Clinton's Dive Log (Continued...)

12/29/00 and 12/30/00
Today's conditions report is courtesy of Sami Laine:

Executive Summary:

Night dive at Metridium Fields had no surf, fair vis and good critters (squid, octopi).

Three dives today on Cypress Point in Carmel and south, good to fair vis, low swell, midday winds picked up confused wind waves, sunny.

Details:

Friday, night dive: Metridium Fields. No other divers at Breakwater at 6:30 pm on a calm, flat, starry night! Entered near pumphouse, swam through mostly broken kelp, and followed pipe out to metridiums. We were trying to find bat rays, but had to settle for other night critters, including squid that was eating shrimp (yeah! I hope Clinton's video comes out) (It did - DCB), octopi, and a very small juvenile ray'ish fish, could have been a thornback. Kati was buzzed by a cormorant at 45'! Vis 15' or so, temp about 50. Nice dive.

Saturday, 1st dive: Outer Pinnacles. Usual rockfish, hydrocoral, and a guest appearance by a young sea lion. Flat, pretty and good vis, about 40' horizontal allowed diver IDs, and I could easily read the text on the side of the boat from 45'. Temp about 50.

2nd dive: Pinnacle of Tremendous Proportions. More swell coming in, creating fairly good 6' surge at 80'. The small Sea Palm kelp covering the rocks here looks great in surge (hmm, sort of reminds me of the government footage of forest being bent back and forth in a nuclear blast... I should watch less Discovery Channel). Vis was hazier here down the coast, perhaps 25'-35'. Temp about 50, still.

3rd dive: Pescadero Washrock a.k.a. Fire Rock. Suspended fine-sand- looking stuff brought vis to a gritty 20'. We were looking for wolf-eels, didn't see them. Has anybody seen the guys who were there a few months ago around 70' depth on the S side tumbling wall? Well, I did see a bat ray on the sand at 90', but too far for pictures!

Good, but not fantastic diving today. Standard issue grey whale sighting on the surface on our way back.

Sami

12/16/00
I was on the Cypress Point today for 3 tanks of high-intensity diving. There was a large (10 feet or more) long period swell from the NW which really stirred things up. Conditions topside weren't bad otherwise as we had an offshore wind, sunny skies and only small wind waves. Underwater, however, it was brutal.

Our first dive was at Pescadero Pinnacles. Vis on the surface was limited a bit by a plankton bloom and was about 20 feet or so. Below 80 feet it opened up to around 35 feet. This was just as well as the surge was very strong and the vis was needed to avoid the onrushing rocks. Even at 130 feet it was still quite rough.

Our second dive was at a spot called West Pinnacles. This is near the normal East Pinnacles spot but was just out of range of the wash rock which was breaking impressively today. Vis here was around 25 feet and again the surge was amazing. As would be expected the pinnacle was covered in Hydrocoral and Corynactis and was very pretty.

Our final dive of the day was at Pescadero Wall. Things were really stirred up here and vis was no better than 10 feet. At one point I thought the surge was going to rip the mask from my face and this was at a depth of 95 feet! Egad, it's the end of the third dive and I still haven't even turned the camera on yet! Fortunately I'm saved by a couple of Sea Lions who made a short appearance during the half time of the Mola Mola bowl. I didn't get to see the game myself but Phil says the pelagic grizzlies were playing frisbee with a Mola in the general area that I was diving in.

Hopefully next weekend will be better.

12/09/00
I was on the Cypress Sea today for a last-minute Captain's Charter. Conditions looked great with flat seas, mostly sunny skies and very little wind. Naturally we headed south.

Our second dive was at PTP (Pinnacle of Tremendous Proportions). Conditions here were very similar those at Soberanes. The highlight for me was finding a Geitodoris heathi nudibranch.

The third dive was a new spot just south of Cypress Point. It featured a series of pinnacles running east to west with each one just slightly deeper than the last. With the good visibility it was really easy to explore as you could always see back to the pinnacle you were leaving. Highlights included a large Sheepshead, multiple large schools of rockfish and some amazing patches of Hyrocoral. We decided to call it Gotham as the neatly arranged pinnacles with sand channels in between resembled a city grid layout.

Overall this was a terrific day on the ocean and conditions look to hold steady for a bit. If you have a chance I suggest going diving.

12/02/00
I was on the Cypress Point today for an advanced trip. Ed Cooper was driving the boat as it seems Phil is in Hawaii this week. Weather topside was fantastic with very little wind, some high clouds and lots of sun. There was a largish (10 feet) swell from the WNW and very little windchop.

Our first dive was at the G-Spot. I'd previously called this spot Ginsu but it turns out that it already had a name according to Ed. Vis at the surface was fantastic but there was a _lot_ of surge which stirred things up on the bottom. The rock itself is very pretty with lots of encrusting life and some nice kelp on the top. The highlight of the dive for me was finding a large male Wolf Eel. I tried to shoot some video but it was impossible given the surge. At one point I was thrown almost 15 up along the ridge and probably 5 feet down the other side. Yikes!. The water was warm at about 55F. Vis was near 50 feet at the surface and less than 15 at the bottom. Surge was insane.

