Dive Log, 2008                        Previous logs:  2007

Running list of dives in 2008.

Dives are entered by dive day from the bottom upwards, so the latest dives (or rather, the latest entries; not sure I'll catch every dive) are at the top.

July 27: 2 dives; Pinnacle of Doom with Jeff, Nathan, and Anna on Nitrox; Shale Island with the same group, plus Guy joining me on Aurora.

Geared up and splashed my boat, and Jeff, Nathan, Anna and I headed off for Pinnacle of Doom off Lovers. We decided that the spot 200 feet south, where Superman jumped ship a month ago, would be called Kryptonite (or, rather, I did.) But we dove the POD area. Dropped the hook on my numbers, and a minimal amount of scope had me hanging in a patch of kelp (Jeff also dropped on the numbers, so we would have ended up on top of one another anyway.) Jeff pulled his hook, offset a bit, and redropped; I pulled mine, ran a bit beyond the waypoint, and redropped. Ended up with acceptable, but minimal separation.

Water on top was a uniform 5 foot vis green haze (and that's being generous.) I headed down, and at the bottom, couldn't see any structure other than low rocks in the sand. Headed off to the left, and soon the rocks loomed up about 20 feet away, shrouded in green. Circled first one large rock, then another, and a third, and saw absolutely nothing noteworthy. One or two Peltodorises, a couple of Cadlina luteomarginata, and one Doriopsilla albopunctata. A couple of kelp rockfish, and a few blue rockfish, several (but not as many as usual) black eye gobies, and a couple of tiny sculpins. Headed out to some small rocks in the sand, and again didn't see much. On the third small rock, I saw a crevice kelpfish on a Turkish towel blade, but the surge swept the leaf over and dislodged the fish as I adjusted my strobes. So, I worked around the rock, peering into the algal ground cover, and spotted another crevice kelpfish, this one about 3 times larger. This one magically disappeared while hidden by surge-swept kelp. By this time, I was getting somewhat frustrated at the lack of photo ops, so I decided to head up. As I got to the hook, I checked one more rock, and found another crevice kelpfish, of intermediate size compared to the other two. And again, it vanished before I could get a shot off. I think I hit the surface with 1600 psi, lots of remaining bottom time, and a grand total of 5 frames shot. 40 feet, 41 minutes, 52 degrees.

Guy was again waiting at the dock on return, and was invited out again (why he changes into street clothes before bumming a ride to dive is beyond me, though.) So, like yesterday, he geared up while we sat out our SI and grabbed a bite to eat.

Jeff decided on Shale Island for the second dive. I had a sneaking suspicion that 55 feet wouldn't be deep enough to get us under the layer, but I didn't voice that. Jeff dropped on Anchor 5, and I dropped towards the southwest end. Heading in, I couldn't see the bottom until I was within about 15 feet of it; not a good sign. Reset my hook, scaring up a particularly unphotogenic octopus (most of the arms chewed off to obviously shortened nubs), then took a look around. Vis was about 15 to 20 feet (with a bit of imagination) but dramatically less if you rose more than a few feet off the bottom. I headed over to the Knob to see if I could find the yellowfin fringehead that Chuck reported (yesterday?) I couldn't. My run of interesting finds on Shale Island has apparently been broken. Lots of Pelt's, several San Diego's, a few Geitodorises, a couple of luteomarginata, and a couple of Cadlina flavomaculata. A few sculpins, black eye gobies, a kelp greenling that wanted nothing to do with the camera, a few rockfish; that was about it. The saving grace was a translucent shrimp (with red vertical bars; photo currently out for ID help) sitting vertically but inverted on some kind of upright growth.  56 feet, 46 minutes, 50 degrees.

Ended the day with a total of 17 shots (one of those is probably the inside of the rinse bucket, a couple look like they were lit by a nuclear bomb detonation, and one, I think, is a spot where the kelp greenling had been a moment ago.)

Jeff and Bill (from All About Scuba) had an informal BBQ cookoff; the winner was... Me (ate too much, and didn't have to cook.)


 

July 26: 2 dives, Ballbuster with Trevor, and Mola Mountain with Trevor and Guy.

Arrived at Breakwater at about 8:45, and grabbed one of the last 3 trailer spots. My missing buddy from last week came down, and Trevor ended up parking on the street after off-loading gear at the boat.


Dive 1: The only goal I had for the weekend was to check the ex-mystery slugs at Mola Mountain; since I could do that any time, we headed out to Ballbuster (Chuck had reported big vis there.) Swell was fairly decent on the ride out, and it would have been pretty easy to do part of the trip in the air (a sense of responsibility for passenger comfort prevailed, though. No fun.) I'd guess about 3 to 4 foot NW swell, with some wind chop tossed in. Once anchored up, I checked for current, and finding none, we tossed gear over and got in. Heading down the line, things were looking pretty hazy, but as we descended it cleared until at the top of the pinnacle, we had maybe 30 feet. I continued down to check the hook, repositioning is slightly so it was retrievable and to get the line off the pinnacle. Vis at the bottom was stunning, easily 60 and probably more like the 70 that Chuck reported. Headed back up to meet Trevor closer to the top, and immediately ran across a small crack with a china rockfish. A bit lower in the crack was an adult treefish. In a smaller crack off to the left was another china. Sculpins were all over the place, as were an assortment of sizes of painted greenlings. Several (or one really antsy) kelp greenling flashed in and out of view as well. Lots of Peltodorises and Hermissendas. A few Chestnut cowries, and more sculpins. I don't recall a lot else, aside from all the normal stuff. 102 feet, 34 minutes, 50 degrees.

As we tied up at the ramp, Guy showed up trying to bum a ride. He said it had been a long time since he had looked at anything other than his compass and computer on a dive, so I invited him out. While Trevor and I ate, Guy schlepped gear and got ready to go. A bit later we were heading out, heading for Mola Mountain.

Dive 2: A touch of surface current, a bit of swell (it had actually laid down a bit from earlier), drop the hook, and in we went. Guy dropped first, and I headed down a minute later, followed by Trevor. I spotted the ex-mystery slugs from about 15 feet above, but headed over a ridge to check the hook (good thing, too, as it was wedged sideways in a fissure, with the chain pretty well wrapped around every conceivable piece of the anchor.) Heading back, Trevor pointed out a Hermissenda to me. I responded by pointing out a half dozen others within his view. Headed back over the ridge, found the slugs, and started trying to get a decent shot. They are, I think, too small for my rig; I got a couple of OK shots, but not what I was hoping for. Oh, well... Lots of perch, a huge school of blues off in the distance, a few gophers, and several olives. A male kelp greenling or two. Some... uhh, black? surfperch. Oh, and a metridium that had a tenacious if tenuous grip on an egg-yolk jelly. Trevor and Guy reported 4 lings (2 lying out in the middle of the sand), of which I saw none. 74 feet, 43 minutes, 50 degrees (and about 5 degrees warmer at the safety stop.)

 

July 20: 2 dives: Anchors 2&3, and Mola Mountain with Larry and Carol on XTSea, and me on Aurora.

Carol and I decide to see what it looks like out near the point, so we run out there (or crawl is probably more like it.) Fairly tight swell, with a long period rolling component makes the ride, uh, exciting. Decided not to try and find someplace on the Carmel side that was a little protected (Carol didn't even laugh at the suggestion - I think I'm losing my touch), and headed back in to see if the Dirona albolineata that the Cohn's had seen last week were still on Anchors 2&3 (and since I don't have a pic of one, all the better, no?) Another RIB is anchored up nearby, so I motor over and ask what site he's on. They're on Anchor 1, so I ask if we'll crowd him on 2&3; reply is no, so we move over the anchors and drop the hooks. Another boat shows up, and ties off to the third RIB.

Dive 1: We gear up and I head down a little before Larry and Carol. The other guys on the third and fourth boats are still gearing up as well. On the way down, I see a couple of egg-yolks, and pause to take a few pics (making sure to keep the anchor lines in sight this time.) Then down to the hooks, and I find that despite offsetting from the numbers a bit in opposite directions, we've both dropped on the cable on the northeast side of the chain pile. I move mine a ways over several feet off the ledge, and move Carol's to the ledge. By that time, the Cohn's are just getting down. I scan along a bit before heading over to the anchors. When I get there, Larry has his head buried between the block and the pile, snapping away. I take a peek, and there's a Dirona on one of the cables. A bit above, there's another one. On the block, I find a third one, whiter than the other two, on some fluted bryozoan. It stays down within the stucture of the bryozoan, though, so I can't get a decent shot. Eventually, I give up and scan the area around the anchors looking for slugs. Larry eventually moves on, so I take a look at the ones he was shooting and try a couple of shots (they were OK; not great), then take a look at the third one: he's up higher now, so I work on a somewhat more dramatic shot (not really sure I got it, but still...) Took a shot of a small vermilion before he bolted, and spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out how to shoot a greenling that was buried within the chain (gave up figuring I'd never get enough light on it.) Headed back to my anchor to start up a bit early, and found a smallish red octopus. It seemed pretty pissed off, but stayed put long enough for me to get several quick shots, and get Larry's attention. Larry was shooting pics as I headed up. As I reached the line, my NDL remaining clicked to "0". I chased 0 minutes remaining up to about 50 feet, where it started opening up again. On the way up, I noticed as I neared the layer, that the water below was clear green, the layer was cloudy greenish-brown, and at the edge of visibility an arc of blue reached from well out to either side to just touch the layer at the straight ahead. No idea what that was all about, but Larry thinks it was an underwater rainbow. I had to pay attention at the safety stop, or I'd drift off the line, as a bit of current had picked up. Back on the boat, the small RIB that had been slightly behind and slightly offset from us when we dropped was now slightly offset and *way* behind. I was going to ask the Cohn's to hang out until we made sure the other boats divers make it back, but they all hit the surface about the same time as Larry and Carol. No harm, no foul. Turns out they had dragged while they were descending, planted the hook, then swam a bearing to find their site. My dive: 83 feet, 35 minutes, 50 degrees.

 

Dive 2: Mola Mountain. Dropped the hooks a bit upwind of the numbers, and hopped in. I was the first one down (again), and I could see the hooks were retrievable from a distance of about 30 feet. Overall visibility was, in my opinion, in excess of 50 feet. Almost immediately, I see a low rock that's speckled with tiny white dorids. Close inspection shows that they either are, or are doing a great impersonation of, Acanthodoris hudsoni (My guess was based on the length of the rhinophores. Turns out they were Diaphorodoris lirolatocauda [who named that thing, anyway?]) The largest one was probably a touch over a quarter inch. Most were smaller. There were a few mating groups of little tiny dorids. And, my camera's strobe adjustment locked up, leaving me to adjust exposure by strobe placement. Took about 10 shots, and gave up. Did a brief tour of the area, found a fairly cooperative ling, an inquisitive gopher and a bunch of dumb kelpies. Since I didn't find anything else worth shooting, I went back to the rock near the anchors, and shot a few more of the little dorids. Larry started waving me over, and pointed at a mass just in front of him. The mass moved, and it was a fairly large octopus. I, however, was out of time, so I waved bye-bye, and headed up. 71 feet, 44 minutes, 52 degrees.


 

July 19: 2 dives: Steam Engine and the Barge with Larry, Carol and Cathy on XTSea. 

Arrived at Breakwater at a touch after 8, and prepped the boat while waiting for Trevor to show up at the planned 9:30 or so. Larry, Carol, and Kathy were geared up, and we all agreed to meet after their first dive to dive together, and they headed off. A short while later, Trevor called, down with a bout of food poisoning or something. So, I chatted with Chuck a bit, and headed out to see where the Cohn's had gone. Found them off Lover's, up from their dive. We returned to the ramp, and sort of hung around for a bit (well, I did; they changed tanks and such, and then hung around.)

Dive 1: Headed out for a dive on the deep shale. We ended up at the Steam Engine.

Hopped in, and it appeared decent judging by how far I could see down the line. I dropped, and had a bit of trouble relieving the squeeze on my left arm. Eventually got that worked out (though I still have no idea why it happened.) At about 30 feet, the pretty good vis got spectacular; 50 feet, maybe more (though a little dark.) Continued down, and about 30 feet off the bottom, noticed some egg-yolk jellies about ten feet up. By the time I had arranged strobes and removed my lens cap, they were more like 20 feet up. I briefly thought about taking a heading, but remembering how many times I've lost track of subjects doing that, didn't. So, up and shoot, and a few minutes later, back down, and... no anchor line. No problem, I figure: Follow the line of the little shelf I'm on, and I should be able to see the line. I swam out along the little shelf for a few minutes, seeing very little, and absolutely nothing I recognize, and no anchor line. Then I run across Carol and Kathy going the opposite direction, which makes me sure I'm going the right direction. Swim further, and I catch a glimpse of Larry's strobes. I continue on for a long ways, and still don't find the line. Turn around, and realize I've been swimming with the current, most likely in a random direction. Put my head down, kicking with an occasional pull on the rocks to keep going. I keep watching for one of the other three, but never see them. Eventually, I figure, Hmmm, let's try... That way. A 90 degree right turn (well, probably more like 70 to fight the current), swim about 30 yards, and, Hey, there're the anchor lines. Shoot a couple more pics of fairly uninteresting subjects, and my tank pressure says it's time to go up.

I get back on the boat, and I'm really surprised to see I'm the first one up. A minute later, Kathy is at XTSea. I keep watching for bubbles, but don't see anything. Then a head breaks the surface 150 yards out, down-bottom-current. Then another. So everyone's up, but I'm the only one who came up the line. As it turns out, I'm also the only one of us who realized they were lost. Odd. 83 feet, 33 minutes, 50 degrees.

Dive 2: The Barge, since Carol said she hadn't been there since first getting XTSea. Dropped the hooks, headed in, and again, vis was good; probably 30 feet or so. I mostly worked off the wreck, seeing what I could find in the sand (primarily looking for Armina and Sea mice; found a single D. iris and a bunch of Hermissendas.) Lots of elbow crabs, about a 4 inch Dungeness (I think) crab, lots of smaller ones that I couldn't ID, lots of Black-Eye Hermits, and a bunch of the usual other stuff. Back on the barge, there was just enough current to make it a pain in the butt trying to stay off the structure. I found a nice cooperative cabezon perched lengthwise on a plank, and saw what I think is a spearnose poacher (ID has to wait for enlargement on the bigger screen. Postscript: It was a Northern Spearnose Poacher.) Back up after running out of time, chasing 1 minute remaining all the way up to about 40. Dive stats: 66 feet, 47 minutes, 57 degrees.

Back at the ramp, we pulled the boats to get an early start configuring the trucks for sleeping (MotoGP has all the rooms in Monterey at around $300; a rodeo in Salinas has all those at $200/night.) While that was going on, some guy came up to me and asked where the police station was. I asked if he meant the Coast Guard, and he nodded, so I told him, and he headed up the hill. About a half hour later, he was back pacing the lot and looking agitated, until a car came up and a woman got out looking about the same. I asked if there was a problem, and he said his friends had gone out on a new Whaler at about 6am, and should have been back by noon, but were still out (it was about 6pm by then.) They had talked to the CG, so there wasn't a whole lot to be done. About a half hour later they spotted a boat a ways out, and the guy was asking if I thought it could be them. I got my binoculars from the boat, and the hull shape looked like a Whaler, and I counted two people on board. I handed off the binoc's, but neither of the two could get a good enough look to say yes or no. I decided to put my boat back in and run them out there, so Larry put me in and we started out. Guy asked if we needed help, and I figured if there was a problem, I might, so joined us, as well. We got to the boat and I saw they were drifting for halibut. The woman said, yes, it was her boyfriend, so I pulled alongside. The ensuing exchange was all in Spanish, which is probably moot, as I probably couldn't relate it here anyway. I radioed the CG to tell them they had been found and were fine; while doing so, the two guys pulled in lines and took off for the ramp. I finished up conversing with the CG, and headed back in (at a more sedate speed than the Whaler.) I don't really know the results, but Carol apparently asked the two guys if they were in trouble, and the guy who was not the woman's boyfriend grinned and replied "Not me."

 

June 29: 2 dives: The Needle with Larry and Carol on XTSea and me on Aurora; Carmel Ridge with the same group.

Arrived at Breakwater to find Carol standing in the lot. She said that they were ready to go, but would wait if I wanted to tag along.

So, a quick prep and load and launch, and off we went.

The Cohns said they wanted to go around the corner, and I was pretty ambivalent on a destination, so Carmel was the inital destination pending any further refining os site selection. Flat water, and full throttle smoothness (tempered by a desire to conserve fuel, resulting in a bit of throttling down.) Entering Carmel Bay, we agreed on Mono Lobo as the destination, and headed across.

As we neared Lobos, I saw Black Dog sitting on the hook, and I thought I saw Chuck on-board. Motored over to take a closer look, and saw Chuck and Linda both up, having just completed their first dive. Chuck reported 50 foot vis, and suggested the Needle as a site. He gave me coordinates, and we went to take a look. Conditions looked pretty good from the surface, so we dropped hooks, geared up and got in.

Vis at the surface was in excess of 30 feet, and reasonably clear. Dropping down, I straightened out my hook, and headed off to explore (well, not so much explore, as "finding photo subjects".) In truth, I didn't make it all that far working CCW around the pinnacle, but it was a fairly spectacular dive nonetheless. Bottom vis was probably around 40 to 50, though some cloudiness seemed to drift in and out. A bit of current made me a little wary of straying too far. Lots of olive rockfish, and a fair school of blues up near the top. A few coppers and a greenling or two rounded out the fish. I kept searching for a Dirona albolineata, as I don't have a decent image of one, but never found one. I did run across a few Dendronotus albus, as well as a few Peltodoris, lots of large (and mating) Doris montereyensis, a few Cadlina luteomarginata, and a single Tritonia festiva. Settled in to shoot olive rockfish and burn the rest of my bottom time, but just then a large milky cloud moved in cutting vis to about 20 feet, and the olives disappeared to other places. 109 feet, 40 minutes, 52 degrees.


We decided to do a second dive in the area, so had a bit of time to kill during the SI. Motored over towards Stillwater Cove, sort of meandering here and there along the way. Carol was puttering along a bit behind and further offshore, and I was buzzing just along (and occasionally inside) the kelp line. Going through one gap in the kelp, the depthfinder dropped from something like 35 feet to about 70. I turned around and ran back through the gap, and had about the same reading. I had Carol run through, and she agreed it looked interesting. I ran back through again, and had mid-seventies all the way through. Another run was back to the original numbers. I marked the spot as Carmel Ridge, as it appeared that any structure would be a continuation of a rocky point on shore, and we continued on to Stillwater. Once there, we had slight breeze that would move the boats slowly towards the south end of the cove. I decided that I could use that to an advantage, motored slowly into the kelp near the large wash rock/island, shut down, and checked out the kelp canopy as I slowly drifted over it. Pretty neat: several small (really small) sculpins, kelp isopods, what appeared to be a tiny juvenile greenling, kelp crabs, some sort of really fast shrimp thingies, but no slugs (which was the point of the exercise.) A few kelp rockfish would cruise by on occasion. All in all, it was cool way to pass the time (though I need to find a more comfortable way of hanging over the side.)

Eventually, we decided that we had been up long enough and headed out of Stillwater to do the second dive. We decided to return to Carmel Ridge and check out what was there. With the wind blowing in from the southwest, anchoring on the spot would have put us in the kelp paddy, so I decided to anchor offshore of the site, drift back and set scope so we were sitting directly above it, and use my spare anchor as a vertical downline. Would have worked really well, except I misjudged the wind a bit, so Carols boat ended up over the site. No biggie: transferred my spare anchor to her boat, and she dropped the downline.

Dropping down, vis was a bit cloudier than the previous dive, but still a good 35 feet or so. Again, it seemed to come and go, ranging from about 20 to over 40. I swan sort of southwestish along the wall, came to a break and saw a large dark mass at the edge of visibility. Swimming over to investigate, I crossed a sand channel, then came across my anchor which I reset for retrieval, then Carol's anchor which was all knotted up, which I also cleared and set, and then I went to inspect the dark shape. It turned out to be a large granite block, probably 30 feet high, pretty impressively encrusted. Checked that out for a bit, then headed back over towards the down line. A ling swam up, and perched on top of a little ledge, apparently begging to have its picture taken. Unfortunately, I was rigged for super macro, and ended up with a shot of about six square inches around its eye. As I was rerigging, it took off into a hole. Larry apparently was directed towards it by Carol (they showed up about then), but couldn't find it. Once rigged for normal shooting, (and after Larry swam off), the ling swam up and perched vertically in the hole, allowing for at least an odd-angled head shot. Got three or four frames, and noticed, directly under my camera housing, a bright red crevice kelpfish. Re-rigged for macro, but the kelpfish wouldn't cooperate, staying mostly hidden in the algae. The ling, meanwhile, miffed by being one-upped by the kelpfish, decided to leave. Eventually, so did the kelpfish (actually, it probably just hid better than it had been.) Moseyed back over to the wall, and found a bunch of egg spirals on some encrusting sponge. Looked for the Rostanga for about five minutes before I found it (or them, I should say), a couple of feet away, and apparently still in the egg-laying mood, or so it appeared. The surge had picked up a bit, though, and I didn't get any really good shots. It was the first time, though, that I've seen a Rostanga actually on sponge (the several I've seen before had apparently been out cruising or something.) About that time, my air starting running low, so I made a wild guess as to where my anchor line was, found it, and headed back up, apparently hitting the surface about the time that Larry and Carol did. 77 feet, 51 minutes, 52 degrees. Wind and swell had built a bit during the dive, but it was still a fairly fast and pleasant ride ride back to Monterey Bay.

As we neared the Aquarium area, I heard some conversation on the radio between the CG SAFE boat and the Monterey Fire boat discussing a missing diver off Del Monte. From what I gathered, three divers (an instructor and 2 students) had gone in, surface swam out a ways, dropped and started swimming a bearing to someplace to do nav drills, and ended up with only a pair. they apparently swam back to the beach and called it in; the CG, MFD, and three Lifeguards on surfboards responded. They were pretty well into the search by the time we motored into the area (Carol had missed the calls on VHF 23A, and had seen some dolphins or something and stopped to try and track them), but I cruised in closer to the beach than they were anyway. Shortly thereafter someone spotted bubbles, and one of the lifeguards freedove down and made sure the diver was OK, then followed the bubbles back in to the beach. We didn't wait around to see who it was.


 

June 28: 3 dives: Mating Amtracks with Fofo, Guy, Ed, and Kathy; Shale Island with Jeff, Kathy and Greg(?); Pinnacle of Doom area with Jeff, Kathy and Greg (if that was his name.)

 
While prepping the boat, Fofo came up and we chatted for a while. He said they (he and Guy) were going to do the Barge, so I offered them a ride out. Turned out there were three divers in his group (which was fine), so we all loaded gear. As I was about to swap out street clothes for the drysuit, Kathy came up to bum a ride as well. She got her gear loaded, and got changed, and we all headed out. Flat water, blue wake, and not too many other boats out. Someone suggested the Amtracks as a destination (I think it was Guy, wanting to see the Hermissendas), so we headed there.

In the water, the surface was very clear; dropping down, the clarity decreased somewhat, to about 20 to 30 hazy feet or so at the bottom. The tracks weren't visible from the hook, and Guy and Fofo ran a line to pull an arc search. Figuring that Kathy and Ed would follow them, I sort of wandered here and there, checking out the bits of debris and such on the bottom. Eventually, I ran across the tracks, with the other four divers on it. The Hermissendas were still there in force, as were a single Cadlina luteomarginata, a single Flabellina trilineata, a couple of Peltodorises, and, off in the sand, a single San Diego dorid. A few kelp rockfish, a copper, and one big wolf eel. No pics, as I continue to be plagued with battery problems. 81 feet, 32 minutes, 52 degrees.

Dive 2: Jeff had a couple of drysuit students, so I offered them a ride. Changed out batteries from the truck (after checking the charge state this time.) Headed to Shale Island (my choice), dropped the hook, geared up and headed down. Followed the anchor line and whoever was in front of me dragging the line down. Once at the bottom, I was going to check the hook (it has a habit of wedging itself in an unrecoverable position on the shale), so I swam past Jeff, following the line. I decided to take a bearing on the line (wind was from a weird direction), but when I grabbed my compass and looked back, the line was gone. Took a bearing as close as I could estimate, and figured I'd adjust it when I hit the edge of the island by swimming one way then the other til I found the hook. Problem was, I had no idea when I hit the end of the island. Swam out way further than the line should have been, offset a bit and came back; ended up somewhere out in the middle of nowhere after swimming all over the damn place. Found some great structure in the forms of big overhangs, saw a lot of stuff but nothing really unusual. Finally decided that it might be better to surface and get bearings rather than swim all over the place (a little late, but at least I decided something.) Surfaced next to the yellow PWC zone buoy. No pics, as I was primarily trying to figure out where in hell I was. 66 feet, 30 minutes, 55 degrees.

Dive 3: The same foursome headed out to Pinnacle of Doom, with a last minute change in plans to try and locate Superman. 10 to 25 foot variable vis, a touch of current, and surprisingly surgy. Lots of kelp rocks, a couple of coppers, a black or two, lots of small blues, a whole bunch of unidentifiable juveniles, a black perch, a pair of formation-swimming pile perch, rubberlips, a couple of kelp perch (I think - the little orange guys?), a small ling, and a few sculpins. Not too many slugs, and all of them normal sightings. Found a small (really small; maybe a quarter inch) shrimp of some sort (Lebbeus lagunae?); spent a while trying to get a shot with the thing big enough to ID. Not really sure I succeeded. A bit later, I found what I believe is a Manania gwilliami - a stauromedusa, or stalked jelly. Headed up after I realized everyone else was probably waiting (they were, but had not been for as long as I thought.) 44 feet, 48 minutes, 54 degrees.

June 22: 2 dives: Hopkins Deep Reef and the Steam Engine, both with Jeff and Ed on Nitrox, and me on Aurora.

At the hotel the night before, had run into Jim Ernst, and invited him and his DM on the boat. They had a class, but were getting an early start, and anticipated being done early(ish), so we were good to go.

Got to Breakwater, and saw Chuck geared up and ready to go. Chatted with Clinton for a minute while Chuck launched Black Dog, and they headed out. A few minutes later, they were back, Chuck having torn his neckseal.

Saw Jim, who wasn't done with his class, and he deferred until dive 2.

Jeff and I splashed boats, and headed out with the idea of doing Ballbuster. Short period, steep swell (though not too large) made the ride out, uh, interesting. Planing speed would try to launch the boat off the backside of the waves. A bit of windchop made it tough to anticipate exactly what the boat was going to do. Upon arriving at Ballbuster, we decided that the conditions coupled with the lack of other boats that far out would make diving there a poor decision, so we headed back in a bit, deciding on Hopkins Deep for a dive site.

Dropped my hook in about 70 feet, Jeff was a little further offshore. Hopped in and found the surface water had about 15 foot vis. Headed down, and ran into a soup layer at about 15 feet, cutting vis to about 3 to 5. That layer cleared at about 35 or 40 feet, and below that was probably 40 foot vis, but dark. Near night dive dark. Checked my hook, which was fine in a sand patch, but the chain had wrapped itself into a slipknot. Tried for a bit to clear it, and finally gave up. Checked out the rocks around the area (nice metridium-covered boulders) shot pics of a reasonably uncooperative copper rockfish, an oblivious treefish at a really bad angle, and a Dendronotus iris on a tube anemone. Aside from a weird unidentified worm thingie, that was about all I found worth noting. 80 feet, 36 minutes, 50 degrees.

After a too-brief (for me, anyway) surface interval (during which Ernst bailed altogether), we headed out for the Steam Engine. Anchored up and got in, with the same layer as at Hopkins, but reaching shallower, to about 5 feet. At the bottom, despite about 30 foot vis, I didn't recognize where I was, until I ran into the Steam Engine proper (partly because I was head down looking for slugs, I think.) Headed back towards my anchor and decided to pay the Fringehead-in-a-pipe a visit. Found the pipe, but didn't see the fringehead. Took a look inside, and saw the fairly recognizable reticulated mottling of an octopus about 6 inches in. Took the pipe and shook it around a bit trying to clear it, but the octopus stayed put. Gave up, and placed the pipe in a position where the mouth should remain clear (unless it's upset by swell or something), just in case the octopus vacates it and the fringehead returns. All in all, I didn't really see much on this dive, either. 81 feet, 31 minutes, 50 degrees.

At least there were no electrical storms.

 

June 21: 1 dive: Random spot off Point Joe with Mike

Waited around, sweating in the building heat, til about 9, when my buddy Mike showed up (not his fault; that was the planned meeting time.) Headed out, with the intention of heading around the corner. And so we did, after a stop to say howdy to Harry and Dionna at Ballbuster. Water was at least really flat; probably more like really, really flat. The blue color of yesterday wasn't as noticeable today. Anchored at a spot just off Pt Joe that showed pretty impressive relief on the fishfinder. As it was, it was more impressive on screen than in person (though it wasn't really a bad spot.) Given the flat water, I assumed that surge would be minimal. Mike reported cloudy water as soon as he got in. A glance down the anchor line clearly showed 20, perhaps 25 feet, so I figured he was back to his warm water reckoning. But he wasn't; vis at the surface was maybe 10, and that may be stretching it. Descending, things got cloudier and clearer, depending on what you happened to hit. Once at the bottom, we had about 25 feet. Then, about 7. Then 15. Then 20. Then the sun came out, then it disappeared. About three feet of surge, which was substantially more than the swell height (I assume the surge was being amplified in the channels.) Saw several black and yellow rockfish, a few kelp greenling, one really skittish cabezon, and a few perch. Lots of blues up in the water column. I finally gave up looking for stuff, decided to try and shoot moon jellies near the surface, and told Mike I was headed up. Right then a serious cloud moved in, and I lost the anchor line, Mike, and most of the rocks I was between. Relocated the anchor line, and ascended. Surface vis had deteriorated further, down to about 3 feet. Hung for the safety stop without seeing a thing. No jelly shots today. 52 feet, 45 minutes, 50 degrees.

The chop was picking up, and the breeze had turned really cold. Rounded Point Pinos, and the temperature climbed about 10 degrees in the span of a few seconds, as if someone had opened an oven door. We tied up as the Fish and Game wardens were heading out "to cool off" (their words.) Told them about the temp drop near Pt Pinos, and they immediately decided that was where they were going. I never saw them get further than the end of the Breakwater wall, though, probably working over fishermen with binoculars.

While we were waiting for tanks to fill and whatnot, an electrical storm moved through just to the north, followed by another just south. One more missed to the north, the fourth nailed us. Waited it out, but it appeared that at least one more was making a beeline for Monterey, so I decided to call any further diving, as it was too hot waiting in the drysuit (even peeled down), and Mike had to leave at about 3 to take his wife to a concert anyway. So, pulled the boat, and packed everything up.

Then Harry pulled his boat, and the thunderstorms immediately dissipated. Obviously the unstable weather was his fault.
 

June 20: 3 dives; solo at Mating Amtracks and the Barge, and a night dive at Breakwater, sort of with Jeff and Ed.

Headed around the corner, as the water along Cannery Row looked pretty green. Rounding Pt Pinos, the wake went from Green Tea to sky blue. Pulled into a spot that was just south of the Lighthouse, surprised that there was no kelp. Then I saw why: A steady current was blowing along the shore, heading back up to the Point. It would have been diveable, but was beyond my max for diving solo. So, pulled the hook and looked around the other side of the Lighthouse, where the current was going exactly the opposite direction. After poking around a bit, weighing consequences and such, ended up on the Mating Amtracks. Visibility on top was horrible; probably less than 3 feet. Dropping down the line, it steadily (but only slightly) improved until, at 35 feet, the layer disappeared. Visibility at the bottom was probably over 40 feet. It seems there's something of a Hermissenda convention on the Tracks; probably 20 or 25 largeish individuals, mostly colored the same (Hermissendas have differing cerata: white tipped, reddish, orangish, clear, etc.) One trilineata. A couple of gopher rocks and a bunch of kelps, and some hermit crabs. Nothing really unusual. 81 feet, 33 minutes, 48 degrees.

Did the Barge as dive 2, as I was planning on doing that as a night dive (that didn't work out that way, but...) Soup to about 30 feet, about 20 foot vis below that. Lots of Kelpies, one kelp greenling, and a ling. A couple of white Dendronotus iris, a few Pelts, one Doriopsilla. Lots of elbow crabs, Megasurcula, and several black eye Hermits. 66 feet, 41 minutes, 50 degrees.

Night dive along the wall for dive 3: Started out with Jeff and his student, but left them to see what was on the bottom (planned departure.) Worked mostly shallowish; several red octopus, millions of some kind of wriggly red worms (the tube anemones ate pretty well), some kind of fish I need to look up (long bottom fish; poacher, maybe?), lots of tiny juvenile rockfish and several juvie perch. Camera battery problems again as I hit max depth; on the way back in saw a bunch of plainfin midshipmen, I think one of a different midshipman (I think), and, of course, 2 Aeolidia papillosa. 43 feet, 46 minutes, 55 degrees.

 

June 15: 2 dives, both solo: Somewhere just south of the Pt. Pinos Lighthouse, and Anchors 2 & 3.

Got out of the motel early to get a trailer parking place, and it worked.

Got fills while prepping the boat and dive gear (too lazy to get them up north), talked to Harry, Dionna, and Mark for a bit, then headed out.

Too flat to not try going around the corner, but being alone (again) I didn't want to try anything too radical. Dropped the hook at a random spot just south of the Pt Pinos Lighthouse, in about 60 feet. Surface looked pretty good, bluish and clear, the bull kelp sitting straight up, and three foot swells and a bit of wind chop rolling through. Hopped in, expecting the same cloudy water as yesterday, but was pleasantly surprised: Surface vis was pretty good. Dropped down, and at the bottom, checked the hook. Had to reposition it a bit to ensure getting it back up, then I looked around. Easily 40 foot visibility, probably more like 50. Just a touch of surge. Given the vis and my lack of fish pics, I decided to try and shoot (mostly) big stuff (bigger than slugs, anyway.) Lots of gopher rockfish, lots of stupidly inquisitive kelp rocks, a large school of blues with a few olives mixed in, a couple of kelp greenling (male chasing female) that I couldn't track long enough to get a shot, a huge vermilion (ditto), an oddly colored rockfish that I think was probably a grass, a bunch of perch, and about a 5 foot wolf eel that scared the crap out of me (came up face to face with it as I rounded a corner.) 71 feet, 44 minutes, 50 degrees. Uneventful run back in to Breakwater, where I joined Dionna, Harry, and Mark for a quick bite to eat.


Headed back out with the idea of a quick dive and an early exit for home. Figured that I hadn't been to Anchors 2&3 for a while, so I dropped there. I wasn't expecting all that much given the crappy conditions at Shale Island the day before, but I figured macro stuff on the anchors would be OK. Surface was actually pretty clear, and in the water, I could see about 20 feet down the anchor line. Unfortunately, at about 25 feet, the same crappy particulate layer showed up. Luckily, it cleared a bit at about 65 or 70 feet. Shot a lot of pics of nothing really special. Vis was kind of weird: About ten feet when I got down, about 5 feet on the anchors, about 15 on the concrete block. Eventually I figured out (and saw) that a huge green cloud was washing in and out of the area. Worked for quite a while shooting what I thought was a juvie rockfish perching on the fluted bryozoan, only to find on reviewing the pics that it was a juvenile painted greenling. 82 feet, 34 minutes, 50 degrees.

June 14: 2 dives, both solo, Outer Lovers Pt. and Shale Island.

Launched at the Monterey Harbor Ramp, as no parking available at Breakwater.

I was trying a bit of new gear: an OMS weight rig and a new Pinnacle Drysuit, so I was planning on doing something pretty simple in case things were all wonky. I decided to dive off Lovers despite the reasonably flat water, which would have put me around the corner any other day. As it turned out, there wasn't any detectable difference in the gear changes, so, I guess it was just an easy dive.

Water on top didn't look too bad, but once I was in, the clearish-looking green was seriously hazy, like looking through slightly colored liquid soap. At the bottom, you could make out the dark mass of a rock 20 feet aaway, but detail disappeared after about 10 feet or so. Found a convenient pinnacle just off the anchor, and immediately found a Limacia cockerelli, and spent a while trying to get it to pose (slugs don't listen too well, and I can't talk with a reg in my mouth anyway.) Ran across a few Peltodorises and Doriopsillas, then another Limacia. More time spent shooting, with limited results again. Found a small white dorid, and took a few pics for a later ID; turned out to be a Cadlina modesta. 43 feet, 48 minutes, a toasty 55 degrees.

For Dive 2, I was thinking about trying to shoot sea lions, but decided that the crappy visibility would make that too great a challenge, so I went to Shale Island, hoping to get under the layer that Brenna said had limited her Breakwater vis. Top again looked sort of OK, and turned out not to be once in the water. This time, descending put me in more particulate water, then really chunky water. It didn't get much better at the bottom. Worked the west end of the island, found a single large Hermissenda, lots of San Diegos, a few Cadlina lueomarginata, a Doris montereyensis, several Doriopsilla albopunctata, and 3 Cadlina modestas. Fish were limited to a couple of painted greenlings, a bunch of black eyed gobies, and about a dozen small rockfish that apparently appointed me king, as they followed me throughout all but about the first 5 minutes of the dive. 55 feet, 39 minutes, 52 degrees.

Upon reboarding the boat, heard the Coast Guard apparently searching for some kids who had transmitted a "help us" message from somewhere near Moss Landing. Sounded like they had several boats and a helicopter out searching. Never heard any resolution.



 

June 1: 2 dives; Eric's Pinnacle with Jeff on Nitrox and me and Mike on Aurora; then Outer Lovers, same group plus Larry and Carol on XTSea.

Dive 1: While prepping the boat, saw a pod of dolphins just southeast of the Metridium Field cavorting (as far as I could tell.) I assumed common dolphins, as they appeared to be jumping. Got the boats launched a bit later, and went to see if we could find them. Nothing near the Metridium Fields, but found a pod of about 20 Risso's offshore at about the Aquarium. Paced them for a bit out to somewhere near Aumentos, where the seas were getting rather large (4 or 5 feet, steep and close. Not really dangerous, but kind of unpleasant.) After a bit of discussion, we headed towards Eric's Pinnacle, almost changed plans when it appeared a large private vessel was on the site, then resumed the plan when we realized the boat wasn't on Eric's.

Hooked up and hopped in; dropped down to check the anchor set. Visibility at the bottom was probably a solid 40, perhaps more. I had told Mike that the easiest way to dive was to start at the bottom and spiral up, working around the pinnacle as you ascended, ending up near the anchor line (I was assuming I was going to be close. Luckily, I was.) He took off somewhere, and I started working clockwise. Several common slugs, but this dive was about fish (I seem to have a shortage of fish pics in my collection.) Found a crack with several rockfish hanging out: a treefish, a gopher, a copper, and something else that didn't want to show itself. Got a couple of OK shots of the treefish. Tried to shoot a few blues hanging off the pinnacle, with limited success. Got an OK shot of a male kelp greenling after stalking/chasing it around for about 5 minutes. A Cabezon made a brief appearance, then settled down head-on to me, but way deep in a fissure. Made for a really strange shot. Nothing else really of note, but quite an enjoyable dive overall. Vis closed down to around maybe 25 feet as we ended the dive (may have been from being shallower.) 61 feet for 48 minutes, 52 degrees.

Dive 2: Picked up Larry and Carol, done with their students and out on XTSea. Jeff wanted to hunt for Superman (who had been zip-tied to his anchor line until last weekend, when he deserted), so we headed back out to the Pinnacle of Doom area. Jeff anchored up near the POD itself, Carol and I were a couple of hundred yards back towards the Aquarium (Carol because she saw a high spot on her fishfinder, and me because I didn't want to have the boat sitting in kelp.) Mike and I got in, and just before reaching the anchor, I came across a weight pouch in the sand. I left the pouch on top of my hook and continued diving. Meanwhile, Jeff apparently had issues: something about dumping a weight pouch from the surface.

Mike and I headed over to a convenient rock, and started exploring. Lots of perch, blue rockfish, a lone grumpy black rockfish, several really stupid kelp rockfish ("whatcha doing? Whatcha doing? Whatcha doing? Yikes, it moved!!!"), a couple of tiny Rostangas, lots of Peltodoris's and Doriopsilla's, don't remember what else. Vis ranged from a low of about 20 to probably 45 or more, and the clear and shallowish water made things nice and bright. 43 feet, 57 minutes, 54 toasty degrees. Pain in the butt (and arms) getting the weightpouch back to the surface.
 

May 31: 3 dives: 2 with Mike at Pinncale of Doom and Shale Island; then the Steam engine with Mike, plus Larry and Carol on XTSea.

Dive 1: Mike hadn't been in the water for nearly a year, so I wanted to keep things shallow and simple to see whether he could still dive without offing himself. I chose the site we dove last week, affectionately named Pinnacle of Doom. Dropped the hook, then readjusted it to get the boat out of the sparse kelp in the area. Water looked blue from the surface. Hopped in, and could make out bottom detail from about 3 feet down; not too bad for a 40 foot site. Moved the hook a bit to make sure the boat cleared the kelp, then swam over to the rock about 20 feet away. Mike immediately circled that rock, then the next one over, while I poked around the first rock looking for small stuff. Shot a bunch of inverts, then hopped over to a different rock. Found a couple of really small Rostanga's, but not a whole lot else special. Still, vis was a solid 30 feet, perhaps as much as 45 (closing to about 20 towards the end of the dive); not much surge, and no current. Poked around in the sand for a bit until our agreed upon end time of 40 minutes, then stayed a bit longer. Eventually headed back up. 41 feet, 48 minutes, 50 degrees.

Dive 2: After a lengthy SI for lunch, we headed back out to Shale Island. Based on his diving during the precious dive, I told Mike he was free to do what he wanted, either shadow me, take off and explore, whatever. I guess he decided for one of the latter two. Headed down, and the bottom came into view at about 15 feet. I could ID slugs from 15 to 20 feet above the bottom. I moved the hook off the Island and over the ledge, then Mike took off, presumably looking for Anchor 5, or possibly doing a lap around the island. Spent most of my time on top, looking for slugs. The San Diego's are still out in force, as are Doriopsilla albopunctata and Peltodoris nobilis. Found a couple of smallish Acanthodoris hudsoni, several Doris montereyensis, some Cadlina flavomaculata, a wildly mating (or pre-mating) pair of Hermissendas. No Doris odhneri, which is unusual, and only a few small Triopha catalinae. Headed back up, and found Mike back on the boat having called his dive after nearly completed his lap. 53 feet, 46 minutes, 52 degrees. Vis maybe 25 feet.

Dive 3: Met up with Larry and Carol outside the harbor, and headed to the Steam Engine. Carol dropped on the numbers, I offset about 40 feet. Mike and I headed down a bit after Larry and Carol, and swam a long ways along the rode (I had about 250 feet out.) When we were about 10 feet off the bottom, I spotted a couple of Tritonia festiva's and dropped off the line to point them out to Mike. We checked those outm and a nearby Spanish Shawl, and when I looked up, the line was gone. Figuring we had dragged it down, and it sprang back up out of sight, we continued along the same heading. Never found the hook. We offset a bit to the north, working a small ledge there, the headed south to a larger ledge, heading back towards the boat. Eventually we stumbled onto the Steam Engine itself, then Larry and Carol, then XTSea's anchor. At that point, my line became visible off to the north. Turns out that Larry had hooked my line with his tank valve and pulled it way off-line. He probably released it about the time we dropped off of it, and it kicked way sideways. Since we had been following a bogus heading, we never found the hook, either. Lots of Clowns, a few Peltodoris, some San Diegos, C. luteomarginata and D. albopunctata, lots of T. festiva, several F. iodinea, and one tiny Aegires albopunctatus. No fish worth noting. No octopus. I did find a couple of transparent shrimp on a gorgonian, but have yet to ID them. 84 feet, 34 minutes, 50 degrees. Vis 40+ feet near the bottom.

 

May 26: 2 dives, Gene's Bucket and Outer Lovers Point, with Larry, Carol, Cathy, and Matt on XTSea, Jeff and Pam on Nitrox, and me on Aurora (Pam and Matt both sat out dive 2. Wetsuit divers...)

Back to Breakwater at a bit before 8. Had to wait a bit for fills (too lazy to have them done the night before); Glenn's Aquarius 2 was a bit late opening (holiday - Can you blame them?) Chatted with Capt Phil for a bit while he launched his boat for a whale watching trip with the family.

Loaded up and headed around the corner bound for... someplace. Plan was to dive somewhere short of Carmel, as the only person who wanted to run that far was Carol. After a bit of discussion, we ended up at Gene's Bucket - a site off Pt Joe where a friend of mine had once gotten seasick (On the boat, during the dive, after the dive...) Anchored up, and a current check showed absolutely nothing. The kelp was laid out northward, but was sitting placidly on the surface. By the time we hopped in, there was a touch of surface current, but not too serious - slow finning every few seconds was enough to hold position. Surface water was pretty clear, maybe 25 or 30 foot vis, dropping down didn't show a lot of improvement, but with stuff to look at, you could see structure 40 feet away pretty clearly. Shadowed by several blue and olive rockfish, I did the usual poking around, not really finding much of note except for a small Limacia. Had a gopher rockfish pose for a shot, until I focused on him, then he rushed the camera. Got a great shot of his dorsal fin, though. 65 feet 45 minutes, 50 degrees that felt a lot colder. Coming back up, found all the kelp at a 60 degree angle. The current wasn't really all that noticeable, though, which was kind of odd.

For dive 2, we sort of wussed out, and planned to do a dive on either Outer MacAbee or Outer Lovers. Ended up on semi-outer Lovers, I guess. Neat area, though; all 3 boats were anchored parallel to shore with a hundred feet or so between us. I think everyone found their own little pinnacle to dive on. I found 3 Rostangas that were out cruising, a C-O sole that didn't want his face photo'd (witness relocation program?) and a sanddab that didn't quite have the whole match-your-background camouflage thing down. A few Peltodorises, a tiny Doris montereyensis, a couple of luteomarginata, a couple of san diegos, and a bunch of D. albopunctata. 43 feet, 43 minutes, 50 degrees. Gotta come back here sometime. [Postscript: Roy Dumlao, who is planning on diving Lovers for the Beach Dive Photo Contest, has stolen my numbers for the spot. Hope he gets some good pics.]
 

May 25: 2 dives, Mono-Lobo Wall and Shale Island with Larry and Carol on XTSea; Jeff and Pam on Nitrox, and me on Aurora (Pam sat out dive 2.)

Pulled into Breakwater just after 8, and got the last trailer parking spot available. Jeff arrived a half hour later, and ended up in the upper lot. Carol wanted to head to Lobos Rocks, so we splashed all the boats and headed south. Water was nice and smooth, making a fast run possible and pleasant.

Arrived at Lobos Rocks (it was either there or Brazil, with Carol leading I'm not sure which.), dropped the hook, and just as we started gearing up, I did a current check and found probably a knot and a half blowing northward. Jeff whined about people not being gutsy enough to dive it anyway, but he never got in either. On to plan 2, pulled the hook, heading for Mono Lobo (after a stop for Jeff to look at an imaginary whale. In truth, I saw the footprint, but that was it.)

Hopped in to nice blue water, anchored up in about 80 feet. Another nose-to-the-rocks dive, working large boulders extending up to 55 feet or so. I recall seeing one fish in the water column; a perch of some sort, and a few sculpins, painted greenlings, and gobies. Actually not that many slugs, either: a few lemons, a couple or three Tritonia festivas, a couple of cadlina luteomarginata, a couple of San Diego's, and a Berthella. Shot several pictures of various inverts, finally gave into the cold, and headed back up. As I reached the anchor line, I ran across a strange jelly, shot a couple of pics (turned out to be a Solmissus), then, out of time, headed up. Ran across another neat looking jelly just below the safety stop, but by the time I got the camera set, it was gone (probably a Eutonina indicans.) 83 feet, 39 minutes, 48 degrees (both Jeff and Pam had 46 diving a couple of hundred feet towards Monastery.)

Chatted with Rob for a second or two, watched him head back, then pulled the hook and followed a few minutes behind him. As we neared the Pinnacles, I spotted some dorsal fins in the water a few hundred yards out. I was hoping they would be orcas (initial sighting was too far to get a good feel for size), but they turned out to be Risso dolphins. Paced them heading north for a few minutes, and continued on again. Jeff came on the radio again having spotted another imaginary whale; Coincidentally, a humpback (real) decided to show up just after that. Followed the whale (headed south) for a quarter mile, then resumed the run back to the ramp. As we rounded Pt. Pinos, I saw Double Down anchored, and a couple of divers well away from the boat. I headed for the divers to pick them up and return them to DD, but they apparently had been pulling the hook when I saw them, and were soon on their way to recover the pair. I waited until they were on top of the divers, then we headed back in.

Just short of Breakwater, Jeff suddenly slowed and stopped, and I did the same. the F&G Hurricane 733 RIB came flying up (22 foot RIB, twin 150's), and the Warden said that if we were racing, we had nothing on him. I replied that I had been burning 8 gallons an hour, how about him? He replied that I was paying for it so he really didn't care. Funny guy. Jeff had stopped as he thought his hat had jumped ship and sank; at the ramp, it turned out it had just jumped head and was hiding in the back of his boat.

After a pretty fair SI, headed out again, just after Chuck left for some whale watching (with his Canadian friends on board, I think. I missed the intro's.)

Decided on Shale Island, as the wind was picking up (not as bed as Saturday, but still...) so we headed over there. Carol made a run at the numbers, followed by me. I dropped the hook, she didn't. Jeff dropped just after me (minus Pam, who sat out due to being chilled.) Carol made another run, and missed again. By that time, I had drifted back on the line, and I ended up directly above Anchor 5. I told Carol, who didn't believe me, until I did a GoTo, and told her I was 12 feet from datum. She dropped there, and her anchor ended up 5 feet from Anchor 5. Hopped off the boat into soup, couldn't see the bottom until I was at about 40 feet (site is 55.) Still and all, it cleared pretty well below that, with horizontal vis a green, hazy, and chunky 15 to 20. Swam around looking for slugs, and they were all over the place again (or still, if you remember last weekends reports.) Nothing really unusual. A big bull sea lion did a flyby. Ran into everyone at one point or another during the dive, which is kind of unusual for us. 59 feet for 52 minutes, 48 degrees. Received a DSC phone call as we approached the ramp: Chuck reporting seeing several humpies, one of which nudged his boat. 
 

May 24: 2 dives, both with Ed the New Guy.

Arrived at Breakwater to find lots of parking, both trailer spots and along the wall. Ed was there already, having pulled in a few minutes earlier. Got everything set to go, splashed the boat, briefed Ed on what to expect, and we were off.

I hadn't been to the Mating Amtracks in quite a while, so I opted for that since Ed doesn't know any of the dive sites in the area. The run from Breakwater to Lovers was mirror calm, and as dead flat as it gets in Monterey. Dropped the hook on the numbers, threw out about 200' of scope, and waited for the line to tighten up. And waited. And waited. Eventually gave up on waiting and went diving. Top was fairly green and chunky, but cleared at least somewhat on the way down. Vis at the bottom was 20 to 25, hazy but not as chunky as the top layer. Found the tracks pretty much straightaway, and started looking for stuff. There is a Hermissenda population explosion in process, other than that, I didn't see all that much special. Several toothshell hermits, a few other hermits, some other snails, a couple of kelp rockfish, a couple of sculpins, and that was about it. Back up to find a bit of wind had picked up, but not really enough to be any kind of concern. 80 feet, 27 minutes, 48 degrees.

After a fair surface interval, we headed out for dive 2, with a plan to dive Shale Island for slugs. Just before arriving there, we ran into Chase (on Mac Attack) who reported zero to three foot vis wherever he had been looking for halibut. I decided that further towards Point Pinos might be prudent, so we headed back that way. The wind had come up with a vengeance, blowing straight out of the west, whitecapping 100 feet after blowing offshore. Dropped the hook somewhere in Hopkins Deep, let out a couple of hundred feet of scope, considered lengthening scope, then went diving. The hook was among a bunch of boulders, several with a good covering of metridiums. Vis was actually pretty decent, you could make out boulder shapes at about 30 feet. Found one rock populated by a group of 5 or 6 clown nudis, none mating, and none egg-laying. Other than that, a few Cadlina luteomarginata, a couple of Peltodoris, rockfish or two, and few sculpins. At some point, the anchor dragged out of the rocks and rehooked itself on the next line of boulders; the wind was playing havoc with just about everything (heard that the outrigger racers suffered three capsized canoes out near Pt. Pinos.) 83 feet, 31 minutes, 46 degrees.



 

May 18: 2 dives at Shale Island; Dive 1 solo, Dive 2 with Jeff on Nitrox (not that I ever saw him)

Was supposed to dive with Ed (bailed) and Mike (also bailed.) Jeff was teaching, so I headed out for a solo dive after waiting a bit for the fog to lift.

I initially ran out to see what Aumentos and Hopkins looked like, but the fog was still covering Aumentos, and it was drifting in and out at Hopkins. Ended up on Shale Island.

Surface water looked reasonably clear. Hopped in, and it was immediately apparent that the clarity was vertical rather than horizontal. Dropping down, I checked the hook, checked the vis (about 20 to 25, hazy, and fairly particulate near the bottom), and started slug hunting. First thing I noticed was that the San Diegos had apparently gone bonkers on sex. Diaulula city. Second thing I noticed was that my camera batteries died. Folded it up and used it as a 4 pound ballast weight. Checked around the southwest side, along the ledge, and found quite a few different slug varieties. Among them: Diaulula sandiegensis, Peltodoris nobilis, Doris moneteryensis and odhneri, Cadlina flavomaculata and luteomarginata, Doriopsilla albopunctata, Acanthodoris hudsoni, a single Limacia cockerelli, a single Tritonia festiva, a few Dendronotus albus, a couple of Hermissendas, lots of Geitodoris heathi, and a couple I wasn't sure about that turned out to be Cadlina modesta. I think that was it. Not too many fish; a rockfish or two, a couple of small sculpins and painted greenlings, and the omnipresent black eyed gobies. 57 feet, 43 minutes, and a toasty 52 degrees. 

Returned to the ramp, changed out camera batteries, went out to check on Jeff who was out off the aquarium, then came back to the ramp and got lunch.

Took a long SI, and headed back to Shale Island armed with a powered camera. Basically did the same dive as in the morning, seeing pretty much the same characters less the Limacia (couldn't find it again.) 54 feet, 45 minutes,52 degrees.
 

May 17: 2 dives: Stillwater Cove with Larry, Carol, and Kathy on XTSea, and Trevor, Kirk, Lydia and myself on Aurora; Steam Engine with the same group plus Ed added to XTSea.

Arrived at Breakwater at about 8:30. The last trailer spot was filled a couple of minutes before I got there. So, off to the Monterey Harbor ramp. Trevor drove over as he couldn't find a spot, either. 

Carol had Kirk and Lydia on XTSea , so we were going to meet up just clear of the harbor to transfer them to Aurora (which would also give me time to pump up the tubes.) As Trevor and I cleared the commercial wharf, a humpback whale blew about 100 yds directly in front of us. I got on the radio to tell Carol, and we both followed the whale out to an area south of Shale Island. It seemed to be feeding, coming up a half dozen times in a very small area (including about 20 feet from my boat, and about 10 from Carol's), then it rolled on its side, reversed course, and headed back past the mouth of the harbor. A couple of kayaks picked it up, and we stopped to transfer bodies and inflate tubes. The whale continued up along Cannery Row.

Headed out around the corner, trying to keep things sort of smooth for Lydia. Unfortunately, it was pretty lumpy on the way down. Took a look at Butterfly House, but the big homebuilt cat was already hooked up there. We retreated to Stillwater, chose an area, and dropped the hook.

Water looked pretty good on top, and remained at least okay at depth. I'd call it a hazy 20 to 25 or so. We were in an area with small upcroppings, most of the rock tops covered in some short variety of kelp. Personally, I recall seeing a total of four fish (not counting painted greenlings): A gopher rock, two kelp rocks, and something else (don't remember what it was.) Slugs were in short supply as well: One C. luteomarginata, a couple of Peltodoris, a Dendronotus albus, and four or five Berthella, including one laying eggs. Had a good time searching for stuff, even if it wasn't particularly productive. 60 feet, 39 minutes, 50 degrees. The ride back was uneventful, except for Lydia's urgings to hurry, as she had to, uh, take a powder.

Dive 2 on the Steam Engine with the same people, plus a Ed added to XTSea's roster. Fairly scungy water on top, which got progressively worse all the way down. At the bottom vis was maybe a chunky 7 feet, with algal particulates drifting around in the surge. My hook ended up a several feet beyond the pipe (and the fringehead was there, but not too social.) Lost Trevor almost immediately, and spent my dive poking around on the ledge looking for slugs. Again, not too much around. A few small Pelts, a couple of luteomarginata, a Doriopsilla, a Tritonia festiva, and a smallish Tochuina tetraquetra. 81 feet, 35 minutes, 50 degrees.

 

May 11: 2 dives: Eric's Pinnacle, and Lemon Zest; both with Larry and Carol on XTSea, Jeff on Nitrox, and me and Steve on Aurora.

Plan was to see if we could get around the point and down towards Carmel; someone (Carol) called the run just past Aumentos or so as swells built to about 4 or 5 feet.

Headed for Ballbuster, where it was still rolling pretty good, before Jeff realized that the bottom would be beyond his MOD. So, a second relocation to Eric's (well, for some of us, anyway.) Carol dropped her hook first, I waited for them to drift out a bit, motored over the pinnacle and dropped mine (oddly, quite a distance from where I thought Carol had), then Jeff dropped his hook splitting the difference.

Everybody splashed, and I found my anchor just about where I thought it would be, beyond the pinnacle, and pretty much running up along the shoreward side. Relocated it a bit to keep from scraping too much life off the rocks. Vis was fairly poor: about 15 to 25, a bit dark, and green and chunky. Slug count was low: a couple of Peltodorises, a San Diego or two, a couple of Doriopsilla albopunctata, a remarkably unphotogenic Flabellina trilineata, and something that I thought was a tiny Limacia cockerelli; had to enlarge the pics on the computer to verify. There were fish, for a change, with a school of about 20 blue rocks hanging off the top of the pinnacle, a bunch of pretty good size perch, a couple of kelp greenling, a kamikaze cabezon on eggs, and a mystery guest (some kind of goby, I think; saw it for an instant as it bolted and hid.) I caught sight of the strobe from Larry's camera once, and saw Steve a couple of times as I circumnavigated the pinnacle one and a half times; so much for group diving. Had a moon jelly and three or four nettles make an appearance on the safety stop. 54 feet, 39 minutes, 50 degrees.


After a decent surface interval, Jeff suggested heading out beyond Shale Island and looking for structure; we ended up hunting for vertical relief in three foot swells (hard to see a couple-foot ledge when the bottom looks like a 3 foot sinewave.) Ran from the yellow buoy in front of the hotel to an area south of Shale Island, and only stopped looking there as I had dove there a couple of years ago (I named it Lemon Zest after all the Peltodorises that were there; a couple of weeks later they were all gone), and I knew there was at least some structure. It was shallower than I wanted to dive given the swell, but I also didn't want to end up on flat shale or worse, flat sand. 

Steve and I dropped into something that looked like vegetable soup; thick, chunky, green, hazy - all the bad vis terms seemed to apply. Going down the line, it got a little less hazy, but not much. It looked like about a million sea lions with colds had all been blowing their noses. Snot city. My anchor was hooked up on a flat section of shale, and didn't seem to be going anywhere, so I left it. Came back to a ledge I saw while descending, and it was pretty spectacular: a pointed outcropping perhaps 4 feet above the bottom, extending 8 or 10 feet. Unfortunately, that was about the only relief I found in my limited exploration. Everything else was either flat shale or sand/rubble channels. Slugs: Lots of San Diego's, a couple of D. albopunctata, a few Peltodoris, and several Geitodorises. Fish: A brown rock, a kelp greenling, and a bunch of skittish black eye gobies. No real highlight to this dive, but it was actually pretty nice considering the 5 to 7 foot vis and lack of anything really interesting. 47 feet, 41 minutes, 50 degrees.
 

May 10: After a three week layoff due to weather and a lingering back problem, finally got back to Monterey. Two dives; with Steve, Lydia and Kirk at Lighthouse Cut; with Steve at the Steam Engine.

Arrived at Breakwater at about 9:30. Bought a new weightbelt, as the psychotic puppy found her way onto the boat (more than once now) and decided to eat the buckle to one of my Halcyon weight pouches. While I wait for a solution to that, I'll be in the belt. Also decided to swap out my neck seal, as the current one was a castoff from Carol, who had used it as her BioSeal experiment - it was a little loose, and on the last couple of dives, I had water get through.

Rob Haas had said that vis was pretty iffy within the bay, so I was thinking something out towards, if not beyond, Pt. Pinos. I didn't want to make the run to Carmel, as I wasn't too sure about how the swell would affect my back. As it turned out, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, (at least until the next morning, making it impossible to attribute it to the boating/diving.) We ended up pulling in at Lighthouse Cut, mostly because I thought it was deeper than it was (trying to mitigate the surge.)

Since we were already there and hooked up, Steve hopped into the swell first, followed by Lydia, Kirk, and me. Figuring it would be surgy, I left the camera on board. Wise choice, except... well, I'll get there later. Vis was somewhere between 25 and maybe 40; a few feet of surge at the bad times, a foot and a half normally. Spent most of my dive nose to the rocks looking for little slugs, largely unsuccessfully. I did find a few really tiny slugs, but also found that my eyesight is not good enough to ID something that small. I think they were Flabellina trilineata, judging by general shape, color, and egg mass. A while later, I came across the slug I needed the camera for: it appeared to be a dendronotid, opaque white ground color, with a smattering of dark brown specks alon each side. The coloration was similar to that of the Aegires albopunctatus I've seen on the shale. Quite a few tri-branched ceratae (as far as I could tell), all white (and possibly translucent), and the rhinophores were white and branched as well. I'd estimate length at about an inch. I was unable to match it with anything in Behrens' old slug book (I'm currently unable to find my copy of the second edition.) Back to the boat just in time to catch a great from-below view of someone getting sick over the side (better than getting sick inside the boat, I suppose.) Saw a grand total of something like 2 fish. Didn't even notice what they were.
48 feet, 36 minutes, 46 degrees. Turns out it was Steve getting sick, just to keep Lydia company, I think. Slow ride back to Breakwater trying not to disrupt Lydia's already whacked equilibrium.
 

Steve and I planned to hop out to the shale for dive 2. Took a run to see how much things had deteriorated further up, and ran into Chuck and Linda coming back from Carmel. Chuck gave a rundown of their dives, and we parted ways. We retreated back to the Steam Engine.

Hopping in, vis didn't appear too promising. The anchor line was invisible from more than about 5 feet away. Dropping down it got dark, then darker. At the bottom, vis was maybe 5 to 7, and night dive dark. We had already decided that if conditions were crap, we'd abort, but once I checked the hook, I turned to get Steve's assessment and found he was gone. No biggie (our usual dive plan kicked in), so I started taking pictures. Quite a few San Diego dorids, a few smallish Peltodorises (is that the correct pluralization?), a Cadlina luteomarginata or two, a couple of Doriopsillas, a Cadlina flavomaculata, and a couple of Flabellina iodineas. Tons of Black Eye Gobies (well, maybe not tons, but a few pounds anyway), several ronquils, and that was about it. Got a couple of decent shots of a toothshell hermit in a worm tube. Met a couple of sea nettles at the safety stop. Oh, and the fringehead is still in the pipe. 82 feet, 34 minutes, 48 degrees.

 

Apr 13: 2 dives: Inner Pinnacles with Andy and me on Aurora, Larry and Carol on XTSea, and Jeff and Pam on Nitrox, plus Joachim and Ron on Joachim's boat; Shale Island with Larry and Carol, Pam and Jeff, and me.

Arrived at Breakwater at about 7:30. Chuck rolled in about 10 minutes later, and I told him that I can now sleep in for the rest of the year. Carol and Larry rolled in a few minutes after that, and Jeff and Pam showed up a bit later. As we were prepping boats and gear, another friend, Andy, drove up to say hi, and was talked into joining us on my boat.

Took off around the point, as Carol desperately wanted to do Carmel. Unfortunately, just north of Pt Joe, my boat had a fuel delivery problem. As in "needing someone to deliver fuel." Carol agreed to run back and see what she could do; they ended up bringing back 2 - 5 gallon cans. Her reasoning was that way, we could continue on to Carmel, and she could get her dive in (did I mention that she desperately wanted to dive Carmel?)

While we were waiting, we ended up drifting directly over a site that I did a few years ago with a couple of friends, one of which ended up getting sick; so I named the site "Gene's Bucket". Andy was getting a little warm sitting on the boat, so we talked him into going for a dive. That cured his overheating problem quite efficiently (he got chilled enough to skip the "real" dive in Carmel.) He came back up shortly after Carol returned, reporting 20 foot vis, but really good structure (which, of course, is why I kept the waypoint.)

Fueled again, we continued south, and Carol picked a spot a bit north of Castle House. Just as we were about to drop the hook, I noticed that all the kelp in the area was strung out horizontally underwater. A unanimous decision moved us over to the Inner Pinnacles. As we were gearing up, Joachim pulled up and asked if he could join us. More the merrier, so he and his buddy (Ron?) joined us in the same general area.

Top was green, about 20 feet of hazy vis. Dropping down, it cleared a bit, opening to 30 to 40 or so. The top layer wasn't heavy enough to block out light, so at 60 feet it was still pretty bright. I didn't notice a lot of fish on the bottom; a few rockfish and a few greenlings, maybe a perch or two. Apparently, everyone else saw a 4-foot ling. Not me. I did find a boulder with about a dozen Dendronotus albus, though, which apparently nobody else saw (at least not those who were looking for slugs, anyway.) Found a half dozen others in different places, other than those there was a single Cadlina luteomarginata. Shot a bunch of other inverts, and headed up my anchor line. On the safety stop, saw a Leucothea comb jelly, and spent a while shooting a few pics (unfortunately, I was rigged for macro, and it wouldn't fit in the frame. I think pretty much everyone else saw at least one as well.) 65 feet, 44 minutes, 48 degrees. The run back was a little lumpy, primarily from wind chop.

Andy bailed to dive Lovers, and I think Joachim and Ron got tired of waiting for us and took off for Eric's. We headed out to Shale Island. Had an octopus do a flyby, then it perched and glared at me (not long enough to get a pic though.) I came across another octo in a hole (might have been the same one), then another (which I'm sure was a different specimen than the other two.) Call it two octopus. Slugs: C. luteomarginata, G. heathi (one), D. montereyensis, P. nobilis, D. ohdneri, D. sandiegensis (lots), D. albopunctata, maybe a couple of others I'm forgetting. Not a whole lot of fish, and none unusual. 56 feet, 47 minutes, 48 degrees (though I think someone may have read 46. Don't remember.)

 

Apr 12: 2 dives: Offshore Butterfly House with Larry, Carol, and Cathy on XTSea, and me on Aurora; Outer MacAbee with the same group.

Met Larry, Carol, and Cathy at around 9. I was still suffering from the cold I got last weekend, but I thought that since I could clear my ears pretty easily, it shouldn't be a problem.

Headed down to Carmel for dive 1, apparently blew right by Chuck just off Pt. Pinos without seeing him, and ran into a humpback apparently feeding just north of Pt. Joe. It would blow three times in pretty quick succession, then sound for about 4 or 5 minutes, and repeat the same thing in the same place. Eventually, I got the idea that I would never be able to predict where it was going to surface, so we continued south into Carmel Bay and ended up off Butterfly House (I think.)

Anchored up in about 70 feet or so, in an area where the depthfinder was bouncing from 45 to 80 with a very small drift. Hopped in, and was a little disappointed in the surface clarity: about 15 feet or so. Dropping to the bottom, it opened up nicely, though, with vis ranging between about 25 to well over 40 feet depending on where you were. Not many fish around (at least not out); a couple of kelp greenling, a few rockfish, and a few perch. Lots of slugs, though nothing really special: Cadlina flavomaculata, Peltodoris nobilis, Cadlina luteomarginata, a Tritonia festiva, a Dendronotus albus, and a bunch of tiny Flabellina trilineata. Pretty cold, too, at 46 degrees. Add to that a shot of water down the neck that got me from collar to crotch. 76 feet, 37 minutes. Apparently blew past Chuck again on the way back. Never saw him.

Dive 2 was at a random location on Outer MacAbee (mostly because I hadn't been there in years), though it was shallow: 40 feet or so. Vis was good in some locations, and downright crappy in others: I'd say a max of 25 or 30 feet, and a min of maybe 7. Spent most of the dive on the same 5 or 6 rocks, and got a little jaded after crossing over the same rock for about the ninth time. Not really too much exciting to see, either, though I did get buzzed by a big bull sea lion. Camera batteries died about 15 minutes into the dive, and right after that I came upon a male kelp greenling that insisted on posing (and actually allowed a close inspection.) 40 feet, 47 minutes, 50 degrees. Cathy hit the surface a few minutes later, and Larry and Carol were down another 10 minutes or so.

After I boarded the boat, heard Monterey Fire talking to Lynx (the pirate boat thing), asking permission to escort and salute. Shortly after, they were alongside on the downwind side, with their nozzle pumping. Nice view with Lynx in near-full sail and the water cannon going (and no working camera on my boat; Larry's fancy schmancy DSLR in a locker on XTSea all by its lonesome.)

 

Apr 06: 2 dives: Ballbuster with me, Nathan and Anna on Aurora, Larry and Carol on XTSea, and Jeff on Nitrox with Pam along for the ride; Steam Engine, with the same group except that Pam was diving, and Guy joined Larry and Carol.

After a night of playing with the drysuit and Aquaseal, woke up to a sore throat and stuffy head. I guess Jeff decided to share his cold. Perfect.

Plan was to dive wherever was possible. Given the snotty conditions Saturday, I wasn't particularly hopeful on the drive to the ramp, but the bay looked very calm (which can be deceiving, I realize), and there was no wind to speak of.

Jeff wanted to do Ballbuster for a first dive, so we headed out there. Another boat was on the site, and just as I ID'd it as Black Dog, Chuck radioed a report of 50 foot vis at the bottom, and that he was pulling the hook. We waited for him to get loose, and anchored up. As we were gearing up, Carol started yelling (I'm sure she'd say she was saying "Whale! Whale! Whale!", but I heard "Ooh, ooh, ooh!" which wasn't particularly informative.) It was a whale cruising by about 100 yds astern of us. I radioed a report to Princess Monterey which was a quarter mile off, but they seemed pretty unimpressed. Chuck swung by to take a look.

Hopped in, and the first thing I heard was Pam kicking herself for not bringing her gear. She reported being able to see Jeff, Nathan, and Anna way down the anchor line. I headed down and vis was about 30 feet at the surface, closing to maybe 15 to 20 at about 30 feet, then opened up nicely to about 40 at the top of the pinnacle. It was better at the bottom of the pinnacle. I cleared my hook from Jeff's then did a quick loop of the pinnacle towards the bottom, then worked up to the top looking for macro subjects. Nothing really unusual, though Carol found a nice little red octopus that Larry had apparently pissed off a bit while chasing it around the top. As I headed up my line (chasing the one minute NDL reading again) I saw some divers descending Jeff's line, which I thought was kind of odd. Jeff, Nathan and Anna had gone down before me, and stayed deeper, so they had to be out of bottom time as well. Hit the surface, and everyone was up except Larry and Carol. Turned out that the people I was descending were from the Express, which was circling our group, had live boated some of their divers, and they were using Jeff's line as a reference (lucky that I put Jeff's hook over the pinnacle. I've been known to completely miss it.) Got all the post dive stuff done, and started to pull my anchor (without starting the motor as the divers were still in the water), but I felt some tugging and pulling, and figured the divers had switched to my line for the ascent. So, we waited for them to surface (by which time Anna was starting to get a bit queasy), then pulled, and headed back in. 104 feet, 32 minutes, 50 degrees (though I think everyone else logged 48 or so.)

Dive 2 was at the Steam Engine. Jeff wanted Nathan and Anna to do a navigation exercise, so I came up with Jeff anchoring at the Prop, and having them do their dive from the Steam Engine to the Prop and up to Jeff's boat. Would have worked pretty well if I had actually put Jeff near the Prop. As it was, we dropped down, I showed Nathan and Anna the fringehead in the pipe, we went to the Steam Engine, and they took off towards the Prop. They apparently found it, didn't see Jeff's line, turned around and returned to the Steam Engine, and did a blue water ascent, coming up pretty much right next to the boat. I did a bunch of searching for slugs (with searching being the operative word), finding several critters that I think were Acanthadoris lutea (still have to check pics), a bunch of San Diegos and clowns, several spanish shawls, a berthella, a few luteomarginata, and a Geitodoris. I forgot the Mosquito on the boat, but as I recall, the dive was 83 feet for about 30 minutes with a 48 degree temp.


 

Apr 05: 2 dives: The Barge, solo; Anchor 4 along with Larry, Carol and Cathy on XTSea.

Got a late start after a night of experimental drysuit zipper repair, and arrived at Breakwater about 10. Started prepping the boat and getting gear ready for a solo dive, anticipating meeting up with Carol and Larry for the second dive. Chuck pulled up after a bit with Dan Bermingham on board; they reported 15 feet at the Barge.

Out along the south end of Cannery Row, I was able to get air with a touch over half throttle and I figured that further up would be worse, so I retreated back to the Barge for the first dive.

I hopped in and geared up, and as soon as I started down, I felt a leak on my right arm. Nothing on the hip that the zipper caused (that I could tell, anyway), so the fix seemed to be working. On hitting the bottom, I almost landed on a large swimming scallop. That was followed by a large Dendronotus iris sitting atop a tube anemone. A few large Peltodoris's, a few clowns, the usual gaggle of kelp rockfish, and one posing scalyhead sculpin. Not really anthing that was unusual, but a very nice dive nonetheless. I'd call vis 25 to 30 feet, temp was 48 degrees, and the dive was 67 feet for 41 minutes. Surfaced to find Carol and co. nearby, wondering if anything was wrong.

[Postscript to this dive: Upon reviewing pictures a month and a half later, it turned out that a smallish, yellow, highly club-tubercled slug I had found on the sand was something I couldn't identify. I sent a pic to Clinton Bauder for an assist, and he agreed with my assessment that it was either an Onchidoris muricata or an Adalaria jannae, but he couldn't tell the difference, either. He suggested I contact Sandra Millen, who was the biologist who described and named the latter species. A few e-mails later, we had an ID: Adalaria jannae. Many thanks to Clinton and Sandra for their help in figuring out who this character was. ]

Back in the parking lot, I dumped about a pint of water from my right sleeve. I checked the torso, and it was dry, so the zipper repair held, for that dive at least. The only wet area was the one sleeve, from armpit to cuff (but it was pretty well soaked.)

For Dive 2, Carol wanted to do Anchor 4 since she hadn't been there before (I hadn't dove that in quite a long while.) Swells were up more than for the Barge dive, making the boat pitch quite a bit while dropping the hook.

I headed down first, and dropped through a layer of moon jellies at about 20 to 40 feet. On the bottom, one of the first things I saw was a dock shrimp doing a ostrich impression: it had its head tucked into a hole, with its entire body exposed. I don't really remember seeing fish, preferring to swim over the shale, looking for slugs. I was treated to quite a few nudibranchs (unfortunately none unusual), including Peltodoris nobilis, Cadlina luteomarginata, Diaulula sandiegensis, Flabellina iodinea, Triopha catalinae, and Tritonia festiva (including some really small guys.) Running out of bottom time, I moved the hook to a position that would enable me to get it up, and put myself into a bit of deco. Ascended, cleared the obligation, and spent the next several minutes trying to shoot gooseberries at about 10 feet (didn't really work.) Back on the boat with something less than 300 psi remaining, which turned out to be OK, since that cylinder turned out to be beyond hydro date.

Drysuit repair night at the hotel.

Mar 30: One dive, Steam Engine/Rocky Rode area; Carol and Cathy on XTSea, Jeff on Nitrox, and me on Aurora. Larry was present but didn't make it in.

Didn't really feel like getting up, so headed to the Breakwater lot around 9. Jeff called as I passed the Del Monte Aquarius, complaining that Carol had left the dock as he had pulled up. We tossed around several ideas, including, but not limited to, swapping XTSea for another boat, moving her hook, leaving her anchor in place but taking the boat, etc. We settled on just going whale watching instead. Probably better not to set a benchmark for future pranks. Yet.

Carol came back as we were launching, and wanted to tag along. Jeff had a last minute decision to get some gas before heading out. Princess Monterey, which had been heading out at the same time, got a substantial head start.

Once Jeff returned, we headed out through 2 foot swells that grew as we approached Pt Pinos. By the time we reached Aumentos, they were solid 8 footers, and Carol chickened out, electing to wait for us in calmer water. Princess Monterey chickened out as well, returning to the dock. Near the point, Jeff and I climbed over big swells (I'd guess slightly larger than 10 feet), then he headed off to watch the waves breaking on the wash rocks. Surprisingly, the break on the rocks wasn't all that spectacular. I was offshore a bit more, and the swell was a little steeper than where Jeff was sitting, so I headed back into the bay. Jeff followed a little later.

Met up with XTSea sitting off MacAbee, east of a big group of charter dive boats that were sitting from Hopkins back to the Aquarium. She said something about the Steam Engine, so I headed off there. I was a little curious if vis had improved over Saturday (realistically, it couldn't get much worse.) Carol dropped on the coordinates for the engine itself, and I offset a bit and dropped near Rocky Road. Jeff, having run back into the dock again (ostensibly to check on a divecon working a class; I think he was hungry or something), returned and dropped his hook in some random location shoreward of us. Given the rollers blowing through, I elected to leave the camera on the boat.

We dropped into, well, typical Monterey water. Vis at the bottom was, oh, 5 feet, maybe a bit more. I checked my hook, which was just starting to drag, and reset it in the most secure spot I could find (which wasn't all that secure, but I figured that Jeff had said he'd sit out the dive, so I wasn't too worried about it.) I marked a spot on the wall where the hook was, and headed out towards the Steam Engine. I ran across Carol's hook, which was also dragging. I saw Carol, too, so I tried to point out that her anchor was on the move, at which point, of course, it stopped. So, I set hers in the wall, and headed back to explore a bit. I reached my mark on the wall, and checked my hook, except that it wasn't there anymore. I swam downwind a bit, and not finding it, decided to do a greenwater ascent and chase it down on the surface (assuming Jeff hadn't captured it.) Upon hitting the surface, I saw it had rehooked about 50 feet from where it started, placing me a bit behind XTSea. Larry was still on board, futzing with his computer. Jeff had gone diving after all. My dive ended up being 78 feet for 17 minutes, 50 degrees. Didn't really see a whole lot. A couple of minutes later, Cathy hit the surface, followed shortly after by Carol. Jeff ended up, as he related, finding his anchor 4 times, except when he was ready to ascend.

 

Mar 29: 2 dives: Steam Engine with Harry and Mark (very brief); and Hopkins Deep with Roy, Lauren and Hunter; both dives off Aurora.

Arrived at Breakwater about 9, with nobody else expected to show up. Saw Chuck's truck and trailer in the lot; they must have gotten a pretty early start.

Harry, Mark, and Dionna had just splashed Harry's Striper, but they stayed tied up for quite a while. So, being nosy (and not really in any hurry), I wandered down to see what was up. Turned out that the motor would crank, but wouldn't fire. After a half hour or so of screwing around with it, they figured it wasn't repairable in-water, so I offered to take them out for a dive. After a bit of hemming and Hawing, Dionna decided to bail on the dive (preferring to nurse her cold; go figure), while Mark and Harry decided to tag along. Chuck came back in as I was launching, reporting 10 to 15 vis and a really snotty surface at Hopkins.

Dive 1: We headed out to the Steam Engine, and the surface looked pretty promising. Swells were running 2 to 3 feet or so, and the wind was pretty stiff, but water clarity didn't look all that bad. Got Mark, then Harry, into the water (along with several stage bottles, reels, lights, kitchen sinks, etc.; all the stuff a well-equipped tech diver carries), and they headed down. I geared up and headed down the line, happy to see that I could make out the line about ten or twelve feet ahead. Unfortunately, at about 40 feet or so, the vis started closing down. By the time I hit chain (meaning I was within about 15' of the hook), I could only make out about 5 or 6 links. Using a light got me a couple more. I'd call visibility at the bottom perhaps two feet if you held the light just right. I found a couple of C. luteomarginata within a foot or two of the anchor, but didn't even try to take any shots. So, with nothing else left to do, I headed back up. On the safety stop (back in ten foot vis), I spotted a little jelly, and figured it would be a good exercise to try manual focus shotting. By the time I got the strobes set, the jelly was gone, so I hung there waiting for another to drift by, but none did. I got back on the boat, and Mark and Harry hit the surface a few minutes later. 78 feet, 13 minutes, 50 degrees.

Pulled the boat out, intending on calling it for the day, but noticed a group of divers (or two smaller groups) way out beyond the Metridium Field. Apparently, Jim Capwell noticed them as well, as I could see him chop throttle as he neared them. So, I put the boat back in, and went to see if they needed a lift back in. Apparently, they didn't (the two I talked to were apparently running a class) so I headed back in. Someone called me on the radio, and it turned out to be Roy (of Highway 1 pee valve catheter fame.) He was apparently watching from the wall, had a handheld VHF, and wanted to know what was up, and what kind of conditions we had (you do realize that using a marine VHF from shore is an FCC violation, right, Roy?) Motored back to the ramp, and we talked for a bit, and I talked him into joining me on a dive at Hopkins (apparently, Hopkins/Aquarium reef was the only game in town.)

Dive 2: Dropped the hook in about 60 feet; Escapade, and Beach Hopper (?) were tucked in tighter to the beach, and Cypress Sea was inshore off the Aquarium. Roy had 2 friends with him, Lauren and Hunter. A little bit of surface current blowing back towards Breakwater. Anyway, got the three of them in the water, then geared up and headed down. Checked the hook, and started exploring the rocks around the area (at least I could see them this time.) Lots of C. luteomarginata, and I think what were juvenile (or at least small) Geitodoris heathi. My dive was short as I was using the same cylinder as the first bounce at the Steam Engine. 77 feet for 26 minutes with a 50 degree temp.

 

Mar 23: 1 Dive at Ballbuster. Larry and Carol on XTSea, Jeff on Nitrox, and Pam and myself on Aurora.

Dive1:
I dropped the hook to the SW of the pinnacle, Carol dropped on it (I think) and Jeff was about due west. Swells were running 4 or 5 feet; big rollers that didn't seem threatening except for the sheer size. I kept waiting for the anchor line to straighten out, but it never really did for the 10 or so minutes we were waiting, so I fired up, selected reverse, and took the slack out. Everyone splashed at roughly the same time. Dropping down, I passed Pam on my line, wondering why she had stopped, and why she didn't have a light (though that explained why my line was now going straight down. As I neared the bottom, it was dark enough that I couldn't see it without a dive light. Checked and repositioned the hook, and started checking stuff out on the bottom boulders near the anchor. Vis opened up from near zero at 20 and shallower to about 30 feet (but really dark) at 100. A few rockfish scattered around (including several good sized olives), a smallish lingcod, and a couple of kelp greenlings. One really big San Diego dorid, a few C. luteomarginata and C. flavomaculata, several spanish shawls, and just as I was about to run out of bottom time, a Dendronotus albus on a grey puffball sponge. Since I hadn't yet taken a shot, I started to position my strobes, and the first one came off in my hand. Reattached the arm to the housing, and took a half dozen hurried shots before starting up the line. I had felt a leak down my right side as I hopped in, so I wasn't too surprised at being a bit cold. Everyone else reported freezing on the dive. My computer logged 48 degrees, everyone else (I think) had 46. Logged 104 feet for 24 minutes.

Upon surfacing, we saw a bunch of whale watching boats a couple of miles out towards Moss Landing, so we decided to go take a look. Got to the area (turned out to be 2 whale boats and a fishing charter); didn't see anything for several minutes, then saw a blow. A few minutes later, a couple more. Turned out to be a pair of grey whales (I think); never saw them well enough to determine size. Headed back to the ramp, and was surprised to see that we were out past Pt Pinos, a few miles offshore.

Dive 2 was called on a general lack of enthusiasm and energy for diving and an excess of enthusiasm for lunch.

 

Mar 22: 2 Dives; Hopkins Deep with Carol, Larry, and Matt on XTSea, Jeff, and two ex-students on Nitrox, and Kirk, Lydia, and me on Aurora; then the Steam Engine with the XTSea crew less Matt, and the same three of us on Aurora.

Dive 1: Hopkins Deep
Jeff dropped his anchor at site he chose (randomly, I think), Carol dropped hers a bit behind (with respect to the wind), and I dropped mine out in front. The commercial boats were chatting about a heavy layer down to about 70 feet, so I was trying to eke out about 80 or so.

Lydia got in first to try and avoid a seasickness repeat (see last weekend), and dropped a few feet down the anchor line. Kirk geared up and followed, then I got in and headed down. As soon as I got in, I realized I hadn't zipped up my undergarment, as it was a little chilly on my chest. I saw Kirk and Lydia briefly on the bottom, then headed off to look for photo subjects. Vis opened up at about 70 from 10 or less to about a hazy 20 feet. I swam about 100 yards or so straight out, and saw Jeff and his two buddies poking around. I turned, offset a bit, and worked my way back. Didn't really see a whole lot interesting: a few slugs, a few rockfish, a couple of perch; there were a lot of sea cucumbers of various sizes, though. Saw Kirk and Lydia again on the anchor line, just starting their ascent. I passed the hook by maybe 20 yards or so, and Jeff tapped me, asking where the boat was. Since I had just passed the hook, I had a pretty good idea, but as it turned out, I couldn't find it. Jeff and his two started a green water ascent, and I started up a few moments later. We ended up on the surface well out in front of the boats. 81 feet for 25 minutes, 48 degrees. After reboarding, I saw Larry's group's bubbles apparently coming up my line, which meant I could charge them an anchor line rental fee (kidding. For the moment.) They hit the surface and swam back to XTSea. I guess there must have been a fairly stiff mid-water current, as they said they should have been near their anchor when they started up, and got blown the 100 or so yards right onto my line between the bottom and their stop, which pretty well paralleled our experience. We left early to Lydia back on land (still avoiding Mal de Mer) since Larry was screwing around in the water next to their boat.

Dive 2: Steam Engine
Jeff bailed to conduct a Stress and Rescue class. The rest of us wanted to stay deepish, so we decided on the Steam Engine, mostly so Carol could see the fringehead. We dropped fairly close to each other, and Larry added scope for separation. We repeated getting Lydia in quickly, but when I tossed my gear in, my tag line came off, and my rig dropped underwater (my rig's slightly negative at times, I think because of the reg hitting the bladder. This was one one of those times.) Kirk and Lydia agreed to chase it down, so I dropped a weighted line down as a reference, and they dropped down, attached it, and I hauled it up while they continued their dive. Larry, Carol and I (Matt was sleeping) dropped down my line, and I spotted the pipe from about 15 feet above the bottom. The fringehead was home, and I pointed it out to Carol, then left them there. I headed over to the shelf, and poked around there for a while, taking shots of nondescript stuff (as the descript stuff was in hiding, I guess.) Started getting worried about Kirk and Lydia, but I couldn't locate the anchors so I did my second green water ascent of the day, and again ended up way out in front of the boat. Kirk and Lydia were already on board. Kirk said he enjoyed the practice in ascending without an anchor line. 80 feet, 22 minutes, 52 degrees.

 

Mar 17: One dive, solo; Shale Island

Pulled into the Breakwater at about 9. Lot was empty except for what appeared to be an OW class finishing up and a couple of dive pairs going off the beach. A couple of boat trailers were the only things in the double spots.

I had the idea of going out to search for yellowfin fringeheads on Shale Island, but wanted to see what conditions looked like further up Cannery Row as well. Splashed the boat, and ran up to about Hopkins or so, where the swell picked up pretty noticeably. Water didn't appear any clearer than over the weekend, but the wind was absent and the water had calmed down quite a bit from Sat and Sun.

Retreated back to Shale Island and dropped the hook. Hopping in and gearing up, the surface water was filled with chunky bits of algae, but I could see about 15 feet along the anchor line. Dropping down to the anchor, the chunky stuff remained, but the vis dropped to about 5 feet, and the ambient light pretty much disappeared. There was fairly light surge, with occasional big swings.

I headed west towards the Knob, watching the holes in the shelf for any sign of fringeheads. It was chunky enough that I had to turn off the focus light on the camera and hold my dive light at arms length to be able to see. No fringeheads, and not all that much unusual. I did manage to pick up the wrong ledge a couple of times, and ended up hitting the Knob itself about three or four times. Eventually, I found my way back to the anchor line, the chain still in a pile next to the anchor itself (Big change from yesterday, when the anchor was tearing out pieces of shale. I found a small (sub-fingernail size) slug. I couldn't ID it on the spot, so I shot a few pics of it to see if I could ID it later. I suspect it was a tiny Cadlina luteomarginata, but I haven't put it on the computer for a close look yet. 41 minutes, 58 feet, 50 degrees.
 

Mar 16: Kawika Chetron Memorial Dive

Today was supposed to be a day to remember Kawika; we had planned a large group of divers who would be doing a dive on the shale beds; a spot that Kawika dove often. Unfortunately, the weather decided not to cooperate, sending 20 to 30 kt winds and 5 to 8 foot swells into the south end of Monterey Bay.

With the dive supposed to start at 12:30 (the time that the Escapade would be free of their morning charter), we took a little time to gather, talk, gear up and prep the boats; hitting the water about 11:30 or so. Given the poor vis reports and the rocking water, I left the camera in the truck. Took a run up Cannery Row ostensibly to see what Lover's looked like; I never made it that far, nor did Carol. Jeff continued out to survey the cove (actually, I think he was just playing); I headed in to see if the planned Memorial dive was still on. Found the Escapade group up in the parking lot off K Dock, arriving just in time to hear Jim cancel the trip. So, Jeff on Nitrox, Larry and Carol on XTSea, and me, kirk, Lydia, and Trevor (who wasn't diving) on Aurora headed out to the Shale to do our own memorial dive. (Though I hear Escapade did go out a bit later.)

Anchored out near the MY7 buoy (I thought it was some other number, but that's what's painted on the can), and checked and double-checked that we were hooked up. In truth, we weren't, but we were dragging in slight intervals, and I figured I could plant the hook when I got down. In any case, Trevor was staying aboard, and had been briefed on boat operations. Swells were pretty impressive as the rolled under the boat. I was delayed a bit trying to get Lydia through a bout of seasickness, giving Jeff a chance to bounce to the bottom (off the bottom, I think, may be more accurate.) He reported zero vis at the bottom, which he stated was 72 feet at his anchor, as he was reading his computer when he hit shale with his face. He hit it again trying to make it out. So, he headed back up the line. Larry and Carol decided to pass on the dive (though I didn't know that at the time); I dropped down to check my hook, followed a few minutes later by Kirk (Lydia bailed as well, and Jeff ran her back in to the ramp.) I found vis to be zero without a light, about 5 or 6 feet with a light. Not enough ambient light reaching down to have any contrast without putting extra photons out. I poked around close to the anchor, mostly offsetting myself a bit and letting the surge move me along, then back. Surprisingly I saw quite a bit: Lots of Tritonia festivas, a few Triopha catalinae, a couple of vermilion rockfish, a few gophers, and a pretty good sized ling under an overhang. By that time, Kirk had joined me on the bottom, and I tried to show him a couple of things, but given the vis, it was impossible. After a half hour at the bottom, I figured that Kawika probably would have given up as well, so we headed back up the line. 82 feet for 31 minutes and 52 degrees.

Kawika, my friend, I miss you.

 

Mar 09: 2 dives: Hopkins Deep Reef and Ballbuster. See report for passengers/buddies.

Dive 1: Hopkins Deep. Larry and Carol on XTSea, and me on Aurora. Went to look at the point (again) and turned back just before getting there. Dropped the hook at a spot I found, dropped down into typical Hopkins topography: Big boulders and sand. Vis at the bottom was 25 or so, and hazy. A bit of surge, with occasional big surge rolling through. Not really a lot of slugs, and no unusual fish. Navigated a fairly large circle, hopping from rock to rock. Well, in retrospect, it was either part of a circle, or sort of a figure 6. Had no idea where I ended up. Blue water ascent to find the boats a bit south, maybe 50 feet away. Not too bad for guesswork. 82 feet, 30 minutes, 50 degrees.

Dive 2: Ballbuster. Carol, Larry and Guy on XTSea; me, Jeff, Kathy and Serena on Aurora. Jeff wanted to do a deep dive with a couple of students, and asked if I'd run them out to Ballbuster, so off we went. A little lumpy as we neared the site, but not too bad. No current at the first check. I dropped in and worked the north side of the pinnacle, pretty much from bottom to top, zig-zagging up. As pretty as ever, but I never really saw anything all that interesting or unusual. Did find one small Flabellina trilineata; that was about it. 105 feet, 28 minutes, 54 degrees.

Dive 2A: After a long SI, I agreed to drop Jeff's students on the Barge (which they wanted to see) and then Jeff had them navigate to (or at least towards) the beach. I had Jeff drop the hook and did a quick bounce to make sure the Barge hadn't moved. 64 feet, 4 minutes, don't trust the temp, but I recorded 55 degrees. Vis was a crappy 5 or so on top, but cleared to about 25 or 30 at the bottom. Kathy and Serena got in, dropped down the line, and apparently did a complete circuit of the Barge before taking off for the beach. Jeff and I were having a running bet on how far they'd make it before hitting the surface, as well as how far off course they'd stray. Any off course bets lost. Jeff said they'd make 2/3 of the way to beach; I guessed halfway. They split the difference pretty much exactly. No winners there either.

 

Mar 08: 2 dives, Anchors 2 & 3, and Shale Island. Chuck rode with Larry and Carol, and Kirk and Lydia were with me. 

Dive 1:

Headed out towards Pt Pinos, but Carol's boat unanimously quashed that idea when the swells started getting a bit lumpy. Retreated back to Anchors 2&3, where it was substantially calmer.

Could see several moon jellies from the surface, but had no idea... Dropped into 10 to 15 foot vis, cleared to about 25 at the bottom. Seemed like millions of moon jellies from top to bottom, but was probably only thousands. Larry and Carol found a handball sized red octo; a couple of bull sculpins made an appearance as well. All the usual slugs for the deep shale: C. luteomarginata, P. nobilis, a few F. iodinea, lots of D. sandiegensis and T. catalinae. One largish Berthella. Lots of juvenile rockfish of a few types (no idea what they were, though.) Don't really remember what other fish were around, aside from the two bull sculpins. I do have a picture of a ronquil, so I guess they were around. Black eyed gobies and painted greenlings were pretty plentiful. Don't really remember a whole lot else. 84 feet, 35 minutes, 50 degrees.

Dive 2: Shale Island/Anchor 5 

Dropped my hook at Anchor 5, and Carol did a few passes to see if she could spot the anchor on her Humminbird side-scan thingie. She couldn't. Vis was a little closer, maybe 20; with clouds of krill-like stuff swimming about cutting it even more. Found a small octo, a tiny Acanthodoris hudsoni, a bunch of A. montereyensis, San Diego's, clowns, and P. nobilis; a few sculpins, several kelp greenlings, and a lone yellowfin fringehead who didn't want to to come out to play (or pose, which is more to the point, I suppose.) Just a couple of jellies. 58 feet, 44 minutes, 52 degrees. A nasty chop had built up on top of the swell by the time we got back up, making Lydia regret coming out on the boat, I think. Kirk pulled the hook and we got her back to the ramp before Chuck had surfaced.

Chatted with Brenna in the lot just before she split (nice to meet you, Brenna!)

 

Mar 02: 2 dives: Steam Engine, and the Knob (Shale Island) with Larry and Carol on XTSea, and Steve and myself on Aurora

Initially headed out to see how it looked towards the point, since the Cannery Row sites looked fairly calm, with a short interval swell of maybe a foot, and no wind chop at all (visions of the late Saturday afternoon foaming white caps contrasted heavily with 12 hours later.) What we found was that the swells were building pretty rapidly as we got closer. By the time we hit the far edge of Hopkins, swells were 3 to 4 feet; at Erics, they were pretty solid 5's, and the short interval had us slowed to a crawl. Quick discussion, and Carol voted to do yesterdays aborted dive: the Steam Engine. Since the vote was her one to 3 abstentions, that's where we went.

Approaching the site, I was afraid another boat was on it, but it turned out they (Beach Hopper, I think) were on a site further up the ledge (seemed too far to be Anchors 2 and 3, but maybe it was. Dunno.) We dropped the hook, and it took a *long* time for the drift to take slack out of the rode, unlike yesterday, where it was taut before cleating it off.

Dive 1: Steam Engine

Dropped into milky 10 foot vis, opening up to about a hazy and particulate 20 at the bottom (well maybe a bit more several feet off the bottom, but I didn't really check that much, as I was trying to figure out where we were on the way down. Didn't really work.) The anchors (I could see both mine and Carol's, about 10 feet apart) were both lying on flat shale, with a little pile of chain next to them. I moved mine forward a bit to get a bit more separation and a better hook-up, then went looking for the pipe (still without a solid orientation.) Found it after a brief search; the fringehead looks happy with the arrangement (the last storm apparently didn't move the pipe at all.) Cruised around the main ledge as far up as the Steam Engine proper, then back to a bit beyond the fringehead. I headed out in the flats looking for anything interesting without really finding much of, well, anything, really. So back to the ledge, where there was at least some stuff to look at. Slugs: Lots of D. sandiegensis, several T. catalinae, several mating pairs of D. albopunctata, several T. festiva. a couple of C. luteomarginata, a few F. iodinea, and a lone C. flavomaculata. Fish: Blackeye Gobies all over (as usual), a few sculpins, several kelp greenlings, a few blue rockfish resting against the ledge (kind of cute, but they spooked anytime a camera was pointed at them), don't remember any others. All the requisite crabs and shrimp and various inverts and encrusting stuff, but nothing really unusual or exciting. No octopus, so I guess the run on those guys at that site is really over. Back up with just a couple of minutes bottom time remaining. 80 feet, 34 minutes, 54 degrees.

Took a fairly long surface interval, expecting the wind to start picking up, but it never did.

Dive 2: Shale Island

Wind had picked up a little, the drift removing the slack in the anchor rode was noticeable this time. Still not bad, just a bit more forceful than the first dive.

Dropped down, and let Carol navigate to the Knob (we used her numbers to drop the hook.)

Larry finally showed me one of the yellowfin fringeheads he's been seeing near the Knob, but all I saw was a roundish snout and a couple of eyes tucked way into a boring clam hole. No pics, as I didn't think I could even get light in there. Not really sure it was a yellowfin fringehead anyway. Slugs: P. nobilbis, D. montereyensis, D. sandiegensis, again a lone C. flavomaculata, a bunch of D. albopunctata, a couple of T. catalinae, a few F. iodinea, and a couple of D. ohdneri. Fish: Carol found a nice ling (I was still trying to position strobes, as we had just hit the bottom, lots of painted greenlings and blackeyed gobies, several blue and black rockfish, a bunch of sculpins (probably scalyheads) and Larry's mystery guest. Vis I'd call 15 or so and hazy. Occasionally, we got a brief 2 or 3 cycles of about 5 foot surge; the rest of the time it was reasonably still, even for macro shooting. 53 feet, 42 minutes, 54 degrees.

Pretty good day considering we were expecting to be blown out due to yesterday's continuing conditions.
 

Follow-up to Sunday's Dive 2 report:

On Shale Island, I took a shot of a couple of slugs who were amorously involved. I didn't think much of it, as I really didn't look at them too closely, other than framing and adjusting exposure.

Upon review, I noticed they weren't Doriopsilla albopunctata, as I assumed they were (yellow ground color, no dark spots), as the papillae on these guys were much more noticeable.

Then came the problem: my dog (psychotic pup that she is) ate my slug book (the working divers equivalent to homework, I suppose), and I've yet to replace it, so I was referencing the images on the Slug Site. Unfortunately, nothing I looked at resembled the slugs in the pic. So, I sent the image to Clinton, who graciously ID'd the slugs as Acanthodoris lutea (Thanks, Clinton.)

So, that's another first sighting for me (and with pics to prove it this time.)
 

Mar 01: One dive, Ballbuster, with Larry, Carol, Guy, and Matt on XTSea, and Steve and myself on Aurora. Aborted the second dive due to deteriorating conditions

Motored out past Harry and company sitting on Hopkins Deep, and headed for Ballbuster since Carol wanted to see what it looked like out there. Swells were running about, oh, three or four feet with another 1 or 2 feet of wind waves. Dropped the hook after a little effort finding the pinnacle, just a touch of current was running opposite the swell, out towards Santa Cruz. Wind was blowing in from Moss Landing. The surface was a mess. Still, it appeared diveable, so Steve and I tossed rigs in and got geared up. Guy and Matt were with Larry and Carol on XTSea. Their boat was hanging about 40 or 50 feet away, so Steve and I didn't wait around on the surface, we just dropped. Vis at the surface looked promising, judging by how far down the line I could see. At the bottom, I'd call it 30 feet, but seriously hazy. Larry later called it 40 or slightly better, with a long dissertation on why he was right. I'd give a bit and say *maybe* 35' in spots. Just a touch of surge near the bottom, getting worse towards the top of the pinnacle.

Quite a few blue rockfish, not really schooling, but looking like they wanted to as they kept coming closer with that "I don't really like you, but I'm going to swim near you anyway" look. Several olives, a lone vermilion, a couple of gophers. Slugs weren't exactly plentiful: 1 spanish shawl, several Peltodoris, a Cadlina flavomaculata, and a few tiny Flabellina trilineata. Towards the end of the dive, I found a bright red juvenile cabezon, out on a shelf, playing the "you can't see me" game. 98 feet, 29 minutes, 54 degrees.

Back up the line to find deteriorating conditions; swells were more like 5 to 6 feet, with another few feet of wind waves. Guy and Matt appeared a bit later at the bow of my boat, and swam back over to XTSea. Larry and Carol apparently were working the top of the pinnacle the whole dive, and were down for quite a bit longer than we were. Steve, who had been fighting a bit of nausea since before we left the parking lot, toughed out the wait. The run back in was pretty sporty; following sea with a pretty confused wind pattern.

Non-dive 2: Long SI in the parking lot, and back out (less Guy and Matt, who opted for a beach dive) to do the Steam Engine. Swell and chop was worse than before. Dropped the hook at a distance reading of 4 feet; after things stretched out, I had a reading of 256 feet away, which was not too good considering I was using a shortened 200' anchor line. So, we picked the hook up off the bottom, motored back up, and dropped again. The GPS locked up about 145 feet away: perfect. We dropped gear in the water, and I rechecked position: 185 feet. Hmmm. Then 210. Then 240. About that time, the bow dropped into a trough, and a wave broke into the boat. Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided on plan B, which was to move to a spot with relief running in a more favorable direction for hooking up, which was rapidly replaced with plan C, which was to bail on the dive altogether.

Had a nice chat with Joachim in the parking lot, who had been out solo in his 18'? Zodiac and had about the same experience as our second dive (or non-dive.) Checked into the hotel, had an early dinner at Bulldog, and then over to the sports bar at the Sheraton to watch the Shark's game.


 

Feb 18: Two dives, at Aumentos and Anchor 5 with Chris, Holly, Greg, and Mike

Leaving the hotel, I overheard a guy talking on a cell phone telling his friend or someone that the victim from the day before didn't make it. Not a great way to start the day. Met up with my planned dive buddy, Chris (in Hawaii, he got the nickname as "The other brother Darryl"), his girlfriend Holly, and two other of his friends, Greg and Mike(?). Ron and Carrie rolled up a few minutes later, with someone with a Zodiac Pro (not sure of the size; looked pretty much identical to Rob's boat, though.) A couple of hook-and-line boats showed up as well.

Dive 1: Aumentos:

Since one of the two friends was not terribly experienced, we decided to look for a shallower dive. Motored out to Aumentos, where it looked as if it might be a bit surgy, but doable. Certainly better than it would have been on either of the previous 2 days. Gearing up in the water, I could see about 40 feet down the anchor rode, and there was just touch of surface current. Ron and Carrie and their buddies motored up, I tried to wave them in so they could anchor, but I wasn't sure if they had gotten the message. My anchor was dropped in about 55 feet, and I had set out about 150 feet of scope. I expected the hook to be in the sand next to the wall, but upon descending, found it on the opposite side of the ridge. Not sure how that happened. Anyways, the four tagalongs took off along the wall, and I went off to check the anchor set. Good thing, as it had wedged itself in a crack pretty throroughly. Freed the hook, and laid it out on some rubble that I figured would hold it pr! etty well. Vis at the bottom (the bottom of the structure) was 25 to 40 feet, depending on where you were. All the normal encrusting stuff, one big ling sitting next to a pile of eggs (in a spot selected to prevent a camera from getting a good shot, no doubt), several kelp greenlings, surprisingly few rockfish, some absolutely huge perch, one crevice kelpfish, a few slugs, a few crabs; all the normal stuff. I did about three laps around the main rock, and noticed divers above me on the anchor line. Called it quits as I assumed they may need help/direction reboarding. Started my ascent, and noticed the rode did sort of a loose double "S" on the way up. I realized I had not seen anyone else on the dive until spotting the divers on the line. Reboarded and took stock of who was around us: the other boat apparently had 5 divers in 3 groups, and they were all over the place. My GPS had recorded the track of the boat while it sat on the hook; it looked like a spider web, ! drifting all over the damn place. Despite the four others on my boat freezing, I didn't want to have any kind of motor injury incidents, so we waited fifteen minutes or so until four were back on board the Zodiac, and the other one was well clear, before starting to pull the hook. The fifth was Ron, and he apparently just starting up my line when we yanked it away from him (remember the S-turns the line was hanging in? I had no idea where the hook actually was.) Oh, well. 60 or so feet for about 40 minutes; 50 degrees.

Back to the dock for tank swaps/fills and a BBQ lunch courtesy of Chris (Thanks, Chris.) Gave them a while to get warmed back up, then we were off for dive 2.

While we were in the lot, Trevor said that the boyfriend of yesterdays' victim had been in the shop, and she had taken a chamber ride, but was alive, conscious, and talking. That was good news.
 

Dive 2: Anchor 5

In keeping with the "shallower is better" doctrine, but still wanting to get under the really hazy stuff on top, we headed for Shale Island (an alternative to the Barge.) I also wanted to actually shoot pics there, since my camera batteries died while diving there yesterday. The surface water was noticeably cloudier than Aumentos, which didn't bode too well for the dive. Dropped in, spotted the bottom (barely) from about 20 feet above, and then dropped through the bottom of the cloudy stuff about 10 feet above. Horizontal vis was about, oh, 25 to 30 feet. Found a bunch of slugs (as usual; though I noticed a lot of C. flavomaculata, which I haven't noticed for a while) though nothing highly unusual. Really skittish kelp greenlings, a few black and blue rocks, a gopher or two, a bunch of sculpins and gobies, etc. The other divers had dropped straight down from the boat, despite my suggestion of going down the anchor line, so I was pretty much on my own again. I cut across the island to the SW, hung a right, and worked may way back along the ledge. This time, the camera batteries were fine, but the coin cell that runs the pseudo-TTL thingie in the housing decided to die, leaving me on a fixed strobe output (luckily, it was pretty much a middle-of-road setting, so I was able to play with strobe positioning and still get pics. I think.) Ran into the group of divers shortly after, going the other way. I looked around the Knob area for the fringeheads Larry keeps reporting, but didn't find any. I did find a handball sized red octopus trying to look like a clam or something in a hole on the Knob proper, but that was about it. Figured the other divers would have been up by the time I got back to my anchor, so I headed up with somewhere around 1300psi remaining. 50 minutes, 55(?) feet, 50 degrees.

It appears that one of the batteries in the boat is not holding a charge as well, making 3 battery problems for the weekend.
 

Feb 17: Two dives, with Larry, Carol and Lydia on XTSea, and Kirk and myself on Aurora. Dive 1: Eric's Pinnacle; Dive 2: Anchor 5.

Met up with Larry and Carol (less a half case of Dr. Pepper, but that's a different matter, I suppose.) Kirk and Lydia were just arriving.

Chatted with Bill and Rob and probably a few other people, then got geared up and ready to go.

Jim and