Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[3D diver]

Halfmoon, I believe. Silver with a black dot at the top of their gill slit?

We got into a school of them Wednesday:



Skip to the 2:30 mark, if you wish.

 

[chris_the_brit]

Out on the Sanctuary on Sunday morning. Quite large swells on the rides out and back. Saw a pod of Risso's dolphin on the ride out, which was pretty cool.
First dive at Stillwater Cove, strong surge and vis between 10 and 20 feet, but an OK dive. Second dive at Eric's Pinnacle and the surge was even stronger. Another boat was at the pinnacle when we arrived so had to navigate to it across the sand - vis down to 5 feet in places. Came across a mini-pinnacle I'd not seen down there before, covered in metridium but they were all closed up. Eric's was better vis, up to 20 feet, with lots of fish. Challenging safety stop at the end with the surge.
Good to be out though, and I was happy to get some navigation practice in poor conditions - I feel like all my NorCal diving this year has been a bit too easy.

 

[griffon]

Pleasant Monday mid morning dive at break water wall. We had 15-20ft vis with mild surge shallow but generally was fine. We did 85 minutes out near the end and back. My backup zoop put it 55f. Left my mares sitting on my desk . Pics later.
It was starting turn when we got spit around one though, so we skipped a second.


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[3D diver]

Two fun dives at Point Lobos today. The water was incredibly clear in the cove near the ramp, but got a little milky at the dive sites themselves. Surface water 54F, 52.9F at depth.

1st Dive: Coal Chute Caves and Middle Reef. 60 minutes, 52 feet max depth, vis 20 to 40 feet. A little surge in the first cave. Saw several Lingcod, got into a nice school of Blue Rockfish and chased a Male Sheephead.

2nd Dive: Hole in the Wall and Lone Metridium. 51 minutes, 65 feet max depth, vis also 20 to 40 feet. More ling's, a couple of Harbor Seal passes, a distant sea lion & a cormorant. Lone Metridium seemed smaller for some reason.

Comments: We had intended to dive HITW & LM first but after kicking all the way out I discovered water in my 3D GoPro housing. Less than a teaspoon & the cameras were still working but, obviously, I had to return them to shore. My buddy followed me back to the ramp and waited patiently while I exited, removed the GoPro's, rinsed them in fresh water and removed the batteries. They are in a baggie of rice now. We didn't want to kick all the way back to HITW so did the caves first.

My right knee got wet during the first dive and I found a cut in the suit during our surface interval. The resourceful RaftingTigger was parked next to me and gave me a bit of radiator hose tape which stopped the leak during our second dive.

The vis on both dives varied quite a bit, moment to moment, with a minimum of about 20 feet and 40 feet or more at other times. The sky was cloudy much of the time which reduced the apparent lateral vis. Vertical vis was very good at all times.

 

[3D diver]

Follow up: A replacement 3D housing arrived today. I took the GoPro's out of the rice, dusted them off, and they powered up just fine. :banana:

 

[uspap]

Did two dives with Mubin today. First was Butterfly House. Vis was 15-25ft with best vis in cove. It dropped off quite a bit the further out and South you went. Surge fairly deep. Made it a bit more of an air burner. Exit waves were picking up. Second dive was North Monastery. What a difference. Calm, no surge and 25-35ft vis. Best vis in shallower. Both dives had a temp of 53.

 

[3D diver]

Six of us met up at the Breakwater last night for a New Year's Eve night dive.

The tide was out with no waves to speak of when we entered. The vis was nice---15 to 20+ feet. My computer logged the air temperature as 41.7F and a water temperature range of 54.3 to 55F. I had a bottom time of 69 minutes, max depth of 43 feet. A wind chop had come up when we surfaced which, combined with the rising tide, made for some odd mixed direction churn at the exit, but it was small enough not to be a real problem.

I was mobbed by cormorant on the surface kick out. Harbor seals hung out with all three teams, hunting in our lights, so most fish were hiding as best they could. There seemed to be a lot of Dendronitus Iris about. We also saw a nice pipe fish & I spotted an octopus.

Unfortunately, my new 3D housing leaked so my cameras are back in the rice. I spotted the problem---I use fishing line as a safety lanyard for my cameras and the end of one line was getting into the case. D'oh! I had a backup camera along but it failed too. Fortunately, my Kodak SP360s worked & I'm uploading a video to YT now. I'm charging all that to 2015, and looking forward to a better 2016.

Happy New Year.

 

[griffon]

Dive date: 1/1/16 10:10 AM
Duration: 58min
Dive location: Lovers 1, Pacific Grove
Buddy: Bruce S
Lots of surge, rough seas. Vis was mostly 10-15, sun in and out. Kayaks out of the cove. 50f.

---------- Post added January 1st, 2016 at 11:24 PM ----------

Wish I had mad that one last night 3D diver, the day dive today was not so good.

 

[Ouvea]

Was a mixed bag at Point Lobos. Observed the best visibility in the shallower water, especially around the ramp and in the shallower waters (40-55 ft) within Bluefish Cove. Around Rock Garden and Three Sisters, the latter which is in over 100 ft of water, the water turned dark and hazy. While I was happy to finally get to Bluefish Cove, if I had to do it over again, I would have donned my freediving gear and stayed in the shallow waters of Whaler's Cove. Even moving from the ramp toward the center, the clarity appeared to have held up nicely. Water temp averaged about 54-56 degrees. Away from the ramp and away from Bluefish Cove, it was a hazy 20-25, at best.

 

[Dos Cylindros]

We did two dives at the Breakwater yesterday. Vis was about 15' to 20' depending on where you were, bottom temps were at 53 to 54. Dive one was a short, shallow dive along the Breakwater wall with a max depth of 22'. We did see several really large ling cod, so big in fact that I initially mistook it for a juvenile harbor seal. Dive two was a circuit from the wall, across the middle kelp fields to the pipe and back in. Max depth for that dive was 34' with a bottom time of 45 min. We called the dive early as both of use were really cold and I had developed quite a headache. It was quite relaxing to be back in the water as work has conspired to keep me out for the past month or so.