The Pasley July 06 Dive Report Thread

[headhunter]

Date:
Dive Location:
Buddy(ies):
Time:
Bottom Time:
Max Depth:
Vis:
Wave height:
Temp at depth:
Surface Temp:
Tide information:
Gas mix:
Comments:

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Date: The first of July!
Dive Location: La Jolla Marine room
Buddy(ies): Jackie P
Time: day
Bottom Time: 45mins (boo, too short!)
Max Depth: 135ft
Vis: wonderbloodybeautiful
Wave height: 3-4ft but tame
Temp at depth: cold cold cold
Surface Temp:warm warm warm
Tide information: err
Gas mix:21% (ooh I feel so techie just saying that!)
Comments:

We had a very cool dive at the marine room today, with extremes of both
temperature and vis. Jackie and I swam out to the northernmost of the
no-boating buoys and dropped down intending to head slightly north west,
looking for the western end of the small wall we encountered last week.

We dropped into very clear water at 45ft, with vis in the 40ft range
even that shallow. Plenty of evidence of batrays around, and there was a
small fringhead inside the plastic pipe at the bottom of the bouy
mooring line. I also saw a razor clam perform some strange locomotion -
it emerged, shell first, from the sand, and then pushed itself up and
over using its proboscis, which was sticking out approximately the same
length as its shell. It then pushed itself along the ground
inchworm-style for a couple of shell lengths before lying still on the
bottom - quite remarkable!

We set off in the planned direction, and soon found the rocky ledges, in
very cold water with superb vis; I would say it was 50ft at least, and
crystal clear with no visible particulates at all.
With vis that good, we could see the whole canyon side, and at that
point there is some very impressive structure, with a sharp rocky ridge
beginning at around 115ft and plunging down very deep very quickly.
Strangely, there were very few fish around - I would have expected to
see thousands given the visibility, but that was not the case. There
were lots of octopus and crabs, and I found a large dirona picta;
everything looking rather monochrome. (I tried to take some pictures,
only to have my camera flash "No memory card" at me in an accusing
fashion - doh!)

We came back up to 50ft and the eel grass beds, looking for warmer water
and interesting critters - we found very few critters and the water was
no warmer there, but the vis bagan to deteriorate rapidly so that by the
time we got to 30ft it was dive-by-feel.

So we surfaced and slalomed round the kayakers on the long kick back
inshore. Still a great 45 mins of diving, even if I did exit with better
then 1200lbs in the tank.

Peter

 

[Zaffy]

Date: July 1st
Dive Location: Refugio Beach
Buddy(ies): Girlfriend, Her boss, out of state buddy.
Time: Midday
Bottom Time: 40mins
Max Depth: 26ft
Vis: 3-5ft/muddy around kelp, but it cleared up to around 15ft when we found some rocks.
Wave height: 3ft, fair amount of surge.
Temp at depth: 60F
Surface Temp: Nice and warm
Gas mix: Air
Comments: My first beach dive and it was a blast. All of my buddies, far more experienced than I, thought it was an "ehh" dive, but I loved it. The entry went fairly well, we got beat up a little on the way in but we stuck to it.

We descended into a small kelp bed and poked around, there wasn't much that we could see, it was very muddy and poor vis. so we swam around searching for stuff to look at, vis cleared up to around 15ft in a rocky area. There were purple and red urchins, seastars, batstars, and anenome everywhere. The highlights were a fairly large 4ft shovelnose guitarfish, and a 5-6 inch crab that we followed for a while (my girlfriend insists it was close to 8-10in).

The entire dive was pretty shallow, but there was plenty to look at. The weather topside was beautiful.

 

[JMdiver]

Date: 7-2-06
Dive Location: Crescent Bay E. end
Buddy(ies):Joe
Time: 7:30AM
Bottom Time: 32min.
Max Depth: 33 fsw
Vis: 5-7ft
Wave height: 2-3ft
Temp at depth: 61F
Surface Temp:78F
Tide information: ?
Gas mix:air
Comments: We entered at the east end & swam around the reef & exited at Shaw's Cove. The vis wasn't good but the critters were out. We saw a Horn Shark, Cabezon, Lobster, & some Scallops. I had the fish eating out of my hand, even a Senorita Fish.
Because of the low vis & kinda high surf we opted on not doing a 2nd dive.

Happy Diving
John

 

[Frank O]

Date: 7/3/06
Dive Location: North Crescent, Laguna Beach
Buddy(ies): Diver_Jan
Time: 6:56 a.m.
Run time: 61 min
Max depth: 58 ft
Vis: Better shallow, murky deep
Wave height: Middling on entry; flatter later
Temp at depth: 59 F
Surface temp: 68 F (sharp thermocline at 30 ft)
Gas mix: 32%
Comments:

Knowing that several groups were headed to North Crescent this morning, I showed up to join the 6:15 a.m. shift. Robb and Chris planned to run drills in doubles, so I joined up with Diver_Jan for a sightseeing dive.

