Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[stilldivin]

7-20-18. Fun dive at Breakwater with great vis, lots of interesting critters, and calm seas. Look for a salp, a scallop closing its mouth, a jelly fish, sea cucumbers, a rose anemone, many crabs, and a keyhole limpet. Also look for cup coral, soft, colorful coral, star fish, sea lemons, rockfish and nudibranchs. On our way back we swam away from the wall and explored the reefs we had not visited much before today. Our dive lasted 48 minutes to a max depth of 46 feet. Water temp. was 51 degrees.

 

[uspap]

What would you estimate the vis at? I was thinking about diving Thursday but figured it would be bad with all the warm sun shiny days. I wish I had gone.

 

[stilldivin]

Sorry. I usually put it in the report. I'd say up to 30 feet. It was amazing.

 

[Bigbella]

North Monastery had a good twenty feet of visibility, out by the splash rock; though there was a bit of surge close to shore. There were a tremendous number of slowky schooling rockfish; a long chain of sales; and a medium sized mola on the way back . . .

 

[KRL1973]

North monastery today was easy walk in entry in knee high surf. Very healthy kelp bed there. Visibility was a green 10-12 feet. Few moon jellies and salp like creatures. Mostly dead lying on the bottom. Some blue and olive rockfish. Few senoritas and schools of small tubesnout. Had an amazing encounter with a big cabezon that I will link video clip to.
Fog dissipated in the afternoon making for nice topside lunch on the beach post-dive. Great day. Good to be out diving again.

 

[3D diver]

Two fun dives today at Point Lobos with a bevy of beauties, who wanted more bottom time after yesterday's Woman's Dive Day. The seas were flat, but the visibility not so good...

First Dive: Hole In The Wall

Bottom time: 49 minutes
Max depth: 62 feet
Visibility: a milky 10 to 20 feet
Water temperature: 57.2F to 61.5F
Surface conditions: Cloudy. Flat seas. Lots of kelp, but a better boat channel than my last dive (July 7'th).

Four of us surface kicked well out in the boat channel then dropped in to the murk, which opened out a bit at depth. We landed in the boulder/kelp field south of the wall & headed roughly on a vector toward "Bird Poop" rock 'til the sand channel and Cannery Point wall presented themselves. We amused ourselves taking pictures & shooting video of each other through Hole in the Wall then, due to the available air and poor visibility, turned back in the channel behind HITW instead of pressing on to Lone Metridium. We explored the urchin barren for a while then rejoined the sand channel and cruised on a south bearing through the kelp. After another air check we worked our way up to 15-10 feet for a moving safety stop and surfaced in a conveniently kelp free area. We were still further out than expected, but it was an easy swim back to the boat channel, with a few salps and jellyfish to keep things interesting.

Second Dive: Cross Whaler's cove, Coal Chute Caves, and back.

Bottom time: 71 minutes
Max depth: 38 feet
Visibility: 5-15 feet
Water temperature: 57.2F to 63.7F
Surface conditions: Too much kelp for a surface swim to Coal Chute. Cloudy. Flat water.

I was asked to lead us across Whaler's and into the Coal Chute caves (they knew of my questionable navigation skills & asked anyway?!?!?) One of our party had skipped the first dive but joined us for this one, along with a friend who happened to also be at Lobos (we had reservations to spare, so this was on the up-and-up) and another couple from LA. We swam from the ramp to the edge of the kelp, everyone took a compass heading for the south side of Coal Chute, and we dropped. It soon became clear that the vis was too bad to move as a contiguous group. We headed off on the heading and I never saw more than 4 or 5 of our party after that. Unbeknownst to me, everyone contrived a way to fallow the folks ahead of them---lights, distinctive fins or drysuits, etc.---and relied on the compass heading occasionally to link back up. Eventually, I was starting to wonder when we would hit the far side of the cove then realized I recognized the rock formation & small cave in front of me. We were just 20 or 30 feet south of the entrance to Coal Chute. We checked out both caves---everybody had made it to the caves---then started back on a reciprocal heading. At this point the LA couple headed off to Middle Reef & made it back to the ramp before us. The rest of us moseyed along checking out the various rockfish & other critters along the way. When we reached a fairly clear kelp free region we worked up to another moving safety stop, then surfaced maybe 50 feet north of the boat ramp! Two of our party were still checking out an interesting fish & surfaced a few minutes later.

Not a textbook example of group dive management, but I never took that course anyway, and everyone had fun.

 

[uspap]

Two at Breakwater yesterday. First was the wall. Checked on the swell shark/mermaids purse. A bunch of shrimp were out. Two Cormorants took a liking to us and decided we needed harassing. One was attacking my reg hose and staring at my camera. Another was after my friends fins and camera. Fun dive.

Second dive was the kelp where we checked on a resident Octopus and Fringe head. After a half hour we went over to the wall and finished our dive. Both dives had about 15 ft vis +/-. Water temp was surprising at 58. Overcast to start the first dive but surfaced to sunshine.

 

[KRL1973]

North monastery today was easy walk in entry in knee high surf. Very healthy kelp bed there. Visibility was a green 10-12 feet. Few moon jellies and salp like creatures. Mostly dead lying on the bottom. Some blue and olive rockfish. Few senoritas and schools of small tubesnout. Had an amazing encounter with a big cabezon that I will link video clip to.
Fog dissipated in the afternoon making for nice topside lunch on the beach post-dive. Great day. Good to be out diving again.

here is the video link

 

[3D diver]

Great dive today to Hole In the Wall, Lone Metridium, AND Sea Mount with RaftingTigger and another friend.

Bottom time: 60 minutes
Max depth: 74 feet
Visibility: 40 to 50+ feet!!!!
Water temperature: 50.7F to 57.2F
Conditions: Overcast. Dramatic looking swell that really didn't amount to anything. Tide was low on the ramp and rising.

The visibility near the ramp was awful, but by the time we started into the boat channel the bottom was revealed, and it just kept getting better. We kicked well out in the boat channel, hoping to drop near HITW, but found we were above Middle Reef when we dropped into 46 feet of water. We worked our way on a heading toward bird poop rock 'til we found the Cannery Point Wall and headed for Hole in the Wall. The surface was clearly visible when we dropped and when I checked again at 51 feet. It was visible, but just a bit fuzzy at 60 feet. We continued on around to Lone Metridium, in full bloom, then headed due north to Sea Mount. We checked that out for a few minutes when I reached half air and requested a turn around.

As we approached Lone Metridium for a second time we spotted a Sheephead nibbling at a long---15+ foot---salp chain. The Sheephead took off, and we all had fun filming and taking pictures of the Salp chain. We then headed back through the Rock Garden 'til we got into fairly shallow waters, did a cruising safety stop, and surfaced in a kelp clearing about 15 to 20 feet from the boat channel. I did a crawl to the channel, while my buddies dropped and made the transit underwater, and we swam happily back to the ramp.

 

[uspap]

1st dive was Breakwater because there was a Pod of Dolphins just off the number 4 for about a 1/2 hour. Never saw them in the water of course. 15ft vis tops. Water temp 52. 2nd dive South Monastery. 40ft vis. Very nice dive. Water temp 50. I guess the winds have helped the vis. Great day to be out. North Monastery looked a bit surgy and a lot of junk in the water, so we chose South side.