On Sunday, 10 May, the visibility was about 20 ft, and the ocean was a chilly 50F off Anacapa. After 30 min at 50 ft, where my 6 mm wetsuit was compressed to 3 mm thickness, my face was stinging and my hands were clumsy. The same high winds that fed the Jesusita Fire have turned the ocean over, bringing cold water laden with nutrients from the deeper ocean up to diveable depths. And the same cool fog that damped the fires made for cool conditions above water and less light below. Nevertheless the dive boats were full, and stacked up next to one another in the Marine Reserve off Anacapa. As we prepared for our 4th dive of the day from the Peace, divers began to drop off the Spectre. The few relaxing atop the Spectre's deckhouse had probably gotten enough May diving for one day.
Before being fitted as a dive boat, the Spectre was an oil platform crew boat, called (I believe) the John Brown. It's been through a number of refits since then, most lately to get less-polluting, more efficient engines.