The Grey NATO – 283 – Diving The Channel Islands With Oceana and Blancpain
Published on Thu, 09 May 2024 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
Jason Heaton and James Stacey discuss Jason's recent trip with Oceana and Blancpain, where he joined an expedition to survey marine habitats in the Channel Islands off the coast of California. James describes the diving routine, equipment used, safety precautions taken, and the experience of living on a liveaboard boat for several days. They also touch on Jason's new camera gear, wristwatches worn during the trip, and recommendations for calipers and watch straps.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 283 and it's proudly brought to you by our always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support and if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, James Stacy. James, it's uh, It's good to be back, hearing your voice for the first time in a couple of weeks. And then I got to throw a quick shout out to Thomas for covering for me last week. That was great. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, Thomas, it was a real treat to have Thomas on. As always, that would be Thomas Holland 2. And now kind of like 2.5, because we did this like little mini episode just about the Ineos Grenadier. It actually worked out kind of nicely because we recorded on a Tuesday. The episode was going to come out on a Thursday. Thomas and James' video for Throttle House was coming out on a Friday. Oh, and we didn't want to step on the video. Yeah. So I said, well, let's record something and I'll just publish it later. I actually thought maybe we tack it on to this episode. Yeah. But then I realized this episode has a defined main topic, your awesome trip with Oceana and Blancpain. Yeah. And so I was kind of like, you know, the other thing that's nice is don't get me wrong, like our audience and you see it a ton in the slack, like people, our audience loves cars and driving and off roading and all this kind of stuff, but it doesn't, it's not like the actual product, like the Ineos Grenadier or Defender or Jeep or whatever, that's gonna be divisive for some people. So this at least gives folks an option to be like, all right, I listened to the chat with you and Thomas, I don't need another half hour about the Ineos. But if somebody's like, oh, I desperately want it, it's there, it's in the feed. But a huge thank you to Thomas for coming on, but I did miss you. It is nice to have you back on the zoom and to hear your voice. We're gonna get into the trip, so I'll try to avoid that. Yeah. But maybe we talk a little bit about how's it been since you got back from the trip. It is like adjusting back to the real size of the world after a live aboard can be a bit of a mind bender. Yeah. Because you're more tired than you think, but also you've been able to pick and choose how involved you are with the world around you. Right. Just because a boat isolates you from so much of that. So how has it been to get home? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it's good. I had a bit of a soft landing because I had a night in between when I was back in Ventura, California at a hotel. And it was definitely a soft landing, you know, soft bed, nice meal, easy travel home. And then since I've been here, you know, I had the weekend. I got back late Friday night and just kind of enjoyed myself. I relaxed a bit, but then went to a birthday party one of the days and, um, got out on the bike and went running and the weather's been great. So it's, it's been, it's been tremendous. Um, you know, one thing I was concerned about, I've been training so much this past few months that when I was on the boat, I had these, this idea that I would keep up my, you know, pushups and planks and some stretching and whatever. And it's like, as I'll get into, it's like, no, not really possible. You know? I mean, it's, it's, there's no room, it's wet, it's pitching around, there's gear everywhere. So it was, It was something that I was a little bit concerned about. You know, anyone who exercises fairly religiously knows that, you know, you get away for a few days and you start to get this anxiety of like, Oh man, my fitness is going to slip and all this. And totally. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. You know what? It was probably the best thing for my body to take a week. Well, I mean, diving has its own strenuous aspects, but like it was, it was, of course, it's not like you were laying on the couch. It felt good. Like that first run I did on Saturday, my legs were like fully recovered. Everything felt really strong and good. So Um, yeah, I, I recommend taking a few days off to people that are kind of burned out or, or been kind of cranking it in the gym or running or whatever. Totally felt really good. And, um, yeah, here we are a new week, blue sky kind of came back to the garden popping and trees leafing out and, uh, warm weather. So it's been great. Yeah. And you, you speaking of gardening, you, uh, you did a little sort of garden adjacent work this past weekend I saw. |
| Jason Heaton | I did, yeah. We've had it on the list of things to do is to build a raised planter for the backyard, probably two, but we wanted to get the experience of building one first. Yeah. And so Sarah had worked out a design. My wife, Sarah, is very much into gardening. It's a big part of this part of her year. And she's been interior planting and seeding a variety of plants in the corner of her kitchen with a bunch of little grow lights and that sort of thing. And those are all ready to finally go out. So this past weekend she said, you know, let's, let's figure out how to make that planter. And she built a, or designed like a really efficient design out of cedar. Um, so no pressure treating, none of the weird chemicals, that kind of stuff. Yeah. And we were able to make, it took a couple of hours. I put some photos up in the Slack so you can find it if, uh, if you're in there and, um, I think it came together really nicely. So some of my best work for sure. Looked amazing. I'm starting to get a little bit more proficient with like cut shaping and some of that kind of stuff and like knowing what the results will be. Yeah. Cedar's really nice to work with. Smells incredible the whole time that you're doing it. And we've got a ton of plants in it. And now I was just talking to Sarah before we started recording and she was saying that, you know, probably good to do at least a second one. So I'll probably build another one. I don't know. Could be today. It's so nice outside. Like I'm looking for excuses. But you were talking about being very much trained and then taking a little break. I'm still in a position of being largely de-trained in most things, unless you talk about putting weight on your back and walking on a treadmill. I've got that locked in. But the other day we went out and played maybe like, I don't know, a half hour, 45 minutes of tennis. And I don't play tennis, so this is a new thing for me. It felt really good. It's difficult. You're kind of sprinting. The next day I felt fine, and I was kind of surprised. Sarah was a little sore, and I was like, oh, you know, I could tell that I was swinging my arm around, like my arm was a little sore, some of the motions I'm not used to. I have a bad rotator cuff on my right shoulder, so that you'll notice that with like serving, if I serve too hard. And then, of course, if I serve too hard, the ball also goes like into the next zip code, because I just have no clue what I'm doing. But I like starting a sport right at the bottom. Sarah played some tennis in high school and in college, just some experience to play around with. And I actually have a cousin who's a pro and I might get some lessons from them. Oh, nice. Over the course of the summer. But we have a cement court, like a concrete court at the cottage. Oh, cool. Like it's a mixed use place, but the main setup that it's designed for is either basketball or tennis. Yeah. So we figured it'd be fun to get a couple rackets and do that. But man, the day after, so two days later, like 36 hours later, My calves were useless, like full on useless. Oh yeah. I sat there with like the Theragun. Yeah, yeah. Like until they would go numb. Oh yeah, yeah. And then I'd be like, well, that must be better. And then I would go to like stretch, you know, like where you bring your ankles back to a 90 or even deeper. Right, right. And just like you could see the little muscle at the bottom of my calf. Yeah. I don't know the muscles, but you could see it like freaking out. So we're going to ease our way into that. The walking is still going well. I've been really enjoying that. I've started to transition more that outside. I'm trying to decide, in your mind, would it be weird for me to walk around outside with the white vest on? It looks too much like a flak jacket. |
| James Stacey | Oh, right. Well, I don't think so. I think there are enough people. |
| Jason Heaton | It's just a black thing. And the front weights, the front two-pound weights look long, like a 556 mag. Oh, hmm. It looks it looks very tactical. Yeah. So I can't decide if I if or or the other like it. Do I just go extra? Do I get like extra weird and just buy like take an extra large TGN T shirt or like a 2XL that we've got a spare and wear it over? That might look even weirder. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Okay. I can't decide, you know, just wear like some really colored cap, you know, something floral or bright and sunny and cheerful looking and, you know, a pair of like long shorts and you know, like |
