September '05 Dive Reports

[dazedone]

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.

Jim,

I am pretty sure the Nudi was taken at Santa Cruz.

-David

 

[LLKZ16]

Date: 9/25/05
Dive Location: NOSC Tower
Time: 08:45am
Bottom Time: 40mins
Max Depth: 62ft
Vis: Murky 10–15ft
Temp at depth: 53F
Gas mix: Air (21%)

On the Lois Ann this morning, we were supposed to go to Point Loma but the dive master said the visibility has been bad there lately so they decided to go to NOSC Tower.

After a quick trip out, we dropped down and the visibility was just OK. Since my 2 friend and I were the first to drop down, we got to tool around in decent conditions before the class on board made it down. After a while it got worse. We decided to go inside and just check out what was around. There were tons of Anemones (the structure is completely covered), big sea stars etc...

At the end because people were kicking up stuff off the structure, lots of female sheep’s head came by and decided to have a little snack.

For the second dive, we stayed there (CRAP!!) and went down again. Luckily, my buddy brought one of those pool torpedo toys so the three of us played catch for a while before looking at the same damn thing again...lol

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Catalina, Bird Rock Wall and Isthmus Reef, on the Bottom Scratcher
Sunday September 25, 2005

Watched the sunrise from the deck of the BottomScratcher at Queen’s Wharf in Long Beach. Debbie and Greg in rare form, relaxing with only about a dozen divers hauling gear onto the boat. The crossing? Glass, 1 foot swells, sunshine, 4 dolphins riding the bow wave for 5 minutes, several others leaping from the wake.
With 3 boats and about 90 divers crawling over Ship Rock, we made a quick left and hooked at The Wall at Bird Rock. We were the only boat there, 12 divers.
We could see clouds of blacksmith and dozens of Garibaldi… and this was from the deck looking down into green glass and golden kelp.

Dive #1: 10AM, 74fsw, 1 hour 5 minutes, 65F, 80-100 foot visibility

The viz at The Wall was at least 80 feet if not more. The massive trunks of kelp were standing straight up… I had thought they were permanently growing at a 45-60 degree angle, ‘cause that’s the only way I had seen them before. The Bird Rock Wall is usually raked by current… Today? Swimming pool! The wall is covered with overlapping vertical gorgonia fans in several colors, and undercut with many shallow caves and deep crevices. Sponges, algae, hydroids, tube worms carpet the spaces between the fans, and orange/blue Catalina Gobies are scattered thickly like party confetti. We enjoyed finding several octopus, Moray eels, island kelpfish, and scorpionfish in the Wall, alternating with fish-watching out into the Big Blue: Tight clusters of blacksmith jostling for Wrasse cleaning-service, bellicose Garibaldi, schools of mackerel and smelt, senoritas, wrasse, and sheephead. We cruised the light-filled waters at 75fsw, only needing lights to look into crevices or to bring out colors.

An hour in the pool, then an hour on deck. Sunshine, pelicans, sealions, friends, food.

Dive #2: 12:10PM, 65fsw, 1 hour 5 minutes, 64F, 70-80 foot visibility

Then another picture-perfect hour exploring the Wall…again! Because it was just too perfect to leave. The current had come up, the kelp was at 45 degrees, but the water clarity was still magnificent. Ron and I had a wonderful 10 minutes with a very active octopus that was cruising ledges along the wall: It changed colors, shape and textures constantly, never inked, and crawled over my gloved fingers several times. The light had changed as the sun rose higher, and it was beautiful in yet another way.

An hour in the pool, then an hour on deck. Food, friends, bagpipes… boat moved to Isthmus Reef marker, facing the USC Chamber.

Dive #3: 2:30PM, 76fsw, 1 hour 2 minutes, 60F,70-80 foot visibility

Splash in, laughing at the exuberant beauty of it all! Underwater again, the sunshine on the shallows was almost blinding. Octopus and sleeping hornsharks were fun finds as we crossed over to the precipice, and dropped off the edge. We “parachuted” 50 feet downwards into hazier water that still offered at least 70 foot visibility. Giant A-shaped crevice/caves were packed with lobsters, living the high live about 15 feet beyond any human’s reach. We found the encrusted giant chains draped down the wall and still anchored by the giant concrete blocks at the bottom. Wicked thermocline at 65fsw. My dive buddies above me seemed to be hovering in clear air, partially silhouetted against the green mirrored ceiling far above. We wandered along the shadowed wall, finally rising back to the reef top as our MicroBubbleometers suggested that we were probably getting effervescent on the inside too, thank you! In the sunlit kelpgarden around the boat we hung-out, and hovered, and poked around under rocks, and played with our shadows, and checked our gauges and calculated off-gassing rates…. and did just about anything we could think of to delay leaving this perfect ocean. The deck was still the place for friends and yet more food as we packed gear, broke out the sunblock, twisted open the Pacificos, and basked in the sunshine and island view.

It was an unbelievably beautiful day of Catalina Diving. Thank you, Ron E. and Joan for sharing all the fun and the OOA drills and the creature discoveries. What a blast!! Thanks to Greg, Debbie, and Bobby of the Bottomscratcher for putting us in all the right places, keeping us fed, pressurized, happy, entertained, and WET!!! Great crew.

Claudette

 

[MissyP]

Catalina, Bird Rock Wall and Isthmus Reef, on the Bottom Scratcher
Sunday September 25, 2005

Claudette

Claudette, your dive reports are so much fun to read Great meeting you at Redondo, finally !

