ScubaBoard Meet and Greet – March 15th, 2008

Doom and gloom - all week long the Marine forecast was calling for doom and gloom. Even some of the weather reporters on TV were calling the incoming storm the storm of the season. Beware boaters! Steer clear of the coastline. Gail force winds and havoc! Reports of general mayhem resulting in my questioning the feasibility and sanity of trudging forward with the plan to dive coveted Point Lobos.

Ultimately Friday came and the report was downgraded some. And the Friday storm of the millennium (okay, I exaggerate a bit) turned out to be a blip on the radar. So, we move forward. Doc Wong, Carrie and Ron and my buddy will be there. Mike’s heading down along with Nathan and others, so we are going to move forward – everyone with the full understanding that we might be hiking.

I was up bright and early, on the road by about 5:45 AM. The roads were relatively quiet, and the first part of the trip absolutely devoid of other drivers (which can be a bit scary on 280 in the dark). Hitting 17, the sun was coming up and more and more drivers were joining me on the road. The sky was relatively clear, the winds seemed no existent. Reaching Santa Cruz and heading south on US1, the same. Calm, with the exception of some scattered and really minor showers and a foreboding patch of clouds on the horizon. Through Watsonville, into the Salinas veggie bowl, past the familiar Moss Landing power stacks and then moving into Marina and Seaside, the trip becoming one of habit after the recent trips down to Monterey on the weekends. The beauty, however, never eludes me. The thrill I see when I reach Seaside, glimpses of the bay past the sand dunes. The excitement and anxiousness to see my friends and go diving.

Today was no different. Although my excitement was mixed with a bit of hesitation as to how the day would shape up. Would Lobos be diveable or would we hiking?

I arrived at the Point Lobos gates just before 8:30 AM, first in line, and I was soon after joined by Michelle’s friend Roy. We chatted for a while and soon the line to enter started getting longer. Michelle, Nathan and other visitors were there, calmly waiting to see what Whaler’s Cove would hold for us. And so we were in to the Park, descending along the road, dropping down into Whalers.

The first thing I noticed was the foam - covering the middle section of the cove, protein foam. While I try not to be easily grossed out, having learned what sea foam is made of, I can tell you that I would never willingly paint my walls “sea foam”. Yes, I am exaggerating again, I would use “sea form” colored paint, but would I want to surface swim through it. That is another question all-together.

After regrouping and checking out the possible visibility from the rocks along the side of the cove, the rain began. As a group, we took the path up to the top of the outer wall of the cove to check out the outer cove sites and see if they would be feasible to dive. That question was easily answered by the white seas, swirling and crashing against the rocks.

Doc checked it out and then gave us a briefing. Would this be an optimal day for diving? No. Is it diveable? Yes. It would be a training day dive. Learning how to work in buddy pairs in low viz and high surge situations, exiting the slick boat ramp in low tide with a surge, etc. My buddy, Michelle, looked at me and the decision was clear. We were going in, if only for one dive. So everyone made their decisions. Most chose to dive, while some chose not to dive. But we began to get ready.

I don’t know if it is the rainy conditions which made me move faster, but set up seemed to take a remarkably short time to get done. Perhaps I was a little nervous about the entry, but before I knew it, my gear was set up, I had my wetsuit, hood and gloves on and then hanging out with the group while others got their gear finalized. Soon enough we were heading down the boat ramp and getting our fins on, air in BCDs and putting our regulators in our mouths, preparing to move into the water, off the ramp, when the swell moved in, riding it out. When the non-scooters were all in, Michelle, Robin, Mike, Nathan and I began kicking out to the Middle Reef to wait for Doc and Greg to enter and scoot over with us. However, after a while waiting in our wetsuits in the surge, and being unaware as to when they were going to join us, we decided to descend and start the dive.

Descending, our group (Michelle, Robin and I) quickly lost track of “Team Baconated” (Mike and Nathan). While wasn’t a huge deal as we knew they were buddied up and were familiar with each other have dove together on a couple of occasions. When we all descended, we began our dive with a 90° course heading, taking us towards the far side of the cove, but with the poor visibility, the intended search for famed wolf eels, Itchy and Scratchy, was going to be fruitless. About 10 minutes into the dive, we decided that the combination of poor visibility and a very strong surge was making the training dive a bit less enjoyable than we would have hoped. In such, we decided to make our way back to shore. Finding our 220° heading, we began the surgy swim back, following the contours of the cove’s floor, being unable to see more than 5 feet most of the way back. Over rock piles, around kelp strands. Bat stars galore, a few anemone and a one lone fish are about all that I could see because of the reduced visibility.

Surfacing about 15 feet from Doc’s buoy, we were greeted by Laurel, Ron and Carrie. We were all very glad to see Ron who was able to instruct us through the exit procedure, something that had us scratching our hooded heads. After our instruction, I decided to ride the next swell in. Riding it in was great. I could feel the surge behind me and I began to kick, quickly finding myself bashing my knees on the boat ramp, but fine. Ron helped us each get our fins off, and while Carrie took them, Ron helped us up off our knees and readied himself to help the next diver.

After everyone was out and everyone had tried off, Carrie brought out the luscious lemon bars and Laurel brought out other goodies. Soon, Dan, David, Albert and the others on David’s boat were back and we were all hanging out. Soon it was off to the Breakwater where Carrie and Ron’s camper was parked, and Carrie was heating up chili. Jim, Buck and Sunny were there, along with Buck’s children.

The ride home was uneventful – a few showers and lots of very interesting cloud formations. I stopped off to get some fish at Phil’s which Mark made for dinner. It was nice to be home and relax with Mark after rinsing the gear and cleaning out the interior of the car.

All in all, it was great a great Meet & Greet and while the conditions left something to be desired, the challenge and the experience was well worth the lack of visibility. Thank you to Doc Wong, David, Michelle, Robin, Mike, Nathan, Ron, Carrie, David, Dan, Laurel, Roy, Jim, Buck and Family, and everyone else who made it out, and those of you who were going to come, but decided against it. I look forward to more diving – May 10th @ Corral Street.

Dive #53 – Saturday, 3/15/08 – Middle Reef – Point Lobos. Carmel, California. 11:02 AM. Max depth 30 feet, average depth of 27 feet. Bottom time 25 minutes (approximately 1800 PSI remaining at the end of the dive). Water temp 50°, vis approximately 5 to 10 feet. Great time working on threesome diving with Michelle and Robin.

Author relaxing @ home after her dive