Point Sur - Schmieder Bank

Facts and General Map

Schmieder Bank has been dived and explored in the end 80s by the Cordell Expeditions lead by Dr Schmieder. The bank starts about 4 nm SW of Point Sur and features very dramatic pinnacles and ridges with depth ranging from 125' for the shallowest pinnacle (19SUR) to well over 200'. In summer 2004 I had the chance to be invited on a trip organised by BAUE and I was amazed by the quality of the diving. With a small group of divers I started making trips soon after.

(clic for larger picture)


10/7/06 & 10/11/06 Bob's Point Sur trip and recovery dive

This is the first time a diver was lost diving these banks. Bob wanted to get a diverse group of people to dive it together in preparation for a 3 days expedition, but a problem with his CCR unit costed his live. The details of the accident have been written elswere. A reminder that diving can go from fun to very wrong in a matter of seconds.

November 20 2005

Divers

Susan Bird
Ken Gwin
Alberto Nava
Marcos PG
Denzin Wessels

Boat and crew

Sanctuary
Mike Jones
Jason

Surface support

Brett Wessels

Map



The data used in this map were acquired, processed, archived, and distributed by the Sea Floor Mapping Lab of California State University Monterey Bay and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Continental Shelf GIS for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

The team
Susan, Mike (right) and Jason (left)
Pt Sur in the background
Susan and sunset
Pt Sur

Mike and Jason at the wheel
Going back home
Our mess
Sunset on glassy seas
Reality check Monday morning

Report

It was about 2 or three month that I was talking with Susan, Beto, Denzil and Ken about making a trip back to Point Sur. It took some time to find a date good for everybody and with a boat to get there. We eventually set the day for November 20 but I was getting worried about the weather this late in the season. I started paying real attention to the forecast a week before. It looked not too bad. Mid week it looked good. Friday it was magnificent. Beto, Susan, Ken and myself were sleeping in Monterey Saturday night and we were joined by Tom and Docwong for a Thai dinner. We met a K dock at 0530 for a departure at 0600, we had loaded most of the gear on the boat Saturday night. The ocean was looking plain gorgeous, not a wisper of wind, dwarfed swells, the sun rose on a pure blue sky. The wind picked a little when we got to Carmel but the ocean as flat as we could wish for. Mike couldn't believe our luck, he isn't a believer, we have great magic. We arrived over Schmieder Bank around 0900. It was even calmer than in Monterey bay. We were going for a pinnacle we never dove, SW of SUR19, named SUR20 by the Cordell Expeditions.
We let the boat live and used a small anchor with 6' of 1/4" chain, about 200' of 1/4" polypropylene line and a float I made with Denzil from 5' of 4" plumbing pipe, two caps, filled with foam and painted orange day glow. A freedive torpedo float was at the end of a tail of about 15' of line. The reason of the second float was to help stage divers and to avoid having the low buoyancy pipe float sinking to deep. After making the other wait a bit I eventually jury rigged an argon regulator that worked and we started getting wet. Susan and Beto went first with theirs scooters and we joined them at the float. Current was looking very mild at the surface. On the way down it started pulling a bit and at the bottom it was sensible, maybe 1/2 a knot. We were at 160-170', a bit away of the main pinnacle that we could see the shadowy shape 200 or 300' ahead. Lots of fishes. Big fishes. Ken reeled towards to reef and we started making slowly or way against the current. Susan and Beto were having fun with the scooters. We got the the foot of the mountain. The visibility was spectacular. Gorgonians everywhere. We got there a bit late in our 30mn bottom time to get to the top of the pinnacle. We got back to the line and began our ascent. Susan and Beto were a bit ahead of us. The current had picked up but we had discussed on the boat about coming up to 70' on the line before to drift in case of strong current. At 60' we had the surprise to meet with the pipe float and the end of the line. Mmm, that was not supposed to happen. I grab my smb, my spool while the float keeps going down pulling us with it. We let the thing go, I send my smb and everything went smooth after that, the noise of the Sanctuary engines a reassuring music. Back at the surface Susan and Beto's bag was 50' from us. We even retrieved the anchoring, the pipe float had resurfaced.
 By the time we were ready for the second dive all wind had died and the ocean surface was glassy. We decided on SUR19, what is now a known quantity. The torpedo float got loose as the small ring where the line passed stretched open. For the second dive I passed the line on a better looking D-ring and we dropped anchor on the South side of SUR19. We we got down there the anchor was next to the pinnacle, visibility was even better than in the first dive, even more fish, some big Yelloweye rockfishes. And plenty of giant hydrocoral. This time the ascent went without surprises. The drive home under a superb sunset set the record for speed but we crossed no cops.