| Jason Heaton | The rest of you should, should, you know, if you, if you go full like camo and you know, whatever, or your shemagh or something, the move, the move would be like a, would be like a black, would be like a black to no shirt and just red shorts, like full, full Cousteau, but with a 50 pound vest on. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | How about those shorts you got that you wore in Florida? Those Speedos or whatever. |
| Jason Heaton | Those ones. Yeah. Ocean Pacific or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Adidas. Oh, Adidas. Sorry. Adidas. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, no, those, those are fun. Um, but yeah, I've been, I've been enjoying that. It's great to have the, the warm weather back. We were at the cottage. I think I talked about that. Oh, I didn't know you went to the cottage. |
| James Stacey | Oh, that's cool. Nice. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I got up there for, for an afternoon. Like I said, just to make sure that it wasn't exclusively now run by raccoons. Everything was fine. It's all good. Tied it up a little bit, tried to get the star link on, but it didn't want to connect. So I'll figure that out. And I'm trying to think of what else has kind of come up in the last, Oh, the other, the other big thing that's happened for me in the last couple of weeks is, uh, I didn't really talk about it. I kind of hinted about it. I put it on Instagram a little bit, but we haven't made it a point on the show. I've replaced my Leica Q. Oh, right. Yeah. After four years, I guess, of using that. Still in the Leica family, though. Still in the Leica family, for sure. Still have the Q, to be fair, because I'm scared of making a decision and then having to unravel it. You know, Leica decisions, camera decisions in general, expensive. But Leica ones, especially ones that involve new glass, expensive. Yeah. But yeah, I just kinda had this thing where I was at Watches and Wonders this year, and I felt like... And I'm keenly aware of this, because I've been through several cameras in the last 20 years of liking photography and taking it pretty seriously. I have this kind of hyper awareness of myself when I know I've maxed out what I can do with a camera. Yeah. If I know all the ways that I might wanna use the Q, which is to take pictures of watches. Yeah. I was definitely at the point with this where I was like, no, I've I've gone as far as I can with this camera. If I want to do better, if I want to create more interesting, if I want to try new things, I need to move to a more modern and I considered a Q2 and a Q2 still on the horizon if I end up not liking the one that I got. But I got the option through a friend of mine in New York, a photographer who recently moved most of his work to the SL3, which is like the full size big, beefy, brutalist Leica, he had a couple SL2s that he was selling, and the price was ridiculous, just very cheap for a nicely used, properly maintained, serviced by Leica, clean, bill of health SL2. So I picked that up and I immediately ordered an adapter for every lens that I own. So years of using the Q or with the M10, you don't wanna necessarily put a weird lens on the M10, because it won't be range finder coupled. so you won't be able to focus it correctly. Whereas with this, this operates like a Sony, where you have the ability to essentially adapt to anything. It's a huge full frame, 47 megapixel sensor. I was able to put all my old Asahi Pentax, my old Canon 51.2, all of that on there. So I'm having a real blast playing with that. The camera's great. It's too heavy. I gotta go back to the gym. Because the camera's about two pounds, and then the lens, I've only bought one lens, because I own a ton of lenses, but they're all manual focus. Yeah. They're either vintage or they're M lenses, which port really nicely to this from the M10, so that's a nice kind of complimentary option. But I bought the 24-70 Sigma Art, which internally is identical to the Leica 24-70. Yeah. Beautiful lens, also 900 grams, which is just shy of two pounds. Yeah, yeah. So take those two things and then add a flash on top, which is probably a half pound, maybe 300 grams. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. You're doing curls. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Holding it's not so bad. I think it's about four and a half pounds holding. It's not so bad, but think in your mind about how you take a wrist shot. Yeah. Right. You have to bring the camera up to your eye and then you have to rotate it interior toward the rotate the camera towards your body. Yeah. And that rotation, my forearm goes, oh, you're not built for this, dude. Yeah. You can lift the camera up. I can hold the camera straight out. Yeah. It's just like a weird, you know, when you, you find that muscle and you're like, oh, I don't have that one. Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. It's underdeveloped. It's like vestigial. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. I'd be sitting there and I'd get two or three wrist shots. Yeah. And then I'd go, I'd go to check the focus and go back and my hand would be almost shaking. And I was like, well, you definitely don't want your hand shaking when you're taking a picture. And so it's that kind of thing. And I'm not a hundred percent. I like the camera a lot. I'm not a hundred percent sure on this lens. It takes a great photo. It's really good for watches because there's a fairly short focus distance of about twenty four centimeters. Yeah. So I can do a wrist shot on my own wrist and also being a twenty four to seventy to eight. You can use it for anything like I could go on. I'm going on a trip in less than a week to Switzerland for the better part of a week. And I'm considering just bringing this one lens and camera. Oh yeah, yeah. Just to give it a full rundown. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | I tested a couple other ones, all focusing... Granted, those listening who know the L platform, which is the lens system that the SL uses, but also Panasonic uses it and that kind of thing. If you know the L platform well, you're thinking of all these great lenses. I have a very specific need, which is I need a lens that has a minimum focus distance under 30 centimeters. Sure. so that I can take a wrist shot of my own wrist, but I also need it to be ludicrously sharp, wide open. Yeah, yeah. So I bopped around... I've tried four lenses so far. I like this 24-70, but there's also a Panasonic 35-18 that I tested that weighs nothing because it's plastic. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And I do... I know that plastic lenses are frowned upon, but the weight makes a difference in your hand when you have to do the motion that I described. Yeah. So I'm also considering that, but I don't want to buy two autofocus lenses to do the same task. It feels wasteful. Yeah. Anyways, that's a very, very long explanation to say that I have now moved to a somewhat more modern, but still not actually modern. The SL3 is out, new Leica. So hopefully the photos and that kind of thing get better and allow me to do some more wild stuff. And this camera does some insane video and that kind of thing. So it should be a fun way to grow beyond the Q, but also knowing that if for whatever reason this system doesn't work out, most of it could be sold for what I paid for. And I could just move to a Q2 or Q3. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I, I feel so much more free with what this camera can do versus the Q. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I saw, um, Steven Pulverance when I was in Geneva and, and, and, and I, I kind of lifted it and looked at it a bit and I was struck by how heavy it was, but how beautifully made it looks. I mean, it just looks like a sleek machine. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah, they feel great. I mean, they feel like a big premium camera. It's fun. I haven't done the new camera system thing in a long time, especially when it comes to watch photography, which is the thing that my brain is really kind of tuned for. Right, right. When we get to the wrist check, I shot the watches in my wrist check today. Just recently, I went over the photos and I'm just delighted. Oh, cool. I mean, to have so much more resolution for the crop is genuinely a lot of fun. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Well, that's worthy of a congratulations. I think new camera. Got to get the Q out your way. I think you got to give it a try. Yeah, I would love to try it. I mean, I remember seeing it when we did that trip up to Tobermory and I love the form factor. I love how small it is. I think I'm kind of headed in that direction. I think after. you know, using big cameras for a long time, I'm kind of headed in the opposite direction. It's kind of like the watch trends, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm ready to go with a little Cartier tank and my wrist or the, you know, the, not literally, but in the camera sense of things, uh, kind of going that direction. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, it's, it's here for you. I'm sure we'll cross paths sometimes this summer and I'll leave it with you for a bit. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Cool. |
