Zodiac Diving – February 18th, 2008

“We need not feel ashamed of flirting with the zodiac. The zodiac is well worth flirting with.”

– D.H. Lawrence

It all started with three-day weekend topped off with a lovely Marine forecast predicting virtually no swell on Presidents Day, and – more importantly – no NW swell.

I’d been unable to do Dive #50 for several weeks because of the weather that we’ve been experiencing lately. President’s Day weekend, however, was a pleasant forecast to behold, and being able to make my 50th with Mark was a welcome thought. So, after an already fun and busy weekend, we got up bright and early on Monday morning, checked the forecast and then began the trek down to Monterey. We planned to dive MacAbee Beach for the first time and we were both pretty excited about the prospect.

Plans can change in the blink of an eye however and just outside of Marina, we got a call from Ron, Carrie and their friend Kent, telling us that they were on their way down to Monterey and – better still, they had a boat! A boat!

Now, this bears some explanation. I’ve done a considerable amount of boat diving given my relative lack of experience, but only one time have I dove in Monterey from a boat. Monterey has tons of shore dives that you can do, provided that you are willing to do the surface swim – which I am. But a boat? A boat! Luxurious! As I am used to “giant stride” kinds of boats, the only apprehension I had was that we would be diving from a Zodiac. On any given weekend you can see various dive sites around Monterey and Carmel spotted with little inflatable boats. In seeing these Zodiacs, I already knew, a bit more “finesse” would be required, a bit more knowledge, planning, etc. First of all, there is the entry. Not a giant stride, but a back roll. Not a problem. Check. More onerous, however, is how you get back into the boat. This requires more practice and generally makes you feel like a giant sea lion trying to catapult itself onto the deck.

Was I worried? Nah. Okay, maybe just a little bit.

Arriving at the Breakwater, we began setting up our gear to get on the boat for our first dive. We were soon joined by Ron, Carrie and Kent who further informed us of protocols, requirements, and procedures. While I was still a bit apprehensive of the entire situation (not because of the boat, the diving, etc. but rather because I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone, cause problems, be a bad diver, etc), Ron, Carrie and Kent were so at ease, full of great explanations and help that soon we were dragging our behind down the boat launch and jumping in to the boat to take off.

Slowly cruising out of the Breakwater, the cool air of the overcast day, I felt like I should be on Ocean Adventures with Jean-Michel Cousteau. Lightly bouncing on the Zodiac’s inflatable sides, looking at the tightly stored gear and at the other divers, we exited the cove and headed out into the Bay. My sense of “cool” quickly faded when Kent opened up the throttle and we were charging across the surface of the water at a clip of about 35 miles per hour. Clinging to the ropes to avoid being thrown in, I quickly regained my sense of composure and couldn’t stop smiling. This was going to be a great day. Great company, lots of fun and good diving.

Soon we were pulling up on the site – ahead of us was John’s boat and its divers were in the water. We anchored off to the north of their boat, and quickly our boat swung around over the site – Aumentos Reef. Aumentos – a site I’ve seen so many pictures of but, for whatever reason, never thought I would have the opportunity to dive – but here we were. After initial preparations, we donned our gear and rolled into the water to begin the dive.

The dive site was phenomenal. The walls were healthy in appearance – covered in hundreds of strawberry anemone, metridium anemone, giant spined stars, algae and purple ring topsnails. Sea lemons lounged around lazily next to bat stars and there were “small fry” in the water column. Swimming around, we headed further down walls and around the back. Soon Mark and I headed off in another direction, away from the anchor line, only to find ourselves along a sheer wall, dropping off to a sandy bottom. The wall was absolutely breathtaking. White-spotted anemone mingled with strawberry anemone, purple algae, orange ball sponges and other sea life. A lone fish hung in the water column, wedging himself down in a crevice in the rocks. Coming around the wall, we did not find the anchor line, so we decided ascend without it. After our safety stop, we came up to the surface about 20 yards away from the boat, before the other divers.