We swam out toward the Deadhenge buoy, dropped in about 25 ft, then continued heading out and followed the line of stones out. For most of the dive vis was probably 10 ft-ish. We came across a gigantinormous male sheephead that must have been close to the 3-ft max size for the species. Other sightings included two or three cabezons, a couple of Spanish shawls, a cantankerous sheepcrab and a lobster.

As the depth got close to 60 ft, the scene became quite murky and dark, so we headed back. Again, there was reasonable vis of about 10 ft on shallower reefs, and a sharp thermocline at 30 ft (you could see the two temperatures of water mixing together). Best vis of the dive was over sand before we got to the surf zone -- I'd call it at up to 20 ft. Surf had flattened and was an easy walkout. Thanks to Jan for a fun dive!

 

[Diver_Jan]

Wow Frank!

That was QUICK!!! I'm still here at work, but things are SLOW, so I'm making it an early day. Sure glad I didn't rush to get to work this morning! LOL

One thing that Frank forgot to point out, is that we (I) came across an anchor. Anyone know of someone that has lost one off their boat??? Let me know.

Also what was cool to see, was the life beginning to bloom on 'Deadhenge'. I even spotted a lobster about midway and a Kellet's Welk. Lots of Painted and Spotted Greenlings out and about in addition to the masses of Blacksmith. We also saw a 'lone' Sea Pansy on our way in over the sand.

Viz wasn't that great, but turned out to be an 'ok' dive. My co-workers can't believe I was actually diving before coming in. LOL Most likely will do the same drill tomorrow. We'll see.

 

[Jake]

Date: 7/3/06
Dive Location: Redondo Canyon
Buddy(ies): DMS, better half
Time in: 18:40
Max depth: 75 ft
Bottom time: 22min
Vis: 6-10 shallow, 3-6 deep
Wave height: 1-3ft (easy entry and exit)
Temp at depth: 54 F
Comments:

First dive at the canyon. Viz was pretty poor, although other conditions (e.g. temp, surf, etc.) were all really nice. I don't know if this is typical, or if it had to do with the time of day and visibility, but when we reached the edge of the canyon it looked like we were looking into a solid black cloud below. Quite disconcerting, to be honest. We hit our planned max at 75, looked around a bit at a sink and IIRC, a washing machine. Saw some sandals, a mask, and some angry sheep crab. Headed back up to get a little warmer and got bored, so headed in. Oh well.


Date: 7/3/06
Dive Location: Redondo Canyon
Buddy(ies): DMS, better half
Time in: 20:04
Max depth: 53 ft
Bottom time: 20min
Vis: 6-10 shallow, 3-6 deep
Wave height: 1-3ft (easy entry and exit)
Temp at depth: 59 F
Comments:

Swam out hoping to locate the remnants of the old pier. Either we lined up wrong, or the viz was just too poor, but we never found them. Found buttloads of different types of crabs and came across a very un-shy shrimp of some sort. He was about 7-9 inches in length and a transparent-silver color. Quite pretty, and the fact that he wasn't bashful was nice too. Really not much else to see. As with the first dive, viz was just so poor we weren't really doing much other than swimming around, so we called it pretty quickly. I think I surfaced with 2400 PSI on my AL80....

Off to Marineland tomorrow with any luck.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Date: July 1, 2006
Dive Location: Santa Cruz Island, Claudette's Rock
Buddy: Mo2vation
Time: 4PM splash
Bottom Time: 1 hour, 21 minutes
Max Depth: 41fsw
Vis: 40+, from the surface to the bottom: Lovely
Wave height: The waves were 'bout 200 yards away... didn't really give 'em a thought :14: . We were diving from the Brand-Spanking-New dive boat Sunfish!
Temp at depth: 55F

The Dive:
We were a ship of eager guinea pigs as the Sunfish crew motored through this shake-down cruise. They circumnavigated Anacapa Island, shook their heads in disgust at the murky water, and drove us to Santa Cruz Island. They anchored at North Scorpion, ushered us overboard and retrieved us. We raided the galley as they fillled tanks and zoomed to the Radar station cliffside, where we Tiny-Strided off the deck again (LOVE the 14 inch "drop" to the water ). Viz was iffy at both sites, but we saw some fun life. Crazy surge and Sahara sandstorm on the bottom at the second site was a challenge. Beauty was in the rays and sharks and fingers of sunlight lasering down from the stained-glass kelp ceiling.

