Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[marcus8]

Sheer desperation to get wet led us to the Breakwater around Noonish yesterday, Sunday. Tide was low but coming in. Not much surge. 51 Oceanic degrees. Bout 5' of dark green viz at the meeting point of sand and rocks, opening up to a whopping 10' in the best spots further out and up on the wall with the sun out. The usual critters. Still nice to get wet. Lots of classes as you might expect.

Anyone know why all the fishing and sail boats were in the bay yesterday? Never seen so many so not sure there was an event or not. Didn't know commercial fishing boats were allowed so far in the bay. The water along Lovers, Otter Cove, Coral St. all the way around Pt. Pinos had a layer of white/yellow foam a couple hundred yards forming a parallel line to shore. It didn't seem to be related to the moderate waves rolling in. Some natural event appeared to be going on but I'm not sure what it was. Any ideas?

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Not knowing just where the commercial fishing boats were, I can't comment, however, it's not "how far into the bay" that counts but rather "exactly where". The area NE of the end of the breakwater is legal for commercial fishing. And salmon season is open.

The yellow scum line delineates a place where two currents come together. One current ends up diving under the other, and everything floating on top of the current that dives ends up forming the scum line. It's a very good place to look for a change in vis.

Chuck

 

[3D diver]

Had a fun dive at San Carlos Beach this morning. We followed the pipe out to the end then, instead of turning north to the Metridiums, headed due south (ish) to explore the reef structure between the pipe end and breakwater staircases (Middle reef).

The vis has improved a little, it was better than 10 feet with occasional clouds of suspended sand. I saw lots of tiny nudibranchs, some Dendronotus Iris (one swimming!) and various fish. Cutting back we found the reef fairly quickly. There were lots of filter feeders waving their arms, not at all spooked by us.

51 minutes, 46 feet max depth, 52F, 10foot + vis, minimal to no surf, windy & sunny.

 

[andrewy]

@ pointlobos today on opening of an underwater 3d model by Gary Banta.. RAD!.. 30ft max at 100ft depth.

 

[zf2nt]

I was there for the unveiling and was glad I'd left my dive gear at home. The cove looked OK, but once you got out of the cove it looked pretty nasty. I think I'll wait until Tuesday, when the swells are forecast for less than 3'!

 

[Drin]

Dove the Breakwater this morning. Surface was great - no chop, medium swell. At 40' the viz was about a foot. We scootered to the end of the wall, decided we weren't going to be able to find the block and line to the barge, and scootered back. It opened up to about 10' of viz at 20' on the way back in, but that was at the sand beds - much less at the wall.

All in all a VERY poor viz day.

-Adrian

 

[uspap]

Did 3 dives today. North Monastery was 30+ vis and water was 48 degrees. Very calm and warm out. South Monastery was 49 degrees with similar vis. 3rd dive was Breakwater. Water was 56 degrees which felt great compared to Monastery. Vis was 5-12 and green with worst vis along wall. Was happy to be cold on first two dives since vis was pretty good.

 

[zf2nt]

Dave,
Thanks for the report. Wesley and I are going to Lobos Wednesday, so now I know what to expect.

 

[uspap]

Hey Bruce let me know how it was at Lobos. Have fun.

 

[zf2nt]

Wesley and I escaped the heat by going to Point Lobos today (Wednesday), and it was a gorgeous day for diving. As we were swimming out of the cove, it felt like being in an inland lake: the water was dead calm. It was unusually clear inside the cove--perhaps 30' of visibility--so we had great expectations. When we went down by HITW, though, it was a huge disappointment. Visibility was maybe 10', and even that was generous. We went on over to Rock Garden, and the visibility just got worse the deeper we went. For the second dive, which was now on the outgoing tide, we went through all the canyons we could find on Middle Reef. That was much better: there were places where you could put the visibility at 30'. The water temperature was a uniform 50F everywhere we went. The air temperature was in the upper 80's, so getting the dry suit on wasn't fun. But what a relief it was to get in the water after gearing up!