Reboarding the boat from the water proved to be more difficult than getting into the water. Mark and I really needed to work as a team in order to make sure that we didn’t get injured or lose any gear. Mark removed his BC after we clipped it off onto a carabineer attached to the boat. He then removed his fins and tossed them into the boat. He climbed into the boat by stepping on a “step” on the outboard motor and then hoisting himself up into the inflatable. After I handed him the camera, I swam around to the other side boat, attached the other carabineer to a D ring on my shoulder strap and then wiggled myself out of my BC, slipped off my fins and handed them off to Mark – all the while trying to maintain my position close to the motor. Getting back into the boat, we relaxed while waiting for the other divers to come back. Soon Carrie and Kent surfaced and reboarded the boat. Then Ron showed up and we motored back to the Breakwater Pier to offload the tanks and have some lunch.

After dining at the Russian deli at the Pier, we loaded new tanks onto the boat. Mark decided that he wasn’t going to dive as he had gotten cold during the first dive but joined us on the boat nonetheless. After deciding to go to the Anchor Farm, we head out of the Breakwater to the site. Since I wanted to take photographs, it was decided that Ron, another photographer, and I should be buddies. Dropping the anchor, we again donned our gear, and rolled into the water. As we head down the anchor line, the visibility was not promising for the first 20 feet or so. Then, it suddenly opened up – beautifully. Swimming out a few yards, we quickly realized that we hadn’t anchored at the Anchor Farm but rather the Chains.

The Chains is a beautiful site. Piled up atop a shale bottom is a huge mass of massive, old chains and cement blocks. All of which are covered in sea life. The site was gorgeous. All over the shale beds were various nudibranchs. Crossing over a stretched chain, I encountered a Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea) with a San Diego Droid (Diaulula sandiegensis) followed by a sea lemon. Continuing around the site there were more nudibranch – doris, lemons, clown dorids. California Sea Cucumbers, Metridium, Strawberry Anemone, Sunflower Stars, Black-eyed gobies, beautiful sponges and more. Hidden in all the rocks, brittle stars – feathery and light, tucked under and in the rocks, shale ledges. Ron even saw a wolf eel being pestered by a fish, but by the time he was able to get me, the wolf eel had hidden itself in its home.

Because of our depth, it was getting near the time for me to end my dive. I signaled to Ron and we began our way back to the anchor line. Ascending in the water column, we did a one minute safety stop at 40 feet and then continued to the surface. Because I was low on air, I had a hard time maintaining my second safety stop at 15. Bouncing around after about 90 seconds, I hit 8 feet and was unable to stay down. We hit the surface and swam back to the boat, joining the other divers and Mark. Removing our gear, we boarded the boat, and started back to the Pier. Offloading, the gear and everything else, we all made our way out to get some dinner together.

In retrospect, I was foolish for being worried about diving from the Zodiac. It was a wonderful day, wonderful experience and there were wonderful dives. Many thanks to Ron, Carrie and Kent for the awesome day! D.H. Lawrence was right; flirting with the zodiac is well worth it.

Dive #50 – Monday, 2/18/08 – Aumentos Reef – Monterey, California. 11:17 AM. Max depth 56 feet, bottom time 25 minutes (approximately 1100 PSI remaining at the end of the dive). Water temp 52°, viz approximately 20-30 feet.

Dive #51 – Monday, 2/18/08 – The Chains – Monterey, California. 2:45 PM. Max depth 75 feet, bottom time 30 minutes (residual time 13 minutes; computer did not exceed no-deco limits; approximately 550 PSI remaining at end of the dive). Water temp 50°, visibility approximately 25 to 30 feet. Great being buddied with another photographer as it enabled me to go slowly, take photos. A very nice experience.

My favorite photo of the day

Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea) with a San Diego Droid (Diaulula sandiegensis)

Nitrox Dive Certification - February 17th, 2008

Tomorrow we are finally getting around to getting our Nitrox Certification. We had planned on doing it while in Florida last year after my brother's wedding, but the plan to head south afterwards didn't come to fruition. So, being faced with some upcoming trips where the ability to use nitrox could extend our bottom times and/or increase our safety margins, we've decided to do the certification here in California so that we can do some nitrox dives when we vacation or even here in California.

