diverrex
Contributor
Last weekend (Aug 18 & 19) Captain Tim and the Great Escape took about 30 divers on a great two-day trip with one dive at Tanner Bank, 3 dives at Cortes Bank and 4 dives the second day at San Clemente Island. All of us on the boat were excited to make the trip to Cortes Bank but many of us agreed afterwards that the dives at Tanner and Clemente were better. Not that the dives at Cortes were bad but the viz deteriorated on each dive as the wind picked, which is also why we only did 4 dives the first day because Captain Tim wanted to leave Cortes before it got any worse. Captain Tim told me Tanner bank was his favorite dive site. I asked him why he didn't dive there more often and he said because of the 85 foot depth it made it hard to do multiple dives (the Great Escape doesn't fill Nitrox).
Other than multiple Bat Ray sightings we really didn't see anything too exciting but there were tons of schooling fish at all three locations and it just seemed like more of everything. At Tanner Bank we saw 3 Scorpion Fish in about a 10 foot circle, and lots of Ronquil fish (sorry no photos) which we don't see at the other islands. The water at Clemente near the boat was spetacular, viz maybe was only 60 feet but the water was very blue and clear, not the greenish/gray stuff we usually see. At one point on the satefy stop I just looked at my buddy with a big smile and spread my arms out wide and he understood exactly what I meant which was "look how far we can see and look at all the life swimming around". Unfortunately I didn't take any video clips or photos where the water was the cleanest, I was just enjoying it for myself too much to bother. It was great trip. I'll definitely go back to all three locations.
Here is a link to a short video. The first four clips with schooling fish were at Cortes, starting with the Bat Ray clip the rest was at Clemente.
Cortes and Clemente video on Vimeo
And here is a link to a few photos.
Tanner, Cortes and Clemente photos on SmugMug
Other than multiple Bat Ray sightings we really didn't see anything too exciting but there were tons of schooling fish at all three locations and it just seemed like more of everything. At Tanner Bank we saw 3 Scorpion Fish in about a 10 foot circle, and lots of Ronquil fish (sorry no photos) which we don't see at the other islands. The water at Clemente near the boat was spetacular, viz maybe was only 60 feet but the water was very blue and clear, not the greenish/gray stuff we usually see. At one point on the satefy stop I just looked at my buddy with a big smile and spread my arms out wide and he understood exactly what I meant which was "look how far we can see and look at all the life swimming around". Unfortunately I didn't take any video clips or photos where the water was the cleanest, I was just enjoying it for myself too much to bother. It was great trip. I'll definitely go back to all three locations.
Here is a link to a short video. The first four clips with schooling fish were at Cortes, starting with the Bat Ray clip the rest was at Clemente.
Cortes and Clemente video on Vimeo
And here is a link to a few photos.
Tanner, Cortes and Clemente photos on SmugMug
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