September '05 Dive Reports

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ShakaZulu:
Date: Sept 24
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores - Main Wall
Time: 10:32 am
Bottom Time: 40min
Max Depth: 93 ft
Vis: 20-25ft in the canyon
Wave height:
Temp at depth: 50 F (suunto)
wetrat:
Too bad conditions from earlier in the week didn't hold out, but, any day diving is a great day, eh?
Any more data points from La Jolla Shores? I'm tentatively headed that way at o'dark-thirty Sunday. Shaka's report makes it sound pretty good if chilly at depth ... but were things not so good in some way?
 
Date:9/24/05
Dive Location:La Jolla Shores
Time: 9:06 and 3:03
Bottom Time: :58 and :49
Max Depth: 106' and 105"
Vis: What Roy said. :D I thought a little less, but OK
Wave height: 6' with an occasional lull for 30 seconds
Temp at depth: 53F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: After reading Missy and Terry's reports my regs were salivating to get down to La Jolla again. Timing is everything, and mine was bad. My truck ran bad all the way there at 3:30 am, but it's great now. Thanks again, Doug. One of my first stages blew an internal o-ring and naturally my tools were at home. I got there at 5:30 to find the last parking space on Vallecitos, right behind the Ocean Enterprises truck. They really need to take a few lessons in diving etiquette. At 6:00 am they were yelling, banging tanks around, blocking the sidewalk with all their gear racks as well as taking up three parking spaces overnight and into tomorrow.
The waves were steady but relatively harmless. Because of the high surf, the Leopard sharks stayed away today, as did all the cool nudibranchs and pretty much everything else. The first thermocline was at ten feet. We had a consistant 53F below that with heavy surge all the way down into the canyon's edge. We found the Sheephead family at Vallecitos Point and a few California Sea Slugs, Arminas and the smallest octopus ever. We also found a Sarcastic fringehead living in a 2" pipe and a good sized Halibut.
After a five hour surface interval hoping for better conditions that never arrived, we hit the surf once more. It felt a few degrees warmer and the surge wasn't as bad, but all the critters were still hiding, except for the brave Pipefish that allowed Missy and I a chance to have one lay in our hands.
OW1_011.jpg


OW1_014.jpg
 
Frank O:
Any more data points from La Jolla Shores? I'm tentatively headed that way at o'dark-thirty Sunday. Shaka's report makes it sound pretty good if chilly at depth ... but were things not so good in some way?

It's been about 49-53F at depth all week, but vis has declined quite a bit (ok a lot). The waves were varying between 2-6 ft today (most of them on the larger side), there was surge & current (even on the point)... and less life than I've seen in a while (I assume the critters are taking shelter). Blah, hope conditions improve again soon!
 
Frank O:
Any more data points from La Jolla Shores? I'm tentatively headed that way at o'dark-thirty Sunday. Shaka's report makes it sound pretty good if chilly at depth ... but were things not so good in some way?

Frank O:

Definitely go! I was just hoping for the 40+ vis Missy reported earlier in the week. I was at about the 80' countour and I'd guess 15 to 20' viz where I was. I never made it out to the point because my son was having trouble equalizing and we had to head back. It was a lot of fun talking with Missy and MaxB too!

wetrat
 
Date: 9/24/05
Dive Location: Ruby E
Time: 08:07am
Bottom Time: 35mins
Max Depth: 78ft
Vis: Murky 15-20ft
Temp at depth: 53F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
My first dive on the Ruby E and boy it was cold! Not only that but reduced visibility and a strong surge added to the fun. Dropped on the bow and made a slow sweep up to and back from the stern. The strawberry anemones were sure pretty and if you looked close enough you could spot spanish shawls waving back and forth in the current. The usual species of fish around but lacking in numbers. Made a swim through the wheelhouse. Had to be careful with touching metal, the edges were sharp in some cases and my wetsuit got nicked on one occasion.

Date: 9/24/05
Dive Location: NOSC Tower
Time: 09:34am
Bottom Time: 39mins
Max Depth: 63ft
Vis: Murky 10–15ft
Temp at depth: 53F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
For the second dive DnD II went to the NOS tower. Dropped into even worse visibility and headed for the sand. Started to circle around the support legs slowly making our way up to 30ft. Surge at times pulled us 6 to 8 ft horizontally, you had to be careful not to bump into the structure. Again a lot of strawberry anemones and some beautiful green anemones. As we got higher in the water column more fish appeared including several big sheephead and calico bass. Two of the bass ended up on the end of one dude's spear. Finished the dive with over 1000psi in the tank - we were freezing our butts off!

Grey_Wulff
 
Kelly, Nate and I decided to brave the swells in the zodiac today so we could dive the f4 and p38. we arrived suited up and i was the first in the water and on my way down to the phantom, vis was real good but dark, maybe 30 ft of vis. apparently the vis on the p38 was even better but i sat it out out of laziness :). so as i hover above the jet i started taking some pictures then i saw a huge wolf eel under the wing! got some pics of him them went around trying to find ways to id the plan. we found a ton of serial numbers but i didnt get any, thats the plan for next time. it was nice except the swells were pretty good size, all in all a fun day on the water
 
Date: 9/23-24/05
Dive Location: San Miguel and Santa Cruz Islands
Time: 8:23am, 9:46am, 12:32pm, 3:13pm, 8:25am, 10:29am, 12:28pm
Bottom Time: 27mins, 38mins, 51mins, 49mins, 62mins, 60mins, 38mins
Max Depth: 88.3ft, 76.6ft, 62.1ft, 49.5ft, 82.5ft, 64.8ft, 65.9ft
Vis: Murky 15-25ft pretty much ths same on all dives
Temp at depth: 55F, 55f, 55F, 59F, 61F, 63F, 61F
Gas mix: 21%, 21%, 21%, 30%, 30%, 33%, 33%

Just got back from a 2-day trip to San Miguel on the Peace.

It was quite windy and we had a double whammy north and south swell that kept us away from the really good dive sites. The wind made it very cold out there. I felt sorry for the folks who were diving wet since it was chilly between dives. Vis was in the 15-20 foot range. Temps were in the mid 50's at San Miguel and lower 60's at Santa Cruz.

We left Ventura harbor Thursday night at midnight, anchored overnight in a protected cove at Santa Rosa and got back to Ventura around 6:30pm on Saturday.

The crew of the Peace was AWESOME. The food was great. Despite the so-so conditions, I had a fantastic time.
 
David, did you take those pictures at Santa Cruz Island? A couple of the photos like almost identical to some I took a couple weekends ago when we took the Truth to Santa Cruz. I think that's the same nudibranch and lingcod I photographed at Cueva Valdez on the north shore. :D
 
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