A Hard Day's Dive

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MaxBottomtime

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
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Location
Torrance, CA
# of dives
2500 - 4999
We planned to go back to Phil's Reef this morning to feed some squid to Pepé, or whomever was there. After looking at my previous poor quality photos and video of the wolf eel, we couldn't be sure if the one we saw yesterday was a different one. Scott and Margaret Webb snuck out early to try and scoop us, but didn't find Pepé. Margaret reported sixty feet visibility at the bottom. Note to self; buy Margaret a prescription mask for Christmas.


The surface water was even bluer than yesterday. I looked down our anchor rode and saw our depth markings seventy-five feet below.


PhilsReef1-3.jpg


At the bottom, however, we could only see a shadowy outline of the metridium block from the crab sculpture twenty feet away. Oh well, eighteen feet vis is better than some of our dives here.


We didn't find any wolf eels, so I took a few shots and then headed west in search of the barge. I swam for quite awhile before turning back. After what seemed like five minutes, I surfaced to take a bearing after missing Phil's Reef. I was a hundred yards northeast. After a rushed surface swim, I dropped back down to take a few shots of Merry in the blue water.


PhilsReef3-4.jpg

Metridium block, home of Pepé the wolf eel


PhilsReef4-3.jpg

Crab Sculpture


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PhilsReef7-3.jpg



During our ascent, I saw Merry arching her back and looking upward. She's usually very good at remaining horizontal during a dive, so I looked up to see what she was looking at. From fifty feet, the surface looked as if we could almost touch it.


I told Merry when I first met her in 2006 that we would have better conditions in the Fall. For the next five years I had to eat those words, but Fall of 2012 is giving us bluer water that I have seen near shore in twenty years.


PhilsReef9-3.jpg



PhilsReef10-2.jpg
 
Your really getting under my dusty skin :confused: I thought the swell model was looking mediocre, so I took off to Arizona for the weekend!

That is some incredible visibility Phil! Love the shot of Merry looking up the anchor line up at the boat.
 
When we left King Harbor the swells were two feet with short intervals, so we drove slowly. After a forty minute dive we surfed back in over four to five footers.
 
Something which has puzzled me for years is how the vertical visibility can be so much better than the horizontal. We had that today at Keystone.
 
Something which has puzzled me for years is how the vertical visibility can be so much better than the horizontal. We had that today at Keystone.

Probably because the light source from above the water is a might bit more powerful (direct sunlight rather than reflected).
 
Beautiful photos. I dove with Ross once in Mendocino County where we had 80+ of vis and both of us sat there on our looong safety stop staring down looking at the scenery far below us.

I would say the horizontal vis is worse only at the bottom as the sediment layer sits there.
 
We tend to get layers. Last week we had nice blue water between twenty and fifty feet, but the top and bottom were dirty. We've also had many dives where the top forty feet were brown, but underneath was like a beautiful night dive. The water we have now is as blue as any I've seen at San Clemente Island. I hope it stays around for awhile.
 

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