The Coronado Islands and Waterhorse Charters

Morning came early, but an adventure awaited me. I checked what little dive gear survived the trip and caught a cab for Waterhorse Charters. I left for the dock early, hoping they might have some gear I can rent; otherwise, this was going to be a series of short, cold dives. Fortunately, they were fantastic.

Waterhorse Charters is a family run start-up operation. It was my most experimental booking, but it turned out to be a good choice indeed! Everyone, including 10-year old Mirriam(?), is involved in catering to their client's needs. They were only too happy to provide me with a rental wetsuit, regulator, and BC. Followed by dolphins most of the way, their trusty craft made its way past the US destroyer patrolling the Mexican border and on to the first dive site -- The Keyhole.

The Keyhole is named for a wide, short hole that runs through the center of a particular island of the Coronados. At high tide it is supposedly submerged, but when we were there, waves washed across the roof, turning the passage into a blizzard of foam. The captain warned us not to go near there today as we would see nothing and only end up stuck on the wrong side of the island with the unusually strong current present today. To the right of the keyhole were large varieties of fish and invertebrate life living in the rocky underwater shelves. Sea lions, in their curiosity, joined us on our dive. I paired up with a relatively new diver, Matt from Ohio, and we explored up and down the bottom. Working our way against the current, we played with the sea lions while looking at the fish, sea hares, and stranger life. The sea hares were in mating season and eggs were everywhere. Despite being hermaphroditic, they prefer to reproduce as a group. At 1200 psi, we turned and let the current help us back to the boat.

The second dive site was called the Lobster Shack. This site, at another island in the chain, also was a popular spot for sea lions. The shelfs under the water here were supposedly also good spots to find octopus and eel, but Matt and I didn't find any. There was a lot less current here. We played with the sea lions again and explored the variety of invertebrate life also at this location.