WOW! Neptune's Cove is awesome!

First Dive at Neptunes Cove. What a great reef! We decided to go over on the left side towards the pinnacles. We descended right off the first kelp bed and swam through a good size sand barren before reaching the reef. The reef structure here is huge. Lots of overhangs, ledges, mini walls and crevices. Tons of life too. Tree fish, Large Calico and Barred Bass, Sheephead, Painted Greenlings of all sizes and colors, Yellow Dorids, Spainsh Shawls, various Tunicates, exotic colored anemones, Senorita, Blacksmith, Various large and small perch. So much variety and amount of life, I can't name them all. This surely is a divers paradise. I wasn't planning on diving with Todd and Bob since I felt the hill down at Neptunes was too extreme. I've dove Christmas Tree Cove, Honeymoons, Malaga, White Point, Sacreds, Abalone, Marineland.... pretty much them all, but Neptune's trail really spooked me. When the swell was up a few weeks back I decided to take a walk down the trail to take pictures of the spray and waves. I was sliding and fumbling over rocks the whole way down. I thought I would never scuba this site without a boat. Well Todd coaxed me into showing up by saying Bob and him might do Honeymoon if conditions weren't good. I told him I would just take pictures from the top if they decided to dive Neptune's. I showed up a little early and conditions looked really nice. As I eyed the pathway down, Todd helped ease my concerns by saying that he went down the trail with sandals and had no problems. After everything was said and done, the trail wasn't really that bad, I just took my time and stayed away from the loose rock patches. The entry is really nice too, Todd scouted out a little natural bay formed by a rocky outcropping where you could step out into chest high water, putt your fins on and then easily kick out. I can see Neptunes easily being my favorite dive site for quite some time. Congratulations to Bob for completing his first 100 dives ;D

I didn't take my housing because I didn't think I'd be diving, but here are some topside pics and our profile:
"Todd did bring his camera system so he might post some pics on here from our dive"
We took at heading directly out towards the last rock on the point:

Neptune's at sunset looking towards Christmas Tree Cove:

Our Dive Profile:

The Dive site map:

Thanks Frank for once again posting an interesting dive report. I dived that site from a boat and really enjoyed it. After your report, I may just have to re-think doing it as a shore dive.

It's a long swim (you're used to that) but the underwater arch at the end of the reef is a cool sight. While not spectacular, it's something you don't find anywhere else along the coast. The arch at 1,000 Steps in Laguna is big enough to swim through. The Neptune Arch is big enough to drive a bus through.

My hubby convinced me to start learning to free dive over the weekend. I was hesitant (I have some issues with being able to equalize in a head-down position), but decided to give it a go. After pulling down a line for a few hours on Saturday, we decided to go out and hit one of the dive sites in PV with one of those crazy goat trails. The reef was cool, but diving on scuba would have been a no-go for me.

After your dive report, I will definitely have to give Neptune's a shot....but I will NOT be doing it on scuba!

Teamcasa:

Thanks Frank for once again posting an interesting dive report. I dived that site from a boat and really enjoyed it. After your report, I may just have to re-think doing it as a shore dive.

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Thanks Casa. Anytime your in the area and want to dive PV, PM me.

MaxBottomtime:

It's a long swim (you're used to that) but the underwater arch at the end of the reef is a cool sight. While not spectacular, it's something you don't find anywhere else along the coast. The arch at 1,000 Steps in Laguna is big enough to swim through. The Neptune Arch is big enough to drive a bus through.

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Awesome Pics. It would be killer to get to dive that area. Is it towards the pinnacle side? Or heading towards Christmas Tree?

ligersandtions:

The reef was cool, but diving on scuba would have been a no-go for me. After your dive report, I will definitely have to give Neptune's a shot....but I will NOT be doing it on scuba!

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That's what I thought when I was making the transition from free-diver to scuba-diver. I thought I'd only be scuba diving Marineland, White Point and Malaga and I'd never put a tank on my back and go dive Christmas Tree, Honeymoon or any of the other intense goat trails. Then when Marineland was closed, I had to seek a new bread n butter sight. Malaga and White Point have way to inconsistent visibility and I knew from my free-diving that Christmas Tree was where it was at. A few months later and I'm at home doing scuba at those sights. I'm by no means a "in shape person" and am an ex-smoker, but if I take my time going up, its really not bad. Go out and try it once, you might surprise yourself

FrankPro1:

Awesome Pics. It would be killer to get to dive that area. Is it towards the pinnacle side? Or heading towards Christmas Tree?

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It's on the SW corner of the pinnacles. The reef is covered with sponges, scallops and a couple of nudibranchs I've only found there.

FrankPro1:

That's what I thought when I was making the transition from free-diver to scuba-diver. I thought I'd only be scuba diving Marineland, White Point and Malaga and I'd never put a tank on my back and go dive Christmas Tree, Honeymoon or any of the other intense goat trails. Then when Marineland was closed, I had to seek a new bread n butter sight. Malaga and White Point have way to inconsistent visibility and I knew from my free-diving that Christmas Tree was where it was at. A few months later and I'm at home doing scuba at those sights. I'm by no means a "in shape person" and am an ex-smoker, but if I take my time going up, its really not bad. Go out and try it once, you might surprise yourself

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The problem for me is mostly that my rig is rougly 70% of my body weight. I'm pretty strong, I lift so I can dive effectively and deal with the surf and haul my stuff up and down stairs, I'm in pretty good shape....but those hills and the lack of good footing would seriously be the end of me!!

I'll have to learn to be a better free diver so I can go deeper and/or stay longer and enjoy myself as much as possible, even though I can't breathe and stay down there almost indefinitely.

ligersandtions:

....but those hills and the lack of good footing would seriously be the end of me!!

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Or hire a dive sherpa

Teamcasa:

Or hire a dive sherpa

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Are you offering?

I'll take you up on your offer....when are you free?