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Very nice report Claudette! I want to go to Catalina now!!!


Thanks,

Sean

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Time: 7:50pm
Bottom Time: 41:40
Max Depth: 101 FSW
Temp at Depth: 54 Degrees
Temp on Surface: 61 degrees
Red Tide: Lots of red tide on surface

Simon and I met up early at the Downwind parking lot and we went for a walk across the bridge. We enjoy an amazing view of the sun's rays penetrating the clouds and the view overlooking the pier and the LJ Shores.
I took a few pictures of this beautiful area as well as a few in the parking lot. Everyone arrived and we showed our c-cards and logs to the DM. We put all our gear into 2 vans and headed for the road leading down to Scripps canyon. We had a nice dive briefing and geared up. Once we were all ready, we headed down the 2 switchbacks and walked south along the beach to the crack in the cliffs. We all entered into the 2 foot waves and kicked out to the buoy. Once we were all rested we dropped down into the canyon. We leveled off at about 80 feet and waited for everyone to arrive. We all headed along the wall, enjoy the amazing critters, sponges, nudibranchs, etc. At one point I pinged the other side of the crack and it was 50 feet away but I couldn't see it. We must have seen 15 MacFarland's Chromodorids, and a few others I didn't ID. We neared our NDL time and headed up the wall heading East. We saw some round rays along the way, most were quite tame compared to the Shores. It was an easy exit but a walk up those two switchbacks to the cars. A few of us met up for some food and beers which capped off the dive evening beautifully! Thank You for the dives and I hope to see you again in Scripps canyon!

full album: http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/seand/2005scubaphotos/scripps09272005/

 

[headhunter]

Sean,

That's a spectacular picture of the pier!

Christian

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Thanks Christian! The sky was amazing that day!

 

[MissyP]

Date: Sept 29
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/Vallecitos
Time: 6:02pm
Bottom Time: 1 hr 9 min
Max Depth: 50 ft
Vis: 4- 12 ft (ugh!!)
Wave height: 1-3 ft
Temp at depth: 51 F
Surface Temp: 66 F
Tide information:going out

Headed out to the shores for a lazy Thursday dive, got a good parking spot on Vallecitos, geared up, and headed into the ocean. The waves were averaging 2-3 ft, but were powerless; beyond the surf zone the ocean was nearly placid. Dropped down into 14 ft & headed out to the canyon, checking out the tons of nudis & pipefish all along the way. I'm seeing two kinds of pipefish right now- either extremely fat (pregnant I assume) ones, or very small ones which cluster together in groups among the underwater foliage. Love those babies! The water was thick and greenish and vis was 5-8 ft in shallows. Hit the first thermocline at 26 ft, but it was managable.. until I got into the 40-something ft depth... I couldn't check the temp on my computer at the time because my hands had gone numb :ice: Stayed on the rim of the canyon at 46- 50 ft, but I couldn't take the temp anymore- I was shivering- so headed back up to 25-30 ft to thaw. During the dive, there were several schools of baitfish, arminas & sea slugs everywhere, couple of round rays, a kelpfish in the shallows (I dont see those at the shores often), 2-3 young octopus/octopuses/octopods/octopi (whatever they're called!) and so many pipefish & nudis that I quit counting. There was an upwelling from the canyon which was causing a current and presumably the artic temperature of the water.. Brrrrr!! I need to add another layer under my dry suit undies or something :errrr: (3rd pic is an octopus "hiding" behind a rock, peeking up at me)

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Thursday night, 9/29/05, Veteran's Park, Redondo Beach
Waded into the glassy pool, tiny waves
Temperature: Surface 67F, Depth 52F
Max depth: 69fsw
Viz in shallows was 5 feet, in the cold canyon it was about 15 feet
Run time: 50 minutes

The still air was hot at 9:30 PM, the water like glass, and I was lucky to have an eager buddy, Angelique, willing to meet late due to Back-to-school-night obligations. A couple of divers came out as we were gearing up, and then we had the pool to ourselves.

First surprise: surface-kicking out to the drop spot, I wondered why my light beam looked so...blueish. LED's are usually white....then realized my fins were glowing, and my hands were trailing swirls of blue colored smoke in the water. The surface viz may suck...but the bioluminescence is fantastic. Go ahead and laugh...one of the best parts of the "dive" was spinning circles at the surface, watching my hands "smoke blue" in the obsidian water. My buddy was patient, but her eyes said, "uh, could we possibly go...like, "diving"...soon??"

Down we went to find "The Monument". Bang, target acquired...critters everywhere:9 or 10 octopuses coiled in compartments, scorpion fish, little rockfish, ocean white fish, sea stars. My compliments to the DiveVets dudes and dudettes who have solidly anchored all the cinderblocks together with cleverly knotted line. Great habitat.

Then we sashayed northwards along the 65fsw contour, finding a motating purple striped jelly, 4 horn sharks, tiny nudibranchs, mating crabs, red skeleton shrimp, and more octopus. It felt awfully nice to sneak up above the thermocline to see spiny mole crabs, some little lobster, a thornback ray, and then the whole wild BLUE thing started up again as the viz dropped back down to icky. We turned off all our lights, and waved our hands around like Bugs Bunny conducting an orchestra. It was really disorienting after a while, with no reference but swirling blue clouds all around. To the surface we finally came, happy to warm up in the sultry air.

Thanks, Angelique, for being able and willing to end a busy 16-hour day with a smoky-blue slither through the sea. This was my favorite Back-to-school night, ever!
Claudette