Date: 8/11/2006
Dive Location: Diver’s Cove/Fisherman’s Cove, Laguna Beach
Buddy(ies): Brandon
Time: 7:12 AM
Bottom Time: 118 MIN
Max Depth: 33 FT
Vis: 8-15+ FT
Wave height: 1 FT
Temp at depth: 57 F
Surface Temp: 66 F
Tide information: Pushing; Low tide 5:18 am -0.83 ft
Gas mix: 21%
Comments: B-boy and I got up early and headed up to Laguna to take advantage of the window of opportunity between swells. We decided to check out Diver’s Cove since we hadn’t dove it in a while. Skies were overcast this morning with light offshore breeze. Surf height was ~1ft. It basically looked like a lake ... a sharp contrast to the great surf conditions that we had in South County earlier this week.
The plan was to enter at Diver’s Cove and exit at Fisherman’s. If time permitted we’d check out the shallow reef area on the West end of Fisherman’s, adjacent to Shaw’s. We made an easy-peasy entrance at Diver’s cove and started fining out to the drop area. Brandon was on the look out for Bat Rays in the sand below. WE SCORED ! About half way out, we dropped in approx 15 fsw into the midst of a large squadron of Bat Rays resting on the sand. There were approximately 10-12 different ones, including a couple very large ones. Each tolerated us for a while before finally flying off when we got a little too close. The UW conditions were nice … 1-2ft of surge, ~15ft vis, and toasty low 60’s in the shallows.
We continued W and eventually picked up the reef. We poked around the rocks as we followed the reef out toward deeper water. Along the way we found a mutant sized lobster molt lying on the reef. Just around the corner we found the previous owner … one of the biggest bugs I’ve seen in a while. Vis deteriorated slightly and the temps dipped as we reached the end of the reef. We turned west and started working the backside. We saw lots of the usual suspects: lots of hyper Garibaldi, Calico & Barred Sand Bass, Seniorita Wrass, Sheep Head (including a couple a large tertiary stage specimens), large schools of Blacksmith, Sea Hare (including several mating chains), lots of lobsters (found several dens with 20+ bugs … mostly shorts), Octopi, etc … etc … etc. Conditions were very calm, so we made a little venture into Mermaid’s Grotto. This brought back memories of scenes from the old Sea Hunt series. We eventually made the turn N into Fisherman’s Cove, where vis deteriorated further (under 10 ft). At t his point, we had tons of air left, so we headed across the cove over to shallow reef adjacent to Shaw’s where we spent the last ~20 minutes of the dive in toasty warm shallows with some pretty good vis.
What an awesome dive ! It was a nice long relaxed dive with fun conditions and tons of cool stuff to see. Yes, the bottom time is correct! ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN MINUTES … that’s ONE HOUR and FIFTY EIGHT MINUTES ! This was made possible by some very generous fills by Beach Cities SCUBA in Dana Point. Thanks, guys
The average depth was probably no more that 20 FSW, but this is still a new record for me in my X7-100 and Brandon his X7-80. We actually could have gone longer (each surfaced with ~600 psi), but finally surfaced because we both had to pee soo bad. According to the kid, “That dive was about a 9… but only cuz we didn’t see any horn sharks THIS time.” I think this is a dive that we’ll remember for a while.