UW Photos

With my new canon 20d / 15mm Sigma / Aquatica / 8" dome / s&s 350 with GN ctrl
ISO 800, autofocus, manual exposure





























January 16 2005

Video (Point Sur dive only)   QUICKTIME

Dan's pictures

Report

This trip was scheduled for the previous Sunday but the weather decided otherwise and we were all getting pretty nervous watching the forecast this week. But this time Neptune smiled at us and loaned us a gorgeous day on the ocean. We weren't enough divers to charter the Cypress so we sailed on the Sanctuary captained by Mike. Besides myself the divers were Ken Gwin, Denzil Welssels and Dan Grolemund. To help watching for bags in case we drifted I asked Tom "Eagle eyes" Mesh  to accompany us.  Stacking all our gear on the boat proved easier than I was expecting and we still had plenty of room. We left the dock at 6h30am on flat seas for a 2h15 journey to Shmieder Bank. Everybody but Mike steped down for a night complement on some luxurious quarters, even a real bed. Getting close to the Sur area I was a bit anxious about finding the pinnacle. I did some home work with side scan sonar, bathymetric and NOAA maps using a mapping software (MapMaker) to layer them together and get coordinates numbers of good looking features on the side scan map. I had with me on the boat these numbers on my hand held GPS and was praying that I got all the formats and projections right. Two of the features I selected were good candidates for being the one we dove on previous trips and I choosed to try first the one I imaginatively dubbed S01. My tension grew a little as the boat got closer to my mark but at 60' from it the depth finder rose from 160' to 125', good enough :). The point we dove is named 007 (no joke intended, my gps choosed it) on the maps map1 and map2. After passing over a couple of times Mike dropped the anchor. I wanted the anchor up the wind from the pinnacle to have the line just on top of it. It proved a very accurate shot. Gearing up was fairly easy and the four of us sank along the line to discover, below a thin green layer, the now usual 100' visibility of this area. Clearly it was a different pinnacle than on the previous dives. Instead of a sharp tower structure, we were looking at a more dome shaped pinnacle. The dive plan was for 20mn at 160' and 15mn at 130', so we started exploring the large rocks laying next to the main reef. Different also than the other spot where it was more medium sized rubble away from the pinnacle. Lots of red rockfishes, large vermilions and a few young yelloweyes. A few vase sponges also. No octopuses unfortunately. To compensate a sea lion buzzed us at the bottom. Four miles offshore, 160' deep, not too bad. At the 20mn we climbed slowly the dome. The top is as crowded with big chunks of hydrocoral. With a large school of rockfishes flying around. The structure seems to continue in the north direction. At the end of the video clip there is a 180 degrees pan from N to S passing by E that shows the general shape of this pinnacle. Deco on the line was uneventful and we got all back smoothly into the boat. After an hour of surface interval the wind started picking up seriously and we decided to make the second dive in Carmel where we found very calm conditions. We dove a spot I call 5 pinnacles, in between outer pinnacles and outer outer pinnacles. Visilibility wasn't as good, a hazy 30' and the current was significant, maybe a knot. But we had a good time watching the sheer vertical walls of these pinnacles and I even found an unusual fish. Back to the boat we got to the harbor in no time under a magnificent sunset. I hope my buddies enjoyed the trip, I did a lot :). A special thanks to Mike and Tom.

October 24 dives

Video (25MB) (back soon)

Report

Back to the platform with a reduced group. Mike, Gordon, Kiki, Richard and myself met at the dock at 5h30am and after the usual warm up loading we set sail for Point Sur, Phil, Xcott and Steve manning the boat. Seas, rather flat in the bay, built up to a 6-8' swell on the Big Sur coast. Bob Crowford had contacted us in case we could take a look at the spot they dove the previous week-end and eventually to recover a sediment bag. Phil and Xcott set dropped the anchor at the numbers Bob gave us and we dropped in the water. The spot is a stack of big stones, topping at 140'. The surrounding area going down to 165'. It is not a spot quite as spectacular as the pinnacles on the East side of the Sur Platform, but it is a pretty dive site similar to some deep Lobos spots. The vis was a good 40' a bit dark and with some large particles. The current, weak on the line, was rather strong at the bottom and it pinned us down quite a bit. Lots of the usual fishes, a couple of large Bocacio. No bag or anything man made. For the second dive we went back to the sure value, the pinnacle we dubbed Albatross Pinnacle and Penguin Pic (I know Bob's group dove it and have another name). For the record I am now a "born again" of the One Pinnacle theory, Penguin Pic and Albatross Pinnacle are the two tops of a very large rock cut almost in half by a deep crack. The dive was spectacular with a visibility well in excess of 80', if you discard the clouds of blue rockfishes. No current. At first I saw no Yelloweye and went investigate under the flat rock at the bottom of the canyon. Bingo, a near 3' one was hiding there. He confirmed that they can keep the juvenile markings to quite a large size. No GPO or wolf eels but the wide angle scenery was magnificent. I hope Gordon's 16mm lens got the essence of it. Back to the surface conditions had changed not to the better with white capping 10' seas. But unlike the bull riding finale nobody got hurt riding the Cypress dive platform. The ride home was a little rough but we were Watched by the benevolent eye of the God Elephant, thanks to Curtis who went to have our trip blessed at the Ganesh Temple at Pondicherry.

Maps and area of interest

(clic on map to get a full view)

General area West side
East side South bump

The sources of these maps are from USGS data

Operation Opus 9/11/04

Video

Surface photos

N8008/16mm



Report

After a sleepless night in a crowded motel room in Monterey we all met in the dark J dock at 5h30AM. We were eventually 9 divers, Phil Sammet ended up picking a buddy, for this long anticipated day of diving. The stack of gear was quite something but the little ants carried it effortlessly, doped with expectation. Before starting our journey Phil entertained us with tales of great seamen and fantastic creatures. The Ocean was a little bigger than we hoped for but the 2h30 ride was uneventful for most of us. Sun awaked on our way but hid behind the low clouds. Phil had some informations about a spot on the West side of the Sur Platform but it didn't paid off on the depth sounder. So we went back to the sure spot on the East side. There is some controversy about this area. A first school of thought believe in the unity of the pinnacle where another group swears by the existence of an undisclosed number, greater than one, of pinnacles. I will not go further on this topic more than to say that we failed to find definitive evidence one way on another. The anchor was dropped in 160' of water, nearby a rock towering at 140'. The distracting team surrounded the suspicious Kenneth Gwin aka KG(B) with the special agents Curtis Degler, Allan Studley and Gordon Robinson. The anchor line was tied to a buoy and the boat set free, the jump procedure being related in manner to an airborne drop. With the flawless coordination of Phil and Xcott the team was in his way in the time to say bang, bang, bang, bang. On the other side the team in charge of getting the "Opus" book, with myself, Michael Lazar, Denzil Wessels and Dan Grolemund, was ready for the grab. It was foolishly optimistic as the Evil Penguin had some tricks of his own. First some of his Orca units did a sneaky psychological attack, swimming behind the 4 divers, who strapped in their rigs back to the show went into frantic convulsions to watch for the monsters. Still shaken I prepared to jump but the distraction was fatal to Xcott/Phil communication as I find out when, surfacing to get my video, I saw the boat sailing away. After 10mn of unfruitful attempts I eventually got a hand on the video. The remaining of the team joined me promptly and we started our way down below. The anchor was not that nearby the pinnacle, laying in a flat land of rubble. Swimming toward the dark shadow we faced The Wall, rising to the sky far above. Fish of all kinds were in abundant numbers, with some young yellow eye rockfishes. A crack in the rock led us to the summit where we found the hydrocoral garden. Sky darkened by clouds of blues lazily flying above a psychedelic forest, dwarfed divers pinpointed by bubble towers, we must be dreaming the Opus Book. After recording some chapters we had to get back to the space station in orbit on top of us, at the interface. Docking was, if not bruise less, uneventful, though under the pressure of news reporter Sandeep Rangaragan. While the main teams debriefed, Phil and Tom Mesch went on a quick mission to test some old stock equipment. Relocation was decided and we smoothly jumped this time on a pinnacle topping at 120' (cf above for monotheist/polytheist note). The line went this time strait to the flat top of the tower. The rising bottom current restricted our exploration to a small area. But the shot was accurate and we landed dead on the mark, the Wolf Nest. Three wolf eel had cozy bungalows a few feet apart, one mature fully visible in a crack. The fellow displayed his swimming skills to greet us. More yellow eyes, blues grounded by the current and an even prettier hydrocoral field. Mission accomplished, Opus book recorded and all safely back to upper world. Sunny skies greeted us on our way home. These events are now fuzzy and recollections inconsistent. Only one obsessive thought remains, like a mantra : when again ?

 

BAUE Trip 7/31/04

BAUE web site (Reports, pics and video)

Point Sur Bank photos by Phil Sammet 

Here if you have trouble with the diaporama

Pinnacles offshore of Point Sur, aboard the Cypress Sea. The boat was chartered by the BAUE guys who kindly let me join to dive with Phil during their surface interval. So only one dive but what a dive. The top of the pinnacle (120') was loaded with huge blocks of hydrocoral of all colors. Blues were crowding by the thousands. At the bottom of the rock, about 160', we had the quite nice surprise to meet some mature yelloweye. I was cameraless and played model for Phil with his digital. Was quite a bit I hadn't dive without at least one camera, very relaxing.