My coursework is completed and, suffice it to say, I hate gas management. Having to read through PO2 levels and such is a real chore for me. Diving air is just as well for me, although I do like the idea of increased safety. As well, the other benefits of Nitrox diving are attractive. So off we go. Hopefully I won’t get all befuddled on the examination tomorrow!

UPDATE: Took the classwork and have passed the examination. Looking forward to doing some Nitrox diving in the near future on one of the vacations we've got planned. As for the course, I enjoyed learning about the various computation methods for nitrox dive planning. I really enjoy using dive tables and the Nitrox class just added a number of tables more. Appeals to my sense of anal-rententivity I suppose. I wish we could try Nitrox tomorrow on our dives that we are hoping to do - but we won't be at any depths sufficient to warrant the additional cost, get the benefits, etc. C'est la vie!

ScubaBoard Meet & Greet – January 19th, 2008

Finally, we hit the water.

It’s 2008 and January 19th brought with it the first ScubaBoard event of the year! And what an event it was shaping up to be. Not only were there ScubaBoard-ers but some of the folks from the North Coast Divers were also going to be coming along and diving with us, meeting up for dinner and doing the night dive.

On Saturday, I must have been excited as I woke up at about 4 in the morning. We weren’t leaving the house until 6 am, so I knew that I had some time to hang out and think about the day’s events – boy, I was energized to get the day started.

Leaving the house, we made it to the Breakwater by about 8:15 am and the parking lot was already looking pretty full. To my amazement, there were divers already suited up, and some coming back from their first dives already. That is one of the great things about the Breakwater – there is also so much energy with all the activity, divers and tourists. It just draws you in and makes you feel euphoric. Feeling the energy, we began the arduous task of hauling all of the gear out of the car and to the designated area for the get-together.
Surprisingly we were the first of the group to arrive. Soon, however, we were joined by Jon and Amy, Jim, Ron and Carrie. Tao and Michelle showed up around the same time and everyone pulling out gear and getting set up for the first dive of the day – the Metridium Field! And more divers were coming – Brad, Jeff, Anne, Ben, Mike and Nathan and some of the NCD-ers.

Just after 10 AM, the leader of the dive, Ron, gave awesome instructions on how to find the Metridium Field (*see below for instructions). So, all dressed up, we entered the water as a group, kicking out to the appointed spot. Regrouping, we descended. Although visibility was not fantastic, Mark led us perfectly following Ron’s instructions and we soon came upon the famed Metridium Field. We swam around, taking some photos for a friend’s advertising campaign and, at 2000 PSI, began our course heading of 210° back to shore. Along the way, we engaged in an impromptu ocean clean up – recovering some plastic bags, bits and even the head of a broom! Swimming up just south of the stairs in about 3 feet of water (our intended exit point), we surfaced, removed our fins and walked back to shore.

After drying off, the fun surface interval ensued. The mini-grill came out, and soon we were basking in the unseasonably warm January sun and enjoying grilled hotdogs, brownies and sandwiches together with the rest of the group. After about 3 hours, it was time to get back in the water for the 2nd dive of the day. Conditions were awesome – minimal swell and surge, so the group decided to give the Breakwater Wall a go. Having donned my gear in the sun, we were getting warm so Mark and I entered the water ahead of the group. Although this caused a little bit of a confusion on shore, everyone eventually made it out to the wall and we ended up having a great time diving, although the visibility, again, wasn’t the best which was somewhat disappointing given the relatively calm conditions.

After drying off and packing gear – throwing kelp on Laurel and having the favor returned by Dannobee – we left to check into our hotel and start the next event of the day – regrouping at Buzzard’s where Doc Wong had graciously reserved their meeting room in order for the group to hang out and swap stories. The Breakwater Divers showed up, along with some of the North Coast Divers who had been diving at Point Lobos. Also, the infamous Chuck Tribolet and his wife joined us – sharing stories of his digital photography at IBM in the late 1970s. It was such a warm dinner – everyone sharing photos, jokes and dive tales. Soon, however, the talk amongst some came to the topic of the previously discussed night dive. After enduring 52 degree water, a slight barotraumas in my right ear and being showered and warm, the thought of putting on a cold, damp wetsuit was hardly appealing. However, we had two divers who were anxious to do their first night dive, so we headed back to the Breakwater.

