Lenaxia
Contributor
Conditions were pretty bad yesterday. Both dives were actually fairly stressful for individual reasons.
On the first dive, we were looking for the Metridium fields. Finding the pipe leading out to the fields proved to be no problem. As we hit about 30ft, I noticed a few scattered nettles above us, the cloud stopped at about 25ft of depth. Strangely enough though, as we started getting deeper the cloud started no only getting thicker but also coming lower. By the time we hit 45ft, the jellyfish cloud was so deep, we were literally pulling ourselves along the ground.
The point at which we decided to turn around, there was less than 6 inches of clearance between the bottom of the cloud and the floor. Visibility was actually only about 10ft, even with that though, I could not see the end of our visual range. The cloud of jellyfish was so thick ahead of us, I could not actually see them start disappearing into the water. Yeah, we could've pushed through it, we were at 49ft and pretty close to the fields. However I'm pretty sure that the fields would've been flooded too and no fun to swim though.
I am not fond of jellyfish and I will admit that I had a minor panic attack inching it's way up my throat when I saw how thick that cloud was and how little room we had to maneuver. Panicking down there was useless anyway though, no way in hell I was going to try to surface through that as I would've surfaced screaming in pain with the number of jellyfish there were, so the only option was to just turn around and go back. As much as I love being outdoors and doing things like camping and other outdoor activities, I have no particularly desire to "Man" through any sort of discomfort like this. Physical exertion? Sure I'll push myself till my body falls apart. Bee stings, nettles (sea or plant), ivy, what-have-you. Thank you, but no thank you.
The second dive was also... rather interesting. Lover's 3 had some rather large breaking waves, but wasn't particularly surgey. It was actually pretty nice. Visibility was about 7ft, but there was still a good amount of life out and about. We had the privilege of being stalked by a harbor seal and our first descent he was waiting for us at the bottom, probably thinking "stupid humans! "
We decided to work our way around Lover's point and end at either Lover's 1 or 2, what I didn't expect was just how rocky and difficult the terrain out at the end of the point was. It was quite like winding our way through a maze. The surge gradually got worse and made swimming between the large rocks somewhat treacherous. This swim REALLY tested my navigational skills. The first time we came up, we surfaced uncomfortably close to the rocks themselves and any closer and we would've become intimately familiar with Lover's point. I quickly called for descent and swim away from the rocks.
In terms of navigation, counting kick cycles was practically impossible. Because of the terrain, the surge would pick us up and instead of depositing us where we started, would drop us off at a random spot, usually on the lee side of a rock that we just swung around. Additionally, we would have to brace ourselves otherwise the surge would take us -into- a rock. Because of all this shifting around, my heading which would've originally taken us clear of the point put us too close to the surface rocks. All throughout, we were only at between 15-20ft deep.
After our near miss, I considered calling the dive, but we had made it so far out, that turning around would've been just as difficult as continuing. It was a 50/50 call and either way would have to do. I choose to continue and my buddy was still signalling "OK" at this point.
Another thing I learned was that surge is difficult to swim though, even when not fighting it. Again, after we cleared the point, and I took a heading for Lover's 1, I found we could not maintain heading. The path I took would bring us diagonally through the surge to the beach. Well, swimming through surge diagonally, even only through the lulls is nigh impossible. It will continually reorient you to align with the direction of surge; much like a magnet will realign a piece of metal to be along it's field lines. While in this case it did little harm and actually brought us to a good place right between Lovers 1 and 2, in other situations, this could be rather bad.
Surprisingly, the surge near Lovers 1 and 2 was ridiculously strong. I estimate swings somewhere around 10-12ft of just back and forth. I'd look at my compass and see the ground whizzing by in my peripheral vision and it was somewhat disorienting. When we finally surfaced, all was calm, unlike the conditions below.
Who was there to greet us? But the friendly harbor seal that had been there at the start. It had follow us all the way around the point and showed up a few times during the dive. It definitely was thinking "Stupid humans" by this point!
Both of these dives, though the second one in particular, pushed my comfort zone. The first one pushed my comfort-comfort zone and the second one pushed my skills-comfort zone. I've learned a lot and I am somewhat glad we did these dives. They've help me establish boundaries to follow for now and probably for a while.
