Gerstle Cove Dive Trip

Hello everyone, thanks for the information and the great tips on North Coast dive sites. My wife and decided to take off Sunday and drove up to Gerstle Cove (Marine Preserve). I must say it is dam scenic up there and the diving was fantastic. The cove is pretty small but easy to get to. Facilities are very nice, restrooms, large changing rooms, outdoor showers and small road leads right down to small stone beach leading into cove.

Underwater was fantastic, quite a bit of particle mass in water and a lot of surge because of the size of cove and maybee just our luck not sure. So what was so fantastic? Well, the marine life in this tiny cove is EVERYWHERE, lots of reef, fish, anenomies, abalone, urchins, crab, cleaner shrimp, etc. You name it it was there and once you headed to preserve protection line the surge didnt seem quite so bad. Depth of the cove seemed reletively shallow I would say 17' average but that just added to vis =). Water Tempature 51 degrees, Visibility was 25-30' even with the particles.

After alot of diving in monterey bay this area is just awesome you could hover in a 20' space and never run out of things to see =). Thanks again for the suggestion, my wife and I will definately head back there again.

Some Advice >=). The trip up Highway 1 is a bit curvey. From petaluma its about an hour away. There is a small dive shop in petaluma with limited gear (its a combination fishing, hunting, dive shop), just in case you forgot something. Theres another in a small town (Cotati) 9 miles north called underwater adventures I believe (didnt go there so not sure about it). From what I could see there is no place anywhere near dive site you can get fills so bring what your going to use. If your from Sacramento area or anywhere out our way and are looking for a shortcutt home after your dive. DO NOT drive north to Stewarts Point and take Skaggs Springs Road unless you want an amazingly scenic but very long curvey drive home LOL.

It was a really good weekend. 25' vis at Gerstle is not the norm .

There is a shop in Bodega Bay, Bodega Bay Pro Dive, http://www.bbprodive.com I think. Not sure if they do fills.

Most of the stores up there have snorkels, weights, and the like, but it is expensive. I usually bring an extra weight belt when freediving up there and it gets used about 10% of the time believe it or not. I also bring an extra mask / snorkel.

You may be able to get fills at Ocean Cove on weekends. Their website says you can, but I'm not sure. http://www.oceancove.org/ocstore.html

I've still never SCUBA dived the North Coast, but I've freedived up there quite a bit. It really is beautiful and when you get a day like Saturday, it is awesome. I have a favorite little reef there with Corynactus and small Metridiums on it in about 25' of water that I love to freedive. Right outside the cove and to the South in the first patch of kelp.

Mark

Mark, you went out of South Gerstle on Saturday? Did you get some nice fish and urchins?

I agree the conditions were great. We had a fairly large group out on Saturday. Good times!

Write up on it is here. http://northcoastdivers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=230

No, I didn't dive Gerstle last weekend. But it was a good weekend along the whole coast. I did Sobrantes Point on Saturday and Carmel on Sunday. We had considered yakking out of Fort Bragg, but the guy I was diving with didn't feel like making the long drive for just one day of diving.

Mark

Hey anyone want to call in sick tomorrow?

Hey Mark,
I'm back in town

It really was an awesome time to dive this weekend. Our group was there with about 15 people at Gerstle on Saturday. It was one of the best days that I have seen on the North Coast. Winter is usally the best time for good vis, but can be hit or miss depending on the weather.

We regularly dive the North Coast, so in the future you are welcome to join us. We dive once a month and try to vary between Mendocino, Sonoma, and Monterey.

Wow Mark, Fort Bragg is a long haul for you, and fuel milage is cut with kayaks on top. That is like us going to Monterey. You are lucky in that Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur diving is pretty close to you.

I am about ready to pop for a kayak. It sure would cut the surface swims down and open up the diving possibilities.

I live almost right in between Carmel and Fort Ross. I'm 110 from Fort Ross and 100 from Carmel.

Fort Bragg is 185 each way.

Opening weekend of ab season '04 I did Van Damme on Friday, Breakwater on Saturday and Van Damme again on Sunday.

I have 145,000 miles on my '01 Pathfinder

Mark

Ben_ca:

Hey anyone want to call in sick tomorrow?

Hey Mark,
I'm back in town

Click to expand...

I wish I could. That incoming storm is going to mess up the vis.

Not often the conditions are as good if not better than in Monterey, what a great dives with 40 feet of vis and spectacular colors! Real fun people to dive with made the trip even better.