Sep 04 Dive Reports

[Robert Phillips]

Date: 9/12
Dive Location:Crescent Bay
Time: Approx 8:00 A.M.
Bottom Time:50 min
Max Depth:47'
Vis:25-30 depending on location
Wave height:1-2'
Temp at depth:63 degrees
Surface Temp:74
Tide information: Close to high
Comments: My regular buddy called me at 7:15 to tell me he was at LAX on his way from Santa Monica, so he would not make it before I had to leave, so I decided to go out with Melvin Pasley and Jim McCabe as they were there also.

We planned on heading over to Seal Rock and after buddy checks, dropped down. We ended up losing Jim as he forgot to put his weight pockets in, so he headed back to shore and the 3 of us that remained, continued on. After a short circle we ended up where we started and had to make an ascent and start all over. After getting our bearings corrected we made our way to the bottom and towards the end of the reef. There were lots of fish out today, huge schools of sardines, schools of Fairy Basslets and Senioritas. We hung a right and took a short trip across the shallows and dropped over the edge to the sand flats at Seal Rock where we were greeted by four female Sea Lions who blew bubbles at us and showed off their swimming skills. After a short show we headed SE towards Pinnacles and enjoyed the sights the reef had to offer. All in all, a great dive with outstanding conditions, warm water and good buddies.
If you weren't diving today, you should have been!
Dive safe,
dive often.
Robert

 

[hermosadive]

Date: 9/12
Dive Location: Longpoint/Old Marineland, Palos Verdes
Time: Approx 9:00 A.M.
Bottom Time: 30 min
Max Depth: 41'
Vis: 25-35
Wave height:1'
Temp at depth: 59 degrees
Surface Temp: 70
Tide information: High
Comments: 8 of us met up in the parking lot and paired up into buddy groups. Weather was perfect and small wave action made entry easy from the cove. Short swim off of the rocky point to the East and down we go @ 120 heading to the outside reef. Vis was great, lobsters, octopus, horn sharks & the usual friendly critters provided entertainment. A couple speargunning Brits had success with a nice 24" halibut and told us of the 28lb'er they got on Saturday.

Roland

 

[scubacucamonga]

Date: 9/11/04
Dive Location: Emerald Bay, Catalina
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Bottom Time: 40 min
Max Depth: 39'
Vis: decent
Wave height: 1-2
Temp at depth: 70
Surface Temp: 85
Tide information:
Comments: We were expecting Santa Barbara Is, but seas didn't cooperate. Saw a neat octopus sleeping in the rocks (we let him sleep)

Date: 9/11/04
Dive Location: Emerald Bay, Catalina
Time: 12:30 a.m.
Bottom Time: 31 min
Max Depth: 34'
Vis: decent
Wave height: 1-2
Temp at depth: 70
Surface Temp: 90
Tide information:
Comments: 2nd dive on Nitrox (for Nitrox cert). dove on 34%. Didn't have the 'completely worn out' feeling as on previous dives.

 

[mccabejc]

Date: 9/12
Dive Location:Crescent Bay
Time: Approx 10:53A.M.
Bottom Time: 60:10 min
Max Depth:38'
Vis: 25-30 depending on location
Wave height:1-2'
Temp at depth: 70 degrees
Surface Temp: 73
Tide information: Close to high
Comments: Didn't make the first dive with ScotM, Pasley, and Robertphillips. Don't ask why. I don't want to talk about it. Instead I spent some time with the family snorkeling. Viz was exceptional. I met up with Pasley and ScotM for the second dive. We kicked almost all the way out to Seal Rocks. Dropped down into about 20 ft. depth. Circled around the rocks, saw a seal who was casually checking us out. Also saw a lot of lobsters. The keen eyes of Mr. Pasley picked out a hiding moray eel, who copped an attitude when Pasley shined the light on him. I can read eel lips, and he said something like "Get the @*#! out my house !!" Pasley also picked out an octopus hiding deep under a rock. I still can't figure out how he saw it. Anyway, there were many schools of senioritas and some real little tiny fish. Not sure what they were. Garibaldi all around, getting in my face. Anyway, Pasley again did some exceptional navigation, ending our dive smack dab in the front of the beach. A wonderful, very relaxing dive. I'm posting our profile and also a copy of my SAC chart for my last 10 dives. By the way, congratulations to Pasley for dive number 150 today !!!!

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Sunday, 9/12/04

Dive Location: Deadman’s Reef, Laguna Beach
Time: 8:12 AM
Bottom Time: 60:00
Max Depth: 59’
Vis: 20-30’
Wave height: 1’
Temp at depth: 63°
Surface Temp: 70°
Dive Buddy: Ron Hawkins

Comments:

