Daylight Savings Diving – Sunday, March 9th, 2008

Five in the morning came nice and early on Sunday morning, daylight savings having robbed us of one precious hour of sleep. Amazing how much that can mess up your internal clock. Regardless, we got up and headed off in the Honda down to Monterey. Although we didn’t get to dive off a boat as planned, we were determined to make the best of the day and were off to find a site to dive. We immediately thought of MacAbee since I am going to be spearheading the ScubaBoard Meet & Greet there in July. However, when we got there the fog and the wave action out by the Fishmonger made us decide that we would retreat to the “safe harbor” of the Breakwater and practice our navigation and “see how long we could stay down for”.

The BW was busy. And I suppose that since it is now March, the dive classes are beginning and the winter quiet will be replaced. We surveyed the groups to determine where they were lining up on the shore and like most weekends, they stayed near the wall. In light of this, we decided that our best course would be to head out to the Metridium Fields and then do a really leisurely underwater swim back to shore, although the fog was so thick that we were wondering if it would obscure the references points on the shore, preventing us from finding the site. What was worse was the fact that the fog appeared to be getting thicker as the morning wore on.

Gear setup and wetsuits on, the fog was slowly loosing its grasp on the shore as the sun rose further in the sky, and soon we were walking down towards the stairs. Much to my surprise, I was greeted by Albert who was there taking his Master diver course. That’s definitely one of the nicest things about the Breakwater – always likely that you’ll run into someone that you know.

Down the stairs and soon we were in the water. Kicking out I could feel the effects of my previous day’s workout as my fin strokes felt weak. I was marginally frustrated but I knew that I needed to “power” through it if I wanted to make the dive a success. We finally made it out – lining up Reeside with the other visual cues although I think we were slightly off because we ultimately had to swim south a few yards to find the pipe.

Finding the pipe was great. It was absolutely covered in bat stars (Asterina miniata) and a few Feather duster worms (Eudistylia polymorpha) which are so delicate looking. Reaching the end, we peered in the hole to be greeted by two of the largest Sun stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) I had ever seen and one somewhat curious copper rockfish (Sebastes caurinus). I couldn’t believe the size of these Sun stars – they were gigantic. And all those little legs ………….. !

Swimming out from the pipe, we easily found the Metridium Field. No one was there, just Mark and I. The visibility was approximately 20 to 30 feet, maybe slightly more and much depended upon location on the site itself. There was a lot of particulate in the water column towards to shore side of the site, but as we moved around between the two outcroppings, the water was calm and the visibility improved. I tried my hand at underwater videography for the first time. I have to check out the manual to see if there is anything that can be done about the green tint to all the images. Nice, large sea lemons (Peltodoris nobilis), San Diego Doris (Diaulula sandiegensis), doris (Doriopsilla albopunctata and Doris montereyensis), a number of giant chiton (Cryptochiton stelleri), black-eyed goby (Coryphopterus nicholsi), bat stars and – of course – Metridium (Giant Plumose Anemone) (Metridium giganteum).

At 1500, I was getting a bit chilled and since Mark was pretty enthralled by the end of the giant pipe, we reversed the course and headed back to shore via the pipe. This time, the Sun stars were out of the pipe and motoring down the pipe. Those little legs moving the star quickly along the pipe. We then headed back towards shore, over the rocky sections, checking out the small dori (Doriopsilla albopunctata) on the sand, a beautiful and tiny Hermissenda crassicornis on some rocks, finding a black-eyed hermit crab (Pagurus armatus) on its back, barnacles affixed to his shell and a Moss Crab (Loxorhynchus crispatus) holding on vertically to a small rock. Sea pens and blowing holes in the sand. Everywhere, bat stars. Over the patches of olive snails and then arrived back in the surging waters near the shore.

Nice dive, but really cold. Both Mark and I were pretty chilly and while I had hoped the sun would warm us up during the SI, the winds had picked up slightly and we were both chilled before we knew it. After rinsing off and watching the Marine Mammal Center ( http://marinemammalcenter.org/ ) herd up a stranded elephant seal from the beach, we took showers and then head off to find some lunch and walk around with the tourists on Cannery Row.
All in all it was a nice day. It was great to see Michelle, Dan and Albert and nice to do some diving. But I was really glad to get home and walked straight into my bed for a nice little nap. Awesome.

Dive #52 – Sunday, 3/9/08 – Metridium Fields at Breakwater Cover – Monterey, California. 9:43 AM. Max depth 53 feet, average depth 40 feet. Bottom time 46 minutes (approximately 550 PSI remaining at end of the dive). Water temp 53°, viz approximately 25-30 feet.

Video from the Metridium Fields

My favorite photo of the day

Hermissenda crassicornis