| Jason Heaton | Uh, otherwise look forward to seeing possibly a really, really, really well used cue on BST for a good deal, but it was recently serviced and it's running nicely. So I suppose we'll see. Yeah. But yeah, that's a that I mean, that was a much longer sort of intro chitchat than I expected. I wasn't specifically planning on talking about the camera. |
| James Stacey | Well, it's been a while. I mean, we got to get caught up here. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. True enough. True enough. You want to jump into some wrist check? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, mine's an easy one. I mean, I'm wearing a watch I was wearing last week on this dive expedition, and I'll definitely get into that more. But it's my my 45 millimeter titanium Blancpain 50 fathoms automatic. The reference 5015. I had it on a long Blancpain NATO for the trip to fit over a dry suit sleeve. And I've kind of swapped it back onto like a ribbed, I think it's a cheapest NATO straps, kind of a mustard strap for, for kind of wearing around the house here. And it looks great. And I think, you know, this watch, it has those, as you know, it has these screw in strap bars, which are kind of fiddly. You have to have two specifically sized Allen head, you know, little wrenches to, to get out the bars and kind of fiddly. And I just find that it, and with the 23 millimeter width, it's, it just, it's very specific when it comes to kind of what like real kinds of straps you can put on it. I've got the sail cloth that came with it, but I just don't wear that very much. And so I find this watch works really well on, on a series of NATO straps, just 22 millimeter ones, because it's, it's got those screwed bars. It's almost like they're just fixed. And then I don't know, kind of, kind of brings down the, the lux element of this thing and makes it more of a tool watch. So that's what I've got on. |
| Jason Heaton | Very nice. Yeah. Good one. What about you? I've got several sort of watches in currently. My desk is actually kind of covered, but I'm going to talk about the new Seiko SPB 451, 453. Yeah. So these are the 2024 versions of the 2020, like SPB 143, which I've talked a ton about. I've done videos, we've done episodes. |
| Unknown | Oh, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | On record, deeply for that. Yeah. This is the brand new version. So slightly different movement, new date placement, otherwise very much a series of small, subtle refinements that lead to I would say a slightly nicer watch that's otherwise very similar to a watch I already absolutely loved. Yeah. I think in the past four years since the 143 came out, the value proposition presented by this watch has changed because the competition's gotten better. Yeah. So I'll talk about that when I get to the actual full on review for Hodinkee. But as a version of a watch that I already liked, I really, really like these. I've got the black and the blue, so that's the... The black is the 453 and the blue is the 451. And I'm spending the day, I spent part of the morning doing the first timing phase for these. Obviously the movements are a major issue for people who are keyed into Seiko these days. People want to know how they perform and that sort of thing. And this uses a slightly new movement, the 6R55. So I've had it on the timing machine and I'm going to do full wind, full wind the last 24 hours and then something in excess of less 48 hours. Oh, okay. Cause they have a 72 hour power reserve. Yeah. And that should see where they kind of actually kind of balance out in terms of timing. And it's nice. I've got two here, so it's still anecdotal, but it'll be like slightly more data than one anecdotal. Yeah. Yeah. As far as how the movements do, but yeah, I've been wearing them around the bracelets got a few refinements, which makes it in my mind, much more wearable. You still get drilled lugs, great loom. They've moved the date to four 30. The thing I've learned is I think part of... A decent portion of what bothers me about 430 dates is that the angle of the text for the date... Yeah, you have to cock your head. Is the same as a three o'clock date wheel. Yeah, yeah. So you have all this text on the dial that's oriented east-west, like normal text, right? And then you have this one little piece of information that's tilted 30 degrees in one direction. Right. And they don't do that here, and it makes a huge difference. because it feels so much more intentional when you glance down and the date is aligned with the rest of the text on the dial, like it's not canted off to one, like not tilting away. It doesn't seem like that'd be that hard for brands to do. Look, if you're gonna do something like this, I would say two things. If you're gonna do a 4.30 date, do it like this one. And two, if you're gonna do a watch with a 4.30 date, offer a no date version. Those are my two tips. Yeah, yeah. Just give people the option. Because if this watch, even if it was the same money, didn't have a date, it just removes the thing that is an impediment to some people. There's something about a 430 date that looks like you forgot that you needed a date. You're like, well, we'll just punch a hole in the dial there, it'll align with the disc, we'll be fine. And this feels a little bit more intentional, a little bit more refined. So I'll have my full story for Hodinkee probably within a couple days of when this episode comes out. So be sure to check that out. It'll include things like timing, data, and the rest of it. But otherwise, it's going to be largely building on my review of the, my several reviews of the 143, because these are like very closely the same watch. |
| James Stacey | Do you still have your 143 or did you sell that? I can't remember. |
| Jason Heaton | I sold that. Yeah. Back when I did the whole sell off six months ago or whatever, it was one of them that went, I didn't even have to list it. I just casually mentioned in a chat with somebody on the Slack that I was considering letting it go, and they said they're keen on picking it up. So it went on to a new home. Amazing. And I don't miss it, and I don't think I would buy... This is the same thing I said when these watches, these new ones first came out. I like them a lot, but I've already had the experience. Yeah. They're not that different, but if they do what they did with these, with the 2024 series and do a ton of different LE cool versions, but on paper, if you've just been waiting, it's a slightly refined, slightly nicer 143, which was already a watch that I really liked. And it largely comes down to your expectations for the accuracy of the movement. Right. Yeah. Yeah. If you're expecting COSC timekeeping, this watch will almost certainly let you down. Yeah. I'll have more data in the next 72 hours. But if you're expecting, if you're okay with a slightly wider sort of setup, like what Seiko is doing these days, I think they still offer a pretty solid, pretty entertaining, great looking watch for the money. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. You're right though. It does feel like it's gotten a little bit like in the, even in the past few years, I think it's that, that, that watch from Seiko has kind of gotten lost in a, in a more crowded space of watches around that price that are very good. |
| Jason Heaton | Look at it's like to a certain extent, it's our job to be picky, especially if I'm picky about things I know about. And the thing about this is four years ago, it was less common to have micro adjust in the class. It's not now. So a $1,500 watch, there's no micro adjust. There's only two points of pin micro adjust. And other than that, there's a fold out dive class, which is something people don't need, if I'm honest, and that's coming from two divers. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's little stuff. I'm going to continue to harp on the point that when I see a bracelet in a four figure watch, even a thousand dollar watch, but if I see one with a bracelet and it uses pin and collar, Yeah. I don't think that that bracelet was designed by someone who loves watches. True. That bracelet was designed by someone who knows what every piece of a bracelet costs, and this is the cheapest way to do it. Yeah. But when there's six, seven, $800 watches that have single sided screwed links that you can size in... It took me several minutes to size each one of these Seiko's. Yeah. And the other thing I have on my desk, and I use this only as an example, because I will talk about it later on, is the VPC Type 37HW, which I have in from VPC from Thomas, and that watch has single sided screws and took maybe 45 seconds to size. Yeah, yeah. Still a good watch. I could not blame anyone buying it, but they're not checking every single box as they go. Right. So far, I don't know any Seiko that is doing the single sided screws and quick release and some sort of a move like a COSC, like why doesn't... Seiko is a huge company, why don't they have something like COSC? If there's Metas out there and there's Green Seal and other big companies are doing this, why not make this some sort of a priority? Because I think it would only increase the confidence that people have when they're buying one of these watches, especially if they're reading about the watch in a review from you or me or whatever, and then going on a website and buying it sight unseen. Yeah. But yeah, that was, again, a very sort of long-winded take on another segment in the show. But I know it's a watch that people are kind of keyed in on, especially those who maybe had held their breath for the 143 in its generation, like the last few years, to see what sort of refinements would come out. But like I said, there'll be a full story on that. And if you have questions about it, you can hit me up in the Slack or the comments on that, or there's multiple ways of connecting. let me know if there's anything specific to cover. I will endeavor to what was the what was the one measurement we that came up on slack. Oh, oh, minimum, minimum bracelet size. All right, I'm gonna add that to my list, which is gonna be a real pain. I hope you guys appreciate it. It's gonna be a pain to size this bracelet all the way down because every link has a hole. So I have to assume they can't all come out, though. And, and what was our new... I don't know. Maybe you could go down to no links. |