The second dive was at Rick's Porch by Rocky Point. I've been fighting a cold so I decided to sit it out. When the first divers came back, though, there were reports of a Shark sleeping under a ledge and I decided that I wanted some footage of it so I jumped in for a quick dive. The shark turned out to be a Swell Shark and unfortunately had it's head stuck in a crevice so that I couldn't get any good images. I circumnavigated the small pinnacle we were anchored on while ascending and managed to see another Wolf Eel and a large Sheepshead.

By now my sinuses were really complaining so I packed up my gear and called it a day. Ed took the boat to the Outer Pinnacles for the third dive. Reports were similar to the other two spots - clear on the surface, surgy and silted out on the bottom.

11/18/00
I was on the Cypress Sea today for 2 dives. Topside weather was chilly but clear and sunny with calm winds. Swells were about 5-6 feet from the NW with a very long period. Our first dive was at Outer Pinnacles. Conditions were pretty nice despite a fairly strong surge down well below 100 feet. Vis was around 30 feet and the water was a nice blue color. Highlights included several large Cabezon, some nice schools of Blue Rockfish and some really nice lighting effects from the sun filtering down through the kelp.

On our way south for the second dive we encountered a small pod of Orcas just north of Point Lobos. They were moving up and down the canyon and we were able to observe them up close as they passed by the boat on several occasions.

The second dive was at McDonalds. Sami, Kati and I followed Dave's directions as we swam out to the edge of a particular spot of kelp and dropped down right onto one of the two arches. Well done Dave! The other arch, which I had never seen before was just on the other side of a sand channel. Both are very pretty and covered in colorful encrusting life. The surge by now was really picking up which turned the second half of the dive into a roller coaster ride but it was still fun. Overall a nice day on the water.

11/11/00
I was on the Cypress Point today for the usual 3 tank gig. Weather conditions were nice with very little wind, sunny skies and maybe a 6-7 foot swell from the WNW. Better yet we had a light load.

Our first dive was at the East Pinnacles in Carmel. Vis was around 25 feet and surge was quite strong. I spent most of the dive looking for sculpins to video. An attempt to organize some of my Monterey footage into something watchable revealed a lack of sculpin footage. For the most part I succeded though the scuplins were less cooperative than usual.

The second dive was along Pescadero Point Wall. By now the swell was starting to come down a bit and the surge was somewhat reduced. I saw a largish Sheepshead and enjoyed a really nice hang in the kelp forst replete with god beams and lots of rockfish.

The third dive was at Fire Rock. Another thing my library was lacking, believe it or not, was footage of the various common Sea Lemon nudibranchs. Finding nudibrnachs is no problem at this site and thus I got the video I wanted. Surge at this point was nearly nil. Overall a nice day on the ocean.

11/4/00
Sorry for the late post. I was on the Cypress Point on Saturday for an advanced trip, and boy oh boy did we have advanced divers. I counted 3 rebreathers including one cobbled together from spare parts, 4 sets of doubles and more stage/pony bottles than you could shake a stick at. Weather conditions were nice. We had about a 4-5 foot swell, sunny skies and absolutely no wind.

Our first dive was at Flintstone Rocks. Wahoo! I love this spot. The top of the pinnacle is as densly covered with life as your ever going to see and today the east side of the rock was home to a huge school of mixed rockfish and surfperch. Vis was in the 50-60 foot range which made for spectacular scenery. Surge was moderate and the water about 50F.

Our second dive was at a new spot outside of Malpaso Creek. As it had no known name we decided to name it Malcontent. It proved to be a very nice pinnacle. One highlight was a large Cabezon sitting on an egg mass in a patch of Hydrocoral. On my way back to the boat I saw a 4 foot Leopard Shark swim by. My camera wasn't on, naturally so it took me a bit to get organized. By that time it was too late but I followed the shark anyway hoping it would turn around for a portrait. As I was swimming I passed a Wolf Eel. This was almost certainly the first time I'd ever swum right by a Wolf Eel without so much as a second glance. Sadly the shark didn't cooperate and I didn't get any pictures.

Our third dive was at Que Paso. This is always a nice dive, although on this day the fog was starting to roll in which reduced the photo ops in the lush kelp on the top of the rock. Highlights included a very large Lingcod and some nice Metridium fields on the inside wall.

11/3/00
Today's report is courtesy of Dave Chamberlin:

As we descended we first went through a very dense layer of small jellies, then I thought I saw the top of the pinnacle, but it seemed too shallow to be seeing it. Then I realized it was a *massive* school of rockfish. Once we finally hit the pinnacle it was cleat that the visibility was good. It was at least 60' with very little particulate matter.

Clinton was having fun with his new video camera with HID lights. He looked like a moving runway with all that light. :-) While he had his head in a crevice trying to video a small mexichromis poterae (sp? - too lazy to look it up), we saw a couple really nice starry rockfish and rosy rockfish which he was later kicking himself for not getting video of. There was a bunch of small gorgonians, a couple with simnia's, but none that were really large. We also saw a single large vase sponge. Finally, right before the ascent we saw a nudi that neither Clinton nor I had seen before and we can't find anything like it in the book. It was very white and somewhat translucent with no other obvious markings. We're both kicking ourselves for not getting a better look at it to help ID it. Water temp was a cool 50F, which started to get cold at the end of our 73 minute runtime.

