I spent the day yesterday on a boat in Mexican waters with James Wiseman. We went out with Lois Ann Dive Charters to the Coronado Islands, where we played with juvenile sea lions in fifty feet of visibility. It’s $85 to motor out there for three dives, breakfast, and lunch — a fantastic deal! I dove for the first time with Sitech dry gloves, and they ROCK. I was very warm and had full dexterity in my fingers. :) I’m never going back to cold-water wetsuit diving.

At one of the sites (Lobster Shack?), James and I played with and photographed a group of seven juvenile female sea lions until we noticed that everyone else was on the boat, watching us. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re having so much fun. :) Unfortunately, many of my photos came out blurry; those sea lions move really fast, and using the crappiest auto-focus system in Canon’s line of SLRs has its disadvantages. Oh well. I still managed to get a few that I really like. :) James has also posted a trip report. Photos ->

Mission Bay, at dawn

The two digital SLRs, on deck

Jim (?) and Jubilee

Steven, with Olympus digicam

Garibaldi, urchins, starfish

Garibaldi

Starfish

Underwater scenery

Juvenile females come to play!

Sea lion

Buzzed by a sea lion

A sea lion barks at James

Barking sea lion (blurry!)

Sea lion, pretending to fly

Buzzed by more sea lions

Sea lion

Sea lion

Sea lion

Sea lion

Sea lion

Sea lion

Sea lion

Leslie

A sea lion inspects our Ikelite strobes

James, with a sea lion

Sea lions come in to check me out

Sea lion

This guy is bizarre looking, huh? :)

Sea lions, at the surface

Sea lion, scratching herself

Back on the boat

Resting, between dives

Garibaldi

James with sea lion

A sea lion tugs on my fin

Garibaldi and starfish

Jim, retrieving someone's lost fishing line

James, with his Ikelite-housed Fuji S2 Pro

James, on the boat