Polycera tricolor

Photo courtesy of Webmaster
Wreck of the Yukon
Sept. 2002

There comes a time in every webmaster's life when there is an opportunity to have more fun than one is normally accustomed to! This was the case when my long time diving buddy Jerry Allen suggested going out on his boat the "Hardbody" for a little wreck diving off San Diego last week. Having heard that there was a proliferation of Triopha catalinae on the Yukon, my response was an immediate affirmative.

It was a balmy thursday morning when we put the boat in the water for the short cruise to the Yukon. Yes, thats right thursday, Jerry and I are both retired so why not? The Yukon was a Canadian destroyer escort some 366 feet long, 40 feet wide, with six decks and over 100 compartments. The boat was sunk in San Diego's "wreck alley" 2 miles west of the Mission Beach roller coaster about a year ago. The Yukon joins the Ruby E and the NOSC tower as featured wreck dive sites.

This dive was also provided an opportunity to try out my new macro diopter lens fitting that Chet Tussey put together for enhanced photography of small critters (e.g. nudibranchs). The lens as it turned out worked very well!

Anyhow getting back to the story, we tied off one of the Yukon buoys and began preparations for the dive. Into the water we went and followed the line down to the wreck in what turned out to be cold and murky journey to about 80 ft.. But lo and behold, we landed right on two (2) specimens of Polycera tricolor one of which was some 15 mm, a rather large specimen for tricolor! They were contently grazing on the new marine growth on the Yukon along with a gizillion Triopha catalinae

We hung out long enough to shoot up a roll of film and then headed back to the surface! After a leisury trip back to the dock we cleaned up the boat and reflected on the day's events. What a way to spend the day! Not only did we potentially get some good pics but once more I got my credentials repunched as a cold water diver which should ward off the usual derisive comments when I tell everyone Bali is the next dive destination later this month!

Does it get any better?

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