Topside conditions were beautiful. The sun was out, a gentle warm breeze was coming off land. Gorgeous. Forecast is for more of the same but possibly even better. If you can make it out, you should!

-Dave

10/29/00
Anybody up for a "Big Wave" competition over at Mavericks? The forecast was for 20 foot swells from the NW and that's what we got. I was on the Cypress Point today for a quick boat ride. We actually made it as far as Carmel as the big swells weren't too uncomfortable and there wasn't any wind chop. Clearly, though, the diving wasn't going to be much fun with this kind of wave action so we decided against diving. On the way back we got a report from the Cypress Sea that diving in the bay wasn't too awful but by that time Phil had already started talking about Pumpkin French Toast so we called it a day and met Phil's wife Kim, his daugher Rachel and a few other folks for breakfast.

10/22/00
I was diving on the Beach Hopper II today. The weather forecast wasn't the best and I half expected the trip to be canceled. A gale warning had been issued for Saturday and while Sunday was supposed to be better it still looked ugly. Fortunately things improved enough that we were able to go diving.

Our first dive was at Ballbuster which is a pinnacle in Monterey Bay on the very outside edge of Chase Reef. I'd never done this spot before and it proved to be a very nice dive. The site gets its name for the number of salmon fishing downrigger weights it has collected. The pinnacle is out in a sandy flat bottom area and apparently takes fishermen by surprise. It comes up from 110 feet to about 70 feet and is maybe half the size of Eric's Pinnacle. The rock is covered with Corynactis, Metridiums and very big Staghorn Bryozoans. I even saw a Gorgonian! Other niceities included lots of Chestnut Cowries, a large Vermilion Rockfish and a Treefish. Vis was less than 10 feet in the first 40 feet or so but opened up to a very nice 30 feet at depth. Surge was strong but not enough to spoil the dive.

Our second dive was less successful. Several of our divers weren't comfortable with the deep, dark and scary first dive so we moved into shallower, more protected waters for the second. Ed parked the boat near "Sammet's Spike" or outer McAbee. The diving was eaiser here which was good as it enabled the balance of our divers to get with. OTOH vis here was less than 15 feet and while it was calmer there wasn't too much to see. I did get a brief glimpse of a Mola Mola at my safety stop but that was about it.

Considering the forecast of 6 foot wind chop, 10 foot swells and 30 knot winds we had a nice day. Just one more reason why it's better to go diving than stress out about the forecast.

10/11/00
I'm back from my trip to BC! Suffice to say the diving was excellent. I've posted a photo gallery and a couple of movies for your viewing pleasure. Expect a full report on the trip and the new Nautilus Explorer liveaboard soon.

9/23/00
I was on the Cypress Sea today for Captain Dave's Charter. Unlike the day before the sun was out and it promised to be a great day of diving. There was a long slow ground swell from the NW but very little wind and seas were glassy. On the way south we saw several Dall's Porpoise and a small pod of Blue Whales in the South End of Carmel Bay. So far so good!

Our first dive was at Flintstone Rocks outside of Yankee Point. Vis was a bit disappointing at "only" around 30 feet but as usual this was a spectacular dive. Encrusting life here is about as dense and anywhere on earth and very pretty. There are also huge schools of blue rockfish and lots of other fish to boot. I also saw a large Wolf Eel. Surge was fairly strong but the water was warm - 57F by my watch.

A report from Xcott on the Cypress Point indicated that vis was a bit better further south so that's where we headed for the second dive. We dropped the hook at Diablo Pinnacles. Vis here was indeed better - maybe 40-45 feet. The bottom topography isn't as spectacular as Flintstone Rocks, nor as colorful but the Kelp Forest here is truely magnificent. I also found several very nice gorgonians in some sand channels at around 100 feet. One of the had a large Tritonia festiva nudibranch grazing on it. Another highlight was a big Vermilion Rockfish.

For our third dive we went exploring. We noticed a spike on the charts about halfway between Rocky and Hurricane Points. It came up sharply from about 120 feet to maybe 40 feet with several sister rocks nearby. None of us had ever dove it before and we're not sure if it has a name. Since the pinnacle was actually more of a ridge and resembled a big knife blade under water I proposed calling it Ginsu. Anyway it was a very nice dive with spectacular vertical relief, lots of Corynactis, several Metridiums and a nice bit of kelp on the top. I also saw a Mosshead Warbonnet. Vis was around 40 feet and surge strong.

On the way home we saw the Blue Whales again but they were quite aways off and we were already late so we didn't go out to take a look. Overall, though, a very nice day of diving and there were smiles all around.

9/22/00
Friday's report is courtesy of Dave Chamberlin:

I was hoping to get this out earlier today, but I got sidetracked and then the DIR presentation by JJ delayed me even further. Quick comment on that - great presentation by JJ. Very informative, and he was very patient with all of the questions.

Back to the diving. Executive summary: other than a constant drizzle, the topside conditions weren't too bad. Not much of a swell, some windwaves but they layed down as the afternoon went on. Surface temps were a toasty 58F, temp at depth ~53F. Vis was about 20' at the surface, opening to at least 50' or more at depth (~180FSW).

