The Lexy October '05 Dive Reports Thread

[Mo2vation]

Date: October 01, 2005
Dive Location: Vets Park - I think. It was foggy on top and too thick to see below.
Time: 8:30 AM
Bottom Time: 77 minutes
Max Depth: 71 feet
Vis: uh.... Lemmie get back to you on that
Wave height: Lake Pacific
Temp at depth: 52
Surface Temp: probably in the mid 60's
Tide information: Rising.
Gas mix: Air (21%) Air
Comments: ew ew ew...


Well - I did my first AM night dive at Vets this morning. :11:

HBDiveChica and I kicked out a ways before we descended into the soup - passing a class of students all in a row behind a float. To me, it was reminiscent of a row of ducklings. I kinda snickered.

Apparently an instructor from another class cancelled his class there today – he couldn’t see if the students were able to clear their masks, basically because he couldn’t see their masks.

After a drop through the yuck, HBDG guided us to the monument - my first time back since the Tourrettes at Vets a month ago. She counted 22 Octos. I counted probably twice that in rock fish. Whelk eggs, small barnacles, and other growth. Very impressive. There was a fringe of fishies in the mud all around the thing, just waiting for the bubble blowers to clear our to they could re-claim their spots on the Citadel. Someone has thoughtfully roped the thing together to offer some surge migration insurance. The mask on the tank looks like Phil's work, but I won't speculate... Good stuff.

Today was a total night dive. We stayed below the worst of it at about 52+ feet, cuz at 52- feet you were just thick in the ooze.

It was 53 degrees today at 60 feet and 52 (and dropping) at 71. We did about 77 minutes of this soup then called it a morning.

Lots of critters. If you kept your light and face pressed to the muck. Must have seen about 100 octos - including ones in snail shells, mussles, bottles, bricks, a hat, a scuba booty, and one that insisted on carrying around its lunch no matter how we pestered it.

Nudi eggs everywhere - no nudis. Just the stripped slug things (Navinak? Get the Knack? Quack & Quack? Hackensack?)

Claudette, again you rocked. Thanks for the tour. And thanks for the box of Bonito flies!

---
Ken

 

[PhotoTJ]

Date: October 01, 2005
Dive Location: Big Rock, Malibu
Time: 12:30 AM
Bottom Time: 40minutes
Max Depth: 19 feet
Vis: 2'-12'
Wave height: 1-2
Temp at depth: 56
Surface Temp: 64
Tide information: Falling.
Gas mix: Air
Comments: I am cursed/blessed?

Well, I hit a speed bump in the parking lot, my tailgate fell open, and all my gear fell out on Tapo Canyon Road in Simi Valley. Drove to Northridge, discovered the calimity, and went back, found all the gear, not a scratch on it. (Say what you want about tupperware vs. a dive bag, Ken, it slid across the street, and right into a gas station parking lot. Safe at second!)

Oh, right, the dive.

Went OK, got one legal bug, and grabbed a few shorts. Lots of life, shovel-nosed guitarfish everywhere! A couple of horn sharks, a thornback ray, and a few halibut chips.

Hey, I didn't get skunked, and had fun. Got to bed at 4:30, and woke at 7:30. Can you say bone tired?

 

[Frank O]

Date: October 1, 2005
Dive location: Deadman's (e. of Black Point), Catalina
Time: 12:03 a.m.
Run time: 54:00
Max depth: 59 ft
Vis: 30-40 ft+
Temp at depth: 64 F
Temp at end: 66 F
Gas mix: 32%

Date: October 1, 2005
Dive location: Lorenzo Beach, Catalina
Time: 2:23 a.m.
Run time: 51:20
Max depth: 49 ft
Vis: 20-30 ft
Temp at depth: 68 F
Temp at end: 66 F
Gas mix: Half-trox (remnants of 32% with air topoff)

Went out on the Sundiver opening night trip to west end Catalina. The crossing was very smooth, and conditions once we got there were as good as we could ask for -- great vis, flat seas, warm water, negligible current. Fog hugged the mainland, but out at the island it was a clear, nearly cloudless night, and I looked up at Orion and the Pleiades coming up in the east during the surface swims. Jon and I teamed up with Steve P, a tech diver who came up from San Diego. Evidently the Great Escape was off on a multi-day charter booked by a Northern California shop, so a few faces we would have normally expected to use the G.E. turned up on the Sundiver. Ray told us that Fish & Game advised boat operators that a midnight splash time would be strictly enforced; my Suunto Mosquito shows that I vented my wing and kicked down at 12:03.

At the first site, we spent the dive mostly over a shallow reef (rocks and plants) and saw scads of shorts, few legals. At the second site, we cruised the sand just outside the kelp and saw ample good-sized bugs -- between the three of us, something like 7 went into bags on that dive. Due to certain divers on the boat doing "nearly hour-long dives" (who? us?), the third dive was more compressed -- this was near Arrow Point, where an undersea slide recently changed the dive scenery radically. I opted for a shower and bunk at this point; Jon and Steve reported checking out remnants of a sailboat wreck.

We had some interesting discussions on lights for bug hunting -- are lobsters scared off by HID lights? At least a couple of people on the boat thought so -- in part due to the brightness and partly due to the bluish color temperature. My HID light had just arrived back from Salvo earlier Friday after being reworked to use a new 24-watt bulb -- definitely bright. My impression is that the little lobsters on the first dive did seem to be scattering when the alien lightbeams approached, but the bigger bugs on the second dive weren't unusually spooked. I noticed that several divers on the boat were using UK eLED lights, which have a bluer color cast similar to HID -- though not as bright.

