Caves? What caves?

[ad6e]

Rick, Tim, and I were at Lobos yesterday (22nd). I'm fairly new to the area, dive wise, and I'd heard there were some caves across the cove, and towards the open ocean from the entry at Whalers. Tim and I made a valiant attempt to find them, and Tim thinks he might have found one. Conditions were not exactly ideal with moderately heavy surge and 10ft vis. Worst conditions I've seen in 3-4 visits to Lobos. We were quite shallow at 20-30ft.

So, where exactly are the caves?
Is that side of the cove (east) typically worse vis than the west side? Granted, being that shallow I shouldn't have expected much. I'm thinking we may not have ventured north far enough.

Temp was a chilly 47F ! I've ordered, but not yet received my extra undies.
Second dive on the west side saw improved visibility below 50ft, but still nothing to write home about.

[enigmata]

From my experience the east side of the cove has about the same viz as the rest of the cove due to the shallows. The caves are just before the bend on the east side of Whaler's.

The caves don't penetrate in very deep and it's surgy both of the times I've visited them, so I usually skip them. However, there's often a lot of schools of blacksmith hanging out inside with the occasional lingcod on the walls... worth checking out if you have a good light and plenty of gas.

[Farty]

here is more info about them Coal Chute Cove | Point Lobos Foundation (http://www.pointlobos.org/general-info/trail-maps/diving-area/coal-chute-cove)

they are kinda cool. although they are really not deep and one of them is "swim through" be very careful, first you need good flashlight(s), second it can be pretty surgy


I like the cove and the beach during sunny calm day with good viz, it's very different than the other areas at Lobos

[ad6e]

Thanks for the link. Good info!
If I go there again, I'll wait for a very calm day.

[Gombessa]

I have a couple of videos taken from the caverns:

YouTube - Serene Dives at Point Lobos - Flip Ultra HD Underwater (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dttdhrqjcI)
YouTube - Coal Chute Caverns Dive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTg63Ng7MTA)
YouTube - Point Lobos Cavern Diving? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCmmobXAcXE)

IMO, waiting for a calm day is a wise choice. I've only been there when the swells and surge are way down, since it can be a bad dive in less-than-ideal conditions (more exposed to ocean swells, shallow so the surge is greater, low vis potential, and of course they're still overheads even though the spaces are small).

I've seen seals play in the larger cavern, and leopard sharks are known to hang around them as well.

[alwaingold]

Rob has some pictures of the caverns from a very good viz day, which might give you an idea of the size (or maybe not). They are posted in this report:

Cold Water Kitty: Adventure No. 12: The Jaguar Shark (http://coldwaterkitty.blogspot.com/2008/11/adventure-no-12-jaguar-shark.html)

There are even some jaguar, err, leopard shark pics from that day.

As other have said, not really worth going there except on a calm day. And probably a good viz day too.

Allison