And I was right – that wetsuit was COLD!

Hanging out with Carrie, Ron and Jim on the pier, I was cold. Oddly enough, it was warmer in the water than it was on the surface, so getting in was an unexpected and welcome surprise. After a slight hiccup as Brad had to return to shore for his weights, we descended. Visibility was marginally better than it had been in the afternoon, but there was little sealife to be found apart from the rockfish which hang lazily around the rocks, generally overhead. Having gotten a bit chilled while underwater, when I surfaced I rushed to get out of my wetsuit and into warm clothes. Needless to say, I didn’t hang around for long as the warm shower of our hotel room was calling my name.

I can’t express my happiness at meeting all of the wonderful divers who shared in the day’s events and festivities. Sharing my passion for diving with other local divers – being able to learn from them and help other divers grow and meet other divers is truly an tremendous experience.

Thank you to everyone who came and to those of you who wanted to join us but couldn’t (zen_man!). I had a wonderful day and hope to see you all soon!

Dive Stats:

Dive #47 – Saturday, 1/19/08 – Metridium Field at Breakwater Cove – Monterey, California. 10:59 AM. Max depth 55 feet, bottom time 35 minutes (1000 PSI remaining at the end of the dive). Water temp 52°, viz approximately 10-15 feet. Great dive with precise instructions provided by Ron. Unfortunately the camera batteries were running flat and so we weren’t able to take the photographs that I wanted to take in order to test the strobe on the anemone. Visited by a ton of fish “fry” and a Sea Nettle, the first I have seen. Swim back on a 210° courseheading from the Field was great -- over the pipes and around clusters of rocks covered in algae and kelp. Saw many of smaller snails in the sandy parts closer to the shore – purple olive snails (olivella biplicata) and the obligatory sea stars. Surface interval: 3 hours, 1 minute.

Dive #48 – Saturday, 1/19/07 – Breakwater Wall – Monterey, California. 2:35 PM. Max depth 39 feet, bottom time 39 minutes (Residual time 25 minutes; about 1200 PSI remaining at the end of the dive). Water temp 52°, viz approximately 15 feet. Because of the low tide, we did a long surface swim to find deep water. Camera was working and what a great dive to have it working on. The wall was just brilliant. It felt like everywhere I looked there was something to take a photo of – and it wasn’t all sea stars! Saw many decorator crabs, coonstripe shrimp (pandalis danae stmipson, I believe), a favorite of mine - purple ring top snails (calistoma annulatum), huge sun stars and another sea nettle! But, most treasured, are the delicate nudibranchs which were out in droves! Leopard doris (dialilulli sandiegensis), an adorable clown dorid (triopha catalinae), doris montereyensis and sea lemons – and some mighty big lemons at that! It was a great dive full of wonderful opportunities to see and photograph an array of sea life. Surface interval: 5 hours and 50 minutes.

Dive #49 – Saturday, 1/19/08 – Night Dive at the Breakwater Wall – Monterey, California. 9:04 PM. Max depth 43 feet, bottom time 34 minutes (13 minutes residual time; about 800 PSI remaining at the end of the dive). Water temp 52°, viz approximately 7-10 feet. Nice night dive buddied up with Brad and Nathan. Not a lot to see other than the rockfish, who were not at all interested in the bread that Jim placed in my BCD pocket to entice them to come closer during the dive. Would love to get some better, high-visibility dive lights.

* Instructions to find the Metridium Field at the Breakwater:

Beginning from the left side of the beach (your left if you are facing out towards the water), swim out until you are directly in front of Reeside Road. Swim out, inline with Reeside, until you are the midpoint between the white rocks off the shore from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the end of the Breakwater pier. You have to make sure that you are literally at the end of the Pier and aligned exactly between the Pier's end and the white rock. When you've reached this, you should drop down and hit a big pipe, approximately 10 inches in diameter. Continue swimming straight out from that pipe along a compass heading along the pipe and you will find the field. To get back to shore underwater, take a 210 degree compass heading and follow that underwater to the shore [but don't blame me if you get lost]!

