Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

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Two dives in the rain on Wednesday — the first at Stillwater in Carmel, with about three meters of visibility at the most; and a second, at San Carlos Beach in Monterey, very much the same — but with overly curious and entertaining sea lions, one of whom took a peculiar liking to my fin, while another barked at my face and rocketed by — a ballistic sausage.

I always recall the advice of my first instructor, when he said of seals and sea lions, “Let them play with you — don’t play with them.”

He had all of his fingers . . .
 
Two dives -- one at North Monastery and a second at San Carlos with the sea lions and an outcast harbor seal that shadowed me for a while.

Tested out a new light, just for kicks -- the damn thing could have flash fried the small octopus, that had been hiding among the urchins and brittle stars.

Oddly enough, Carmel was a bit poorer in terms of visibility than Monterey this time around, with around 3-4 meters tops, out by the rock; while, at Breakwater, it was frequently 5-6, along the wall; a bit murkier, out on the "reef."

Not stellar by any measure, but some of the best visibility in weeks; preferable to the recent Braille . . .
 
Visibility at Point Lobos on Saturday May 13 was about 10 - 15 ft near the mouth of Whaler's Cove, dwindling down to 3 ft by the entry/exit ramp. Much better than the past couple months! Really excited to not keep doing navigation dives.

There was a good amount of kelp in the cove - great for the ecosystem, bad for those who have lost practice with kelp crawling. The area is a seal nursery and one curious juvenile seal followed us underwater for a couple minutes and tugged on the fins of one of the divers.

Lowest depth on two dives was 60 ft, with lowest recorded temperature at 49 degrees F.
 
Visibility at Point Lobos on Saturday May 13 was about 10 - 15 ft near the mouth of Whaler's Cove, dwindling down to 3 ft by the entry/exit ramp. Much better than the past couple months! Really excited to not keep doing navigation dives.

There was a good amount of kelp in the cove - great for the ecosystem, bad for those who have lost practice with kelp crawling. The area is a seal nursery and one curious juvenile seal followed us underwater for a couple minutes and tugged on the fins of one of the divers.

Lowest depth on two dives was 60 ft, with lowest recorded temperature at 49 degrees F.


A good buddy of mine was reporting 50’+ out at Beto’s , the pictures looked like a tropical dive site
 
When Lobos is on its amazing. This is from this Saturday

Edit: not my picture.

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Monterey and Carmel -- two dives, with some of the best visibility that I had seen in months.

At North Monastery, there was easily 9-10 meters; flat-arse calm; and I could clearly see a harbor seal, at that depth, from the surface; though, closer to shore, conditions were a bit more mixed and cloudy.

San Carlos Beach offered a good 6-7 meters and scores of adolescent sea lions on a gangster tear. I was not left alone for long.

Sadly, there was also a dead one -- sizable -- still on the bottom, at about six meters. No sign of any nasty bites that I could see; but I did not attempt to roll it over. It should be fragrant, when it eventually balloons and hits the beach.

There were lots of juvenile rockfish to be had; a small chain of salps; some "devil's purses' -- and no shortage of urchins.

In the upper parking lot, on my way out, a woman, driving a mondo SUV with the familiar "coexist" bumper sticker, the mawkish sentiment written out in various religious symbols, was having a colossal fit at some pedestrian and her kid -- plenty of profanity all around. She was the fifth person in as many months that I had seen, with that very same sticker, absolutely losing their sh*t!

That was wonderfully satisfying; the dives were also worth mentioning . . .
 
Any recent reports? Was planning on going tomorrow.


Was out at the Mile Marker buoy yesterday. Top 50' was maybe 5' viz, below that maybe 10-15' all the way to the bottom. I'll be with an OW class tomorrow at breakwater...it could get interesting
 
Any recent reports? Was planning on going tomorrow.
The water has been a bit on the warmer side; and there is a decent algal bloom -- not quite as terrible as Summers past, where it looked like chocolate milk and carried with it a sizable funk.

3-4 meters on the Monterey side at best, as of Wednesday; maybe 5-6 at depth on the Carmel side. There is a small craft advisory through tomorrow night; though the specific coastal waters report doesn't sound too bad . . .
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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