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It was a party, and people came from miles around . . . Peter and I from Seattle, HBDiveGirl and buddy from Los Angeles, and the "local" divers, several of whom drive up to three hours to come down to Monterey to dive.
We had announced this trip a couple of months ago, and we got an amazing response. Within a week, we had tanks lined up, scooters being lent, dives planned, and a boat chartered (I mean, WE didn't do any of this . . . the local divers did it for us.) Ben_ca even lent me a set of doubles for the weekend (which contributed to the hilarity, as it turned out.)
We came in Thursday night, met Claudette and Josh and had a lovely dinner together, during which Claudette and I adamantly refused to let anyone else get a word in edgewise, a pattern which was to continue through the entire weekend. Somewhat late to bed, and up early the following morning to follow Highway 1 to the entrance to Point Lobos State Reserve. Lobos is one's mental image of Monterey -- Wind blown cypress trees on the bluffs around the cove, waves breaking on the rocks at each end of the bay. There were otters playing in the kelp (Peter saw them but I didn't). And there were scooters . . .
Ben and David had been generous enough to provide theirs for Peter's and my enjoyment, although I think Chris and Kevin and Jonathan may have had more fun watching us flounder around with them than we were having. Descent, equipped with scooter and can light, left me wondering where the other two hands for ear clearing and buoyancy control were, and before I got it figured out, I had smacked into the bottom. A great way to impress our hosts with my diving skills. I regrouped and began to play with the scooter, and within a minute or so managed to get it pointed upward and fly up about 20 feet. Hmm. Back down and regroup again . . . Then, it began to work, and it's really a wild feeling to whiz through the water. We covered a lot of ground on the dive, which was fun, although I didn't see much of it. Keeping our leader in view and managing my steed was about all I had bandwidth for! All too soon, it was time to surface and scooter back to the boat ramp. I have to say that, if I lived in Monterey, I'd own a scooter, just to avoid the surface swims
Off we went to Turtle Bay for lunch, where I resisted the temptation to overeat the excellent Mexican food, and Peter did not. In view of what happened later, I was very glad of my restraint.
The second dive was Monastery Beach. We had "ideal" conditions for Monastery, I was told. When we went in, the waves were truly ankle-biters. Nonetheless, there is a long slog through heavy, shifting sand to the water. One walks a long way up a gentle slope, and a short distance down a very steep one. This is much easier to do going out than coming back in, as it proved.
We did South Monastery, which is a truly beautiful dive. One goes out along the kelp beds (and kelp is really gorgeous with the light coming down through it, just like all those marvellous photographs people post) and then one encounters a sequence of large rocks, covered in cup coral, sea stars, and the most bizarre, enormous crabs I have ever seen. They call them sheep crabs, i believe. We admired blue rockfish, who are amazingly unconcerned about divers. Painted greenlings and kelp greenlings were typically skittery. And, shortly before we turned the dive, we found a beautiful, fat harbor seal who came in and settled on the bottom right by us. I shone my light on him, and he shook his head just like a human from the glare, and then decamped.
On the way back, we got to admire the sea grass tossing in the surge, which should have been a warning. By the time we got back to shore, the waves were about 18" to 2 feet (I think -- I'd like to say they were six foot waves, but they weren't). They were breaking right where I could finally stand up to try to take my fins off, and that was a mistake, because I was promptly knocked down, and then repeatedly rolled. Poor Kevin had to put all his Rescue skills to work, since I couldn't get to my feet, and I couldn't get out into enough water to float and start over. Eventually, with a great deal of effort, he got my fins off and me upright and out of the water (Memo to self: Do NOT dive Monastery in doubles again. Ever.) But upright didn't last long, as my attempt to climb the short, steep slope ended with me on my knees, telling Peter to go to the car and get out of his gear and come back and help me. Luckily, he did NOT get pictures of me on my hands and knees in the sand, awaiting succor.
Off to Aquarius Dive shop for a fill, and then to the Breakwater for a night dive. Here, Claudette and Josh were surprised and delighted to find that Jonathan had recharged the scooters for THEIR use. When asked if he wanted to try them, Josh was briefly expressionless, and then this shy grin tugged at the corners of his mouth and he nodded very quickly. It cracked me and Claudette up. I thought deciding to do a night dive in an unfamiliar site as the first time on scooters was either very brave or an indication that neither of them had anything between their ears. As it turned out, it got more fun than that -- Both of them had their primary lights fail, so they were scootering along on their backups. They found everything they went out to find, and came back beaming and scheming to start scooter funds of their own.
Jonathan, Peter and I "kick dove" the Breakwater Wall. We saw pale silver sea pens and BIG translucent shrimp who were iridescent in the HID lights. There were lovely little red and white spotted crabs, and one enormous fish in a recess that none of us could identify. I got my aerobic exercise swimming after Jonathan -- All these scooter people have had their underwater speedometers completely recalibrated!
Off for excellent pizza and dive talk, and finally in bed about 11, only to get up and do it all again the following morning.
The next day was Saturday, and I think every reservation at Lobos was taken by our group. We met again outside the gate and figured out who was getting in on whose tag, and then we went and completely filled the parking lot. Lobos is quite nice, with restrooms, a fresh water hose for dive gear and boats, and a boat ramp for access (although it can be slippery). I met many of the people whose posts I've read, and with whom I've corresponded (some of whom are SBers, and some are just on the 5thd-x forums). One couple had recently come back from cave training in Mexico, and I had lots of questions for them.