Channel Islands Live-Aboard – Thanksgiving Weekend 2007

I am not a huge fan of the Thanksgiving festivities with the hectic travel, etc. so Mark and I stayed home for the holiday. We were fortunate to have gotten two places with Adventure Sports Unlimited on the Vision boat out of Santa Barbara. Three days and nights upon a boat in a little berth with the noisy engine going – sounds good to me!

We left work early on Wednesday in order to make the potentially traffic-infested trip down to Santa Barbara to get to the boat early enough to get a good spot topside for our gear. I was surprised to see that there were only about 8 people had shown up by the time that we arrived. We got onboard, gear into the bunks and topside, tanks set up for the morning. Great fortune in that we ran into two divers, David and Dori, who had been on the same boat last New Years Eve. It was great to reintroduce ourselves to them and find some familiar faces onboard! Always a treat.

Soon after boarding, we were off to bed realizing that 4 am when the engines turned on and the boat left port would come early. Regardless, I slept like a log – anxious to get diving in the morning.

The mornings are always a bit confusing. You wake up, knowing that the boat has moved, but not really knowing where in the islands you are. Greeting David, he told me that we were out near San Miguel, off the coast of the island. I was intrigued and slightly excited as I know that San Miguel is not a typical destination for most boats due to currents, winds, etc. So the fact that we were anchoring off the shore made me excited. Soon Mark was up and we were waiting for Captain Tommy to give us the greeting, lay down the rule and then explain the dive.

The trip was a success. We spent almost the entire time out at San Miguel with 2 dives and an overnight near Santa Rosa’s shores. My strobe, unfortunately, packed up and quit on the second dive and so my photos all were done with the camera’s onboard flash. While disappointed, I did my best to remember Alcina’s advice (from ScubaBoard) about getting closer and closer still and ultimately, I think my photos came out quite well.

We were fortunate to have good dives, although the first two were slightly less successful (and deeper) than we had anticipated. However, we walked away having learned the lesson regarding pre-dive training and not always believing the dive briefing (or what we thought we heard in the dive briefing).

My logs are not as complete due to the bulk of the diving and the fact that, when onboard, I rarely stay up past 8 pm! All in all, we did 10 dives over the course of 3 days, all challenging in their own way although some more so than others. I enjoyed meeting and making friends with David, Dori and Eric and look forward to (hopefully) diving with them again in the near future!

Dive Stats:

Dive #37 – Thursday, 11/22/07 – Boomerang – San Miguel Island, California. 11:04 AM. Max depth 130 feet, bottom time 14 minutes. Water temp 55°, viz approximately 50-65 feet. Surgy water conditions so it was hard to maintain depth. Was surprised to see maximum depth and motioned for our group (3 of us) to ascend along the face of the pinnacle to shallower depths. Did not violate no-deco limits. Critters: kelpfish, sea lions playing with us on the anchor line, tons of strawberry anemone. Surface interval: 1 hour 45 minutes.

Dive #38 – Thursday, 11/22/07 – Boomerang – San Miguel Island, California. 12:58 PM. Max depth 98 feet, bottom time 19 minutes. Water temp 54°, viz approximately 20-30 feet. Strong current caused separation of divers with Mark resurfacing separate from the group. Because of the current, he did not descend as the current was more at depth and he knew that, by the time he returned to do the safety stop with us at 15’, we would have been further away. Ended up not seeing anything as the plan had been to drop to 70’ and then swim horizontally to the pinnacle. Because of the current and the low viz, we didn’t find the pinnacle and ended up surfacing. Drift during safety stop caused us to be way off course and so we had the “water taxi” ride back to the boat. Pride = gone. Surface interval: 1 hour 55 minutes.

