I joined the BAUE boat aboard the Escapade on Saturday, in hopes that we'd be able to make it fairly far south for some great recreational dives, and boy did they deliver.
Once we were out of the harbor, the crew gunned the engines and we found ourselves alongside the Beach Hopper II for most of the way down, seems everybody had the same idea.
First site was Que Paso, which I've heard and read about, but have never seen before. We descended onto a tiny 6x10ft pinnacle at 100ft that was lined by metridium all long its sides--it looked like white, heart-shaped path in the gravel. From there it was a short hop over to the main pinnacle, which featured some great vis (40+ft), dramatic structure, and all sorts of nooks and crannies encrusted with marine life. The highlight was 6-8 molas, all swimming in buddy pairs, that were just on the edge of the pinnacles and following us around on our return to the boat and ascent.
A 25 minute hop north brought us to the second site of the day, Fan Shell Beach Pinnacles, named after Fan Shell Beach just on-shore, which I suspect was in turn named after the fan shells found on said beach, which in turn must be named after the fans that the shells themselves resembled. But back to diving. Here, we got more of the same - fantastic viz that let us see the sandy bottom 40-50ft below us, dramatically rising vertical structures, lots of fish life, free-swimming sheep crab, and strangely, some large vertical faces of sheer granite without a trace of coral or corynactis. It'd go on for 15-20 ft, and then suddenly, encrusted again, with no apparent change in direction or topography. Stark. No molas this time, but plenty of surge at the top of the pinnacles to throw me for a loop a few times.
In all, couldn't have asked for a better set of dives!
[youtubehq]QRbOUVUr3EM[/youtubehq]
Once we were out of the harbor, the crew gunned the engines and we found ourselves alongside the Beach Hopper II for most of the way down, seems everybody had the same idea.
First site was Que Paso, which I've heard and read about, but have never seen before. We descended onto a tiny 6x10ft pinnacle at 100ft that was lined by metridium all long its sides--it looked like white, heart-shaped path in the gravel. From there it was a short hop over to the main pinnacle, which featured some great vis (40+ft), dramatic structure, and all sorts of nooks and crannies encrusted with marine life. The highlight was 6-8 molas, all swimming in buddy pairs, that were just on the edge of the pinnacles and following us around on our return to the boat and ascent.
A 25 minute hop north brought us to the second site of the day, Fan Shell Beach Pinnacles, named after Fan Shell Beach just on-shore, which I suspect was in turn named after the fan shells found on said beach, which in turn must be named after the fans that the shells themselves resembled. But back to diving. Here, we got more of the same - fantastic viz that let us see the sandy bottom 40-50ft below us, dramatically rising vertical structures, lots of fish life, free-swimming sheep crab, and strangely, some large vertical faces of sheer granite without a trace of coral or corynactis. It'd go on for 15-20 ft, and then suddenly, encrusted again, with no apparent change in direction or topography. Stark. No molas this time, but plenty of surge at the top of the pinnacles to throw me for a loop a few times.
In all, couldn't have asked for a better set of dives!
[youtubehq]QRbOUVUr3EM[/youtubehq]
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