3rd Annual Land Locked Labor Day Live-aboard in Monterey. Ah... Monterey!

3rd Annual Land Locked Labor Day Live-aboard in Monterey. Ah... Monterey!

The excellent preamble to this trip can be read here: Time to Dive...MoCal!!!!

For close to 10 years now I've had a tradition of going away for a 2 or 3 day trip on Labor Day. Jaye is a teacher, and as she's crunching for the start of a new school year, I go away and let her get her teacher on while I get my dive on.

Immediately following my really bad Labor Day live aboard experience of 2008 (detailed here and pix here), myself and some close friends started a new tradition: The Land Locked Labor Day Live Aboard in Monterey. This is the 3rd annual version, and as always, the core group was in place and ready to dive.

I was going to be unable to dive all three days this time - my sights were on mixing in some family time with the dive time. I had set aside Saturday all day for diving, and Sunday AM. Any dive time with Claudette is a precious moment (especially this year, with us sharing fewer), and toss in the Reno contingent and the mornings are just sweeter with the evenings being the best parts of the days.

I drove up Friday after work, unable to take off the entire day this time. Arriving around 9:00 PM or so, I was unable to locate Claudette. I scan the parking lot. There's the Dog Mobile. There is some monster truck with kayaks aloft with NV plates - must be part of team Reno. There is Merlin's familiar rig with two X-tables strapped to the rack. Hmmmm

I walk the lot again. No Chica Mobile. We texted earlier that afternoon, but not a peep since.

I settle in for some sleepy time. I hear commotion and laughter outside of my room an hour or so later. I awake and peek out the blinds. Its Claudette and Merlin and some others yucking it up. I shout something to the effect "Keep it down out there... I know your Father!"

I couldn't find Claudette, as she and Ben V were, of course, doing a night dive.




I settle in, crash hard and prepare for Saturday AM at Lobos.

Armed with 5 rolls of masking tape for the gate crew, I pick up some lunch supplies from Safeway, then head off to Lobos. Its a lovely morning. A bit misty, but the flatness at Monastery on the drive in was encouraging.

I hit the line - I'm back a ways... hmmm. Early birds! We do the meeting and greeting and welcome each other to MoCal. The gate opens, we roll in.

I grab a spot next to Claudette. The plan is Jaye will go touring while I spend the day diving with fav dive buddy. Love that plan! So the gear transference begins... hauling all the stuff I'll need for at least two, possibly three dives out of my packed truck, and piling all of this into Claudette's smaller packed Element.

We survey the glassy flatness that is Whalers cove. Lovely!! I go and make a manly toss of our orange buoy - we keep a buoy just off shore so we don't have to schlep back in deco bottles and scooters - rather we just hang them onto rings tied into the line and let them soak until the next dive, just trading back gas cylinders.


DIVE #1 - Saturday 9/3


I have a special surprise planned for this first dive. We gear up, but the surprise I'm planning involves my gloves. And the surprise involves me getting my dry gloves on while away from the group so they don't see what's going on. No biggie - I always glove up before sliding into my BP/W... but in my haste to be stealthy I forgot to put on my hood before gloving up.

I had Claudette help me with the 12mm Otter Bay helmet, and now I'm ready to rock.

My surprise continues to leave me a bit clumsy in the hands. I can't shunt out gear with my normal degree of aplomb. This is what your Sensus looks like when you drop your deco bottle, you hang out on the surface so you don't look like a goober, then when nobody is looking you have to go retrieve it quickly.






There is a harbor seal sunning on a rock at the bottom of the ramp. I'm dropping gear, picking up gear, my necklace is bubbling and free flowing as I set in - so I'm basically being a noisy, flailing CF as I try to get my rig in place to get a few water-level shots of the very unimpressed harbor seal. Of course in all the flailing I knocked the cam out of Auto Focus... so my shot of the seal sucks. That's my single largest complaint about the Nauticam D7000 housing - I am constantly knocking it out of AF into MF by way of knocking the button. I need to pull that button off, as I will never shoot in manual focus.



The plan was to head to Betos. I wanted to be sure Claudette and I got there at the same time as the other 6 or 8 divers, so I could spring the surprise on everyone. But the dropping of the bottle (TWICE) and the slow going of gearing up put us at the end of the line.

We hustle up, head out, drop.

The water is cold. My Suunto says its 52, I'm thinking no way. My Sensus had it in the high 40's which seems to make more sense, as I'm getting chilly.

We get to Hole In The Wall. The water is dark, but not dark enough. We get to the very edge of Betos on the heels of the other teams. Its dark down there.