But we were all craving some island magic. I painted "blue-sky" images to Captain Andy of what I wished we could be diving:
"Find us some pinnacles, Cap'n... some nice vertical wall structure, maybe head-high off the bottom... 30 to 50fsw would be great... and maybe some clearer water farther off shore..."

Ahhhh, if only.......

But Captain Andy listened, thought a moment, and said, "OK, let's go find it."

REALLY??? NOW we're talkin'!!!

200 yards offshore, the anchor rattled down. "Water's looking clear. About 8-foot relief on the rocks down there. You might like it."

SPLASH.... PARACHUTE down though honeyed clouds of kelp... and HOVER down into beauty and clear water, hooting and hollering into my reg: "OMG, this is BEAUTIFUL! LOOK at these rock formations packed with life and great 40+ viz and LOOK at that nudibranch and Sunflower Star!!!" (Enunciation wasn't quite that clear, but Ken seemed to understand me exactly Now, THIS is diving!)

The reef is made of pancaked layers, tilted up about 20 degrees, and broken off and eroded. The tallest stand up about 6-8 feet off the shell-debris bottom. The soft layers have eroded back one, two, or even three feet in depth resulting in parallel shelves packed with life. Just PACKED!! Sunflower stars, Cowries, corynactis, sponges, black urchins and some purples, keyhole limpets, bryozoans, tunicates, brittle stars, bat stars, spined stars, leather stars, cucumbers, snails and worms, gorgonia and anemones.... IT NEVER STOPPED!

And did I mention the nudibranchs? Ken photographed 7 distinct species, adding to the two species found on our earlier dives. (The surge was still quite frisky, and I'm amazed at his determination and skill, composing and shooting in the oscillating push-and-shove. I was whipped back and forth several times, and I had nothing to manage but myself. The pictures we reviewed in the galley afterwards were delightful!! I just don't know he could pull this off, but I'm grateful for the lasting images to add to my memories.)

We found a sleeping swell shark and left it dreaming soundly. Clacking Garibaldi's Boys repulsed our bubbling threat to their next generation of Little Orange New Yorkers with Fins and Scales. A painted greenling gave Ken all kinds of attitude, and got well photographed for its efforts. Kelp bass, sheepheads, rock wrasse, senoritas and blacksmiths fluttered all around the reef, filling our eyes and thoughts.

This is a very beautiful place. Thank you, Captain Andy, for putting us here to enjoy it all.

Having figure-eighted this way and that, I finally got near the bottom of even my water-heater-130 tank, (filled BTW, to 3400 psi by the Sunfish compressors!!! Way to fill, guys! This is Wonderful!)

Ken and I levitated upwards in the sunfilled water, amidst towers of carmel-colored kelp, filled with flocks of sunperch and senorita fish. Hovering nearly motionless at 20fsw, and then at 10fsw, Ken looked to be framed in air, beneath clouds of sparkling bubbles rising to a silvered sky. It's all too beautiful for words. I was welling up, floating in such soft and tactile beauty. And I am again, now, remembering it.

So, the Sunfish has begun it's book of GPS'd dive sites, building on 22 years of family knowledge of these northern channel islands. Named before we even left the deck and laid eyes on it, "Claudette's Rock" could have been anything from boring to ugly to lovely, but Andy said it was stuck with my moniker no matter what. I'm grateful and smiling big. Thanks :sappy: .

"Claudette's Rock".... Rocks!!
I wanna go back!!
Thank you, Sunfish, for taking us all there for a great dive!!
Thank you, Ken, for all the enthusiasm and fun exploration and an excellent day of diving.

Claudette

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: July 4, 2006
Dive Location: Marineland
Buddy(ies): Merry
Time: 8:27
Bottom Time: 1:01
Max Depth: 61'
Vis: 5-10'
Wave height: 1'
Temp at depth: 57F
Comments: It was so good to get back in the water today. Having a head cold during a dive trip sucks. I tried one dive Saturday and felt bad, then sat out Sunday and Monday. I only had a little difficulty clearing between 57' and 61' but was otherwise fine.
It was also good to get back to Marineland. It felt like coming home. I found the usual large assortment of nudibranchs, octopus, Gorgonians, sponges, Christmas Tree worms and even a few fish. The entry and exit were very easy today without any surf. We did miss one thing though. There were several dolphins, including at least one baby swimming near the beach just before we made it back in. All in all, a great way to spend a day at the beach.

Facelina stearnsi

Cuthona divae

Hermissenda crassicornis

Doriopsilla albopunctata

Christmas Tree worm

Cadlina luteomarginata

Doriopsilla albopunctata

Doriopsilla albopunctata

Feeding Two-spot octopus

Navanax inermis

 

[divinman]

John and I did have a nice dive last night. While he writes up the oration, here are the pictures.

Terry