Location: Van Damm, Mendocino
Time: 11:24am
BT: 41 minutes
depth: 45 fsw
surface conditions: overcast, 58˚
bottom temp: 46˚
Slight surge
Low to incoming tide
vis 25 feet
Had run into a guy on Friday who said he saw 30ft vis at Ocean Cove earlier that day. I was extremely skeptical, but still glad to have plans for Sunday (today) to dive Van Damm, about a mile south of Mendocino on the North Coast.
Arriving at Van Damm beach I saw that the water was glassy and there were no waves. It was low tide and the three prominences of rock out in the middle of the bay were jutting high above the water. Ab divers were heading out and there were numerous floats out around the small islands.
My buddy, Greg, and I picked the middle island and did the .3+ mile surface swim out to it. It was a long swim and took a good bit of time to get out there. I just followed the voices of the ab divers who were already out there and after a while i could hear them more clearly. Greg and I swam between the middle island and the one to its left and dropped in about 40 fsw just to the west of the left rocky outcropping. It looked murky from the surface but as soon as we had some depth we could see that vis was very good.
We descended onto a vast boulder field, with many large rock crevasses and sheer faces. Strangely, there was very little coraline algae and no kelp, though we'd swum out through a bit of bull kelp. There were lots of purple urchins and abalone of all sizes from huge to small juveniles.
Our plan was to noodle around to the west of the island, just wandering about the boulder field until it was time to come up.
I was startled to see four stimson stars in sizes from about half a meter to about one meter diameter. We encountered a large Copper under an overhang, and saw a medium Ling, a couple of bright lemon nudis, and a white translucent nudi, very thin and about 1 1/2 cm long - not a dirona - that I'd never seen before. Near the end of the dive I felt some surge coming up, but it was not hardly worth noting.
I was happy to have my new thinsulate undies on; it was 46˚ and my hands got a bit chilly with my very thin polypro dry glove liners. I really noticed the chill in my hands more on the swim back in, which seemed to take longer than the trip out even though by then the tide was coming in. Greg told me about a time he'd swum from there against an outgoing tide and it sounded like a grind.
Back on the beach just about everyone was talking about how cold it was, but all I could think of was the endless boulder field out beyond the confines of the bay. In the end I think the chill combined with the long swim out and back dampened our enthusiasm for a second dive, though one old salt, an instructor I recognized from a boat trip, exited, dumped his ab gear, donned a drysuit and swam back out.
After such a crummy winter it was good to have a really great day on the north coast.
Jeff
Time: 11:24am
BT: 41 minutes
depth: 45 fsw
surface conditions: overcast, 58˚
bottom temp: 46˚
Slight surge
Low to incoming tide
vis 25 feet
Had run into a guy on Friday who said he saw 30ft vis at Ocean Cove earlier that day. I was extremely skeptical, but still glad to have plans for Sunday (today) to dive Van Damm, about a mile south of Mendocino on the North Coast.
Arriving at Van Damm beach I saw that the water was glassy and there were no waves. It was low tide and the three prominences of rock out in the middle of the bay were jutting high above the water. Ab divers were heading out and there were numerous floats out around the small islands.
My buddy, Greg, and I picked the middle island and did the .3+ mile surface swim out to it. It was a long swim and took a good bit of time to get out there. I just followed the voices of the ab divers who were already out there and after a while i could hear them more clearly. Greg and I swam between the middle island and the one to its left and dropped in about 40 fsw just to the west of the left rocky outcropping. It looked murky from the surface but as soon as we had some depth we could see that vis was very good.
We descended onto a vast boulder field, with many large rock crevasses and sheer faces. Strangely, there was very little coraline algae and no kelp, though we'd swum out through a bit of bull kelp. There were lots of purple urchins and abalone of all sizes from huge to small juveniles.
Our plan was to noodle around to the west of the island, just wandering about the boulder field until it was time to come up.
I was startled to see four stimson stars in sizes from about half a meter to about one meter diameter. We encountered a large Copper under an overhang, and saw a medium Ling, a couple of bright lemon nudis, and a white translucent nudi, very thin and about 1 1/2 cm long - not a dirona - that I'd never seen before. Near the end of the dive I felt some surge coming up, but it was not hardly worth noting.
I was happy to have my new thinsulate undies on; it was 46˚ and my hands got a bit chilly with my very thin polypro dry glove liners. I really noticed the chill in my hands more on the swim back in, which seemed to take longer than the trip out even though by then the tide was coming in. Greg told me about a time he'd swum from there against an outgoing tide and it sounded like a grind.
Back on the beach just about everyone was talking about how cold it was, but all I could think of was the endless boulder field out beyond the confines of the bay. In the end I think the chill combined with the long swim out and back dampened our enthusiasm for a second dive, though one old salt, an instructor I recognized from a boat trip, exited, dumped his ab gear, donned a drysuit and swam back out.
After such a crummy winter it was good to have a really great day on the north coast.
Jeff
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