I first spring it on Claudette. I am wearing, under my blue dry gloves, Light Up Raver Gloves festooned on the back of the hand with Michael Jackson Sequins.



These things have switches I can barely reach. But when hit the switch, they glow and flash and change colors on the finger tips. When the conditions are dark, they shine through the blue dry gloves and create quite the show. They're a bit cooler than proper liners, and the finger tip LED's were a bit clunky (hence the twice dropped bottle) - but what a show!!



Claudette flooded her mask a couple of times. We were cracking up.

I scoot over to the front of the pack which is now in the middle of Betos. I kick over to James, and simply put my index finger from my right hand oh the Xen on his scooter dashboard, and put my left hand over my mask, so it lights up my face.

He looks. He looks again. He does a triple take, then he starts cracking up.

I go down the line, flashing and twinkling for all to see, then Chica and I peel off to hit the end of Betos and look for stuff to shoot.

WHAT A FUN MOMENT!!! I get some shots of a pair of Albolineata Nudis, some more nudi shots and we're soon in some minor deco (and I hoovered some gas with the bottle juggling) so its time to head back.

We get back to the ramp after the bulk of the group. James is laughing. Janet is cracking up... they're asking about the lights and the gloves, so I pull off the blue outer glove to reveal the Michael Jackson specials.

Ben V is there on shore to snap some shots of the reveal and my Jazz Hand Bling. He was also quick to remind the Team Reno (and a few locals) that I'm from Los Angeles and these sort of fashion accessories are to be expected "down there...."



Dive one. Great stuff. I'll have more pics soon. Dive Two next!


-Ken

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James and the harbor seal (Ben V photo!)




Chica and the harbor seal (Ben V photo)



Ken and his gurgling necklace (Photo Ben V... uh, thanks)




Ken getting harbor seal shot (photo Ben V)



Ken - post dive glove reveal! (photo Ben V)




Kenny Jazz Hands Bling (photo Ben V)




A very unimpressive shot of the very unimpressed harbor seal




Shot of the Albolineata pair at the end of Betos.




Saturday lunchola





Many thanks to Ben V - who took great care of my buddy on Friday night, tipped me off to the tape, took shots, hung out on Sat even though he wasn't diving, and is generally a MoCal legend and national treasure. I love you my brother. Thanks so much for everything this weekend!

Many thanks to Claudette - Apex buddy, bringing the fun every moment - on the dive, on the SI, at lunch... every moment.


More pics, more stories and more fun stuff on Dive #2 - up next!




-Ken

After a yummy Lunch and long, leisurely MoCal SI, it was time to get back into the water.

With real glove liners.

Ben V (he the source of so many great things on this trip) brought over a pair of liners for me to try. I thought it only perfect to give them a go, so the Raver Sparklers stayed on the dash under the sun to chill, I swapped drysuits (both having been returned from servicing just this week, I wanted to be sure I tested both) and its time to dive.

The plan was to return to the end of Betos with great haste so we'd have more time to snoot up and shoot the Albolineata Nudi's before gas and NDS pushed us from the spot and back into more reasonable water.

We geared up, waddled out to the orange Buoy and grabbed scooters and AL40's - its amazing how much smoother things go when I don't have LED's hogging the fingertips of my gloves, and off we went.

James had provided wonderful stick-on Maps for the scooters as reminders of the coordinates, But Chica pretty much has the place wired. We scooted along the surface to Shar-Pei rock, patted ourselves down, gave the OK and dropped.



I should mention something has occurred here at Lobos: these very small, pea-sized acorn barnacles have moved in. They're white, they are here by the billions, and it looks like someone spilled popcorn all over the place. Apparently they are a non invasive species, rolling in every 5 to 7 years, and they carpet everything: Rocks, kelp stalks, and all manner of sessile life as well. And when the snowy barnacles move in, it rings the dinner bell, as everything eats these guys. Nudis, stars, and all manner of creepy thing.

Its quite a sight - a thick white covering. I've been diving Lobos only since 2004, and I've never seen these before.

As we're scootering out, I stop to get some shots of them on the kelp stalks. Claudette points out a large flat rock that is covered on top with them - as well as hundreds of egg ribbons from the same species of Nudibranch. The white egg ribbons flagging in the surge from the white popcorn surface was quite a site. Of course it didn't occur to me until this moment that I have HDVideo on my D7000, and that would have made a pretty cool sight. Oh well.