Details: The inflatable navy was out in full force today. The line into Lobos was rather amusing. Phil was out with 2 students in his boat, Dave Horne, Clinton B and I were in Dave's boat, and Les Wilkinson's friend JP brought his boat and graciously played support diver. Phew!

The hardest part of the day was trying to get dressed in the Lobos parking lot in the rain, while not getting the undergarments and inside of the dry suit wet. In Clinton's case, that didn't matter because a leak in his wrist ended up keeping him rather wet anyway.

We anchored by Phil who was on a nice pinnacle a little ways SSW of the Pinnacles. Top of the pinnacle was about 120FSW and bottom was just over 190FSW. Clinton managed to find another Doriopsilla spaldingi nudi. We also found several very large vase sponges and a crinoid. I was swimming and laying line a bit fast, I probably swam right over a whole bunch of other cool critters, but I was having fun exploring. Oh well, I'm sure we'll be back to this pinnacle soon. Oh and we were getting buzzed by sea lions at 180FSW - that's definitely the deepest I've ever seen them. I'm sure they go much deeper, but I've just never seen them down that far. Pretty wild. They continued to keep us company during our deco stops. So thoughtful of them. I'm sure it helped Clinton keep his mind distracted from his continual beratement of his wrist seal.

Ignore the not-so-sunny-and-just-a-bit-damp surface conditions - the diving is beautiful.

9/16/00
The nudibranch Dave, Phil and I saw yesterday was Doriopsilla spaldingi, a relatively recently discovered deep water critter.

Dave - note the color of the margin stripe in the photo. You were right after all, it was flourescent blue! :-)

9/15/00
I was doing a Trimix dive today with Phil Sammet and Dave Chamberlin out of Point Lobos. I arrived early so I stopped at Monestary on the way down to look at conditions and do some tidepooling. Monestary looked like a pond with very clean water. There was a touch of wind which promised chop later in the day but otherwise it looked great and the sun was out to boot. While poking around in the tidepools at South Monestary I managed to find a small Monkeyface Eel which made for a good start to the day before I even got wet.

Out on the pond there was quite a bit of chop from the NW and some wind but almost no swell. We saw a big group of Pacific Whitesided Dolphins just outside of Whaler's Cove on our way out to the Pinnacles which is where we were going to dive. Dave was driving and found a nice spike south of Outer Pinnacles that is about 150 feet on top dropping to 220 on the edges. Vis was good on the surface,I'd say least 40 feet, and downright awesome down on the pinnacle. I'll be conservative and call it 80 feet but we could see the bottom from 100 feet and it was at over 200... This spot was absolutely crawling with Crinoids. Phil stopped counting after about 20 which is about 18 more than we've ever seen on one dive before so we've decided to call the spot "Valley of the Crinoids". Surge was a non factor on this dive and the water was around 57F at the surface and maybe 53F at depth.

I also saw an interesting nudibranch that I can't identify. It looked similar to many of the normal "sea lemons" we get around here but lacked any spots on it's back and it had a white edge around the dorsum. If anybody has a clue what it might be please let me know. I didn't find anything quite matching it in the Behrens book.

9/9/00
I was on the Cypress Sea today for 3 dives. The 2 tank trip was handled by the Point as the charterer (the US Government) needed the bigger boat. In a scene right out of the movies the Point's passengers all arrived at the dock at exactly the same moment in unmarked non-descript US made full sized sedans. All were young guys with identical crew cuts and identical gear bags. Memo to the FBI: If this was an undercover operation you've got some work to do!

Quoth Phil Sammet "I'd advise against throwing bagels at our boat today..."

Anyway the sun was out, it wasn't particularly windy and the waves were less threatening than the forecast had predicted. In fact outside of some residual chop left over from the previous couple of days the conditions looked downright nice. We had a mixed group so Dave decided to give the East Pinnacles a try for the first dive rather than head south. No argument here. Vis was superb at around 40 feet and the hydrocorals were beautiful as always.

Our newbie divers seemed to handle the pinnacles just fine so we decided to go ahead and move south. We checked out Yankee Doodle and McDonalds but the chop was just enough to make the anchorage iffy so we tucked in at Grey Zone instead. Vis here was also about 40 feet and I made my day by finding a nudibranch I'd never seen before: Cuthona flavovulta (Say that 10 times fast...). The slug was about 8mm long and living, like may of my recent finds, on a stalk of Nereocystis (bull kelp) amongst some Plumularia hydroids. I finished up the dive floating on my back at 40 feet looking up at the God Beams coming down through the kelp and also a large school of Blue Rockfish.

We headed back north for our third dive and settled on Butterfly House. Vis here was even better, approaching 50 feet. I spent the first part of the dive admiring the Hydrocorals and Corynactis Anemones on the walls on each side of the big cut that this site features. Looking back into a crack I thought I saw an Irish Lord, though I wasn't certain. After working my way to the top of the rocks I again spent the rest of the dive admiring the Rockfish and the greater glory of the Kelp Forest.

With nothing in the weather forecast indicating a forthcoming change in the weather I'd say Sunday is looking like a good day to go diving.