Motoring back to Alamitos Bay a bit before 8 a.m., the last few miles the water turned to the color of chocolate milk. We said a silent prayer for the legion of divers who braved the elements along the mainland coast. As we hauled off our gear onto the dock, we ran into Christian & Co., ready and waiting for the boat to turn around for yet more fun ....

 

[divinman]

Date: 10/01/05
Dive number: 300
Dive Location: San Diego/ Wreck of the Ruby E
Time: 08:39a
Bottom Time: 1 hour 23 minutes
Max Depth:86ft
Avg Depth: 48ft
Vis: 10-15, murky and green
Surface Temp: 61F
Temp at depth: 52F
Surface Conditions: small surface swell, no wind

Images:http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/terry/album10/100105/


Went out with Paul and Tyler to the Ruby this morning. Seas were flatish and the water "looked" promising. After all the other divers had departed we pulled on the doubles and made our way to the swim step. Final checks done we stepped off in the refreshingly cool water. Always feels nice when you have been standing around in your drysuit for 30 minutes.

Making our slow decent we passed from clear to green to murk and then to DARK. Visibility on the wreck was probably 10-15ft and the surge was up a bit and it was DARK. Having planned our profile in advance we started to explore the wreck. For me the Ruby is all about Nudibranchs. Today I found 9 species including two new ones for me: Hermissenda, Spanish Shawl, Polycera Tricolor, Polycera Hedgepethi, Tritonia Festiva, and White spotted porostome, Aegires albopunctatus, Ancula Pacifica, and an unknown Cuthona Species. Other creatures encountered included a large ling cod and a very placid Cabazon. Schools of blacksmiths and opal eye hovered over the ship while sheephead cruised the sides.

Meeting our preset deco time we started the long slow ascent back the surface. Our stops were uneventful but the current was running so we held the line and fluttered like flags in a soft breeze as the minutes ticked by. Nice to just hang and gaze into the blue, errr green, and relax and let the world turn and the current flow.....

Back on the boat and back to the dock. Nice dive with good people. Special thanks to dive master Sue for all her help with the heavy gear.

This is SoCal diving. Conditions are rarely "optimum" so anytime I can see beyond my outstretched arm and the current/surge isn't tearing the reg from my mouth is a good dive. This was number 300.

Terry S.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Congratulations, Terry, on Dive #300!!!

300 drops into the sea, and beauty right where you look for it!
Thanks for taking us along on so many.

BRAVO!!!:luxhello:

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:October 1, 2005
Dive Location:La Jolla Shores
Time: 10:53 and 2:08
Bottom Time: 1:26 and :57
Max Depth: 60' and 80'
Vis: 30'+
Wave height:1-2'
Temp at depth:57F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:I finally got to experience swimming pool conditions in San Diego County today. The sunlight shimmering off the sandy bottom, the big fat Leopard sharks and round stingrays in the shallows, very little surge and I didn't have to freeze to enjoy it all. I joined Missy for the first dive, then Matt (Badger729) joined us for the second dive. We found the usual critters along with what appeared to be an albino halibut, with Missy once again being the Spotter Queen. Even though we didn't find any new nudibranchs today, it was more fun than usual for me just because I could see everything we did find.
The surf was so calm that we didn't surface until we were in three feet of water. We would have gone in to two feet, but the stingrays were all over us.

 

[divinman]

Great exposure and focus on this snail. I have tried several times but have never been happy with the results. Well done.

Terry

9 Species of nudibranchs, that I saw, on the Ruby today. Missy would have been in heaven......and found 5 more that I didn't see.

Terry

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We will be back for more around 7:00 tomorrow morning. Sean will be dropping by to join us sometime in the day. We have three dives planned. The conditions were so nice that I was even able to chase several Leopard sharks around, although I never got close enough for any pictures. Some were up to five feet long.

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Date: October 01, 2005



Well, I got to go out on the maiden voyage of the 'Scuba Do' today - well, OK, not exactly maiden, more 'Une Dame d'un certaine age' renamed after purchase by Barbara and Mike (non scubaboarders - omigod, such a thing really exists!)

The sea was flat, the GPS and the motor both worked as advertised and the vis didn't suck. What more could one ask?

We went down on the Yukon first, 20ft vis, not too much surge and light enough for me to take pictures by ambient light at 98ft. The yukon was crab city today, with sheep crabs hanging out all over the superstructure.

Next was the Ruby E, my first time on that boat. Vis not as good as on the yukon, but masses more life of all types including many, many nudis, and I photographed the same cabezon as Terry saw. We were much later in the day and by this time he* had showered, brushed his teeth and had his agent standing by so I only got two shots.
Excellent diving; I'm looking forward to San Clemente next weekend!

Peter

* That's the cabezon, not Terry!


Pictures here:
http://www.mcguinness-family.net/albums/diving/SanDiego/WreckAlleyOct05/

and here's a sample:

 

[MissyP]

9 Species of nudibranchs, that I saw, on the Ruby today. Missy would have been in heaven......and found 5 more that I didn't see.

Terry

You do realize I'm insanely jealous now :11: Nudi hunting tomorrow (but only at the shores/marine room). And, just so you know- I was so in love with your light that night at marine room that I had to buy one...
I wanna be just like Terry :10: