Clinton's Dive Log (Continued...) |
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Current Reports Aged Reports Older Reports More Older Reports Even More Older Reports Yet More Older Reports 6/26/00 6/16/00 6/10/00 Our second dive was at the East Pinnacles. Conditions were much like Honeymoon - light surge and 25 foot vis at depth. It's hard to get tired of the amazing Hydrocoral formations here. I also saw a Lalia cockerelli nudibranch. My safety stop featured a large mixed school of Blue Rockfish, Yellowtail Rockfish and Blacksmiths. It was amusing watching the blues try to eat the Siphonophores which were drifting by. I suspect they sting a bit as each time a fish would take a bite they would instantly twitch and quiver and then back off for a bit before coming back for another bite. Perhaps this is the fish equivalent of eating tacos with lots of hot sauce? With many of the people on board starting to get seasick (and cold) we tucked into Fire Rock for a quick third dive. Conditions were the same as elsewhere in Carmel Bay. The highlight for me was a pair of large Dirona albolineata nudibranchs. I also saw an Acanthodoris hudsoni which is a new one for me, I think. They look a lot like Cadlina luteomarginata and I may have overlooked them before. There was also at least 1 reported wolf eel sighting though I wasn't lucky enough to see it. The ride back was wet and woolly. Tanks, gear boxes and anything else not really securely tied down were flying everywhere. Given the relatively nice conditions underwater, though, it was probably worth the ride in order to dive Carmel. 6/3/00 Our first dive was at Huevos del Diablo (near Diablo Pinnacles). The water was a nice blue color but vis was a bit murky at the surface. At depth it opened up to a solid 50 feet or so. The top of the reef was at about 90 feet and at that depth the surge was basically non-existant. The rocks here weren't as colorful as I'm accustomed to on the Big Sur Coast but the fish life more than made up for it. There were big Lingcod everywhere I looked, except when my view was blocked by the large schools of Blue Rockfish. I also saw China Rockfish, Rosy Rockfish, Vermilion Rockfish and several other Sebastes species. Our second dive was at Rocky Point. Vis here was about 20 feet at the surface and maybe 35-40 at the bottom at 110. Surge was moderate bordering on heavy at the top of the rock at 40 feet. The backside of the big rock we were diving featured some really nice fields of Corynactis. Another highlight was a small Painted Greenling sitting on an Urticina anemone and an absolutely huge Vermilion Rockfish. The third dive was at Lobos Rocks aka the best dive spot on the Big Sur Coast. Conditions here were similar to points south but with perhaps a touch less visibility. The Sea Lions were out in force and playful as usual but with the somewhat limited surface vis I spent most of my time looking at the reef in deeper water. I love the fields of Giant Green Anemones that you find here. I also saw a Cuthona divae nudibranch which is rare around here (and also really pretty). 5/29/00 The second dive was at Dali's Wall in Stillwater Cove. Vis here was also in the 40 foot range and surge was light. Again no amazing discoveries but a very pleasant dive. The third dive was at City Beach Reef which is a new spot for me. The bottom here is kind of gravelly with occasional boulders and shallow reef structure. There was lots of encrusting life like Sponges, Tunicates and Bryozoans. The dive here featured several big swarms of small shrimps, lots of kelp rockfish and even a couple of Vermilion Rockfish. Vis here was in the same 40 foot range as elsewhere. The ride home was a bit exciting but not as bad as we had feared given the forecast for high winds. 5/27/00 I started the day on a 3 tank trip on the Cypress Point diving with the Tandem Dive Club. There was a bit of a wind chop from the NW and it was a bit breezy but the swell was almost non-existant. First dive was at Outer Pinnacles. Vis here was about 50 feet or more with moderate surge. While I was admiring the beautiful Hydrocoral I stumbled upon a smallish wolf eel which is always nice. Lots of Blue Rockfish swimming over the pinnacle and it was sunny to boot making for really nice kelp forest viewing. The water was about 49F. Our second dive was somewhere between Grey Zone and Honeymoon. Vis here was downright amazing - a legit 70 feet. The highlight for me was a fish that I think was an Irish Lord (ID pending when I get a chance to look at the video). The lowlight was the fact that my dive watch decided to wig out in the middle of the dive. Looks like the battery is history. Nice of it to not warn me until after I was already in the water. Surge was light. I have no idea regarding temperature owing to the lack of a working dive watch. Our third dive was back up along Lingcod Reef. Vis here was reduced at "only" 30 to 35 feet. This proved to be another pleasant dive though I only saw 1 Lingcod. It was a big one though at close to 3 feet and really, really ugly - even by Lingcod standards. Surge was moderate. After the boat got back Paul Braunbehrens, Dave Chamberlin and I decided to do a night dive at the breakwater. This proved to be an excellent idea and we saw lots of unusual stuff. Chief among these was a large Spiny Lobster which Dave discovered! No lie, I even have video of it. We saw lots of Octopus, a Sailfin Sculpin, Dozens of Cusk Eels and several Dendronotis iris nudibranchs. Vis here wasn't so hot at about 10-15 feet but it didn't really matter for the night dive. 5/14/00 I was on the Cypress Point for three tanks. The weather report looked ugly with a 10 foot swell forecast from the west coupled with 20 knot south winds. The swell wasn't quite that bad but it was west and the wind was as advertised. We tucked into the west end of Mono Lobo Wall for the first dive which at least protected us from the wind, but not really from the swell. The water was a dark green and vis was about 20 feet and the surge moderate at 90-100 and diffucult above that point. The water was about 50F. I didn't see anything remarkable on this dive but it sure was nice just looking at the pretty hydrocorals. The second dive was at the east end of Mono Lobo. The water here was quite different than it was closer to the park being much more of a grey-green than the deep green. The vis was slightly reduced but the water was 54F here. I saw several tubesnouts and best of all a nudibranch I hadn't seen before. I think it was a Triopha maculata, although a really small one (about 4-5mm long). Surge here for some reason was much reduced from the first site which wasn't all that far away. The third dive was at North Monestary. Conditions were similar to east Mono Lobo wall - grey green 54F water with 15-20 foot vis. Surge was moderate. I saw another unusual nudibrach on this dive - Cuthona divae. Cool, two weird ones in one day. Overall not a bad day given the forecast. 5/06/00 Our first dive was at a wall on the southwest side of Diablo Pinnacles. This fell into the basic "Deep, Dark and Scary" category. The water on the surface was a dirty green but below about 40 feet it cleared up nicely. At 130 we probably had 50 foot of vis although it was quite dark. I spent my limited bottom time tooling around a sand channel where I was protected from the surge. The bottom was positively covered in brittle stars and there were qutie a few gorgonians at the base of the wall. The water was about 48F. Surge was strong at the tops of the pinnacles at 80 feet and non-existant in the sand channels at 130. There was also a fairly strong surface current. The winds picked up during the first dive so we moved back north for the second and got in at Yankee Doodle. The surface layer wasn't quite as thick here but it wasn't as clear at depth either. Vis at the bottom at 100-110 was about 25-30 feet. Surge was moderately strong. The highlight of the dive was a huge Cabezon I found at the top of the reef. During the second dive the winds calmed back down again so we headed back south for the third. The third dive was at Waterfall which is just north of Lobos Rocks. Based on recent construction it probably should be re-named Culvert. This dive was a real change of pace. The bottom here is a much softer rock, bordering on sandstone. There were lots of deep cracks for critters to hide in. While not as colorful as the first two dives I saw lots of interesting stuff including what looked for all the world like a small Scorpionfish. Since it was way back in a crack and I don't have any good video of it I may never ID it. Oh well. I also saw lots of interesting Nudibranchs and quite a few large Abalone. Vis here was a consistent 15-20 feet from the surface to the bottom at about 90 feet. Surge was moderate. 4/29/00 We looked at Pescadero Pinnacles for our second dive but with the swell combined with the wind chop was starting to turn some of our passengers funny colors so we headed back to Monterey Bay. As it turns out we probably should have stayed in Carmel. The second dive was at Aumentos and was not exactly stellar. Vis was no more than 10 feet and it was a chunky 10 feet with lots of suspended matter in the water. The surge was quite strong as well. I did see a large sheep crab munching on a leather star which made a decent photo op. Our third dive was at Eric's Pinnacle. Conditions were similar to Aumentos which wasn't conducive to videography so I mostly looked at the nudibranchs. There were lots of Hermissenda crassicornis and Flabellina trilineata. Overall not a great day but it sure beat working... Tomorrow may be better as the swell is supposed to settle down. If it does Carmel should be the place to be as the water is quite a bit clearer down there. 4/22/00 I'd have really enjoyed the dive if I hadn't been in "stroke mode". I started off by dropping one of my fins into the water at the gate. I immediately jumped in after it and retrieved it but quickly found myself behind the boat due to a strong surface current. I was totally tuckered out by the time I got to the anchor line. Upon descent I realized in my rush to retrive the fin I'd forgotten to attach the power inflator hose for my drysuit. Grrr. Finally I got to the bottom and started to get straightened out and happend to look at my computer. 140 feet! Damn, how did that happen so fast? I'd planned the dive for about that depth but somehow I had thought I was much shallower than that. I spent the rest of the dive cursing my own incompetence. Surge was moderate and the water was about 49F. Our second dive was at Soberanes Wall, which is something of a Captain's Charter tradition. Conditions were similar to Flintstone which was OK with us. The highlight of the dive was a friendly Sea Lion who to keep me entertained during my safety stop. I also saw a positively huge Vermilion Rockfish. Our third dive was at spot called McDonalds near Yankee Point. This spot is so named for several large swimthroughs - or arches. I never found them but several other divers did. Must have made a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Vis was terrific here as well but the swell seemed to have come up a bit and it was quite surgy. Overall a nice day despite the mistakes on the first dive. If you're free tomorrow you should go diving. 4/15/00 Reports from other boats indicated that conditions were better in the bay so we headed back north for the second dive. These reports turned out to be a bit overstated as conditions there seemed pretty similar to those in Carmel. Our second dive was somewhere near Aumentos. Surge was rather heavy since the site didn't allow access to water deeper than about 50 feet. Vis was maybe 15 feet. It was a little brighter here as there wasn't the layer of really murky stuff in the first 10 feet of the water column as was the case at Monestary and it was a bit warmer being about 52F. The third dive was at Aumentos proper which at least allowed me to get to 70 feet and under the surge a bit. I spent most of the dive enjoying a nice Metridium field I found there. 4/9/00 Our second dive was at Castles along Lincod Reef. The vis here wasn't quite as nice as at the pinnacles but the marine life more than made up for it. I saw at least 3 lingcod in the 3 foot plus overall length class and quite a few smaller ones as well. I also saw several Sheepshead including a large male. Top it off with schools of Yellowtail and Blue rockfish, lots of Dentronotis albus nudibranchs, several large abalone and a couple of cooperative kelpfish and it made for the best dive I've done so far this year. Tell the boss you're sick and go diving if you can find a way to swing it. 4/7/00 4/1/00 First dive was at Yankee Doodle. I dropped right down to 110 and promptly started filming the nice big gorgonians I found there. After a turn I suddenly got a funny feeling that I was being watched. I looked over to my left and saw a large spotted ratfish sitting right next to me, something I'd never seen before to be sure. Better yet the fish was cooperative and I got about 10 minutes of good video of the beast. Very cool. Vis was about 25-30 feet and the water was about 41F. Surge was light at 110 and moderately heavy back up at 60 feet. Our second dive was at Honeymoon Rocks. Conditions here were similar to Yankee Doodle. I poked around for a bit admiring the large Vermilion Rockfish before noticing an unusual nudibranch that I'd never seen before. Identification is still pending as my ID book is a work but it was a pretty purple dorid with two yellow racing stripes. I want to call it a Mexichromis porterae, but I'll need to do more research. After a quick break watching Dave, Paulo and Eric attempt to catch Salmon it was back out to the reef for the night diving - this time on the Cypress Point with Dave Minard doing the captaining. Our first dive was at Strawberry Peak off of Point Pinos. It isn't often you get a chance to dive here at all and the fact that we did it for a night dive tells you all you need to know about the conditions (hint: go diving!). It was a touch surgy but vis was a solid 25 feet or more and pinnacles don't get much prettier than this. The second dive was at Eric's Pinnacle. Vis here wasn't quite as nice as it was elsewhere but it was still reasonable about 15-20 feet. The highlight for me was seeing a Sailfin Sculpin which again is something I'd never seen before. Lots of cool shrimps and crabs as well. Overall it was a heck of a nice day. If you have a chance to get wet in the next few days by all means do so. Conditions have improved dramatically and if you haven't gotten wet lately it's time to dust off the gear and head down to the ocean. 3/25/00 As usual I was on the Cypress Point today. Our first dive was at Honeymoon Rocks south of Pt. Lobos. Due to the long period swell it was still surgy down at 110 where the gorgonians live but I got some OK footage of the Simnia snails and also the little saddleback shrimps that you sometimes see on gorgonians. Vis was terrible and at depth it was as dark as night, bordering on cave like. Somebody could have turned on a 100 watt HID light right next to me and I wouldn't have been able to see it. The second dive was at Fire Rock. Conditions were similar to Honeymoon. As usual I saw a lot of interesting nudibranchs here including quite a few festive tritons. The third dive was inside Stillwater Cove and oddly enough produced the best dive. I saw a starfish spawning, a swell shark and a family of wolf eels. The eels were in a small cave at the top of the reef in about 35 feet of water. One was a very large male and the other a juvenile still in it's orange spotted colors. They didn't want to come out and play but were nice enough to hold still for my attempts to shoot video (largely unsuccessful due to having a macro lens on the camera at the time.) 3/22/00 |
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3/20/00 Somehow we managed to make it down to Carmel and into Stillwater cove. Conditions there weren't so bad. We got in two dives with 15 foot vis and relative calm. Two divers even reported seeing a group of swell sharks. After the second dive Captain Phil started to get worried about the trip back to Monterey so we decided to call it a day. Predictably the ride north was a white knuckle affair. My feet left the deck more times than I care to remember and at least once I figure I was about 3 feet in the air. Jeesh. 3/3/00 This was a 3 tank trip advanced trip on the Cypress Point. Swells were large at around 12 feet or more and mostly from the west. At least the wind wasn't too strong. First dive was at outer, outer, outer pinnacles (O3?). I'd never done this spot before. If you drew a line from Point Lobos to Cypress Point the pinnacle is outside of the line. As a consequence there is a raging current here. Just getting to the anchor line was a chore and it was 10 minutes into the dive before I got my heart rate under control. The pinnacle itself is quite pretty, although marred by a large concentration of fishing line. There were lots of gorgonians starting at about 100 feet. Also there was quite a bit of pretty hydrocoral as well. Surge was difficult at 130 feet and brutal at 90. Vis was around 15 feet and the water temperature was about 50F. The second dive was at Pescadero Pinnacles. Conditions here were a bit better than at O3 and I had a fairly nice dive. I saw a cute juvenile Cabezon sticking it's head out of a barnacle. Would have made a nice picture had I bothered to take a camera along. Otherwise it was mostly a battle with the surge. Vis was similar to O3. I didn't bother with the third dive as I was a) a bit seasick and b) the conditions basically sucked. Oh well, better luck next week. 2/5/00 The first dive after a rough boat ride was at the west end of Mono Lobo Wall. The water was flat calm and a rather warm 55F. Vis was at least 30 feet and there was almost no surge. I saw and interesting type of saddleback shrimp that I hadn't seen before. I'll spend some time with the ID books tonight to see if I can figure out what it was. The second dive was at North Monestary. In retrospect I should have done this dive on air or a lean Nitrox mix rather than Nitrox 32. I got down to about 120 feet and the Gorgonians were just starting to get abundant but I couldn't go any futher to look at them. Oh well, plan B was back to shallow water to engage in my new sport - kelpfish spotting. I found four, 1 Spotted and 3 Crevice Kelpfish. Vis here wasn't quite as nice, maybe 20 feet and there was a touch more surge. Water temp at depth was 51F. The third dive was at the east end of Mono Lobo Wall. Where the first dive had lots of nice Hydrocoral and Corynactis the east end was more covered with Sponges and encrusting Turnicates. Conditions were still excellent and I even found an Octopus. Overall this was an example of why you shouldn't cancel a dive trip because of a weather forecast. While the number of sites available to divers was limited there were spots were it was downright excellent. I've usually found that even in bad weather it's true that the diving is good somewhere in Monterey. It's almost always worth the risk to drive down and check it out for yourself. 1/29/00 I was on the Cypress Point for a three tank trip. The wave model indicated that we might sneak in some good diving before a big storm rolled in. The swell was from the NW with a wave height of about 6-8 feet and a long period. Wind was from the south and so we did our first dive at Mono Lobo wall. The vis was nice at around 25-30 feet and the surge pretty brutal above 70 feet. I saw a pair of nice Abalone and also some Tube Snouts. Unfortuantely my stupid camera decided not to work again. Grrr. Water temp was about 52F. The second dive was at Pinnacles. Vis here was also about 25-30. The highlight was a pair of mated Painted Greenlings defending an egg mass. I also found a nesting Cabezon. It looked like the Cabezon eggs were starting to hatch. The surge here was still pretty intense. The third dive was at Pescadero Pinnacles. The vis was a bit reduced here at maybe 15-20. I found a nice Crevice Kelpfish. It seems that the key to finding these pretty fish is to leave your light turned on at all times. They stand out with artificial light but are positively invisible without it. Overall a nice enough day and I'd rather it be the camera that didn't work rather than my nose. 1/9/00 The first dive was at the Fanshell Beach Pinnacles just north of Cypress Point. We attempted to anchor on the top of the pinnacle in about 50 feet of water but unfortunately the anchor slipped into deeper water before hanging on a rock. I went down the anchor line and found the anchor at 120 feet. Worse, the pinnacle that the anchor was nearest to (and the only one in sight) topped off at about 90 feet. As I realized this I saw a big Sheepshead at the base of the pinnacle and figured since it was liable to be a short dive anyway I'd go back to 120 and chase him around a bit. While doing so I happened upon the intended dive site and completed my dive there. Vis was about 35-40 feet which enabled me to do a 20 foot hang above the pinnacle at 50 feet and still keep it in view with no worries about currents. Surge was quite strong, even at depth oweing to the long swell period and the water was about 52F. The second dive was at Pescadero Pinnacles. There was a raging surface current here and just getting to the anchor line was tiring. Once I got down to the bottom and caught my breath, however, it was nice. Vis was about 30-35 feet an the surge moderate. I spent some time filming a Juvenile Cabezon and got a nice swim-by from a pair of Sea Lions. There were lots of cool jellies in the water as well. The third dive was closer in to Pescadero Point. Vis here was about 25 feet and surge minimal at 50 feet. As this spot is near Fire Rock which is a world-famous Nudibranch place I hoped for some good branching. Unfortunately I didn't see to much except for a group of Dentronotis albus. I did see a very good sized Abalone, though, which is a rare thing these days. 12/31/99 The first dive was at an unknown pinnacle near PTP (Pinnacle of Tremendous Proportions). It was mostly dome with the kelp covered top at 40 feet sloping gently down to about 140 feet. Vis was a bit murky at the surface but opened up to better than 50 feet at depth. The deeper areas of reef offered lots of nice Metridium patches. The shallower areas were densely covered in Corynactis. I saw a close relation of Lingzilla near the start of the dive and also a Cabezon defending his nest. The safety stop featured some exceptionally large and pretty jellyfish. Water was about 53F and surge was minimal. The second dive was at Lobos Rocks. As usual it was all Sea Lions, all the time. I spent much of the dive ensconced underneath a raft of about a dozen of the Pelagic Grizzlies. They took turns dive bombing me and performing tricks for the camera. Conditions were similar to what we had at PTP. For the third dive we motored back up to Cypress Point and go in at Hang Em High. Spots like this are sometimes overlooked on nice days when everybody wants to go way south but the general Cypress Point area is as good as anything around. There is LOTS of Hydrocoral here and the color of the reef is hard to beat. I spent much of the dive trying to film an uncooperative Kelpfish that kept hiding in the kelp (imagine that...). I never could seem to get to focus quite right but with some creative editing I might be able to salvage something. Conditions here were awesome with 50 foot vis from the surface all the way to the bottom. By now it was getting a bit cloudy so it was a bit dark but otherwise conditions were ideal. Coming back to the dock we gathered up a group of night-divers organized by Beto and motored back to the slip. There we met Dick Hunter and Ed Cooper who were hosting a New Year's party and BBQ on the Pac Star. We hung out there for a couple of hours before picking up the rest of the night divers and heading out to Tanker's Reef. We chose this spot to get the best view of the fireworks. I got two dives in here. The first was to verify that indeed we were over a relatively interesting patch of reef (we were). For the second dive I acted as a guide for two divers who were new to night diving. Conditions remained excellent and we got a nice swim-by from a friendly harbor seal. We got back to the surface shortly before midnight and enjoyed the firworks from the water. Interesting trivia: Champagne Bottles are hard to open at a depth much greater than 15 feet! Finally it was back to the dock where we hung out for a while more on the Pac Star. Dick was gracious enough to let me crash there before driving home. Thanks Dick! Happy New Year! 12/20/99 12/18/99 The first dive at Honeymoon was quite nice. Vis was at least 35 feet and probably more. I spent most of my bottom time shooting video of a very large Vermilion Rockfish at about 110 feet before moving up to the top of the ridge where spent the remainder of the dive admiring the Chestnut Cowries that seem to be so common here. As I turned to leave Beto pointed out a very large Sheepshead but my computer was already chirping at me so I decided to go. I never seem to get enough bottom time here. The water was about 51F and the surge mild to moderate. The second dive was at Pescadero Pinnacles. Conditions were very similar to what we had at Honeymoon. I started the dive by shooting some video of a Longfin Sculpin but it kept moving into spots that made it awkward for me to keep the camera on it. After moving decided to just enjoy the scenery. The hydrocoral here is very nice and there was a big school of rockfish swimming over the top of the rock and they seemed happy to let me join their group. Coming back up Beto and I spent quite a bit of time at the safety stop checking out the Siphonophores and other weird jellies that were floating by. The ride home was a bit exciting due to the wind chop but otherwise it proved to be a nice day on the ocean. 12/11/99 The first dive was at Que Paso Pinnacles. The best part of this spot is on the east side of the pinnacle which we hoped would offer some protection. As it turned out this may have been a bit of wishful thinking. Conditions weren't too bad at 120 feet but much above that it was quite a ride with huge surge being the order of the day. I did see some gorgonians with simnia snails and a Cabezon defending his eggs. Vis was about 20 feet and the water about 51F. The second dive was at Honeymoon Rocks and proved to be a bit better. The swell had subisided a bit and Point Lobos offered a bit of protection. At 100 feet or so the vis was about 30 feet and surge mild. Even up to about 80 feet it was still pleasant enough. Unfortunately I think the first dive had softened up the group enough that nobody (except me of course :-) wanted to do a third dive so we headed home. Funny how I get my camera back from the shop on a day when videography is darn near impossible. Oh well, other than the swell it sure was a nice day on the ocean. 12/9/99 12/4/99 I was on the Cypress Point for an advanced trip. The wave model looked ugly predicting 8 foot swells from the west-northwest. As we rounded Point Pinos they looked more like 10-12 to me - and big widely spaced surge inducing rollers at that. No matter, this is an advanced trip and we're going diving. The good news was that the winds were calm and it was sunny. After looking at some spots south of Lobos we decided that most were out of the question and did our first dive at Honeymoon Rocks. I was diving with Karen Giesler (I hope I got your last name right Karen...). We dropped down to 110 where it was reasonably calm and Karen quickly found an octopus. The particular mollusk was friendly and played with Karen's un-gloved fingers from the relative safety of its crevice. Vis was great at about 40' or more but above 100 the surge was really brutal. We quicky ran out of bottom time and did a long, hang at 20 feet. The water is getting colder - about 50F by my watch. The second dive was at Outer Pinnacles. Vis here was downright terrific. On my way down I glanced back up at the boat and was shocked that I could still see it. My computer read 75 feet at the time. Lots of Sea Nettles in the water here and quite a few blue rockfish mixed in as well. After a nice enough dive Karen and I started up. I happened to look up to admire the view in the nice vis and saw a big Bat Ray swimming right over us. Incredibly it made several wide turns above us and we got to enjoy it for at least 5 minutes before it departed. This kind of thing only happens when your camera is in the shop. Despite that the vision of a Bat Ray silouetted in the clear blue water with jellys, kelp and rockfish all around is seared into my head. Very cool. Sometime during the third dive the wind came up strong from the south which really threw a wrench into the works. Phil decided he didn't like the looks of conditions in Carmel anymore and we headed back up to the bay. The third dive was at Hopkins Deep Reef. Vis here was, well there really wasn't any vis here, was maybe 5-7 feet. Karen and I poked around a bit and decided to bail. On the way up we got a visit from a Sea Lion. First at 70 feet, then 50, then again at 20. Despite being in bit of a current and with no idea where the anchor line was we hovered at 20 feet for at least 15 minutes while the Sea Lion did tricks, stared into our masks and barked at us. Turned out to be a really fun dive despite the conditions. The swim back to the boat was another matter altogether though. ;-) Moral of the story - damn the wave model and go diving! You never know what's going to happen. 11/20/99 The swim out was probably more interesting than the dive. While swimming out we got a closeup view of a school of Porpoise and also a Sea Lion. In the end though the dive accomplished its purpose. I got to dive and my brother got re-introduced to Scuba. I'll be back in the water in Monterey next weekend. 11/13/99 and 11/14/99 On Saturday both of us were on the Cypress Point. Phil was in Vegas (I wonder whether he knew about Comdex before he left?) so Ed Cooper was running the boat. Ed decided to do the "Three Pinnacles Tour" not to be confused with a "Three Hour Tour". In succession we did Outer Pinnacles, Inner Pinnacles and East Pinnacles. Conditions were similar in all three spots - 20-25 foot vis and moderate surge. Highlights included a very dense school of Senorita fish at Outer Pinnacles, a Crevice Kelpfish at Inner Pinnacles and a Cabezon guarding its eggs at East Pinnacles. I concluded that I like diving the doubles. Not having to stress about gas supply at the end of a dive is really cool and it didn't add as much drag as I had feared. We had a cave instructor and several other tech types on the boat offered much useful advice as to how best to setup my rig. I was a bit top-heavy so I think I need to move the plate up a bit to improve my balance but otherwise it worked well. The water was about 57F. All in all a nice day. Sunday was allegedly an advanced trip so I advised my new-diver friend Chuck to go out on the Beachhopper while I did the advanced trip on the Cypress Point. Unfortunately the crowd on the boat was not exactly advanced. About half of the people on board fell into the novice to intermediate class. The rest were gung-ho psychos like myself. This really put Ed in a bind as to a site selection. Memo to Cypress Charters - please make sure people know what "advanced" means before you take their credit card number! It's no good when the captain asks "Who has fewer than 10 dives in kelp" and people start raising their hands... We did get off to a good start. While motoring along Carmel Xcott spotted a small school of Risso's Dolphins. Ed matched speed and we watched them for about 10 minutes which was quite fun. We also saw a Mola, or at least some of us did! ;-) Memo to Xcott: whatever you put in the coffee yesterday - don't do it again! Man what a weird group of divers this was. I thought Ed had a twisted sense of humor but he was out of his league on this trip. I think the English blokes in particular have been spending way too much time watching "The Man Show" or maybe "Howard Stern" (Benny Hill re-runs?). Very bizarre indeed. Funny as hell if you don't embarrass easily but bizarre. Anyway - first dive was a Rocky Point. Ed didn't feel comfortable with the more offshore spots due to the swell and wind chop and the fact that we had a less than an advanced crowd. The vis here was pretty miserable at the bottom but closer to the surface around the pinnacle we were anchored by it cleaned up to about 20 foot vis. I found a Mosshead Warbonnet which made the dive for sure. Several people swam by and I tried to get their attention but then didn't seem as excited about it as I did. Karen and Dave also saw Warbonnets in the same general area. Overall an OK dive. Surge was moderate to light and the water was about 57F. The swell was now coming mostly from the west-southwest which was weird and the wind was also picking up from the south. We thought about stopping at PTP or Malpaso Pinnacles on the way back up but again the mix of divers wasn't quite up to it. We also looked at Lobos Rocks but anchoring there in a south wind is dicey. After much whining from the more gung ho types (sorry Ed... ;-) Ed finally caved in and we moved to a spot called Steps. This spot made up for the first dive and the false starts in-between. It proved to be a very nice offshore pinnacle with tons of Corynactis and Hydrocoral. Vis here was excellent in the 30 foot range. Highlights included a large school of Blue and Yellowtail Rockfish, several large Sheepshead and a flyby by a big Sea Lion. We liked this spot so much we did it twice. Good save Ed... 10/31/99 First dive was at Outer Outer Pinnacles. The surface was a bit greenish with maybe 10-15 foot vis but at depth it opened up to about 25. Within less than two minutes of entering the water I spotted a fish I had never seen before. I can't identify it either. It was eel-shaped like a gunnel with a smallish head and mouth. Total length was less than a foot. The body was a uniform reddish-brown. The fish had a very distinctive white stripe running from its mouth underneath its eye to the base of its pectoral fins. The head lacked any cirri or crests on the snout. The dorsal fin had alternating occellated dark spots and white bars - about 6 or 7 of each. The markings didn't extend down to its body. It had a long anal fin too - about 2/3 the length of its body. Any ideas what it was? You can see it near the bottom of the first Monterey Photo Gallery. The water was about 53F. Second dive was at Pescadero Pinnacles. Conditions here were similar to outer pinnacles. The highlight of the dive was a male Cabezon which attacked the lense of my video camera defending its eggs. I hadn't realized that it was sitting on an egg mass until it did this and I left it alone after that. Cool video though. The third dive was a Fire Rock. I saw another of the Gunnel-like fish that I'd seen at Outer Pinnacles. I wonder if the storm had something to do with their appearance? These fish were very much obvious and swimming about in the open and made no attempt to hide or swim away. I'm sure I would have seen them before if they had been around. Later in the dive I also saw a Crevice Kelpfish for the first time. This is an extra pretty fish so that was a real plus too. Other highlights include several Stripefin Ronquils and a pair of Tritonia festiva which are some of my favorite nudibranchs. Vis here was somewhat reduced to more like 15-20 feet but still tolearable and the surge was reduced too - not that it was that bad at the other spots. Overall a nice day of diving, and downright amazing considering. 10/22/99 and 10/23/99 First dive was on Aumentos. Vis was probably in the 25-30 foot range but it's hard to tell for sure at night. I don't remember seeing anything spectacular but the safety stop was almost surreal. The light from the boat cast an eerie glow and everytime I moved the bio-luminesence lit up like I've never seen it. Very cool. BTW for those of you that heard me complain about the new light being a bit too dim - it was actually a feature! RTFM. You have to hold the lever down for several seconds rather than just flick it on. It works sort of like a digital rheostat. Water was about 56F. The second dive was Eric's Pinnacle. Right away upon descending I found a cooperative octupus which I filmed for a while. I then moved off and saw a fish which I'm still having trouble identifying. I called it a Monkeyface Eel when I got back on the boat but after going to the video tape I'm quite certain that's not what it was. Among other things it didn't have a fleshy ridge on it's face. I'm pretty certain it was some kind of Prickleback though. It was maybe a bit over a foot long with a white stripe down it's snout and with two white lines running down and back from the eye. In between the white stripes was a triangular shaped dark area and the fish also had a black spot on its gill cover. The rest of its body was a mottled brown. I'll have a photo on the website later this week when I get a chance. All in all another nice dive. Water was about 56F. BTW Norbert's camera was definitely larger but I think for sheer uniqueness I'll have to give the coolest housing award to Chuck. You don't see a movie camera everyday but it seems like everybody has video. It's close but IMHO Chuck's the winner. After getting about 4 hours of sleep I was back on the Cypress Sea for Dave's Captain's Charter. David Chamberlin did both trips too. I think this qualifies us both as certifiable. Conditions were still stellar. First dive was at Shootout Wall. This spot is almost indescribably cool. It comes up to about 50 feet and drops off to 150 in a sheer wall. The whole pinnacle is covered with Corynactis and with Metridiums and Gorgonians at depth for variety. Vis was about 20-30 feet on the surface and a legitimate 70 at depth. The current was raging at the surface to the point of being difficult to swim against. At depth it wasn't so bad and I had a great dive poking along the wall. Where it crept into my top 5 of all time, though, was at the safety stop. While hanging onto the anchor line for dear life I saw a dark shape in the water. At first I thought is was a boat but then it came into better focus. A whale! While underwater! Wow!. I hollered through my regulator and tried to get the attention of Lew and Ramona who were right above me on the anchor line. Unfortunately the whale was gone by then. Since we were all a bit low on breathing gase we surfaced to learn that a Minke whale had been circling the boat for over a half an hour. It continued to oblige us by surfacing several times within 40 feet of the boat. Dave and Kelly got in a dive while the rest of us offgassed and Kelly saw it while underwater too. She screamed even louder than I did. Wow. Day, week and maybe year made in under 10 seconds. Water was about 54F. The second dive was at Soberanes Wall. We were on the south side of the wall and I discovered an east-west canyon on the southern edge of the wall. This isn't as colorful as the north-south wall proper but it has the best aggregation of Metridiums I've ever seen. Very nice, and the Minke Whale showed up again here! Nobody saw it while on scuba but Beto got in for a look with skin diving gear. I'm not sure whether he got a good look but it surfaced right behind him at one point. Vis here was about 20 feet on the surface and better than 50 at depth with a temp of about 54F. The third dive was at Lobos Rocks. Xcott on the Cypress Point had told me that the west edge of the west rock was an encrusting life paradise and I was determined to see it. I played with the Sea Lions for a bit at the south edge of the west rock before swimming north along the outside ridge. It wasn't as vertical as I expected but it was quite pretty with lots of Corynactis but not as much Hydrocoral as inbetween the rocks. One thing there were plenty of was Kelp Greenlings. The place was dirty with them. Pretty cool. Unlike the last time I was here where I got lost and nearly killed on the surface swim back to the boat this time I got lost up-current of the boat. When I surfaced I was still a long ways away but within a few minutes of leisurly swimming I was back at the swimstep. Vis was about 40-50 feet and the water about 54F. 10/16/99 Upon leaving the harbor it was quicly apparent that the buoy data was accurate. Swells were big and closely spaced. We headed for Carmel. Arriving there we found large waves breaking over the Pinnacles but East Pinnacles didn't look too bad so we did our first dive there. Below 80' the surge tapered off nicely and vis opened up to 25-30 feet. I got some nice video of a Cabezon and also of a sculpin sitting in a branch of hydrocoral. I also saw some largish lingcod. Water was about 54F. We thought about moving to North Monestary for the second dive but the waves there were clearly too large so we came back to Fire Rock. Conditions here were OK. The surge was reduced from the first dive and vis was about 20 feet. Fire Rock doesn't have so much Hydrocoral or Corynactis but it does have lots of Nudibranchs. I think I counted 15 different species on this dive including some unusual ones like Cadlina flavomaculata and Flabellina trilineata. At the safety stop I saw a group of unusual fish hanging onto the kelp by a sucker on their bellies. After some time stepping through my video frame by frame I'm fairly certain they were Kelp Clingfish. Water was 54F. For the third dive we moved back out to East Pinnacles. It seemed like the swell was down a bit and the vis had improved too to maybe 30-35 feet at depth. I spent much of the dive unsuccessfully trying to get video of a large kelp greenling that kept swimming over a particularly nice patch of hydrocoral. The fish would never let me get quite close enough to him to get the right composition but consistently moved back over the hydrocoral as soon as I backed away. Oh well, a nice dive anyway. Water was 54F. 10/09/99 First dive was at Fire Rock. Normally this is an easy dive but not today. The vis was variable between 5-20 feet but mostly 10 feet or less. It was a chunky 10 feet too with lots of bits of kelp and other detritius in the water. Surge was annoying at 90 feet and downright nasty at 30 feet. I did see a Stripefin Ronquil and a medium sized Lingcod but that's about it. The water temp was about 53F, down 4 degrees from last weekend. Second dive was inside Stillwater Cove. The surge here wasn't so bad and except for a layer of silt on the sandy bottom vis was an acceptable 20 feet or so. After much swimming and looking around I actually found a nice little wall covered in Corynactis and with lots of Sculpins and mating pairs of Painted Greenlings. On the long surface swim back I even saw a Calico Bass (I didn't swim THAT far...). Overall not a bad dive considering. Water temp was 53F. Based on reports from the boats in Monterey Bay we decided to stay put for the third dive. Unfortunately during the hourlong surface interval the silty layer on the bottom extended up throughout the water column reducing vis to less than 10 feet. Making things worse the wind kicked up too and we started getting some wind chop. Ick, not much to see on this one so I took the opportunity to practice some skills. Dave Minard on the Cypress Sea reported that Carmel Pinnacles had better vis than the spots inside. If you're planning on diving in the next few days I'd do so from a boat and try some of the more offshore points where the surge won't have stirred things up so much. 10/01/99 and 10/02/99 The eggs were on a sandy bottom at almost exactly 100 feet. There were a few squid but not the huge masses we were hoping for. The bottom was covered with Brittle Stars and Sea Pens, with Sand Dabs, small C-O Turbots and Octopi thrown in for good measure. The squid that were there did their best to perform for us which is more than I can say for my camera. The lens fogged up on the first dive. Grrr. I put my closeup lens on for the second dive but the squid had thinned out by then. I did get some good octopus footage and some mediocre squid footage. Doing a safety stop under these conditions is an interesting learning experience, especially if you lose the upline on your ascent. I've done blue-water hangs before but black water is another thing entirely. About the only two things you can see are your light and the dive computer you are pointing it at. Buoyancy control is really, really hard. Fortunately there wasn't a current to worry about but was unnerving anyway. The swell was minimal, vis for both dives was (I guess, as it was hard to tell) about 20 feet and the temperature a downright tropical 58F. Overall lots of fun and completely different from the usual sort of Monterey dive. Thanks Phil! Being certifiably insane I left my gear on the boat and stayed the night in Monterey for the Advanced trip on Sat morning. I was a bit apprehensive that the previous night's trip had exhausted the local supply of gung-ho advanced divers. As I drove up to the dock I was quickly reassured by the presence of stage bottles, backplates and other techie gear. Seas were still calm. Dave Minard is running the boat today and we decide to head south. Predictably the first dive is at Soberanes Wall which is a favorite spot of Dave's, especially with a light swell. With my main lens still fogged I leave the close-up lens on the camera. This proves to be a mistake. Vis is about 40 feet presenting many good wide angle opportunities for shooting the wall itself or of the kelp on top. I did find an interesting Nudibranch on a piece of kelp at the top of the wall but there is too much surge to get a good shot. I think it was a Dentronotus of some kind but clearly not D albus. Hmmm. Lots of weird jellys in the water that I can't identify either. Water was about 58F and surge moderate (which is great for this spot). The second dive was at Rocky Point. I switch lenses to the Wide Angle lens. This is an interesting dive but it didn't offer the spectacular walls or kelp forest that we had at Soberanes. Predictably, though, I did see some very cool macro stuff including a 3" long Mosshead Warbonnet. Doh! Overall conditions here were similar to Soberanes with less surge, 30-45 feet of vis and a water temp of about 57F. The third dive was Lobos Rocks, which should tell you all you need to know about the conditions! Go diving! This spot is rarely divable but truly spectacular when you do get in. The obvious attraction is the sea lions which did their usual thing but the walls are nice too. There is lots of Hydrocoral here, the biggest Giant Green Anemones anywhere and lot of other aggregating anemones. One diver had a close encounter with a Mola Mola. Navigation is not my strongest skill, and the more so when I'm tired. The boat was anchored on the east side of the eastern rock. I thought I was coming up on the south side of the eastern rock but instead I was in the middle of the channel between the two rocks. Sticking my head out of the water did cause several sea lions to come over and investigate which got me some good footage but the swim back was a bear. I was low on air to begin with and had to duck under kelp several times. Worse, while surface swimming I forgot about a wash rock that we'd been warned about in the briefing. I big set came through and I suddenly heard the waves breaking right next to me! Egad, If I get dumped on to the rocks I'll not only get hurt but I'll never hear the end of it either! Fortunately I had just enough energy left to kick away from the rocks without too much damage to myself or my ego. Whew! Vis here was variable from 20-40 feet and the water was about 57F. 9/25/99 The day started nicely enough although the swells were ominously large. We even got a brief appearance from a Humpback Whale on our trip south. Our plan was to dive Outer Pinnacles for the first dive. Unfortunately for us that was everybody else's plan as well and it was a bit crowded by the time we got there. We kept going south to avoid the crowds. Plan B was the Pinnacle of Tremendous Proportions, which seemed like a good idea except that the waypoint was mysteriously missing from the Cypress Sea's GPS. Worse, there was a pea soup fog in Carmel and points south making visual cues useless. Happily while looking for PTP we found something even better (!!!). Outside of PTP in deep water we can across a pinnacle coming up steeply from 160' to about 43'. We anchored on the top of the pinnacle in a stiff current and got 3 divers in the water before the hook pulled loose. Sami, Kati and Steven came back up with reports that the anchor was in about 160 feet of water as far as they could tell. We reset the anchor and got in a very nice, albeit white knuckle dive. This is a really cool spot, hereafter to be known as Shootout Wall. Lots of dramatic vertical terrain, dense Corynactis, schooling blue rockfish and nice Metridiums at the deeper spots. Surge was brutal due to an 8-9 foot swell from the NW and the surface current had us divers looking like flags on the anchor line while doing our safety stops. The visibility was downright amazing. Depending on whose estimate you use it was between 50 and 70 feet with the best vis being down deep. It was a clear blue 50-70 feet too. Water temp was about 52F. Dive 2 was at Honeymoon Rocks. As was to be expected the first thing we did was pull the anchor off the pinnacle. Luckily it stuck on a rock at about 120 feet within visual distance of the dive site proper. This worked out well for me as I found several Red Gorgonians while swimmining from the anchor to the wall. They even had the Simnia snails on them. Very cool, but my computer was griping at me by the time I started moving into shallower water. I passed right by several nice photo ops as I hustled to the top of the pinnacle (70 feet or so). Upon arriving there I found a juvenile Cabezon. Unbelievably it was actively feeding and despite my very limited remaining bottom time I managed to get some good footage. Well at least I got something for the Shootout. I also got a quick glimpse of a Sea Lion right as I surfaced and almost got something good from that encounter but I blew it by not having focus lock turned on. Vis here was similar to Shootout Wall but greener. There wasn't any current here but the surge was still brutal. Water temp was about 52F. Dive 3 was at the Pinnacles. The vis was much lower here but so was the surge and that seemed a reasonable compromise. About 10 minutes into the dive my camera refused to take anymore video and started flashing C 31:30 whatever that means (I suspect some sort of transport failure). Oh well, no more video today. I spent the rest of the dive just looking at the nice Hydrocoral and admiring the scenery. Oddly my camera is working fine now that I have it out of the housing. Chalk one up to Shootout Karma I guess. Water temp was about 55F and the vis maybe 30 feet. After getting back I entered my Cabezon footage and attended the nice film festival (proceeds from which go to the Ed Ricketts Underwater Park). Good luck to all of you who entered photos or video in the Shootout. 9/21/99 9/12/99 I was on the Cypress Point for a standard 3 tank morning trip. Half of our group were Cypress Charters' usual suspects and the other half an advanced open water group from Anchor Shack. Phil decided to head south of Pt Lobos for the first dive and conditions looked nice with a moderate NW swell and no wind. First dive was at Honeymoon Rocks. The visibility on the surface here was stellar and while it got murkier at depth it was still probably close to 30 feet. I spent some time at depth looking for Gorgonians but didn't see any. There are nice Metridiums here and the usual dense covering of Corynactis. As I headed up the pinnacle towards shallower water I happend across a small (5" or so) bright red fish which I didn't recognize. I think it was a juvenile Greenling of some kind but I'm not sure. It had a dark spot behind the gill plate and had faint bars on its side. Very pretty, even if I don't know what it was. At the safety stop the vis is such that I can read the name of the boat on the bow and clearly make out the people on deck. Wow. Vis 30-60 feet and water temp about 53F. Our second dive was at Yankee Breakers. The top is in about 25 feet of water and slopes down in stair steps to about 140. I spent time exploring the west side and despite some surge found it to be quite pretty. There are lots of Metridiums here, occasional patches of Corynactis and lots of sponges. I saw a big Sheepshead, a nice China Rockfish and lots of cool Nudibranchs including Dirona albolineata and Phidiana hiltoni. As I came back to shallower water I noticed a Harbor Seal resting on the bottom. I shot about 15 seconds of video before it headed off. I figured it was gone for good but happily I was wrong. As I neared the top of the pinnacle the seal reappeared along with a friend. Both seals came and went over a period of about 10 minutes and occasionally got close enough for me to get some good shots. Then for good measure one of them swam right up to the camera lens and nearly kissed it. It just doesn't get much better than that. Vis here was about 25-30 feet with moderate to heavy surge and the water being about 52F. The third dive was at the Carmel Pinnacles. Vis here was awesome in the first 60 feet or so which is where I spent the whole dive. From 60 feet I could clearly make out the props and swimstep of the boat. The kelp was really, really thick so I decided not to wander very far from the boat. No worries, as within 5 minutes I found a Mosshead Warbonnet which is a very pretty fish that I had never seen before. It even cooperated for the camera for a bit before disappearing into a hole. I spent the next 20 minutes hoping it would reappear but it didn't. Going back to the boat I found a Nudibranch (Well Opisthobranch anyway) that I had never seen before - Berthella californica. Water was 54F and the surge was moderate to mild. So to sum up - things are looking up. The vis is improved and the swell is down. Hope to see you on the ocean. 9/5/99 Saturday September 4th has been circled on my calendar for some time now. The Cypress Point had an advanced trip in the morning and the Cypress Sea was doing a night dive/BBQ trip in the evening. With the conditions we've had this summer this seemed like a great way for a scubaholic like myself to get some real diving in. Mother nature, unfortunately, had other ideas and turned the clear, calm ocean we had earlier this year into a turbid, green, murky, surgy mess. What the hell, I'm down here, I've paid for the trips and I'm doing 5 dives no matter what! 6:45 AM, Yellow Dock. I'm worried that the yellow dock is going to sink. Not only do we have an advanced group of divers, these folks are advanced shoppers too. More than one dive shop has been cleared out by this gold card wieldling herd of psychos. Doubles, rebreathers, stage bottles oh my! Lots of usual suspects too - hi Joe, Rick, etc! 7:25 AM, Yellow Dock. Loading is going slowly. Quoth Captain Phil "Never in the field of Monterey diving has so much stuff been brought by so few!". Dave looks a bit annoyed as the Cypress Sea hovers in the background. Now I'm as guilty as anybody of having too many diving toys but here's a hint for the rest of you: The Cypress Point provides tanks!. They have steel, aluminium, big, small, yolk, DIN etc. Unless you're bringing a set of manifolded doubles leave your tanks at home! Jeesh. 8:15 AM. We're underway and it doesn't look _that_ bad. The winds are calm and the swell doesn't seem as bad as I had feared. On the other hand the period is really long and getting underneath the surge may be difficult. 8:45 AM, Fanshell Pinnacles. Our first dive is at Dave's Pinnacle north of Cypress Point. There's quite a bit of current at the surface and it looks murky. Last week the vis at depth here wasn't bad so we hope that's the case today. I'm on a gorgonian hunt. I've never seen one in Monterey but I know they're here at this site around the base of the pinnacle at 120 feet. Down the anchor line, down the side of the pinnacle to the bottom and turn left. Vis is still really murky at depth being maybe 10-15 feet or so. I swim quite a ways before finding a lone, scraggly looking gorgonian! I filmed it for a while and went looking for more. I didn't find any and started thinking about the current and Phil's admonition not to attempt a blue (green) water hang. Fortunately I found the anchor line and safely made it back to the boat. Water temp was about 52F, surge was very heavy even at depth. 10:10 AM, Cypress Point. The surface here is covered with Sooty Shearwaters. I've never seen such a dense concentration of seabirds anywhere - even Galapagos. Very cool. 10:25 AM, Crossing Carmel Bay. Our backup-skipper-in-training Chris spots a whale. It's pretty big and moving quickly. It has a small dorsal and is bluish-grey in color. Phil thinks it's a Blue Whale and gets no argument from me. A Blue Whale! Trip made, damn the diving conditions. I love Monterey. 11:12 AM, Que Paso Pinnacles. Time for our second deep dive of the day. I strap on a 30 cu ft bottle of 54% nitrox for better offgassing during my safety stop. This is a beautiful spot with amazing walls of Corynactis. I didn't find much to film but even in 15 foot vis the scenery is very, very pretty. The surge is brutal and I spend most of the dive below 100 feet and then 10 minutes or so in the kelp at 15 feet as a precaution. Water temp was about 52F. 1:26 PM, Honeymoon Rocks. Time for the third dive and we choose another deep one. Conditions here are slightly better than elsewhere. Vis is closer to 20 feet and the surge isn't as bad. I saw, in rapid succession, a large Lingcod, an even larger Vermilion Rockfish and a positively huge Sheepshead. Amazing what a no-take zone con do for the local fish life. I wish I had more bottom time left but even on a rich nitrox mix I can't stay long and cut it short after about 20 minutes before doing another long hang. 3:30 PM, The Breakwater. The Cypress Point drops me off directly onto the Cypress Sea for the night dive. I quickly fall asleep in the cabin and awake to see Erik taking a picture of me which I'm sure I'll now be blackmailed with! 5:00 PM, Yellow Dock. We load up for the night dive. Lots of usual suspects like Sami and Beto plus some other familiar faces like Todd from AWS. 6:11 PM, Aumentos. LOTS of Brown Jellys here, thick enough to walk on in fact. There are also Purple and Moon Jellies. Despite the stings I think this is about as cool as it gets and shoot lots of video (none of which is all that good, apparently oweing to fatigue). The reef isn't bad either with Medridiums and lots of nocturnal crabs. Vis is better here than Carmel at around 20 feet and the surge mild, at least by comparison to the earlier dives. Temp was around 52F. 7:00 PM, Inner Hopkins. Dinner! Dave, Paulo and Erik cook up some bodacious chicken, burgers and fish. Mmmmmm! 