Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[griffon]

Dove north and south monastery today off of kayaks . North down to 80ft was pretty murky 25ft or so but murky green and lots of particulates.
South side around towards mono lobo wall had around 30ft vis and the water clarity was much better, though still pretty green for Carmel.
Fish and game stopped by to make sure we we were not poaching (we weren't of course, both only shoot cameras ).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zf2nt]

I am guessing you did all that with a single tank right?

Yes, a single tank. I just now analyzed my computer record and see max depth was 106' and I came up with almost exactly 500 psi. We went down just to the east of HITW, surfaced back inside the cove. Total dive time was 61 minutes. You can do it too, Mubin. I'm going to have to take you with me one of these days to show you. I've come at 3 sisters multiple times before from the 2 different directions, but this was the first time I completed the loop. The distances involved are just not that great. I was counting kick cycles on the way over from Beto's and I think I only got up to 33, which would mean about 100' to the first peak.

 

[KRL1973]

Nice day at breakwater, both lower and upper lot's nearly full. Sunny much of the day with only light breeze. Vis along the wall varied from 10 to 20 ft. Enjoyable dive along the wall, out to the end with the sea lions.

2nd dive to metridium fields. Vis ranged from 10 to 20 ft. High numbers of dock shrimp observed along the pipe and there was a de-finned dead mola next to the pipe that was covered in shrimp on and around it, even observed some territorial fights between the shrimp. Metridiums were nice and observed an aggregation of large kelp and brown rockfish hanging with them. Om way back to the pipe caught sight of what turned out to be a large mola mola suspended head up just above the metridiums. On my approach it began to swim up and then passed over me. Happy to report I caught the whole thing on video saw a sea lion near the metridiums as well and a harbor seal closer to shore in the kelp and it appeared to be foraging for something in the seaweed bottom. Other notables, came a cross a single very plump sea hare near the pipe and a couple of nice big hermit crabs. Very nice dive

Haven't been in the water for a while so really appreciated this trip.

 

[runsongas]

2 at north monastery and 1 at breakwater yesterday. topside conditions were calm, surface very flat, water was 56F. water a little green with some particulates, about 15 ft or so vis. a few jellies, some big ling cod and cabezons at north monastery. breakwater night dive, had a seal follow us pretty much the whole dive. watched it chase after fish. good number of crabs along the wall. spotted a small octopus at the end of the dive in the sand.

 

[3D diver]

Metridiums and Breakwater today. We tried driving down to Coral Street, but our path was blocked (triathlon?) so we headed back & got our parking spots again.

Flat, as noted above, and about 15' viz. Found a finned Mola Mola along the pipe covered by shrimp & starfish. Metridiums were in good shape. Lots of small fish at the Breakwater, but not many large ones to video---a couple of lings, and a cormorant were about it. Got buzzed by 2 or 3 sea lions...the last could have been a harbor seal based on what I saw of hits hind feet/fins.

Metridiums: 56 minutes, 50 feet depth, 55F min temp.

Breakwater: 88 minutes (!), 43 feet, 54F min temp.

 

[raftingtigger]

Metridiums and Breakwater today. We tried driving down to Coral Street, but our path was blocked (triathlon?) so we headed back & got our parking spots again.

Flat, as noted above, and about 15' viz. Found a finned Mola Mola along the pipe covered by shrimp & starfish. Metridiums were in good shape. Lots of small fish at the Breakwater, but not many large ones to video---a couple of lings, and a cormorant were about it. Got buzzed by 2 or 3 sea lions...the last could have been a harbor seal based on what I saw of hits hind feet/fins.

Metridiums: 56 minutes, 50 feet depth, 55F min temp.

Breakwater: 88 minutes (!), 43 feet, 54F min temp.

Max temp 59-63 depending.

I did my last dive along BW wall at 20' all the way out to the rocky jetty. Most light, best viz, warmest, and biggest critters of the day. First 2 dives were with 3D diver.

 

[KRL1973]

Nice day at breakwater, both lower and upper lot's nearly full. Sunny much of the day with only light breeze. Vis along the wall varied from 10 to 20 ft. Enjoyable dive along the wall, out to the end with the sea lions.

2nd dive to metridium fields. Vis ranged from 10 to 20 ft. High numbers of dock shrimp observed along the pipe and there was a de-finned dead mola next to the pipe that was covered in shrimp on and around it, even observed some territorial fights between the shrimp. Metridiums were nice and observed an aggregation of large kelp and brown rockfish hanging with them. Om way back to the pipe caught sight of what turned out to be a large mola mola suspended head up just above the metridiums. On my approach it began to swim up and then passed over me. Happy to report I caught the whole thing on video saw a sea lion near the metridiums as well and a harbor seal closer to shore in the kelp and it appeared to be foraging for something in the seaweed bottom. Other notables, came a cross a single very plump sea hare near the pipe and a couple of nice big hermit crabs. Very nice dive

Haven't been in the water for a while so really appreciated this trip.

link to the unedited video clip of the mola: Mola mola at Metridium fields, Monterey CA - YouTube
That headup hovering position was very bizarre to me, Has anyone else observed that? It almost made me think it was at a cleaning station or something but I didn't see anything that could be a cleaner there

 

[3D diver]

The one I saw at Breakwater last November was in a similar posture at first:

Looxcie 3 Mola mola - YouTube

 

[uspap]

Hey Ken is somebody using a jackhammer under there? What was that noise? Nice find. Thanks for sharing video.

 

[mobeeno]

As we arrived at Breakwater, saw a bunch of dolphins in the shallow, at marker 5-6 perhaps. By the time we got in the water, the dolphins probably made it to Carmel.
First dive Metridium fields because Ken saw a mola mola there recently. During the dive I was looking up for them and indeed saw one hovering above the metridiums. As soon as I exhaled, it disappeared.
Second dive, Breakwater wall. During this dive, we were looking away from the wall most of the dive. Saw two more mola molas with fins. One small and the other was the biggest I have ever seen, the body alone was almost 3 feet (minus 20 percent mask vision). Vis for both dives were about 15-23'. Extremely calm. Greenish water. 56 degrees F.