Dive #39 – Thursday, 11/22/07 – Site name unknown – Off the coast of San Miguel Island, California. UNKNOWN TIME. Max depth 67 feet, bottom time 22 minutes. Water temp 55°, viz approximately 15-20 feet. Nicer dive because the site was a bit more shallow. While I don’t mind the deep dives, I prefer the bottom time. Saw a HUGE lobster crawling along the tops of some rocks in a slight depression. Probably about 2 feet, head to tail. I swam up behind him and grabbed him but he was fast and strong. He quickly evaded us. Male sheephead and lots of kelp rockfish. I was a bit concerned after the first two dives about locating the boat, but we ended up coming up right along side of it after having done our safety stop on kelp strands. Always a favorite of mine! Surface interval: 12+ hours – last dive of the day.

Dive #40 – Friday, 11/23/07 – Woodson Pinnacle – San Miguel Island, California. 9:32 AM. Max depth 96 feet, bottom time 18 minutes. Water temp 54°, viz 40-50 feet. Large pinnacle with its top resting in approximately 70 feet of water. Covered in crevices filled with strawberry anemone. Drop off to the left of the anchor line to approximately 110’ – according to some of the other divers. Diving over the overhang was like flying off of a cliff. Really amazing. Good buoyancy control allowed for exploration of the crevices and sides of the pinnacle without exceeding my desired depth. Saw strawberry anemone, aggregating anemone, scallops and wispy fans. Sallop (?) jellyfish (like a bunch of tubular jellies stuck together in a long belt like construction, slightly curved). Playful sea lions while we were doing our safety stop. I entertained myself by doing some ducking and twisting with them. Too cute. Surface interval: 1 hour 20 minutes.

Dive #41 – Friday, 11/23/07 – Woodson Pinnacle – San Miguel Island, California. 11:08 AM. Max depth 89 feet, bottom time 19 minutes. Water temp 54°, viz approximately 30-40 feet. Again at the same pinnacle, but I was quite happy to be there as there was so much to explore and check out. Mark tagged along with Dori to watch how she hunts for scallops and seemed pretty intrigued. I hung out nearby checking out all the stuff in the crevices. Surface interval: 3 hours 53 minutes.

Dive #42 – Friday, 11/23/07 – Caldecott Shoal – Santa Rosa Island, California. 3:19 PM. Max depth 55 feet, bottom time 31 minutes. Water temp 57°, viz approximately 30-45 feet. Really great site with good viz. Tons of fish (mostly rockfish) and some huge starfish (whitish and puffy) at the base of the anchor line. Rockfish, and one that seemed quite interested in having his/her photo taken. Every time that I would take a photo of it, s/he would swim slightly closer and give me a different angle. It was really great. I must have taken about 10 photos of it before I got bored and swam off! Came across a beautiful Hilton's Aeolid nudibranch (photo) clinging to the bottom of some kelp holdfasts. Lots of giant purple urchins, sea lemons and bat stars clinging to the algae on the ledges. Good safety stop along the anchor line, but not holding on. Surface Interval: 45 minutes.

Dive # 43 – Friday, 11/23/07 – Caldecott Shoal – Santa Rosa Island, California. Same site, as dive #42, we just moved slightly from the original dive site. 4:36 PM. Max depth 48 feet, bottom time 30 minutes. Water temp 57°, viz approximately 20-30 feet. Dive site was nice – easy run down the anchor line to were it touched bottom led us to the face of some nice ledges, heading up. Following the anchor line over the ledges, there was a flat bit followed by a nice large ledge, approximately 12-15 feet, covered in kelp palms along the top. The water surging over the top of the ledge made the palms gracefully sway in the water movement. All around were urchins, cowry shells and nudibranchs – even found some mating doris (Doris montereyensis) surrounded by their eggs! Tiny blood star about the size of a quarter, and again, tons of fish and warty-neck paddocks (Chaceia ovoidea) and sleeping red-spotted anemone.

Dive #44 – Saturday, 11/24/07 – Woodson’s Pinnacle – San Miguel Island, California. 9:13 AM. Max depth 81 feet, bottom time 25 minutes. Water temp 54°, viz approximately 30-40 feet. Nice dive with an average depth of 47 feet. More sea lemons and other critters. Mark found a nice crevice with cowries and a Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea) tucked away. Surface interval: 1 hour 37 minutes.