| James Stacey | Our new wrist measurement too. What were you going to call it? |
| Unknown | The wrist diameter or something. The wrist stage. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, that's enough of that nonsense for the moment. Lean into the puns here. You want to dive into your, your trip for the last week? Sure. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And it was a good one. |
| Jason Heaton | So why don't you start really high level? Like we assume someone missed the last three or four episodes and jumped in on this one. What was the trip? What were the goals? What was your role? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So, um, Oceana is a kind of a big, if not the biggest kind of ocean conservation organization in the U S possibly the world. Um, they've got some, some big names on their kind of board of directors, Sam Waterston, Ted, Ted Danson, uh, et cetera. Um, kind of well-known, they do a lot of fundraising. Uh, they're trying to drive policy at the kind of state and national level and international levels trying to, trying to get laws passed to increase the marine protected areas. And, you know, put more guidelines in place in terms of fishing, all of that sort of stuff. And, uh, last fall when I was in France, uh, and you came a couple of days later, I had moderated a panel of people and one of the guys on the panel was the CEO of Oceana, um, who has actually recently announced his retirement. Um, but Oceana and Blancpain have had this kind of overlapping relationship for a number of years. And Blancpain, of course, through their ocean commitment program has provided sponsorship to a great number of these types of organizations, including Oceana. And this past year they approached Oceana with the offer of underwriting a number of expeditions, research expeditions. And Oceana has not done a lot of research work, like hands-on research work themselves. They've often pulled research data from various organizations in terms of fisheries and marine protected areas and species counts and that sort of stuff. So This was something of a new venture for them to actually get out on the water with their own people and get in the water. And so this expedition out to the channel islands off the West coast of the U S uh, in California was a bit of a proof of concept for them. It was, it was an idea of, of getting their team together out on a boat living for four days and nights among kind of some of the less visited channel islands out of Ventura. And, and doing some habitat surveys, underwater habitat surveys, some ROV work, uh, you know, putting remote operated vehicles underwater and kind of deeper water and doing some, what's called E-DNA collection where they scoop up water, uh, filter it down and then analyze it for DNA from all the critters that, that have lived and passed through that, that area. So those were kind of the high level goals that Oceana had with the, this underwriting from Blancpain. And, uh, I was invited along to. kind of do a number of things. I was, I was there to, uh, be one of the dive team photographers. So there were, we kind of broke up into three dive teams and each team had a photographer to take pictures of what we were seeing, um, as well as kind of help provide this type of content to Oceana and to Blancpain for social media feeds and for reports and things later on. And then I signed on with Oceanographic magazine to file daily dispatches on their Instagram stories. And so, I was, I was, I was pretty busy, you know, like every day, a lot of photography and shooting kind of videos, topside and kind of talking head stuff, boat tours and interviews with, with various members of the crew. So that, that's what we were doing out there. And it, it, um, you know, I I'll admit to a bit of anxiety leading into it. There were a number of things that I wasn't sure about, uh, for the few days prior to the trip, uh, weather being one of them, uh, there were forecasted kind of big seas and high winds. And I was, you know, Worried that everyone would be seasick and, and dive conditions wouldn't be great and whatever. And then just, you know, in terms of expectations around my role, um, I wasn't exactly sure how it was all going to play out, but, uh, in those, in both respects, uh, turned out really well and it went well, only a couple of people got sick and that was only for the first day or two. I, I had no problems myself. And if, if people do want to kind of check in on what, what I was doing in case you missed it and you are on Instagram, you can go to, to oceanographics. Instagram page and go to their kind of profile and under highlights, you'll see one of the highlights is the, uh, the Oceania expedition. They've saved all those stories. So you can, you can go back and, and scroll through those and watch them. |
| Jason Heaton | But, uh, you can definitely find those in the show notes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely. Let's, uh, when was the last time you were on a liveaboard? |
| James Stacey | Uh, I've done two liveaboard trips before this. I did one, uh, also with Blancpain, that was five years ago, I think it was. And we were out in, And then I did a three or four day trip, uh, on a liveaboard diving the wrecks around Isle Royal in Lake Superior, which was a bit more, that's right. It was a bit more like this trip in that it was a smaller boat, a little more Spartan conditions. And, you know, the, the one to Socorro was on a dedicated liveaboard dive charter with, uh, with, uh, with, uh, uh, with, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you know, lovely sleeping quarters, um, nice galley, you know, uh, big screen TV with, you know, DVDs and, and just kind of comfortable surroundings. This one was a little bit more, I guess I would say Spartan. It wasn't necessarily uncomfortable most of the time, but it was a lot of people. We had 17 people, uh, nine of us were diving and then we had logistics folks and safety coordinators, uh, someone from Oceana who was handling kind of communications and, and audio and video stuff. And, uh, and then the ROV crew and the boat was a 62 foot former fishing boat, uh, based out of Ventura called the peace boat. And I, I know that some people who maybe live out there have done some diving in the channel islands are familiar with the peace boat. Uh, it's, it's kind of a 1970s vintage, uh, 62 foot wooden fishing boat that was turned into a dive charter. And so it's got a nice big open back deck for dive gear and a step off or step on, I guess, if you will, transom. uh, Gates on the side, I'm sure in starboard for jumping in. Um, the sleeping quarters were a little challenging. I will admit they were below deck and we were kind of in stacked berths. So, uh, I was lucky enough to score a kind of a double width one, which was meant that it was about double my body width and about just my, my, my height. And then the bunk above me was about eight inches above my face. So, you know, if you can picture sleeping in, a pretty small space with all your gear because there really wasn't room to store like duffels and, and that sort of stuff. So I was in there with all of my, my kit and sleeping in a sleeping bag, uh, kind of right below the stairs. And that took a little bit of getting used to, but, uh, you know, we were, we were there to dive and we spent a lot of time kind of in the common quarters up in the galley, sitting at all the tables and chatting about the dives and downloading photos and eating and playing music and that sort of stuff. So. it, let's just say it engendered teamwork and cooperation and camaraderie. No, no, nothing came to fisticuffs or, or harsh words. So that was a positive thing. |