8:46 PM, Somewhere in Monterey Bay. We think we're near Eric's Pinnacle but who can tell? Turns out to be a fun dive. Not as many jellies here but lots of weird critters I've never seen before. I saw an odd little red prawn with its tail cocked over its head wandering in the red algae and later a family of Showy Snailfish. I'm clearly tired at this point as I accidentaly turn off the camera shortly after starting to shoot the Snailfish. Figures, I see something new and promptly blow it. Oh, well still lots of fun. I'm anxious to do more night dives out on the reef rather than the usual breakwater or lover's point. Vis was maybe 20 feet and the water about 51F. 10:15 PM, Yellow Dock. We're back and I'm tired. Could be worse. Divemaster Kelly did both trips with me and is working the Cypress Sea on Sunday. Egad! 12:45 AM Sunday, Cupertino. Yaaaaaaaawn! I've finished rinsing my gear and headed for bed. Not sure if I'll do something like this again but even with the tough conditions it was fun. 8/28/99 First dive was at Soberanes Pinnacle. This is a sheer west facing wall coming straight up from about 130 feet to about 30 feet. With any kind of swell this spot is not really diveable due to surge but it was quite mild today. Visibility at the surface was nearly zero but it opened up to near 30 down around 60 feet. The effect was like a night dive except maybe darker. The wall has Metridiums down around 110 feet and elsewhere is covered with Corynactis and Zoanthids. I also saw a Longfin Sculpin which was a first. Lots of small crabs too who apparently were unaware that it wasn't night. Water temp was a comfortable 55F. Second dive was a Fanshell Pinnacles near Cypress Point. This is another spot that requires a nice flat day to dive safely. The spot consists of several pinnacles coming up from about 120 feet to about 40-50 feet in some places. One of the pinnacles has a nice swim-through and cave at 110 feet. At depth you can find Metridiums and even Gorgonians (I didn't see them but several others did). Further up it's covered with Corynactis and Hydrocoral. Several folks saw some very large Lingcods. I saw quite a few interesting nudibranchs on this dive including a Tritonia festiva and lots of Triopha catalinaes. Vis here was probably 30 feet at depth and it wasn't as dark as Soberanes as the surface lens wasn't as thick. Water temp was 53F. Third dive was at Strawberry Peak at Point Pi–os. This is another pinnacle coming up to about 20 feet from 70 feet with a gentle slope on all sides. There are lots of cracks and rocks for relief and as you might guess from the name lots of Corynactis. I also found a field of Metridium senile anemones (the small metridiums). Vis was 10-15 feet. Water temp was 53F. 8/22/99 After getting pounded on the surface by the swell during the first dive Phil decided to move to boat to a mellower spot for dives 2 and 3. We ended up at the Pescadero Wash Rock or Fire Rock depending on whose nomenclature you use. I used the second dive to explore the base of the pinnacle at about 80-90 feet. Surge down here was minimal and I had a fun time shooting video of a Stripefin Ronquil and several different species of sculpin. I came up along a small spike on the southside of the wash rock that had a single Metridium and lots of nice encrusting life. Vis here was about 15 feet in the surface green layer and about 35-40 feet at depth, particularly as you moved west towards the pinnacles. Water temp was about 51F. For the third dive we voted to leave the boat at Fire Rock. There was some thought given to moving out to the pinnacles but again this was voted down for comfort reasons. Fair enough. The other alternative was to move deeper into Stillwater Cove which also didn't seem to be a good idea. I spent the third dive swimming around in the thick kelp looking for the Wolf Eels which one diver had reported seeing from the second dive. I didn't find them but had a very pleasant dive anyway. I ended up swimming much further than I had thought and came up a LONG way from the boat. If you were on the afternoon charter for the Point this is probably why the boat was a bit late. Sorry 'bout that. Xcott reminded me that we had voted against diving the pinnacles and that as such I probably shouldn't have tried to swim out there! ;-) Surge in the kelp was moderately heavy. Vis maybe 25 feet and the water about 51F. On the way back coming into Monterey Bay the water looked rather murky, perhaps about the same color as iced tea. I doubt the vis here is even worth talking about. If you can take the pounding it looks like we have a nice clear water upwelling in Carmel Bay and the vis there should be excellent for at least a couple of days. 8/18/99 8/07/99 Conditions were flat with absolutely no wind and sunny for most of the day too. The trip got off to an auspisious start as we were visited by a small pod of Risso's Dolphins while crossing Carmel Bay. Needless to say we went south. WAY south. First dive was at Little Sur Pinnacle. Just north of Big Sur this is a small pinnacle that comes up about 35 feet from the surface. The pinnacle is shaped like a cylinder and drops off completely vertically on all sides down to about 110 feet. The walls had the densest covering of Corynactis I've ever seen - except for the parts covered in Yellow Zoanthids. These seem to be rare north of the Big Sur area. This would have been cool enough in and of itself but the site also featured a huge school of blue rockfish that practically darkened the sky at times. Visibility was a bit disappointing at about 30 feet and the temperature was about 51 deg F. The second dive was at Hurricane Point. I apparently made a mistake by heading towards the point away from the boat. I had a nice kelp forest dive and saw lots of nudibranchs including some Spanish Shawls but other folks raved about the Corynactis and Hydrocoral which I didn't see. Should have turned left a Albuquerque I guess. Vis was all over the map. Sometimes I had close to 70 feet and other times less than 15. There were lots of jellys and medusae here too. Temp was about 51 deg F. The third dive was a Lobos Rocks, and I don't mean just the general area. We parked right up against them and played with the Sea Lions. After looking around a bit I settled into one spot and spent the next 30 minutes in 25 feet of water just beneath where the white water was forming from the breakers on the rocks. Ensuring that I didn't get lonely were about 6 sea lions who took it upon themselves to entertain me for a full half hour. I was buzzed, circled, barked at, had bubbles blown at me and generally given the whole treatment. This was the outstanding dive of the year so far for me. Vis was about 25 feet up next to the rocks where the pelagic grizzly bears were and about 50 in the kelp outside. Temp was about 53 deg F. If you somehow missed out today do yourself a favor and drop whatever you were doing tomorrow and go diving. The squeaky step on the back porch can wait. Fix it next weekend or next year. Go Diving! 7/31/99 The first dive was near Cypress Point and featured some really nice walls of Corynactis. Some nice Metridiums in places too. For the second dive we ventured a bit further south and did one of the pinnacles inside of Lobos Rocks. This was a great dive. There's been a Lingzilla sighting! I estimate the fish I saw to be well over 3 feet long and very pretty for such a big lingcod - a really bright bronze. Saw a nudibranch that I couldn't identify too. Imagine a smallish Anisodoris nobilis except it was white instead of yellow. The third dive was at Eastwood Rocks back up near Cypress Point and quite unexpectedly featured some of the nicest hydrocoral formations I've ever seen. Very colorful indeed and all the hydrocoral had things walking around on it - crabs, hermit crabs, painted greenlings etc. Vis in all three spots was about 35-40' although it was a bit green and chunky near the surface. The wind chop was a pain but it didn't affect the diving too much. Water temperature was about 52F. Current Reports Aged Reports Older Reports More Older Reports Even More Older Reports Yet More Older Reports |