We move on a bit, and Claudette points out this clutch of brown nudis neither of us had ever seen before. They look to me like very small Chitons - but as Chica asserted, they're Nudis. They are Onchidoris bilamellata (#99, page 59 in Behrens 3rd edition) they eat acorn barnacles. I get some shots of the clutch, smile that I have another Nudi I've never photographed in the can, and we scoot on to find the Albolineatas.

We get to the end of Betos, and we find several - not just the pair from the first dive. I look around to find a suitable subject to snoot up - and there he is. About fist size, this will be the largest thing I've ever tried to illuminate with my snoot. (links to more information on the fiber optic snoot and remotely-triggered strobes).

I set up the pixar, and have Chica come about and hold it in place. I totally forgot the ankle weight I usually wrap around it to keep it from moving, and its not very stable. She does, and I get a test shot. I'm using the 60mm lens, anticipating some larger nudis, and I'm glad I had it - I'd have had to back up another 5 or 6 feet with the 105, and with the water clarity and particulate matter that would not have been good.

The test shot looks promising. I re-position, and get a few more shots (see the flat spot in the Sensus screen pop above.... that's us at 120-ish shooting this guy). We get some more shots, and by now we're into about 3 or 4 minutes of deco. We have plenty of gas, but the plan was to rack up no more than 10 minutes out here. I signal we're done and we pack up the pixar and snoot into the lobster bag and start to leave. I signal Claudette and spin off... I want to get a shot without the snoot - using standard strobe illumination to show the difference. I go back, re-deploy the cam, position roughly in the same place fire off two shots and then fold up and leave the site with about 5 minutes of deco.

On the way back, I see a pair of large white Odhner's Dorids cruising along. I drop to get a shot. I'm cramping badly in my legs, mostly my right leg. I shake it off and shoot, it returns. I try to ignore it, as the surge is powerful in this small passage, and holding position is tough. It comes back, I ignore it and take another shot. I'm totally wincing and I let out a yell. Far and away the worst cramp ever. I stretch and it becomes manageable, and we continue our scoot. We're at about 8 or 9 minutes of deco now, plenty of gas and on our way back home.

I see a Sandi sitting under a ledge. I stop to get the shot - by now we're in about 80 feet, and the surge is stronger. Stuff is blowing into the frame, I'm having trouble holding position with one leg. It takes me about 6 tries to get the shot I want. I look down and I'm at the 10 minute mark for deco. I fold up, and signal time for the ride in. We have a perfect ride back to Lobos, but the viz, while on the outside was actually better than dive one, has really gotten worse on the inside. We stay close, dodging the Egg Jellies and their drifting tentacles. We hit our mark, deploy the deco gas, hang out and then head in.

Claudette puts us on the perfect course. Except as we enter the mouth of Whalers cove, we're about 10 feet to the right - and as I'm scootering I'm abruptly stopped when I THUNK into a rock. The viz was so poor I never saw it coming and just ran right into it! A second later, I hear THUNK to my right, and see the same thing repeated in perfect execution. We are cracking up.

We move left a few feet, and finish our scoot to the launch ramp and our waiting buoy.

What an excellent dive. It was longer than dive #1, but the water was a bit warmer, and with real glove liners I felt SO much warmer.

Both suits are perfect. The shots are fun, my buddy is fun, I'm having a great day!!

Thanks for a fun day of diving, Claudette!!!


Pics below. Enjoy,



-Ken


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White acorn barnacles are everywhere right now. Even on kelp stalks!




Here are the brown guys, just chewin' on the popcorn. I'm not quite sure how one eats a barnacle... I presume you simply suck out the yummy middle and leave the shell? Who knows.




Upside down Sandy




Here are the two cramp inducing phatty White Nudis




This is the Snooted up Albolineata series



This is the test shot. I re-positioned after this to get the rest. You can see the snoot in the top and bottom of the frame. These shots are only lit by the two ends of my phatty snoot.




One of the non-test shots. Still working on composition and positioning



One of the better shots. Waiting for the surge to bring about the Nudi's cerrata, while coordinating the barnacles with their feeding plumes extended. It took several shots to get both where I wanted them. Sized large for emphasis.




This is the shot I went back and grabbed using standard on-camera lighting. You can see the difference the snoots make in driving intimacy to the subject. This is essentially the same shot as above, same camera settings - just a different lighting technique.




These Albos are the largest subjects I've ever shot with a snoot. Next outing I'm going to illuminate behind the subject a bit more, and have an on-camera strobe dialed way back (maybe even diffused) to provide just a bit of fill flash, while the snoot lights up the body and cerrata. So many things I want to try... I need these guys to sit in about 40 feet of water so I get more time!

Come up and shoot them here, Ken! I can find them for you in any depth you like . . .