9/4/00
Hey the water's warm (57F), the skies sunny and the vis dramatically improved! Beto, Dave C. and I spent the afternoon at Point Lobos today taking advantage of it. The plan was to explore the outer edge of Whaler's cove and explore we did. Starting from just past the parking lot we swam out into deep (125 feet) water and back, which made for a very long and very enjoyable dive. Total runtime was just over 2 hours, counting deco. The deco was probably overkill given that my computer didn't know that I was breathing 50% nitrox for the stops but I didn't feel like "bending" my computer. Besides, when you have a harbor seal to keep you company, why get out of the water? :-) Vis was about 10 feet inside the cove opening up to at least 50 out in deep water. Seas were calm and surge a non-factor.

My camera is in the shop getting it's one year maintenance. As with thursday's dive this guaranteed that there was lots of stuff to see - and in particular things I didn't have video of. Highlights, and there were many, included the following:

A Melibe leonina nudibranch swimming in the kelp canopy at the start of the dive.
A huge (5" or more!) Tritonia festiva nudibranch.
A Chromodoris macfarlandi nudibranch.
A small Wolf Eel.
Lots of Gorgonians and Rosy Rockfish (A good hint that you found deep water!)
Numerous large Lingcod.
A Mosshead Warbonnet.
Dozens of Kelpfish.
A big school of Blue Rockfish sillouetted by the sun beaming through the kelp.
A Coralline Sculpin devouring a Snubnose Sculpin nearly as large as itself.
And of course a very friendly Harbor Seal which tugged on my fins and kept me company during my deco stops.

All in all a very memorable dive. Probably the part I liked best was the gradual descent which allowed us to really see the transitions between the various marine environments as we got deeper. It's amazing what a 20 foot difference in depth does to the distribution of marine life. If you know the marine life you could almost do the dive without a depth gauge. Thick kelp and algae with Grass Rockfish and lots of perch means you're shallower than 40 feet. When you start seeing more Lingcod, Copper Rockfish and lots of Sponges and Tunicates you're between 50 and 70. Vermilion Rockfish start to show up around 70 feet along with Hydrocorals and more anemones. When you start seeing Metridiums, Rosy Rockfish and Gorgonians you're probably deeper than 100 feet.

8/31/00
Dave Chamberlin, Phil Sammet and I did a Trimix dive today outside of the pinnacles in Carmel. Surface conditions were great with no wind, glassy seas and a slight SW swell. Skys were partly cloudy. The water, however, hasn't changed much since last weekend. It's still very green and vis is really limited. I'd estimate it to be 5-8 feet on the surface and maybe 10-15 at depth which in this case was 195 feet. At least the water was warm - about 54F.

Despite being really, really, really dark we did manage to see some interesting stuff. Naturally I didn't have my camera with me as it needs a 1 year service and the dive was right to the edge of it's rated depth. Besides, doubles, 2 stage bottles and an inflation gas bottle was enough gear for 1 dive! :-) Notables included what I think was a Crescent Gunnel (though it could have been a Longfin Gunnel), several Starry Rockfish, a Threadfin Sculpin, a school of Flag Rockfish and a very pretty Crinoid.

8/26/00
Evidence suggests that a large tanker with a cargo of split pea soup has foundered somewhere off of Carmel and turned the water all green and soupy. I was on Capt Phil's wacky way south charter on the Point today along with an all star team of ba_divers. Topside conditions were nice with only a slight swell from the NW, relatively little wind and partly cloudy skies. The water, however was a very ugly greyish green from wharf 2 all the way to Partington Canyon which is where we did our first dive. (!!!) For the geography challenged this is quite a ways south of Point Sur.

Dave Chamberlin and I decided to go deep for the first one in hopes of getting underneath the icky stuff. We got deep alright but it didn't help, or at least not much. Vis at the surface was about 5 or 6 feet and it "opened up" to around 15 or maybe 20 feet at 165. Most night dives feature more ambient light than this one. Highlights included a large number of Rosy Rockfish, lots of Ronquils and a Mosshead Warbonnet that Dave somehow found tucked inside of a Bryozoan. Surge was minimal and the water a balmy 52F.

Our second dive was near Bixby Creek Bridge. I forget the name of the site but it had something to do with the anchors which can be found here. I never saw any anchors but there was a nice wall with Corynactis and some really cool sponges. Vis was the same as further south and surge fairly strong - especially since I was in no mood to go very deep after the first dive.

Our third dive was a Tracy's Tetons. The surge was quite strong in the shallow areas which combined with thick kelp and no vis made for a rather surreal and frustrating dive. Oh well, those parts of it that I could see were really pretty.

Our long ride back up was surprisingly uneventful which was a victory in and of itself.

8/19/00 and 8/20/00
It's Shootout Day! The Monterey Photo Shootout is being held this weekend and this Saturday is the big day of the year for local photo and video geeks like me. As usual I'm on the Cypress Point for 3 tanks of diving. Seems like everyone else is too as the boat is really full, and in what must be a precedent setting occurance we have more cameras than divers. The forecast is for high winds and steep wind chop from the NW. Thankfully, however, this doesn't materialize and we have really nice boating conditions with only a slight swell and chop and relatively light winds.

