July when a small boat motoring out of Catalina's Isthmus crossed her path. To avoid collision the captain of the 90 foot long, wooden staysail schooner turned her wheel hard to starboard and ran directly into Ship's Rock. It was a sad ending for the proud Goddess of the Sea as she had been afloat for nearly a century, having been built in 1898 in Long Island, New York. It is rare to find pieces of any wooden wreck this old and hers won't be visible forever. Her remains lie in snorkeling depths and beyond on the east, south and west sides of the rock. Every year there is less of her but you can still find one of her masts, large parts of her keel and many other pieces of wreckage littering the bottom.

Contact Captain Dave with questions or comments regarding this site.
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*Boat Dive Sites*
Casino Point Marine Park	Just off the city landmark, the Casino. An easy dive with generally excellent visibility, a couple of small wrecks and lots of curious, diver friendly marine life. Orange Garibaldi, tiny red and blue Catalina Gobies and Green Moray Eels are common in the area.
*Bird Rock*	Bird Rock is an easy dive, offering all depths and a wall (possible currents) on the seaward side. Kelp can be thick.
*Ship Rock*	Ship Rock can be either an easy or an advanced dive, depending on conditions. Thick kelp, clear water and filled with schools of Blacksmith, Garibaldi, Senioritis and juvenile Sheep head. Many of the rocks are encrusted with bright yellow anemone's. It resembles the corals one finds in the tropics. In the shallows you will find what remains of the Diosa del Mar.
*Eagle Reef*	Not far from Ship Rock there are three underwater pinnacles here that come within 3, 15 and 30 feet of the surface. The kelp is lush and visibility outstanding.
*Farnsworth Bank*	Divable only when conditions are perfect, this site is on the windward side of the island. 1.3 miles off Ben Weston Point. About 1,100 yards long by 600 yards wide, Farnsworth has several pinnacles, one of which comes within 50 feet of the surface. The bottom is at 200+ feet. Farnsworth is an ecological reserve which protects its numerous colonies of Purple Hydrocoral and while these healthy colonies are the area's most famous resource, it also offers a wealth of other marine life.
*Wreck Dives*
The Valiant	A 163 foot long steel hulled luxury yacht, The Valiant burned and sank in Descanso Bay in December 1930, four years after she was launched. Over the years she has been extensively salvaged. (Since this wreck is right offshore and more than 50 years old, it is illegal to take anything from it now.) Although collapsing little by little, the wreck still looks like a wreck due to the protected location on the leeward side of the island that she lays on. She can be dived from boat or shore but either way you need permission from the Abalone Harbormaster. The Valiant lies upright on a sandy slope, facing due north, with her bow in 90 feet of water and her stern in 60. These are her recognizable sections as the amidships have collapsed. There is rarely a current here and the water is almost always calm. Visibility ranges from 20 to 60 feet and this is an excellent first wreck dive. Photographers will love this site as the hull is covered with macro life. Scallops and Chestnut Cowries attached to its surface have a reddish tinge, owing to rust from the hull.
Diosa del Mar	In 1990 the Diosa del Mar was nearing the finish line of the 10th annual Fireman's Race in July when a small boat motoring out of Catalina's Isthmus crossed her path. To avoid collision the captain of the 90 foot long, wooden staysail schooner turned her wheel hard to starboard and ran directly into Ship's Rock. It was a sad ending for the proud Goddess of the Sea as she had been afloat for nearly a century, having been built in 1898 in Long Island, New York. It is rare to find pieces of any wooden wreck this old and hers won't be visible forever. Her remains lie in snorkeling depths and beyond on the east, south and west sides of the rock. Every year there is less of her but you can still find one of her masts, large parts of her keel and many other pieces of wreckage littering the bottom.