We divided ourselves up, and Claudette and I wanted to get in a dive together, so we convinced Kevin to join us as guide. We then did the dive site shuffle -- I'd forgotten to charge my light, so I borrowed Claudette's spare; Don and Elissa had forgotten to put their drysuit hoses back on after warm water, and I had two spare hoses . . . You know how it goes. Once we were all properly equippped, we set off for the water, and proceeded to have a spectacularly beautiful dive. The left side of the cove has a huge granite wall on one side, and multiple smaller pinnacles adjacent to it. You feel as though you are swimming through deep, narrow canyons, with walls covered in sea life -- I found a beautiful white and lavender whelk, a tiny sculpin with a bright orange hat, among other delights. There were nudibranchs and rockfish and loads of color. We turned the dive on my gas (doubled 72s don't make for long dives if you are trying to get two out of them) and very reluctantly came back.
For the second dive, Peter joined up with Brian and Ildico of BAUE, and I . . . I got to do SKILLS! Kevin and I spent a half hour practicing in the cove, and despite my continued awkwardness with the new gear, it was really great fun. Peter was disgusted with me for wasting a dive 700 miles from home on drilling, but I was very happy.
Back to Aquarius to drop off tanks, and then a quick recon of the Aquarium and K dock in preparation for the next day's events. As we were driving through the dock parking, Peter points out a van that says, "www.docwong.com" on the side, and there is SB's own Doc Wong! It was an unexpected pleasure to meet him and chat for a few minutes. Then we were off to a laundromat to try to dry out my undergarment and glove liners -- Monastery sand had not been good for anything that was supposed to seal. We hit a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner and another Lynne and Claudette gabfest.
A good word here for the motel where we stayed, the Lone Oak Lodge. It's an older place, but absolutely diver-oriented. There is a lovely wash station, with graduated rinse tanks, a hose, rods on which to hang dry or wetsuits, and an outdoor shower. The rooms have heavy-duty hooks outside them to hang gear to drip dry. No need to figure out how to soak regulators in a hotel bathroom sink, as I'm doing now in San Francisco!
Sunday morning, we got up and I took off for the bakery for breakfast, accompanied by Claudette and Josh who were in search of caffeine. We all then repaired to the Monterey Aquarium, to spend a lovely morning. We admired the baby great white shark, and I was fascinated with the sunfish, which truly looks like something out of a B science fiction movie. I spent quite a bit of time in the Kelp Forest section, looking at the legends and trying to stuff my brain with ID information for our dives of the afternoon. It's a very nice aquarium, and well worth the effort to visit if you are there (and thank you to Ben for the guest passes!)
After a quick lunch, we headed for K dock and the Escapade. What a wonderful charter operation that is! Jim, the captain, is somewhat leprechaunish and has a lovely dry sense of humor. Abby, the DM, was enormously helpful (and I needed help, having never tried to manage myself on a boat in doubles before) and funny. And this was the first boat I've ever been on where there was a safety diver dressed and weighted, ready to jump in if needed.
We started at Outer Pinnacle, and the dive briefing was really fun, because Jim had a color-coded topographic map of the seafloor, and we could really see where we were going to be. There was a fair bit of current, but we went down the anchor line to the top of the pinnacle. We then spent a marvellous half hour exploring, enjoying the brilliant colors of the corynactus (sp?) and hydrocoral. Claudette found a wolf eel, which had her ecstatic, and I was fascinated with a small crab which looked exactly like an underwater tarantula. All too soon, gas demanded that we head back, and although I had a little trouble reacquiring the anchor line, we did find it, and made an ascent in good order.
Then I faced my fear. I had awakened in a dripping cold sweat at 3 a.m., thinking, "What if I can't get back on the boat?" I had never attempted to climb a boat ladder in doubles before, and I was completely uncertain if I could manage it. I had horrible visions of having to doff gear in the water and have someone drag it up, but as it turned out, thanks to Abby's vigorous assistance, it was not a problem. Whew!
The second dive was Jawdropper, a narrower pinnacle. Here we had no current at all, and the visibility was excellent. The site was again full of color and life, but for me, a big highlight was coming over the top of the rock and looking down into a hollow, to see about eight divers, all in doubles with can lights, some with scooters. It looked like a wildly futuristic set for a science fiction movie, and I spent a couple of minutes of my dwindling gas supply just soaking it in.
The ascent from this dive was amusing -- We all basically decided to go up at the same time, so we had a huge crowd of divers, all hovering around the anchor line, with the scooter boys diving circles around us. Claudette wanted to know where the carpool lane was . . .
Three GREAT days of diving. Three days of amazingly warm, hospitable, generous people. Three days of firsts: First scootering, first tumble in the Monastery sand, first boat ladder in doubles. Three days of color and life and amazing underwater topography.
What can I say but it was a joy to meet and dive with our SoCal and Washington state brothers and sisters. Having such a good time ought to be illegle.
I thought you did awsome on the boat. It was a funny moment to look down and see the deco commute traffic all piled up at the anchor line.
We always have fun on the boats, but Sunday tops everything.
Nice report & pictures and glad you had a good time in Monterey Bay. I am in Bay Area now. I am going to Monterey Bay on Oct.22-24. See you in Puget Sound soon.
Lynne, Peter, Claudette and Josh,
It was great to meet all of you... I never thought it was possible to get too much diving in on a weekend but after 6 dives over Sat/Sun (2 Lobos, 1 scooter night, 1 Lobos scooter, 2 boat) I'm beat down.... but it was well worth it....
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Jason