Our first dive is at Outer Pinnacles - home of huge heads of hydrocoral and other interesting photographic subjects. I have a grand plan for how to shoot an amazing 20 seconds of video. This will consist of a sequence of shots featuring life that lives in the kelp. Sometimes, however, a plan gets in the way and on this day the plan starts to unravel in a hurry. Shooting a sequence of unrelated shots in the water is really hard (Shootout rules don't allow editing). I quickly use up my bottom time at the Pinnacles for a result of absolutely nothing. At my safety stop I decide to shoot an interesting Egg Yolk Jelly that has a barnacle growing on it's back. This proves fortuitous, but I digress. Vis was murky at the surface opening up to about 25 feet at depth. Surge was moderate and the water was really, really cold at about 45F. Brrr!

The second dive of the day is at a nice spot down the coast called Waterfall. This spot is a really nice kelp forest dive which is what most of the photo types with wide angle lenses are looking for. I stick to my plan and manage to waste another dive with nothing to show for my efforts. Vis here is about 30 feet with a light to moderate surge.

Our third dive, and what I figured would be my last chance to win a prize, was at Fire Rock. Vis here was about 15-20 feet and the surge fairly strong as the swell seemed to be building. Sami Laine and I spent some time looking for the Wolf Eels before we ran out of time at 80 feet where reports indicated that they had been seen lately. I then spent some time trying to shoot Kelpfish. Why, I don't know as I've never previously managed to shoot good video of them. I can't imagine why I thought I'd be able to do so now for the Photo Shoutout. Heading back to port I was depressed as I felt I didn't have anything worthy of entering in the contest. Boy was I wrong.

Well the Concours de Elegance was in Monterey this weekend making finding lodging pretty much impossible at any price. I drove home for a few hours of sleep and then headed back down for the judging of the contest. I had entered my Jellyfish footage since my grand scheme for a 20 second kelp forest documentary had collapsed in total failure. I didn't expect to win anything, but hey - at least it was a fairly decent shot. Before the judging we were shown a clip of all of the video entrants. I count at least 3 that I like better than mine and several more that might or might not place ahead of me depending on the judges interpretation of the "no editing" rule. I figure if I'm lucky I'll get an honorable mention.

The still photo awards are first. There are lots of good entries. For the second year in a row Sami wins the Advanced Wide Angle category and nets himself a really nice Sea and Sea strobe. Way to go Sami!

As the video awards are being announced I resign myself to not winning after not being announced for honorable mention or third place. To my amazement, however, I win second prize and a new set of Light and Motion HID video lights! Wow, I sure didn't see that coming. Fine by me though! :-) Of course now I have to make a decision. Upgrading the lights on my current housing seems silly. What would I do then with a perfectly good set of Halogen lights made specifically for the SC100 Mako housing? They'd be nearly impossible to sell on their own. Of course I've had my eye on the PC100 Mako housing for a while now. If the lights are free I might actually be able to afford it! Hmmmm, anybody want to buy a used DCR-SC100 with housing and lights? Now I see the marketing genius behind these competitions. I'll spend more than what I won before I'm through! Not that I'm complaining mind you... :-)

8/12/00
I was on the Beachhopper II today for 2 tanks. We had a mixed group and reports indicated Monterey might be as good as Carmel so we stayed inside the bay. The first dive was at Aumentos. Vis was really murky at the surface but it opened up to a solid 35 feet below 25 feet or so. Surge was minimal. Highlights included a nice sized Sheepshead and a friendly school of blue rockfish.

Our second dive was at Eric's Pinnacle. Conditions were similar to Aumentos. I saw three large sheepshead and several nice Cabezon. I also saw a group of 3 Laila cockerelli nudibranchs.

8/11/00
I was diving today at Point Lobos with Rob Thum and David Chamberlin. The first dive, and reason for getting wet, was to practice skills for our Trimix class. We spent about an hour doing reel work, stage bottle swapping, valve shutdowns and other exercises. Mixed in with this we did lots of OOA drills which got fun since we tended to wait til the other divers were really task loaded, tangled in kelp and otherwise busy before coming up and giving them an out of air sign! Good practice for sure. We didn't get very far out of Whalers Cove and vis was about 10 feet of so (which was fine for this purpose).

After our practice dive Dave and I had lots of back gas left for a second dive and Bill Gomez was kind enough to motor us out to the opening of the cove to start the dive. Vis there was about 25-30 feet and got progressively worse as we moved back into shallower water. We saw lots of Ronquils, Kelpfish and some really, really large Copper Rockfish. Surge was minimal and it was nice and sunny.

8/5/00
I'll skip the normal full length conditions report as the information is a bit tardy at this point. The executive summary is that Carmel was flat and very murky with vis in the 5-15 foot range.

I was on the Cypress Point pretty much all day saturday. I was supposed to do 5 dives - 3 on the morning advanced trip and two more on the night dive/BBQ trip in the evening. My sinuses started bothering me on the 3rd dive so I skipped the night dives - though I hung out on the boat anyway and ate BBQ while watching other folks dive. Mmmm!

Anyway on our first dive the Fanshell Beach pinnacles near Cypress Point I saw a very interesting and somewhat rare fish: a Six-Spot Prickleback (Kasatkia seigeli).

