Needing to gas up our boat today, we rejoiced at the swell model predictions of two feet swells and light wind. Kevin Lee joined us for his first cold water dives since returning from Anilao. Our plan was to fuel up in Los Angeles Harbor and then hit one of the deeper shipwrecks on the San Pedro Shelf.
We left our house this morning to a stiff breeze. Not a good sign, but we hoped it would calm down soon. As we rounded Rocky Point it became clear that we would take quite a pounding if we continued eastward. We tucked our crotch straps between our legs and headed back toward Redondo Beach.
At the Palawan, whitecaps and a strong current helped us decide to dive nearshore. The surface water over the Landing Craft was green and didn't look good, but Kevin really wanted to take his leaking drysuit into the 51° water.
We dropped through a dirty layer, making me think we would have similar conditions to our last few weeks. Suddenly, the visibility opened up to well over twenty feet. It was cold, but some of the best visibility I had seen on this little wreck. The highlight of the dive for me was finding a purple stripe jelly at the end of the dive.
With conditions like this at the Landing Craft, I hoped for better visibility on the barge than we've experienced lately. It turned out to be the best visibility I have seen here. Kevin spotted another purple stripe jelly about fifty feet from the barge. I had my macro lens for this dive, so my attempts at photographing something the size of a basketball failed miserably. I'm sure Kevin scored big time.
I headed back toward the barge and was surprised to see the entire length of the rusting hulk. That was a first for me. It was at least thirty-five feet visibility despite the lousy surface conditions. Before surfacing, Kevin saw another purple stripe jelly.
We left our house this morning to a stiff breeze. Not a good sign, but we hoped it would calm down soon. As we rounded Rocky Point it became clear that we would take quite a pounding if we continued eastward. We tucked our crotch straps between our legs and headed back toward Redondo Beach.
At the Palawan, whitecaps and a strong current helped us decide to dive nearshore. The surface water over the Landing Craft was green and didn't look good, but Kevin really wanted to take his leaking drysuit into the 51° water.
We dropped through a dirty layer, making me think we would have similar conditions to our last few weeks. Suddenly, the visibility opened up to well over twenty feet. It was cold, but some of the best visibility I had seen on this little wreck. The highlight of the dive for me was finding a purple stripe jelly at the end of the dive.
With conditions like this at the Landing Craft, I hoped for better visibility on the barge than we've experienced lately. It turned out to be the best visibility I have seen here. Kevin spotted another purple stripe jelly about fifty feet from the barge. I had my macro lens for this dive, so my attempts at photographing something the size of a basketball failed miserably. I'm sure Kevin scored big time.
I headed back toward the barge and was surprised to see the entire length of the rusting hulk. That was a first for me. It was at least thirty-five feet visibility despite the lousy surface conditions. Before surfacing, Kevin saw another purple stripe jelly.