| Jason Heaton | The liveaboard experience, my guess is it varies greatly. Mine was a very long trip. It was 15 nights. Yeah. It is a fascinating experience because I feel like it's one of those things that lives up exactly to the movies. You know what I mean? Yeah. You grow up watching Cousteau documentaries, and then around the time that I did Clipperton, we had been obsessed with everything from shadow divers to blue water, white death. When I was on Clipperton, I read Blue Meridian by Peter Matheson, and just that experience really does live up to it. But I do think, looking at some of the stuff that you published from last week, that I had a fancier version, like more hospitable version is maybe the right word, versus a little bit more functional, the boat. Yeah. Yeah, more space for sure. I only had two people and it was me and one other guy in the room. We had our own shower, all that kind of stuff, pretty ritzy as far as dive boats go. I'm just thrilled that you had a good time and the stuff that you were putting out, both Oceana and for Oceanographic May, was so much fun to follow along with. It looked like a really great time and it also... This is the other thing that I found interesting about Clipperton was you dove two, three, four times a day depending on where and when and conditions and the rest of it. Yeah. But there was always stuff to do otherwise. Definitely, definitely. With the content requests that you had from the various parties, what gear did you take with you? Because you said you were kind of gear limited or space limited for gear. Right. What did you take to be able to shoot underwater, to get the stuff top side? I'm sure people would be a little bit curious about kind of how you tackled that endeavor. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Um, topside stuff was easy. I've got my iPhone. Um, and I used that for doing, you know, it was largely for Instagram stories. So the iPhone works perfectly for that. I was able to do interviews with the expedition leader, the ROV guys, uh, the guy, the scientist that was doing the eDNA collection and kind of boat tours and kind of daily intros of myself talking. And so that stuff was easy. The underwater portion. |
| Jason Heaton | And for that, are you just using the built-in microphone or are you using an external? |
| James Stacey | Uh, I used my AirPods for some of the stuff that I, where I was kind of introducing the day. Uh, when I interviewed other people, I just, just shot them just using the built-in mic and, and surprisingly it came out okay. I think, you know, a little bit of ambient boat noise was, was welcome. I think that kind of adds to it. |
| Jason Heaton | I think the other thing to point out, just because people may ask, you're still on an iPhone 11. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I did bring my oceanic, um, underwater housing, um, for the iPhone. And I was thinking like, Oh, if I had the new, the newest and greatest, iPhone, I could get some spectacular footage, um, in and out of the housing. And I ended up only taking that on one dive. Um, and I'll kind of get into that a bit here, but the housing, yeah. Um, for the, for the most part, I did most of the underwater shooting with a Sony a seven Mark two in a full rig. Yeah. With, with the Nauticam housing for underwater with a big crack and underwater video light, which pumps out like 15,000 lumens. So it's a, it's a great light. It's the same kid I took to, uh, to Florida with, uh, with you, um, last September and, and, uh, you know, we've, Shani and I have done shooting with that for years. And in fact, we, we had migrated to a Nikon Z seven with a, with an auto cam housing, uh, a couple of years ago and thought that would be replacing the Sony system that we had started with many years ago, but we've gone back to the Sony. And I think, you know, to your earlier point about the SL two being kind of a bigger, heavier camera, we just found the Nikon system, even the Z seven mirrorless, was proving to be kind of bulky and a little bit cumbersome. And the buoyancy characteristics, we had a larger dome on it, which created kind of some buoyancy issues. And we just were more comfortable with the Sony. And so that's where my comfort zone is. And that camera has been, other than the kind of the relatively poor battery life, that A7 has just done a stellar job. It's got a, it's got a very wide fisheye adapter on it. So it can do a lot of sort of close focus, wide angle stuff, which is great for underwater wrist shots and watches. So that's what I was shooting with, with underwater. And then, as I said, I took the ocean oceanic housing with my iPhone under on one dive. And here's a little pro tip to, to those that might be using this system. There's a certain amount of like weird setup time that you have to put, you know, you have to launch the oceanic app, uh, get it ready, load it into the housing, kind of walk through a bunch of steps with that housing, seal it up, get it ready to go. And then if you're not diving right away. keep it in like a freshwater bucket of cold water or somewhere in the shade because I had it sitting next to my dive gear and we kind of had some delays because we had to move dive sites on that particular day because it was a bit, there was a bit of current. And, um, by the time I was getting ready to get in the water, I was going to do like this video of me jumping in, you know, filming, kind of get the whole splash. Um, and it said the camera had, or sorry, the, uh, the phone had overheated and I had to wait until it cooled down before it would operate. So, I literally did half the dive checking the camera in the housing for like the first 15 minutes of the dive. And it still said temperature alert. And finally it cooled down and I was able to get a few photos and some videos, which turned out fine. But, um, that was a learning point for me. And I would recommend people keep that cool. Cause I think it, it, it heats up in general inside that housing. And so that was a bit of an issue, but otherwise the, the a seven, it's just an awesome rig. I mean, it's such a great camera system. worked out really well. It's, you know, there's so much to be said for being comfortable with your equipment. And I've used that for at least, you know, four or five years now. And it's just been, it's been such a reliable unit. So, you know, we, we kind of settled into this routine where we were doing three dives a day, max dive times were 30 minutes. The water was fairly cold and Fahrenheit would be mid fifties. I'm not sure what that is. |
| Jason Heaton | Sorry, max, like the implemented max by the DM or the people in charge was 30 minutes. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So Oceana, it was a very safety conscious group. Yeah. And their idea was cold water. They had very specific goals for each dive latitude and longitude of each dive site planned out ahead of time around three different islands. We were off of Santa Cruz Island. Then we went to Anacapa, which is kind of the closest island to Ventura. And then we did an overnight motor down to the South to Santa Barbara Island, which is the furthest one away from where we started. And, um, and at each island, the plan was to do three dives at three different locations. And. We would hop in groups of kind of groups, dive groups of three, and there were three teams and each team was composed of a photographer, a scientist who was doing the data collection and then a safety diver. So they brought in freelance safety divers from California who would kind of handle the navigating and the kind of the safety elements, keep an eye on things. And then the scientists could focus on carrying clipboard, you know, a slate with a, with a checklist or a place to note what they were observing and the habitat and a tape measure on a big roll. And then they would roll out, they would tie it off to, you know, some kelp or rock or something and a spool it out. And then the three teams would follow that kind of in succession. And each team was kind of responsible for looking for different things. One was like topography and kind of. plant and coral growth. And the other was kind of critters, you know, marine life. And then the other group was kind of doing their own thing with the edna collection, the water collection. And then we would swim out, come back the other side of the tape while one of the safety divers would spool it in. And then if there was time, we would veer off in another radius and do a second transect. Uh, and then the whole time they also set up a 360 degree camera on a tripod, kind of right where we went in and then they would collect that and bring it back to the boat. And so, |
| Jason Heaton | And I guess with a boat of that size, you're diving, you're going to and from the same boat, you're not operating with a tender. |
| James Stacey | Right. They had a tender that they would deploy just in case, you know, we did encounter some current issues. |
| Jason Heaton | And yeah, so if someone... That's what I was wondering just because you'd said they're so focused on safety and a three-man team where only one is the function is super smart. Yeah. Yeah. But that would be my first concern diving in the Pacific and knowing I have to swim back to the 60 plus foot boat rather than somebody coming to get me. Yeah. Yeah. But I guess if you plan the dive correctly, are you going up and down on the anchor line then? |
| James Stacey | Most of the time, but they would anchor off the bow and then we would... You'd jump in off the... Well, actually they had gates that opened at the bow at the port and starboard side. We didn't actually go off the rear, that was kind of where we came back on the boat. So we would either swim to the front or to the back and they would actually put down a smaller kind of mushroom anchor, uh, with a kind of a floating buoy that we would often use as a descent line as well. If we didn't go all the way up to the anchor and, you know, flashing strobes. And we had, uh, DECO tanks hung or, you know, I guess spare air tanks, if you will, on a descent line, in case you needed it on your safety stop, safety divers were really lived up to their name. I guess they were, they were really conscious of safety. Um, I think all of this kind of focus on safety was because this was, as I said, kind of a proof of concept for Oceana to kind of prove to not only the higher ups within their organization, but to Blancpain, like, Hey, we can pull off this type of expedition with our own people and do it really safely. So, you know, multiple roll calls, um, you know, very defined dive times, specific goals. |