I'd seen this fish last year a couple of times (oddly twice on the same day) and struggling with an ID since then. This time I got a better image of it and I was able to ID it with the help of the Petersen ID book which had a common name and genus but no scientific name and fishbase.org which had the full species name (Thanks John for pointing that out!). It's a very pretty fish don't you think? Keep an eye out for it. It seems to live on moderately deep (90-110 foot) more or less flat rocky bottoms.

Also on Sat we did a spot called McDonalds which features a very nice arch in the general area of Yankee Doodle. I'm told there is more than one arch but I only saw the one. Given the vis it's possible I swam right through several swim-throughs without noticing them. I almost did this with the one I did see. I also saw an octopus near the arch which is always a plus.

Finally while coming back up on this dive I spent about 20 minutes looking at a couple of blades of kelp. There was some discussion earlier about byrozoans and hydroids living on kelp. Being a nudibranch nerd I've gotten now so that when I see this I'm very careful to give the plant a thorough look-see. There are often interesting nudibranchs feeding on the byrozoans and hydroids. I saw quite a few Dendronotus frondosus nudibranchs, possibly a Dendronotus subramosus and a very small (2-3mm) Aeolid which I couldn't ID. The latter two were too small to video properly with the lens I had so I'll probably never know for sure what they were. This is also how I found Cuthona lagunae a few weeks ago. Anyway - if you like nudibranchs pay attention to those scruffy looking kelp fronds.

7/29/00
There is no report this week. My drysuit is in the shop. Word is that diving in Carmel is good but that it's pretty murky in Monterey.

7/22/00
So I debated for a bit about posting this as I selfishly went boat diving today instead of helping out with the harbor cleanup. I eventually decided to post anyway as I think y'all need to know about the conditions today in order to make a good decision about what to do with your sunday. Hint: Go diving!

I was on the Point today along with only 5 other people. The forecast was for 4-6 foot swells from the NW with 2-6 foot wind chop and up to 30 knot winds. The wind and chop never materialized making for fairly nice boating conditions. Despite a tempermental drysuit (sticky inflator button and a pinhole leak in a wrist seal...) I had one of my best days ever on the water.

Our first dive was at Arc de Triumphe. Vis here was literally the best I've ever seen in Central California - easily 100 feet. At one point a Sea Lion buzzed me at a depth of 80 feet. I had no difficulty watching her as she jetted back up to the surface and then watching her there even though she took at least a 45 degree angle away from me back up to the top. The number of jellies in the water is a bit reduced from the last few weeks but there are still quite a few big Fried Egg Jellies and now a few Sea Nettles as well. Another interesting tidbit from this dive was the Showy Snailfish I saw near the arch. I noticed a Kelp stalk which had been broken a couple of feet up from the holdfast. I happened to look into the end of it into the hollow center and noticed the Snailfish. Another new species for me and a rather pretty one at that! Surge was light and there was almost no current. The water was about 49F.

The second dive was at Honeymoon Rocks. Conditions here were similar to Arc de Triumphe - again with 100 foot of so vis. Highlights included a very friendly and very large Vermilion Rockfish and several large schools of Mixed Blue and Yellowtail rockfish. It's kind of weird to be able to see 3 or more independent schools of rockfish at one time!

Our third dive was at Fire Rock. The vis here wasn't quite as good as further south but there wasn't much complaining as it still had to be over 70 feet. At one point I was buzzed by a Harbor Seal. Like the Sea Lion at the arch I had no difficulty seeing him after he swam back to the surface. This time I was at a depth of about 70 feet but the seal was directly above me. At some point during the dive the sun came out which made for a truly magical kelp forest experience.

Wow.

7/14/00
I was on the Cypress Point this evening for a squid dive. The squid have been spawning recently in Monterey and we hoped to catch them in the act. There was a bit of a short period swell from the NW and calm winds.

This is the third time I've done one of these trips. So far only one of them has produced actual squid activity. This wasn't the one. Phil jumped in at 3 different locations in Monterey to look for the cephalopods but didn't find any. We decided on plan B instead and parked the boat at Hopkins Deep Reef for a more conventional night dive. This turned out to be a good thing. Vis was about 15 feet or so but at 80 feet the surge was minimal and there was lots to look at. The bottom was covered in Squid Eggs though we only saw one squid. The big squid light we were using did attract a school of juvenile Blue Rockfish and made navigation easy. I saw a nudibranch I'd never seen before - Aeolidia papillosa which was nice. There were also lots of Octopus and several of the largest Clown Nudibranchs I've ever seen. We stayed at Hopkins Deep for the second dive hoping the squid would find the light. No joy but it was still a nice dive and featured pretty much the same sights as the first.

7/12/00
I was deep diving today with Phil Sammet, Dave Chamberlin and the rest of the Inflatable Navy. We motored out to Outer, Outer, Outer, Pinnacles or thereabouts. There was a long, fairly big swell from the NW and the water was an ugly, murky color of green. There are LOTs of fried egg jellies in the water at the moment. Below 60 feet or so the vis opened up a bit but it was for all practical purposes a night dive. The highlight for me was finding a nudibranch at around 180 feet which I think might be Dendrodoris sp. 2 in Behren's book which was previously known only from 1 specimen found in deep water off of Malibu. I'll post a photo and try to get confirmation of what it is.