It was a long read but thanks for those of you who made it to the end!
On the first dive, we were looking for the Metridium fields. Finding the pipe leading out to the fields proved to be no problem. As we hit about 30ft, I noticed a few scattered nettles above us, the cloud stopped at about 25ft of depth. Strangely enough though, as we started getting deeper the cloud started no only getting thicker but also coming lower. By the time we hit 45ft, the jellyfish cloud was so deep, we were literally pulling ourselves along the ground.
The point at which we decided to turn around, there was less than 6 inches of clearance between the bottom of the cloud and the floor. Visibility was actually only about 10ft, even with that though, I could not see the end of our visual range. The cloud of jellyfish was so thick ahead of us, I could not actually see them start disappearing into the water. Yeah, we could've pushed through it, we were at 49ft and pretty close to the fields. However I'm pretty sure that the fields would've been flooded too and no fun to swim though.
I am not fond of jellyfish and I will admit that I had a minor panic attack inching it's way up my throat when I saw how thick that cloud was and how little room we had to maneuver. Panicking down there was useless anyway though, no way in hell I was going to try to surface through that as I would've surfaced screaming in pain with the number of jellyfish there were, so the only option was to just turn around and go back. As much as I love being outdoors and doing things like camping and other outdoor activities, I have no particularly desire to "Man" through any sort of discomfort like this. Physical exertion? Sure I'll push myself till my body falls apart. Bee stings, nettles (sea or plant), ivy, what-have-you. Thank you, but no thank you.
The second dive was also... rather interesting. Lover's 3 had some rather large breaking waves, but wasn't particularly surgey. It was actually pretty nice. Visibility was about 7ft, but there was still a good amount of life out and about. We had the privilege of being stalked by a harbor seal and our first descent he was waiting for us at the bottom, probably thinking "stupid humans! "
We decided to work our way around Lover's point and end at either Lover's 1 or 2, what I didn't expect was just how rocky and difficult the terrain out at the end of the point was. It was quite like winding our way through a maze. The surge gradually got worse and made swimming between the large rocks somewhat treacherous. This swim REALLY tested my navigational skills. The first time we came up, we surfaced uncomfortably close to the rocks themselves and any closer and we would've become intimately familiar with Lover's point. I quickly called for descent and swim away from the rocks.
In terms of navigation, counting kick cycles was practically impossible. Because of the terrain, the surge would pick us up and instead of depositing us where we started, would drop us off at a random spot, usually on the lee side of a rock that we just swung around. Additionally, we would have to brace ourselves otherwise the surge would take us -into- a rock. Because of all this shifting around, my heading which would've originally taken us clear of the point put us too close to the surface rocks. All throughout, we were only at between 15-20ft deep.
After our near miss, I considered calling the dive, but we had made it so far out, that turning around would've been just as difficult as continuing. It was a 50/50 call and either way would have to do. I choose to continue and my buddy was still signalling "OK" at this point.
Another thing I learned was that surge is difficult to swim though, even when not fighting it. Again, after we cleared the point, and I took a heading for Lover's 1, I found we could not maintain heading. The path I took would bring us diagonally through the surge to the beach. Well, swimming through surge diagonally, even only through the lulls is nigh impossible. It will continually reorient you to align with the direction of surge; much like a magnet will realign a piece of metal to be along it's field lines. While in this case it did little harm and actually brought us to a good place right between Lovers 1 and 2, in other situations, this could be rather bad.
Surprisingly, the surge near Lovers 1 and 2 was ridiculously strong. I estimate swings somewhere around 10-12ft of just back and forth. I'd look at my compass and see the ground whizzing by in my peripheral vision and it was somewhat disorienting. When we finally surfaced, all was calm, unlike the conditions below.
Who was there to greet us? But the friendly harbor seal that had been there at the start. It had follow us all the way around the point and showed up a few times during the dive. It definitely was thinking "Stupid humans" by this point!
Both of these dives, though the second one in particular, pushed my comfort zone. The first one pushed my comfort-comfort zone and the second one pushed my skills-comfort zone. I've learned a lot and I am somewhat glad we did these dives. They've help me establish boundaries to follow for now and probably for a while.
It was a long read but thanks for those of you who made it to the end!
