Paddock, Never Fail Ledge 7/11

Fencing Fish and I signed up for CAD charter and settled on Paddock Rock, Never Fail Ledge. There was one other diver that joined us. The ride out and back wasn't bad and it was good to have the Sun out for a change.

The Captain chose to do Paddock first. The vis wasn't the greatest and the typical 10-15feet. We circled the pinnacle varying our depth between 50 and 30 feet trying to stay stay shallow to stay warm (very noticable thermoclines below 50 feet) I was totally oblivious to my buddy trying to take pictures. I forgot she had her camera and those that dive with me regularly know I tend to cruise. With poor vis, we still saw a lot of cool stuff. My buddy pointed out a couple decorator crabs on the pink granite wall (the kind of stuff I would see if I SLOWED DOWN). Also saw Northern Red Anemone at about 30 fsw, a couple schools of fish (Pollack and small bait fish) . One of the highlights were seeing some moon jelly's which I can't remember ever seeing before. There were also plenty of flounder and pretty good sized keeper bugs.

The 2nd dive, my buddy lead me as it was my first dive on Never Fail Ledge. It's got a bit of everything for everyone. Lobsters, walls, Crevices/trenches/overhangs. I could easily do a two tank dive and still not see all there is to see. The 2nd dive wasn't as long, 46 min with max dephp of 53 fsw. We both definately felt the chill. There were more dogfish at Neverfail. The vis seemed a bit but not much better than Paddock.

The gear is rinsed and now I'm ready for a much needed post dive Nap.

Sounds like interesting places to discover for me thanks for the post !

I agree, Paddock Rock is very interesting -- even no counting freak warm spots! Unfortunately on July 9 I was wearing an underfilled LP 72, and for some reason was using up gas faster than normal. I ended up with only 20 minutes bottom time.

20min that must be frustrating !! !It reminds me of my dives during winter in Belgium quarries when I was with my semi-dry suit... when water temp was about 36-38F, 20min was typically a long dive ;o) and tank was fare from empty, could almost do 2 dives on one tank ;o)

This is why I went for a nice 119cf tank... I've got plenty of air and if I'm underfilled, I can still count on a pretty decent dive time. Although my LDS is never underfilling, they are great !

The first dive I used up a lot of air at the start trying to keep up with Speedy Gonzales, there, but it was still a decently long 50 minute dive. And I even had on my super fast yellow fins! But he mellowed out and we had some beautiful dives. I had never seen dogfish before (other than pickled in a jar) so that was exciting. The moon jellies were fantastic to see.
Pics attached