7/8/00
Boy did things come together on this day! I was on the Cypress Point for 3 tanks of way south diving. We had a light load consisting of ba_diving all-stars and some unbelievably good weather as well. Kudos to Captain Phil for taking the boat south even with a small group of divers. The swells were less than 4 feet from the NW and there was hardly any wind.

The first dive was at Arc de Triumphe near Yankee Point. The current was raging but the vis was at least 50 feet. This is a really nice arch connecting two sides of a narrow canyon. The arch is about 20 feet high and maybe 10-15 feet wide. There's a nice cave on the west side of the arch as well. In addition to the arch I also saw a nudibranch I'd never seen before - Cuthona lagunae - which is always a good thing.

Our second dive was at Ventura Rocks which is just about as far south as a dive boat from Monterey will ever go. Atta boy Phil! This was an amazing dive. The Sea Lions were out in force and playful. I got quite a bit of good video of a "raft" of Sea Lions at the surface from underneath. I also saw a Rock Greenling which is yet another new species for me. Finally I had the pleasure of seeing a Lingcod so big that my first reaction was "Damn that's an ugly Sea Lion"! Vis was about 25-30 feet and the surge was quite strong in the shallows where the Pelagic Grizzlies were.

The third dive was at Malpaso Creek. This was a really, really nice kelp forest dive. Vis was about 40 feet and the surge minimal. I spent much of the dive hovering in the kelp admiring the schools of Rockfish and Senorita Fish.

7/3/00
I'm still working on the Bonaire Page. Bear with me...

7/2/00
I was back on the Cypress Sea today. I'll let Sami Laine describe the day's activites:

Executive Summary:

Marine layer blocking sun, fairly flat close in, good vis, great diving.

Full Report:

Two dives off Cypress Sea, with Commodore Cooper impersonating a captain. Due to a mixed crowd (some new divers, some old divers and some crazy divers like Clinton and me) and reports of some wind & swell in Carmel by Capt Phil, we stayed in the Bay. Monterey side had some wind, but flat and nice inside of Lovers.

1st dive: Hopkins Deep. Good vis at depth, though yesterday it was even better according to Clinton. I peg it at 35'-45', even better in the first 15 minutes before the silt stirrers came down the anchor line.

Don't people learn neutral buoyancy in classes anymore? Oh, I remember, that's what the separate Peak Performance Buyoancy classes are for ;-) http://www.padi.com/courses/rec/ppb.stm. Never mind ;-P

We escaped The Orb of Silt to deeper water, where from 75' to 85' the bottom was covered in squid egg sacks, with a 20 inch Sunflower Star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) in the middle, assumably munchin away. Also witnessed a free-swimming Rainbow nudibranch (Dendronotus iris) motivating along.

Nitrox country, 85' for 47 min. Looking up we could see the shape of the boat from 80'! Temp 47 degrees, with a much warmer feeling layer on top with small hard-to-ID jellies.

2nd dive: Aquarium Reef. We swam outbound first, and dove to the water intakes of the Aquarium. From distance the hatted top looked like a gas mine from Cloud City in Episode V, very cool. Clinton found an octopus that was hanging out in plain sight under one of the intake pipes, seemingly undisturbed by his video lights and my strobes.

We cruised deeper on the sand flats out to 55'-60' looking for rays or thornbacks, but they didn't want to be found today.

Back inside the kelp we played hide'n'seek with a young harbor seal for maybe 30 minutes. He would come check us out, nibbled on our fins, gnawed on my strobes, basically hung out with us. Every once in a while he'd run behind a rock, peek back, and then tried to get back to our fins without us noticing by following the sand channels. I was shooting, Clinton was shooting, he was a happy puppy modeling for us.

Out of film, out of air we were back on the boat after 1h 10 min; Pinnipeds Kick Ass!

Vis 20'-30' varying depending on area, temp 48 degrees.

Conditions were good, dives were great!

Sami

7/1/00
I was diving today on the Cypress Sea. Captain Dave is on vacation so Ed Cooper was driving the boat today. We've got a mixed group and the forecast is for 20-25 knot NW winds and a 6-8 foot NW swell. Conditions in the bay looked nice so we dropped the hook at Hopkins Deep Reef for the first dive. The first 20 feet of so from the surface are murky but the Metridiums come into view shortly thereafter. I estimate the vis at depth to be around 50 feet which is amazing for this spot. The Metridiums were all out feeding and the sandy areas were covered in Squid Eggs. Near the end of the dive I encountered an amazingly large school of juvenile Blue Rockfish. Surge was non-existant. Overall a very nice dive.

During the surface interval we spent some time looking for a Basking Shark that another boater reported seeing off of Lover's Point. We don't find it but it does get my adrenaline going. The second dive was at Aquarium Reef. Somehow I jumped into the water with a nearly dead camera battery but I still manage to get footage of a pair of Snubnose Sculpins fighting each other. I also saw lots of Dendronotis iris nudibranchs happily munching away on Tube Anemones.