Labor Day Weekend with the Metridium - September 1st and 2nd, 2007

... Weekend Diving ...


Last weekend was a gorgeous, 3 day weekend in San Francisco and I had some diving planned, so I couldn’t be happier. Saturday, Mark and I headed down to Moss Landing to go on a whale watching cruise. Unfortunately the whales (and dolphins) had packed up for the holiday weekend and headed elsewhere so we saw none. :-( But the operators gave us a rain check so we could come back another time. I was, however, a bit skeptical about the lack of life, wondering if the warmer waters were causing the marine life to head further out then normal.

Curious how this would affect our dives, if at all, we headed down to Pacific Grove to Lover’s Point where we were staying. After resting up (the Dramamine caused us both to be a bit sleepy), we headed out to the Breakwater to get a night dive in.

Parking along the pier wall, we unloaded our gear, dressed and spent some time chatting with some other friendly divers who were also hanging out. Something nice about the dive community in Monterey – as if the coldwater experience somehow creates a bond between divers, commiserating about the viz (or lack thereof), where the best areas are, etc. It doesn’t feel as “aggressive” as vacation dives where everyone is trying to show up the other divers.

But I digress…..

We entered the water at about 7:45 PM and swam out almost to the end of the gate on the pier. Dropped down in about 17 feet of water and just as the sun was releasing its hold on the day. Reaching the bottom, we checked our compass headings and started out. Soon we were sinking into the deeper rangers of 30 feet and the tube anemones began to appear and so did the sea life. Tons of sand dabs flitted around in the sand, a tiny octopus entertained Mark and I until it swam quickly away, squeezing itself down into its hole. A dendronotus danced about 1 foot from the ground and other fish swam idly by, as though we were of no consequence. A shrimp hung out by an anemone, cute and delicate. We made it a short dive and came on shore with tons of air left. We didn’t mind, we were happy with all the life that we had seen.


Sunday morning we got up early to pack up the gear that had been rinsed the night before and hung to drive. Off to Monterey Bay Dive Center to get our tanks refilled and head back to the Breakwater to wait for Wayne and Kelley. Wayne, who we had met a few weeks prior during the event I had organized had offered to lead us to the famed Metridium Field which lies right off the shore from the Breakwater, a hearty surface swim out, but a rewarding one. We got there just before 8 and reserved a nice spot on the grassy area overlooking the beach. The sun was quickly rising on the horizon, promising to be a warm day. Our friends arrived just before 9 and set up their canopy and gear.


We entered the water just after 10:30 AM in search of the Metridium Field. Swimming out a long way, we regrouped and dropped down together in about 25 feet of water. Off we swam – Wayne and Kelley in the lead, Mark and I (with my camera) behind them. Visibility wasn’t that great – we had to stay on their heels in order to remain as a group. Crossing the “big pipe” (“not the small pipe”) on a 30 degree compass heading, we swam and swam. Finally, Wayne turned around and pointed off to about 45 degrees. I couldn’t really tell what he was pointing at, but swam in the direction, and there they were! The eerie white Metridium – huge, between 1-2 feet long, covering the surfaces of these rocks. Some fully extended, looking soft and inviting. Others balled up against the world, eating or having been touched by something disagreeable. I was amazed. I had seen them when we did our drysuit checkout off the boat, but because of the leak in my suit (at 80 feet in January --- brrrrr!!!!) we surfaced after only about 10 minutes. But this site seemed to have so many more and they were stunning. A kelp rockfish hung out on top of a group of them, peacefully allowing me to come within a few feet of him. I found a sea lemon surrounded by some strawberry anemone hiding in between some of the rocks. We floated around, checking out the scene for about 10 minutes or so before it was time to head back to shore. Following a near-perfect route back, we emerged in almost the exact same spot as we had descended at. Kudos to Wayne and his supreme navigation skills!


After a nice surface interval and changing out the gear, we headed back into the water, this time for a little tour of the Breakwater – to swim through the kelp and scope out cool things to take photos of. We saw black serfperch and rainbow serfperch , what I think were sardines, amongst other critters. A mask problem cut the dive slightly shorter than I had hoped, but we got some good photos nonetheless.











Dive Stats:


Dive #30 – Saturday 9/1/07: Breakwater Cove – Monterey, California. 7:45 PM. Max depth 41 feet, bottom time 34 minutes. Beach dive, water temp 63˚, vis approximately 10-20 feet (depending upon location).


Dive #31 – Sunday, 9/2/07: Breakwater Cove – Monterey, California. 10:35 AM. Max depth 48 feet, bottom time 42 minutes. Beach dive to the Metridium Field. Water temp 55˚, vis approximately 7-20 feet (depending upon location). Surface interval approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes.


Dive #32 – Sunday, 9/2/07: Breakwater Cove – Monterey, California. 1:05 PM. Max depth 27 feet, bottom time 34 minutes. Beach dive, water temp 63˚, vis approximately 10-12 feet.