| Jason Heaton | And in, you know, there's always, there's always like safety on paper and then there's like in the water, did it feel quite safe? It did. You were able to enjoy the diving and focus on the thing and not worry, like everybody's level of diving was high and the capabilities were high and all that kind of thing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. There were, there were some, some divers that, that hadn't dived in a while and were, were somewhat new, but I wouldn't say, you know, complete novices, but, but people that weren't diving as regularly. But then of course the safety divers are very experienced. There was a, one of the Oceania guys came from, from the Philippines and you know, he's been diving since the eighties and he was obviously very competent and comfortable. And, um, So yeah, it was good. We only had one day where it was kind of sketchy conditions. I would say where in fact it was our last day and we were, um, you know, we jumped in and, and we were all, all of our teams were going to meet at the bottom of the descent line. And literally we got, we got in the water and couldn't see your hand in front of your face sort of thing. So we, we descended and it got a little better at the bottom to the point where you could at least see somebody five feet from you. Um, but it was quickly apparent that we weren't gonna be able to do a transect or you know, be safe. So then it was just circle around and head up and then move on to a different spot. |
| Jason Heaton | Aside from that time where the vis wasn't that great, at least the images and stuff that I saw, it looked like the diving was pretty solid. Yeah, it was. |
| James Stacey | Cool kelp forests, wildlife, all the good stuff. Yeah, it was. It was. You know, I was in Monterey last summer diving and have done Catalina Island, which is another one of the Channel Islands. I've done that twice in past years. It's very similar. It's the, it's the Pacific. So it's cold. Um, as I said, you know, mid fifties Fahrenheit. So I was, I was wearing a dry suit and I was glad I did. And the interesting part of the exposure suit aspect was that, uh, I knew that it was going to be chilly and a number of people brought dry suits. A couple of people rented dry suits locally. Um, I believe by the end of the trip I was the only one whose dry suit had not leaked. Welcome to dry suits. So I was kind of last man standing. Um, and, and the other factor was Oceana had gotten some really swanky farmer John and jacket seven mil wetsuits that they had branded with Oceana and Blancpain logos all over them. And they really wanted to use those because, you know, they have this generous underwriter that was, was paying for this expedition and they wanted to make sure that, that their logos were in the photos. And so, uh, most of the people were actually wearing these wetsuits and I felt, I felt bad for them. I mean, you know, At the torso, when you've got a farmer John and then a jacket over it, that's, that's essentially 14 millimeters of neoprene between you and the water. Um, but they were still cold, you know, in between dives to get in and out of them as a challenge, they're snug and thick and whatever. So a lot of people would just wear them between the dives, but then they'd be constantly pouring hot water down their necks and freezing. And I would just strip off my dry suit and walk around in my thermal unit suit and be quite, quite happy. So I felt pretty smug in that regard. |
| Jason Heaton | Fifties will suck the, suck the warmth out of you for sure. It's that second dive or like if, how many dives a day were you guys doing if there were 30 minutes? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we were doing three dives a day. So we would, the routine was we'd get up, contort ourselves out of our bunks at about six in the morning. The coffee would be brewing. You'd have like a bowl of cereal and maybe, you know, peanut butter on a bagel. And then we'd get ready to dive by about eight o'clock, get in the water. By the time you get in and out and all of that, it's another hour has gone by and back inside for, for a hot breakfast. Then, during those kind of interim periods is when the other, like kind of the top side crew would do their stuff. So the guy that was doing the eDNA collection, Adrian, who's from Mexico, splits his time between there and Tucson, Arizona, and he does this DNA analysis. And he was not only doing it underwater on the dives, but then he was also doing deeper water DNA collection where Uh, if the, if the big boat could, it would motor out to three, 400 feet of water, and then he would drop it over the side on a rope, like this big, it's called a Nisken bottle. And it would collect water from deeper water. And then he would pull that up and analyze it. And, um, so he would do that between the dives. And then the ROV guys would also use that time as well, where we were all off gassing and having breakfast, uh, and that sort of thing. And then we would do lunch and do another dive and then another one later in the afternoon and then dinner. So that. That's kind of the routine every day. And then in between all of that, everybody's kind of got their stuff to do. You know, you're rinsing and sorting gear. You're, um, in some cases, I suppose people were answering emails, filling out forms, analyzing the data they were collecting, downloading photos, uploading photos and videos. Like I was doing, I was using a Google drive to send this stuff over to Oceanographic regularly, man. I was in my bunk by eight 30 every night with my AirPods in reading a book, um, and probably asleep by nine, nine 30. And I, I slept okay. You know, it was, we had some, we had some rough, rough conditions, which I didn't have any problems with seasickness, but when, when the boat's bashing around and then you get anchor chains being pulled and motors starting up at three in the morning and that sort of stuff, it's, it does lead to, uh, to not, not the, not the most, uh, fitful nights of sleep. |
| Jason Heaton | So, um, yeah, I remember in, in my time on Clipperton, especially under motor leaving, like to go out to Clipperton, it's like 90 hours or whatever. That's the best I've ever slept as an adult. Oh yeah. |
| James Stacey | The white noise of the motor. |
| Jason Heaton | It was crazy calm. Yeah. Yeah. And my birth was fairly close to the back of the boat. So I got lots of like motor noise and vibration and it wasn't very bright. It had a little porthole window. So I could really get in there, get into a book and then be like, I got nothing to do. Yeah. Cause like we were so remote, you couldn't do content, you know? And like for those of, and I know there's folks in the audience who will know exactly what I'm talking about. And certainly Jason, you do. But if you're on one of these trips and you're in charge of collecting content for even one source, let alone a couple, it's beyond a full-time job. Because anytime that you're doing anything, you might also need to be capturing content. If you're putting on your dive suit, you could be getting a video of other people putting on their dive suit. Repeat that 700 times a day. And it's like there's a weird mental toll to like I'll go to the coolest things ever, you know, car ice race in Aspen. Yeah, you're you are wired like a predator. Yeah, to find the shot, get the shot, find the cool thing, do something that the other people that are there with cameras aren't doing. And it just ends up being this whole thing. We're like, I definitely will have it maybe not on a dive boat in the ocean, but like I'll go to these events, a car show, a watch thing, and I'll realize I'm not paying attention to any of the conversation. that's going on around me. I'm just thinking I need this for the story that'll come out in four or five days, but I need this for a risk check that'll go up later. I need this for social media. And so I can totally understand where if you were up and moving, you were just dialed and trying to get that done, and I get that for sure. The other thing that I thought of, but it was after you had left and not that anything would change, How did you find the food? Because you eat super clean. Yeah. Yeah. Which can be done, but like it requires some forethought on something like a boat. Right. Right. And you, for those who don't listen that commonly, like Jason doesn't eat most meat. |
| James Stacey | Well, before the trip, they, you know, they sent out kind of a survey or, you know, questionnaire, like, do you have any dietary restrictions or preferences? And so I just said, look, I'm kind of largely pescatarian. I don't do dairy. I don't eat most meat. Um, can make some exceptions in certain cases, et cetera. I didn't want to, you know, be totally restrictive because a lot of it is, is purely by choice and not, not some sort of allergy. Yeah. As it happens, the, the cook who was on the boat, Kendall, it was her first, actually first shift, uh, doing this, but she was, she's experienced diver and she's, she's been on boats a lot, but, um, hats off to her for a, not only cooking while the boat was pitching around a lot, um, you know, on a skillet, a big, big, you know, a big griddle, but she was also very conscious of people's preferences and there were other people on the boat too that were vegetarians or didn't do dairy or didn't do this or that. And she would always have alternatives. So she had, you know, impossible meat and like, uh, you know, for some of the tacos or for the pasta, she did, you know, just a lot of vegetarian options, dairy free sauces and dressings and that sort of thing. And, and every day she was doing kind of followed sort of, I suppose a bit of a formula where one day it was kind of a Greek themed dinner and other day it was Italian and other day it was kind of a Chinese themed thing. you know, with pot stickers and kind of a stir fry and whatever. So it was, it was good variety. It was good food. Nobody seemed to get sick. Um, somebody had mentioned, you know, somebody actually had written that very question. Like, how are you managing with your diet? Because boats can be pretty carb heavy and snack heavy. And that's true. And I, I'm not, I'm not averse to carbs. And like hot dogs, hamburgers, that sort of thing, right? Yeah. And, and, and in the morning, I mean, I just found that my eating schedule was kind of flip-flopped. At home I eat pretty massive, like breakfasts. I do like avocado toast with smoked salmon and like sauteed greens and like toast with marmalade, whatever. Like I'm, I'm stuffed at the end of breakfast, but then I don't eat a lot during the rest of the day on the boat. It was the opposite. I really wasn't that into a big breakfast in the morning. I would have like a bagel and some cereal and my coffee. And then I don't know, lunch, I would eat a little more. And then dinner, I was always just ravenously hungry. So, um, it was interesting to kind of observe that and see that I think diving is one of those activities where You know, you think I'm not burning many calories. It's not really exercise floating, but keeping, keeping warm and cold water, climbing on and off boats with heavy gear, you know, out in the hot sun, you're always getting slightly dehydrated. You know, there's, you know, swimming and against a current, that sort of stuff. It, it is strenuous in its own way. And I just find my body reacts differently. And, and I think that some of the fitness training I've been doing the past, you know, four or five months has been, you know, kind of paid off in terms of, you know, lifting stuff and just getting good sleep and stretching regularly and all that sort of thing. So from that perspective, it was, uh, it was great. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I guess, look, look, let's, uh, you know, we'll have to put an end on it at some point. We both said this would be a fast episode, which we always say, and we're already over an hour as I looked down at the clock. Yeah. I'm curious, did you just wear your own 45 millimeter titanium 50 Fathoms or were there other things to try out? Because I know you posted a photo at one point of the 42. Yeah. I didn't know if you had like some material time with it. |
| James Stacey | Blancpain sent some watches along. Of course, I had my own and then they sent Oceana. The expedition leader, Jeff, was wearing the steel version. So the 45 millimeter automatic in steel that had that really cool sailcloth strap with the big holes in it. I don't know if you remember that one, but it's almost like a rally style sailcloth. Super cool. I had had experience with that many years ago when I tried out the tribute to aqualung version that used to be on that watch. And I'm not sure if they're bringing this one back or if it's a regularly available strap, but I really quite liked that. It was a bit short. Um, it was one of those cases where, you know, and here again with these screwed in, uh, strap bars on these watches, not easy to take that off and swap it for a long NATO. So not something I'd want to do on the deck of a boat either. No, I mean, you lose one hat, one side of that little tiny screw head and you're, you're toast. So we were, we were switching watches around a lot and it, and it's funny because we had three watches on board. Basically we had mine, we had the steel 45 millimeter and then we had the new blue 42 millimeter automatic, which is a beautiful watch. Spectacular watch. Yeah, it is. Um, that was sent to me ahead of time and I brought that along along with my own watch. And that one also had the long NATO strap on it with three watches on board and me behind the camera. Uh, for this trip, most of the time, the, the idea was let's get as many kind of watches on wrists, uh, on various people from Oceania as we could. So I, I actually spent a good number of the dives without a watch on, you know, I know that's blasphemy. Um, but I, you know, I had my, my Garmin descent mark two on my right wrist all the time. And I think I wore my own watch, uh, one full day for maybe three dives. But then the rest of the time I was always, I was kind of the watch guy on board. Everybody else was like almost So I would be the guy strapping people's watches on before we'd go in the water. And it was, it was kind of fun, you know, I kind of teaching people about these watches and, and putting them on, but we, we kind of would try to choose the smaller wristed people to wear the one that was on that sailcloth strap. And even then it was on like its last hole, which always gives me a bit of pause, but no watches were lost or broken. Um, but good, you know, I was able to handle all of them. And then, you know, I was able to, you know, I was able to, you know, on my last night when, uh, when we came back to Ventura and I went for a dinner with some folks from Blancpain, they brought, um, some other ones as well. They brought the black 42 millimeter and then the gold 42 millimeter. And the one thing about those watches, it was the first time I had seen those versions. Um, but what I was really struck by, and I think you experienced this where those incredible tropic style rubber straps that come on them. Yeah. I hope they make those in 23 millimeters. Cause I would love to get one for my, my big 45 millimeter watch because they're the softest, most lovely Tropic style strap I've ever tried. They just drape on the wrist, just like the perfect sort of texture and feel to them. So, um, those were, and then, Oh, on another watch note, not even dive watch related. Um, uh, Leonardo, who's the president of Blancpain US was at this dinner and he was wearing the, Air Command, the small one, I think it's 38 millimeters. What a gorgeous watch that is. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, 38 or 37. Yeah, they're mega. |
| James Stacey | What a stunner. What a beautiful watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Real sleeper. Yeah, yeah. Very cool watch. Yeah. Well, that's great. Anything else you wanted to kind of make sure you covered from your list of topics? |
| James Stacey | No, I mean, it's the kind of trip where, as we've done for the past 20 or 25 minutes, just kind of Stuff comes up, but as I think of it, but certainly if people want more information, they can hit me up with a DM on, on Slack, shoot an email to the great NATO at gmail.com or, or hit me up on a DM on Instagram. If you have something specific to ask about the trip or the diving or anything, I'd be happy to lend, lend my experience from the, from the trip. It was, it was really rewarding. I've really, I guess the outcome of it was, I just feel like. it's, it's experiences like this where I feel most in my element and most happy. I think you're, as you've experienced when you're in those scenarios, you're very focused. You, you know, I didn't look at the news at all. I didn't, uh, life is very distilled to a very simple level. And, um, you know, it was, it was a trip where so many of us in a small space, I made some, some really incredible new friendships and you know, none of us were showering for four days. So you have to kind of get, get accustomed to, being a little, little grimy and, and smelly and whatever. And, but that's life. I mean, it's that's expedition life. And it's, it was just a lot of fun to be around these people that were very committed to what they're doing. Minimal fluff, no pretensions, um, just focused on the task and having fun. |
| Jason Heaton | That's awesome. I'm so glad you had a good time. And I guess, you know, the topic didn't come up, so I have to assume the answer is no, but I'd be remiss if I didn't ask, you know, you were in. essentially a great white area and certainly a nursery, or at least the areas adjacent to the nursery. Any encounters by anybody on the boat? |
| James Stacey | No, it is funny though, because at one point, oh my gosh, we were all sitting around in the galley doing this and that, and somebody shouted that they saw a fin or a shark or something. And my gosh, the boat emptied out. We all ran to the bow and looked, and the boat motored over, got closer, binoculars were being handed out, et cetera, to find that it was just a buoy floating So everybody was really keyed in for it. Um, but we did not see any, we did, we did pass a floating whale carcass and thought for sure we'd see some, you know, kind of classic blue water, white death scenarios there with sharks munching away. I was getting ready to jump in and go film that. But, uh, yeah, you, |
| Jason Heaton | You sent me a picture of that and I said, are you guys diving it? And you're like, I think I'm the only one who would want to. That's where you need me on the boat. I would have, I would have had my mask on immediately. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Right. Right. All the safety measures go out the window. Yeah. But, uh, no, we did not. Well, very cool. |