What a phenomenal dive today. My buddy and I are relatively new to navigating on our own, and twice have missed the mark looking for Deadman’s Reef (we figured out why both times, so at least it was a learning experience). Today we dropped down in line with outside edge of Seal Rock and the cliff’s edge at the shoreline, and headed 210° for a short time. Landed at the NW corner of Deadman’s around 40’ and traveled along the south side to 60’, then over the top to the other side and 30° back home. Did a 3 minute safety stop at 15’, then surfaced just a short distance out and right in front of No. Crescent. Tons of sea life and schools of fish, including blacksmith, sheephead, sargo, treefish, a sizeable lobster, an octo, blackeyed and blue-banded gobys, walleye surfperch, a ray, and truly the biggest bass I’ve ever seen….must have been 3+’ long. Not sure, but I think it was a white sea bass, positive it wasn’t a giant sea bass. Saw two other species that I couldn’t identify – a school of completely solid black fish with no markings, medium in size, and a school of completely white/translucent fish around the same size (any ideas?). Time to buy a real fish ID book! The dive finished with one final reward for each of us: Ron found a mask and snorkel at 45’ in the sand, and a minute later I found a brand new golf ball. Funny thing, it was a “Pinnacle 1”, a great metaphor for the sense of accomplishment we felt today.

 

[Gomer Piles]

Date: 09/11/2004
Dive Location: La Jolla Cove - Rock Pile
Time: 7:45am

...and Wrinkles and Brian showed up a little later (their navigation was off and they ended up over by Boomers and then came back around to the Cove).

I thought I would/should come to Wrinkles defense on this one... We were given the return heading of 180 degrees when we descended... Then we got seperated from the rest of the group, because of a story I'm going to leave up to Wrinkles to tell... She followed that heading dead on and we hit the same exact spot we entered from... From there we just went around the point and into the Cove to meet up with the others on the shore...

I'll leave my sub-par dive report alone till after Wrinkles posts here accountings of the dives...

 

[RonDawg]

Date:9/12/2004
Dive Location: Long Point, Catalina Island (near Camp Fox)
Time: 8:38/10:23
Bottom Time:32/42 min respectively
Max Depth: 48'/38'
Vis:Anywhere from 10' to 50' depending on depth and location
Wave height: Next to none
Temp at depth: 71-73 degrees
Surface Temp: About 70 degrees
Tide information: Low

Comments:Xanthro and I went out on the Island Time, which was largely taken up by O/W students; unfortunately our first choice the CeeRay was long booked up with students also. When I reserved the boat on Tuesday we took up the last two spots.

Because of this our captain took us to an area between Long Point and the cove where Camp Fox is located; the water was nearly as still as a swimming pool, perfect for newbies. Plus the area isn't very deep, again so as not to intimidate the students.

On our first dive we decided to explore the "bowl" area just inside of the point. We were rather disappointed by the lack of marine life, even among the kelp, so I used it as an opportunity to further work on my buoyancy. Xanthro hoped we could go through the "cave" but the tide was too low to allow that.

Our second dive was much better. We decided to go towards Camp Fox. FAR more marine life, including lobsters and crabs hiding in the crevices and much more variety of fish. Large schools of them would hang out around you too, obviously used to the presence of divers.

On the way back to Long Beach a group of dolphins swam past our port side towards Catalina.

 

[divinman]

Here are a couple quickies from yesterday. For those less inclined to read, here are some of the picture.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/RubyE PB reef 0912/

Date: 09/12/04
Dive Location: Ruby E Wreck- San Diego
Time: 0839
Bottom Time:50 minutes including stops
Max Depth: 83 ft
Vis: 10-15
Wave height: slight surface swell
Temp at depth: 56
Surface Temp: 72
Comments:

Sean and I went out with the local club boat and had a great dive on the Ruby. Conditions continue to decline to normal levels but the vis was good enough to enjoy the dive. We saw the usual fish and life on the boat. All to soon it was time to go back.


Date: 09/12/2004
Dive Location: Pacific Beach Reef
Time: 1030
Bottom Time: 42 minutes
Max Depth: 73
Vis: 10-12
Wave height: moderate surface swell, slight surge at depth
Temp at depth: 57
Surface Temp:72

Comments:
For the second dive we motored over to the PB reef, aka rockpile, Sean and finished our SI and were again under the waves. I like this spot but today it was a bit murky and surgy. I forgot the moisture munchers in the camera and had a lens fog throughout the dive so few pictures here. Sean got some great shots though and I a sure he will be sharing them. We saw the usual suspects including several large ling cod and lobster. No torpedo ray today but we did see the same cool jelly fish noted last week. At our safety stop Sean made a buddy. A small kelp bass followed he and I around like a puppy for 20 minutes, often times swimming right up to Sean's mask. At one point he took a gentle nibble at the end of Sean's finger. It was pretty fun to watch. It's a good day to dive!

Terry

 

[pasley]

Date: 09/12/04
Dive Location: Ruby E Wreck- San Diego
Time: 0839
Bottom Time:50 minutes including stops
Max Depth: 83 ft
Vis: 10-15
Wave height: slight surface swell
Temp at depth: 56
Surface Temp: 72
Date: 09/12/2004
Dive Location: Pacific Beach Reef
Time: 1030
Bottom Time: 42 minutes
Max Depth: 73
Vis: 10-12
Wave height: moderate surface swell, slight surge at depth
Temp at depth: 57
Surface Temp:72

Just out of curiosity, have you ran the dive planner on these dives? Hard to tell from the pictures times and such. But what group were you in at the end of the 2nd dive.

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Here are my pictures from Sunday's dive with divinman:

http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/09122004rubypbreef

Sean