The Lexy October '05 Dive Reports Thread

[mark99]

Date: October 8, 2005
Dive Location: Catalina, Long Point and Hen Rock
Time: 3:15, 5:00, 6:45, 8:25 PM
Bottom Time: :38, :40, :28, :32
Max Depth: 82, 45, 101, 66 fsw
Vis: Yuk 10-15 ft.
Wave height: 1-2
Temp at depth: 62
Surface Temp: 65
Gas mix: Air (21%)

Well this was my first attempt at lobster hunting, and it was quite interesting. We arrived at Catalina and scoped out the possible dive sites during the first 2 dives. The water was murky and vis was pretty bad compared to usual. There was a lot of surge in shallower water. We spotted a number of larger lobsters hiding in the rocks, out of reach. After dinner the hunt was on. On the third dive we spent some time in the rocks at first, but came upon a "lobster patch" right at the bottom of the rock wall extending out into the sand, feeding on the plants. There was enough kelp "cover" to allow stealth approaches, and my buddy and I bagged 4 2#+ lobsters. Unfortunately the bottom started at 85 ft and we found ourselves flailing around chasing lobsters in 90-100 ft without much air or bottom time left. So I'd say we only had "good hunting" for about 5 minutes. We had about an hour on the surface and had to stay shallower on the last dive, my buddy bagged one more lobster. All in all a fun night.

 

[scottfiji]

Dive Description: PHD Dive, Big Rock, Malibu
Date: 10/07, 11:45PM, late at night
waves: large
vis: ranged from zero to 15ft (see report)
temp: high 50's
bottom time: 70 min

Cesar and I decided to do a late night dive in Malibu. The area was eerily calm, it was exciting doing my first dive so late, and my first night dive at big rock.

Huge waves greeted us, luckily there were large lulls, and the tide was not too low. Special PHd techniques allowed us to get past the waves fairly easily. We were eager to see the 15-20ft vis we read about earlier in the day, so we dropped down in 14ft of water.

Strong surge and 2 feet of vis greeted us, as did lots of sand. Thinking we might get better vis if we want deeper, I guided us south towards deeper water, all the way out to 35ft. The vis sort of sucked the whole way, maybe opening up to 4 ft when we hit 35ft. We came across a horn shark and a sheep crab on the way out.

Not to be dettered, I used my expert navigation skills to attempt to find the secret pinnacle. After a couple wild good chases through sand and no-vis, we reached: nirvana.

The towering pinnacle was right before out eyes. We continuously circled the pinnacle, basically diving the rest of the dive like a wall dive. 10-15 vis allowed our strong dive lights to light up the reef, which is complete covered with golden gorgonians. it was truly a sight to be seen.

Strong, massive surge threw us around like paper plates. We didnt try to hang on, and we just went with the flow, what a fun ride!!!

Tons of rockfish, huge lobsters, cabezons, garibaldis, beautiful blacksmith, large perch, schooling perch, armies of shrimp, and chestnut cowries all kept us company. What a great dive! The colors from our dive lights were simply incredible.

Only took a couple still photos, but I took a lot of video. Video to follow soon!

Scott

gopher rockfish

corynactis

treefish

keyhole limpet with worm crawling on it

rockfish

 

[Diver_Jan]

Hi everyone,



Spent the weekend in San Diego doing my Wreck Specialty. What great fun!!! This was my first time diving the Yukon and Ruby E. We did three dives on the Yukon, and one dive on the Ruby E.



I was a little unsettled about diving the Yukon, due to the death of my friend Steve Donathan, but I now know why he was so facinated by this massive ship.



We practiced navigation on the outside, as well as on the inside...exploring different areas and compartments, then using the wreck reel. This was alot of fun and good experiecne.



Visibility on the Yukon was pretty good. 10-15' on the wreck. The Ruby E, unfortunately Viz was about 3-5' at best. Nothing really unusual was spotted, however I did see a large Lingcod. Water temps: COLD...52-56' Suunto. Max Depth 99'

 

[drbill]

Spent the weekend on dry land. Surge at the dive park prevented me from diving there (no real opportunity for good video footage). Reports were strong surge with poor vis from instructors at the park. Intro dives were cancelled by most dive ops here due to conditions. Scuba Luv's boat did not go out Sat due to the captain being away. I talked to the captain of CDS' boat and they went out today and found some decent conditions around Long Point-Hen Rock.

 

[whalerkyle]

Date: October 10, 2005
Dive Location: Dana Point(give or take a few miles)
Time: 12:15 am
Bottom Time: 42 minutes
Max Depth: 35'
Vis: 5-8 maybe
Wave height: 2-3+
Temp at depth: 62
Surface Temp: 66
Gas mix: Air

After making 10 calls I eventually find a dive partner and we are launching the boat at 11:30 last night.
There was no wind, but the swells were pretty large, and the surges were a good 6 feet at times.
The visability was nasty from top to bottom, but we were both able to scratch 5 bugs each, working sholder to sholder the entire dive.

10 bugs isn't too bad for these conditions....Actually it's excellent, so it turned out ok.

Here's a pic of a little guy I snatched up. He was just under 7 pounds.

Kyle

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Dive #1

Time: 11:18 pm
Max Depth: 49 fsw
Bottom Time: 59:20
Swells: 3-5 feet
Vis: 15 - 20 feet

Terry and I buddied up and dove the boat launch area at Kennedy landing. I was pretty skeptical of the conditions but Cynthia's conifidence made me feel more at ease with diving this area. We entered into the sea, quicking putting our fins on and paddling beyond the surf. Although there was a lof of surge we easily avoided the rocky areas. When the other divers kicked out they told us one new diver injured his back and was unable to dive (I hope your back is feeling better). We dropped down and explored the walls and rocks, finding 2 octos, 1 Moray, many rockfish, 1 Lingcod, many Sculpins, Sponges, 1 Doriopsilla spaldingi (Terry ID'd it), and a few other nudis. We expected the entire wall to be covered, but we speculate they were hiding due to the swells. We enjoyed the Moray and took many pictures. We exited with 1 fin lost and recovered, and then hiked up the hill to our cars.

Dive #2
Time: 2:30pm
Bottom Time: 57:00
Max Depth: 52 feet
Vis: 10-15 feet
Swells: 2-3 feet

We all walked down the "stairs" which were carved from the rocks to the dive site. This entry was similiar to the boat launch but it lacked the concrete (it had many rocks you had to walk upon and when the waves came in and out you could hear the noise of the rocks going in and out). After we all got our gear from the car (one returning for fins) we kicked out to the moorings for the boats and dropped down. We failed to take a compass reading to the wall and sadly were seperated for a few minutes. We reuinited on the wall and explored until the tanks were low. We saw several crabs, Sculpin, juvi Gopher Rockfish, many stars: Hermit, Sheep, Bat, Sun, Brittle, etc and more. We headed up and kicked around the moorings and kelp to the rocky exit. We did find a cross underwater which read:"This world is mine too;" A weird thing maybe someone can explain. We got out pretty easily but I did fall on my tank at the end without any injury. We climed the hill, de-geared, packed the cars and headed for dinner in town before our 3 hour trip homeward (1:45 at the border crossing) Although we were hoping for 50 feet of vis and a million nudis, the excellent company and great weather more than made up for it.

Thanks for the dives, and thanks to Missy and Doug for taking us down there!

Here are my pictures: (lots of topside then diving)

http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/seand/2005scubaphotos/kennedy10092005/

 

[MissyP]

After we all got our gear from the car (one returning for fins) we kicked out to the moorings for the boats and dropped down. . We did find a cross underwater which read:"This world is mine too;" A weird thing maybe someone can explain.

Finding that cross was a little eerie.. and of course none of my pictures of it came out.. I'd like to head back to that site on a calmer day- I have some nudis to find (although I was pleased with the 2 Hopkin's Roses we found!).

Don't be fergittin' them thar fins again, Terry Lee, ya hear?

 

[MissyP]

Date: October 10
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 6:52 PM
Bottom Time: 75 minutes
Max Depth: 62 feet
Vis: 4'-12'
Wave height: 1-3 ft
Temp at depth: 58 F
Surface Temp: 66 F
Tide information: High, but going out.

Headed over to the shores hoping for calm conditions and decent vis; fortunately, we had both! Parked and geared up at Vallecitos, then walked over to the green awning in front of the resort (near Marine Room), and proceeded to enter the water directly in front of the awning. If you're familiar with the area, the green awning means a straight kick out/descent, then head slightly south around 45 ft.. and you're almost guaranteed to find the ladder. It's just an ordinary ladder, but it's full of life- nearly every rung has a fringehead in it and you'll almost always find nudibranchs on it. Spent several minutes there watching the fringeheads and then headed up towards the sand dollar beds. I came across the biggest lobster I've ever seen- the girth of its tail was easily bigger then my ankle! He was just cruising along the sand so we stopped to watch it (mostly in amazement because of its size!)- it would lunge at every fish that swam by, hoping to catch some dinner.. One of it's attempts to snag a fish caused the poor guy to nearly lose his balance and fall over- very amusing to watch! A sheepcrab lumbered by, oblivious to the lobster's entertaining antics.. After a few failed attempts to catch dinner, the lobster decided to come and check me out and give me a thorough feeling with it's antennas. When I returned the favor, it backed off about a foot or so then went back to fishing. We stopped to watch a crab catch another smaller crab and proceed to snap it in half and start eating it, then started moving more into the shallows. Came upon a grassy area with another lobster and several pipefish; as we were checking it out, my buddy (doug) starts flailing around, then stops and seems ok... then starts flailing around again... he signals for me to look around.. I'm shining my light around the area and a little 2-3 ft shark (soupfin?blue?) zips by.. I was thinking "how cool !", but here comes the shark again- it seemed to be going for his leg (he told me on the surface that it went after him 3 or 4 times), and after getting too close for comfort, he whacked it with his light. He was a little shaken up so we started to swim in and met up with a large adult horn shark who was munching on dinner, but seemed to be glad to have some company. Surge had picked up a little, so we ascended around 13 ft..oops, in front of the marine room.. A long walk back to the car is always a good way to end a dive There was so much life out and about on this dive- besides the 2 sharks, lobsters, several types of crabs, and fish, there were Cali sea slugs, tons of pipefish, at least a dozen octopus, cali arminas, cusk eels, dozens of shrimp, lizardfish, rays, a Dirona Picta nudi, and another nudi that I've never seen before and hope to get an id for soon (Terry? Phil?).

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Wow great report Missy! I hope you got a pic of the shark!!! That sounds amazing!


Sean

 

[MissyP]

Wow great report Missy! I hope you got a pic of the shark!!! That sounds amazing!


Sean

It was too fast! The whole dive was great- I've never seen that much life out on a night dive before.