Dive #45 – Saturday, 11/24/07 – Heebee Jeebee’s – San Miguel Island, California. 11:15 AM. Max depth 62 feet, bottom time 25 minutes. Water temp 55°, viz about 30 feet. Nice site although full of either baby fish or krill which made it somewhat hard to see. Average depth 40 feet. Surface interval 1 hour 27 minutes.

Dive #46 – Saturday, 11/24/07 – Heebee Jeebee’s – San Miguel Island, California. 1:09 PM. Max depth 51 feet, bottom time 22 minutes. Water temp 55°, viz approximately 25 feet. Average depth was 36 feet. Current picked up slightly causing us to come up on along the drift line. Resulted in a fairly long surface swim. While doing the safety stop in the water column, came across two jelly fish – one moon jelly and Leucothea pulchra (photo), both of which were beautiful. The latter, upon close examination, showed a coloring effect, almost as if it were lighting itself internally in a waving motion. Absolutely amazing.

To top it all off, on the way back into port, we encountered a huge pod of dolphins which accompanied the boat back in under a full moon. A perfect ending to a wonderful weekend of diving!

Video of Moon Jelly:

Bummer - Florida Diving!

Regretably, our dives in Florida were cancelled as a result of windy conditions from Tropical Storm Noel. Reported seas were 8-12' which makes boat diving a bit too adventurous for most, including us. Back to the cold waters of N. California for us!

ScubaBoard Get-Together @ Point Lobos - Sunday, October 7th, 2007

We had anticipated doing a night dive on Saturday but the windy weather on Friday resulted in less-than-optimal visibility and so we decided that getting all the gear out, wet and then donning a cold, damp wetsuit in the morning wasn’t worth doing for bad visibility. So we opted to have margaritas with Michelle and her dive partner, Bob. A great way to end a beautiful day of whale and dolphin watching off the coast.

Sunday was the big day though – something I’ve been looking forward to for about a month now – diving at the famed Point Lobos State Reserve located in beautiful Carmel, California. Despite some car problems, we arrived at Point Lobos on-time. The skies were blue, the water calm and we were all looking forward to some great diving.

Point Lobos is a beautiful dive site with such easy access. The boat ramp provides a great in and out to the water, ideal given the shoreline around Whaler’s Cove. From the surface, you can see kelp all over the place and I knew it was going to be great. After kitting up and getting to the water’s edge I was thrilled to see a star fish sitting in approximately 2 feet of water just at the boat ramp. I’m not even wet and I am already seeing sea life already!

After a long surface swim out of the cove, being “chased” by Doc Wong and his buddy Mark on their scooters, we arrived at our drop down point. A quick “Doc Wong Video” introducing ourselves and all 8 of us were letting the air out of our BCs and heading to the bottom.

I was a bit worried about the visibility. On the surface I wasn’t able to see my fins when my legs were below me. Granted, they are not that ‘high vis’ but still – I was hoping that we wouldn’t be dealing with a low-visibility situation – especially after the swim out. As we began to descend, Mark and I stayed within close proximity to each other in the event that the visibility didn’t open up. Down we went, slow but steady. Mindful for the bottom, I thought my worries were going to be warranted – I kept expecting the bottom, yet I couldn’t see it. All of a sudden there is was – just below me about 10 feet. Reaching the bottom, we regrouped and everyone was taking photos of all the other divers.

I was AMAZED. My eyes must’ve been huge. The visibility was AMAZING - about 40 to 60 feet. Far better than any I had ever had in Monterey. It was magical. There we were - sitting in about 63 feet of water and I could see all around me – giant strands of kelp gracefully reaching for the surface – like a forest. I could have just sat there for the entire dive, but soon we were off – to the “Hole in the Wall” site.