| Jason Heaton | I'm super glad that you got a chance to do that. Uh, you know, for further explore the world of Blancpain, and Ocean is certainly a fascinating sort of outfit as well. And the coverage, we'll put it all in the show notes, so check it out if you weren't able to follow along naturally as Jason was on the boat, because a lot of the stuff, especially the stuff that went to Oceanographic magazine, was really quite entertaining and interesting. So I appreciate the download for sure. You want to put a bow on it and jump into some final notes? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, sure. Why don't I rest my voice for a couple of minutes and I'll let you go first. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, mine's an easy one. It's a recommendation of a $20. Actually, let me get the US pricing here. $17.89 is my suggestion today, and it is a proper metal higher end, but not super high end, Vernier caliper. |
| Unknown | Oh, wow. |
| Jason Heaton | So I've obviously been around the block with calipers of various qualities, all the stuff that's under 20 bucks on Amazon with a little digital screen. Yeah. And the ones I have right now, they're right next to me, I absolutely hate them. They're plastic or they claim carbon fiber, let's be clear, it's plastic. So they won't scratch the watch, which is very nice. A caliper for those of you who aren't aware, it's just a measuring tool that allows us... I use it to measure cases and lug widths and thicknesses and stuff like that. These are pretty conventional, they're easy, but I had been wanting to just go to something a little bit more old school. Yeah. And I found a pretty good thread on Reddit from like machinist Reddit, making recommendations to check out these Vernier or Vernier calipers. So that's V-E-R-N-I-E-R. I'm not 100% sure on the pronunciation or that it matters, but it's a really fantastic all metal caliper, heavy in your hands. And basically it gives you the ability to obviously slide two prongs to kind of pinch something to measure it, right? Yeah. That's fairly simple for a caliper. What's cool about this one is it has a secondary scale, which is this Vernier scale, and it gives you the ability to get down. So let's say you're measuring a case that's 44. It has this other scale that will tell you the fraction or the decimal point of the 44, and it's very clever. And it's not something that I'm gonna be able to... It's very visual. So I'm gonna include both a link to the calipers. If you're the type that likes to measure stuff, this could be interesting to you. I guarantee there's guys in the audience that are way ahead of us on this. Yeah. But it's, it's not, these aren't new to me. I remember using them in shop class. Yeah. It's new to me buying one to measure watches rather than using these digital ones. Yeah. Um, but I'll also include a video on how to read it. These are just a $20 a metal. They're made by a company called spur tar and I'm impressed by them. I like it significantly more than my standard plastic one. |
| James Stacey | Huh? Yeah. I've got a plastic set and I probably need, I probably need to upgrade. And for this price, that's, that's really, Yeah, that's really affordable. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Cause like a genuinely decent digital set is about 150 bucks. Oh wow. I didn't realize. Which is like, okay, if you had to, you have to, like if your job is machining parts that have to be within a certain tolerance, you'd probably want a great one. I'm measuring watches and I need to the 10th is going to be fine. But I don't, like I said, I don't like this one. The plastic one I have, it's if I close it on a watch and apply any pressure to the little thumb adjuster, you can feel it flex. Oh, sure. Right. Like the blade flexes, the kind of tang that runs down the center. You can feel it and you're like, I don't think this is that accurate. And I do routinely compliment or argue about tenths of a millimeter in watch thickness, for example. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And I'd rather just be able to say, like, no, I'm very sure of the number that I measured. Yeah. So that's my pick. If you're in the world, do you want to measure something or you even just want to check out a slightly different set of calipers if you don't know these veneer ones? Check it out. |
| Unknown | Nice. |
| Jason Heaton | In the show notes. |
| James Stacey | Good one. And what have you got for us? Yeah, I this is a it's actually a watch strap and it's came from an unexpected source. This is this is Garmin makes what they call the ultra fit Velcro strap or hook and loop, I suppose. And these are it's a one piece. pull through Velcro strap that comes in various widths for use with different Garmin watches. I actually got the, I guess it's 26 millimeters for the Descent Mark II. And, uh, but I've now ordered a 22 millimeter one for my Phoenix and I think it'll fit my Pelagos FXD, which I'm really excited about because these are amazing watches. There's no branding on them. That's sort of a ribbed flexi nylon, uh, material. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Very Apple watch. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, you feed it through both sides of the spring bars and it closes on itself with a Velcro. Very secure closure. And most importantly, it's a single piece strap, but it does not prohibit the use of the wrist heart rate monitor on these watches. So if that's a concern or if you don't like the added bulk of having a strap that fits under the watch head itself, this is a good option. And what I'm most excited about is that this 26 millimeter doesn't fit anything else I own. But it occurred to me that the 22 should fit, you know, a couple of the other watches that I have. And I'm really excited to try that on my FXD because it's incredibly comfortable and it's plenty long on my descent. I was thinking about bringing it for the trip I did and wearing it for diving. I ended up putting it back on the really long rubber strap, which I'm more used to. Um, but I've, I've been using the descent a lot for, for everything, for running and cycling and swimming and rowing and that sort of thing. And yeah, and the strap, it's like, know as we know with velcro it's like infinite possibilities in terms of fit and super soft and uh very secure so yeah i've recommended i think they're about 39 bucks and yeah the price is super fair yeah yeah yeah definitely and garmin makes good stuff yeah that was going to be my my final point for this is uh i love their straps yeah their product is great we talk about it a fair bit |
| Jason Heaton | It's my go to smartwatch. I really love the Descent Mark II that I have and the G1 Descent that you gave me as well. I've been using both recently. I enjoy them very much, but one of the elements that's great, and I can routinely now take the 20 mil quick release rubber, and because of the way they've designed the quick release, everything is in the strap end. So as long as there's a gap for it, it fits any 20 millimeter buckle or any 20 millimeter spring bar gap. Yeah. So like... Or 22, I guess. Sorry, it's a 22 mil strap, because I've been wearing the black Garmin rubber on the Blancpain Swatch Thrifty Fathoms. Oh, yeah. The Scuba 50. Yeah. And it's perfect, because again, those are... That even though the Scuba 50 is a $300 or $400 watch, it has the same sort of complicated hex lug bars that are on the $15,000 Right. Blancpain. Yeah. And so changing the straps is a huge pain, like you said, but the ability to have this rubber strap and then pop it off with no tools in two seconds and thread a NATO through it is great. Yeah. They make a really nice strap. Yeah. So I'm definitely gonna be picking up at least one of the 22s for the Blancpain, I think it'll be perfect. Yeah. But even just for the two Garmins that I use with some frequency, I could see it being great for those two. Yeah. Yeah, killer stuff. Yeah. Garmin just They really nail it when it comes to straps, because the quality is high, the price is totally fair, and they have these ones that aren't... Kind of break some convention or follow the Apple convention to a certain extent, so you're not only tied to quote unquote conventional straps, which is nice, and tons of colors when it comes to the rubber, like 20 colors. Yeah, yeah, good stuff. Well, that's a bunch of camera talk, a bunch of Seiko talk, a whole lot of diving talk, and I think that gives us an episode. |
| James Stacey | I think so. It's good to be back. And speaking of diving, I'll throw out a little hint here. We've got a very special, very TGN guest coming in a couple of weeks. So you're not going to want to miss that. So get up to date on your episodes and stay tuned for that. |
| Jason Heaton | Exactly. Yeah. If you've been listening to the show for a long time, you know this fellow's name. Yeah. It's kind of like a Michael Jordan opportunity for us. Yeah. And when you find out who it is, you'll get it. You'll understand like maybe not an internationally known celebrity, but in our world. Yeah, he's a guy for sure. Definitely. I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty pumped for this. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that'll be not episode 284, probably 285 if the stars aligned, align, and I think they will. So stay tuned for that. |
| Jason Heaton | 285. Looking forward to it. Little teaser there. Yeah, I like it. As always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly, maybe even get yourself into the TGN Slack, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from John Shedd who said, A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. |