Dive Site: Hahaha... oh two awesome dives, off a friends boat, in Pt. Lobos!!!!!!
Date: July 6, 2008
Conditions: WOW!!!!
Water Temp: 48 - 50F
Air Temp: 70-75F
Waves: huh??? what are those???
Surge: None. Keinen. Nil. Zip. Nada.
Swell: yup, was real swell day, er, uh, I mean there was a slight 4-6 ft swell today
Water Temp: 48 - 50F
Air Temp: 70-75F
VIS: 50 + feet - would'a been 80+ if the sun had ever come out from behind the smoke and fog!!!! :(
Dive Buddys: Dannobee, DocWong, Tom M.
Dive site 1: Thumb's UP
Dropped down into crystal Blue water. If only the sun weren't so shy! Saw 2 BIG sandieganisisisisis (sp?) and a big rosy flower of eggs nearby. Then a lingcod slowly goes by , with those huge teeth jutting out, acting all " phhaaawww, I can so take you on!" AS IF! Lots of bull kelp and pink, blue, and purple hydrocorals abounded everywhere. more sandieganisisis, and a herrmissinda, then a lemon peel, and a nobilis... wow... the color of the strawberry corynactis, and then some pink-mouthed hydroids. I so love the pretty hydroids. as pretty as they are, it's another good reason to wear gloves in the frigid, er, uh, temperate waters of Cally!
Meandering along the pinnacles and peaks of Thumb's Up, I came accross a black n yellow rockfish. We have this real intimate moment, me hanging upside down, water trickling into my mask, he/she just inches from my face. Checking me out. I am checking it's deep misty Blue eyes out. taking each other in. I so love it when I get to see fish face, instead of fishy behinds, don't you??
Ok... getting down to 800 psi, so to the anchor and up. At 15 fsw, I wish I HAD put that other 2 pounder in my pocket before I dropped.... <sigh> Still hold onto the line. look up towards the surface on my safety stop... kelp dark against the waterry surface... me blowing bubble rings...
ok, about an hour and a half... eat some fruit and yogurt, move boat....
dive #2 - South-west side Blue Fish Cove
OK, more blue water, but more fog has rolled in, or was it smoke? So even less natural light... a little murky, but still over 50 feet of vis... hee hee!!!!!!
DocWong and I drop into one of my favorite dive spots up here! Spot a dozen or so hermissindas... some egg roses, but no obvious mates...a Sheephead bigger than any of the 6 "Oscars" at Cat park. Up here they are called "Victor"... ROFL.. oh, saw Victor again, but this time, about 6 inches longer, and some scraps on his right flank... <giggling>
Lots more small invert life like at thumb's up, but there are FISH... lots of fish... ok, maybe not tons, but definately a dozen dozen! (So sad they fished the heck out of this area)
Spot another Lingcod, different color, but same attitude. Sometimes, they are so frickin arrogant, I wish I WAS a spearfisher! they seem to be such easy prey... that's what happend when you have big attitude, right?
OK, two super cool things on this dive. At the beginning of it, I spot an inch long free swimming scallop sucking in water through it's yellow and black mantle/eyeballs. It was on top of a red algae lettuce leaf. I picked the algae leaf with the scallop on top and took it to my buddy. We gently urge the scallop off the leaf, and watch it do it's clapper dance through the water horizontally in the water column. Then, it stops and starts to freefall down towards the reef. I scopp under it, trying to get it to freeswim some more, but it seems really pooped out. So I set it back down onto the reef and bid adiu...
At the end of the dive, we make our way over reef and through kelp back to the anchor line. We check the anchor to ensure it will be easily pullable, when I notice a bouy around it, about 15 feet up from the anchor itself, around the line, close to the chain. I think to myself, "I don't remember Tom having a bouy around the line?" I move closer, and am astonished when I see it is actually a giant gumbo chiton, wrapped around the line. I pick it up, hunting for the edges of it. I try to pull it off the line. It won't budge. I finally lock the darn thing in my knees and start prying it open... <errrrgggghhhhhh> finally, it allows itself to be unwrapped from the line. As soon as I have it off the line, the darn things goes back into ball mode. Now, instead of a bouy, it looks like a football. I am tempted to "throw" it to doc but instead place it on the reef. Then we head up the anchor line... back to reality ...
<sigh>
Live to Dive and Dive to Live!
o o o o o o
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U
Laurel
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