[ad_1]
Over the past 10 years, Ben Wolfe has boarded a boat in the Port of Santa Barbara with his diving suit and scuba diving bottle ready to catch lobsters.
Her annual trip is usually scheduled for the opening weekend of the lobster season – towards the end of September – and brings her with 30 other people to over 160 km to the south, to just north of the Mexican border.
It is not known, however, whether the trip will take place later this month. One of the generally used boats – a 20 meter ship called Conception – was destroyed in a fire on Monday while it was anchored off the island of Santa Cruz during the same period. a dive trip of three days.
Five crew members managed to escape from hell, but officials had little hope of finding anyone alive again. Thirty-nine people were on board when the fire broke out. On Tuesday morning, the remains of 20 people – 11 women and 9 men – were found. Fourteen people are still missing, officials said.
Kristy Finstad, the woman who organizes Wolfe's annual trip, is among those who are presumed dead.
The deadly fire has rocked the small community of welded divers in Southern California. Experienced divers say that they often meet the same people on excursions. Many have made lasting friendships linked by a common passion for exploring the ocean depths.
"I do not know who else I know on this boat," he said.
Wolfe, a retired fire captain from Los Angeles County, makes two lobster diving trips a year. The first is organized by Finstad and her husband, Dan Chua, and costs $ 900, he said.
The four-day trips begin at night when the passengers board and the captain begins his 12-hour journey to Cortes Bank, a barely submerged island that is considered the outermost part of the Channel Islands. Where there is no land in sight and only one buoy on the water, divers swim in the ocean and catch lobster by hand.
During these trips, Wolfe got to know Finstad, Chua and the ship's captain, Jerry Boylan, he said. The passengers relax together and share their meals. The boat usually has an electric barbecue on the deck where a cook does a triple-tip.
"They are all very nice people," he said. "We're having a good time."
At Cortes Bank, there is a wrecked ship in which divers can swim. Lobsters love the ship, so it's an easy place to catch them, provided you leave early in the season, he said.
"You must be one of the first boats out there," he said. "We are usually on the first trip to Finstad."
The same people tend to make these trips, so they get to know each other. Many of them are experienced divers, he said.
"It just tells you: the people who participate in these trips are capable people. If they find themselves trapped under the bridge and can not get out of it, it means something really bad happened, very quickly, "he said.
Wolfe said he recently received an email from Chua telling him that he was in Costa Rica. He would not participate in this last trip.
Two weeks ago, Wolfe, who lives in Santa Barbara, made a trip to Conception for several days to go fishing with friends. The lobster season has not started yet. The trip took them from the island of Santa Barbara to Cortes Bank up to the island of Santa Cruz.
Chris Grossman, President of a Southern California Diving Club
club called the Sea Divers, said that he was on board the Conception about seven years ago for a dive trip. Truth Aquatics, the company that owns Conception and its two sister ships – Truth and Vision – enjoys an excellent reputation among divers, said Grossman.
"Their boats have always been perfectly maintained and perfectly maintained," he said. "The fact that this happened to this boat is very shocking."
Local, provincial and federal investigators are trying to figure out exactly what's wrong. the Conception, a ship once described by California Diving News as "The jewel of California live dive boats on board."
Wolfe stated that every time he boarded a Truth Aquatics boat, the crew gave a 20-minute safety briefing that covered the location of lifejackets and boats, as well as emergency exits.
"They cover every time they go out, whether you've heard it 100 times or not. They are fully aware of security, "he said. "I feel better going out with them than on my own boat."
[ad_2]
Source link