After a few minutes, I saw some divers heading back to the cove about 20 feet above and to my right. And there it is the ledge, and it’s beautiful. The visibility is still amazing and I am just in heaven. I’ve got the camera in hand, testing out the new strobe that we just bought and I see so many subjects to photograph – huge anemones everywhere including the fish-eating urticina anemone (photo), kelp strands with snails clinging to the leaves, blood stars (photo abovet)and bat stars, beautiful sponges and algae. Even a few fish – gobies and sculpins! Finally I am seeing what I have always marveled in Brad’s photos. I swim to the wall knowing Mark is well aware of my location and start taking photos. And then I see it. Tiny but there – a nudibranch. More specifically, a yellow-marginate nudibranch (Cadlina luteomarginata) (photo). Not the first nudi I have seen, but the first one that I would, come hell or high water, get a good photo of. I was thrilled.

The rest of the dive was just as beautiful. A long surface swim back to a nice potluck lunch with the rest of the group during the surface interval. Our second dive was less “beautiful” as Mark and I decided we wanted a more shallow dive and opted to stay in the cove. During the short surface swim, we passed a seal who I entertained by making clicking noises to keep his attention and curiosity.

While the middle cove reef has prolific amounts of kelp and was teaming with fish and other sea life, the trade off for the shorter surface swim is the lack of visibility – we estimated it to be approximately 2 to 12 feet, only intermittently opening up to anything close to 14-15’. Despite the visibility, we used the dive as an opportunity to practice our buddy and navigational skills. We saw more kelp with snails, crabs, chiton, serfperch, anemones and fantastic orange-yellow corrals (photo).

It was a beautiful day – great weather, company and even the rangers were super-friendly. The site is a beautiful site full of life and vibrant colors. While the new site provided excitement, however, I found a part of me that was still longing for the familiarity of the Breakwater or Lover’s. Funny how those sites have (and probably always will) a special spot in my heart simply because I was certified there. I would go back to the Point Lobos again in a heartbeat though. It is truly amazing.

Dive Stats:
Dive #35 – Sunday 10/07/07 – Point Lobos “Hole in the Wall” – Carmel, California. 11:13 AM. Max depth 74 feet, bottom time 34 minutes (600 PSI remaining at end of dive with AL80). Ramp/beach dive. Water temp 50˚ (brrr!), vis approximately 40-60 feet.

Dive #36 - Sunday 10/07/07 – Point Lobos “Middle Cove Reef” – Carmel, California. 1:51 PM. Max depth 34 feet, bottom time 30 minutes (1100 PSI remaining at end of dive with steel 2700). Ramp/beach dive. Water temp 52˚, vis approximately 2-12 feet.

[Topside photo from diverdunne - copyrights belong to him. All of his photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/11413840@N08/collections/ ]

Free Diving for Abalone – Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

This past weekend Mark and I attended my colleague’s annual Abalone Camping trip held at Mackerricher State Park just north of Fort Bragg, California (http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=436). The weather was forecasting cold, cloudy days but we were camping with some dear friends of ours who are versed in camping and well-prepared, so we knew we’d be just fine. It was chilly – averaging low 50’s during the day with drops to the low 40’s at night. But, surprisingly, our sleeping bags were warm and we did just fine.

Waking up early Saturday morning we were anxious to try our hand at Abalone diving. As many might already be aware, California regulations require a special fishing license stamp to be able to catch abalone, and furthermore, you may only hunt for them by free diving (sans tanks, BC, etc). So it is a pretty “primitive” form of diving. We thought we were heading out earlier than the actual departure time but when the time came, about 10 divers walked out the ¼ mile or so boardwalk out to the shoreline, down the cliffs and suited up, so it was a nice size group of people go out with. Wetsuits, fins, masks, snorkels, floats, weight belts (so heavy!), gloves, abalone gauges and bars and we were off.

North Coast diving is quite a bit different from Monterey diving. It is more rugged, more exposed. There is a greater need to time wave intervals and be very aware of your surroundings to prevent yourself from being bashed up against rocks.

Swimming out as a group we swam around rocky outcroppings, past them and continued out into the sea. There was a considerable surge and we had to keep repositioning to avoid having waves crashing on us and possibly moving us too close to the rocks. Visibility was not great, it was hard for me to see my fins as I was floating on the surface, and the vis didn’t clear up as we descended. In the end, about 12 abalone were caught, cleaned, breaded, cooked – a truly wonderful and rustic meal shared with great company.

[Image is not my own]