260', 20mn BT, 102mn DT.
Back to the tiger hunt with Ken and Denzil. After our encounter of the feline kind, all plans of uncovering the ghostly mystery of the elusive UBOs (Unidentified Bathymetric Objects) were postponed to a future date. Our fish scholar friends suggested diplomatically that an effort to provide an accurate location and better photography of Sebastes nigrocintus would be a worthier endeavour. When I realized our fish is rather uncommon in our waters, I called Mike Jones, the daring captain of the Sanctuary (has to be to let us dive from his boat) to ask him not to delete as usual the point we marked to throw the anchor. I knew we dove in a 100' radius, probably in the NW direction, of these numbers, and I was hoping it would be good enough to find our friend's home. The slack was at 9:30 calling for an early start. I crashed with Ken in a motel in Salinas (Monterey was kind of pricey this week-end), and we met Denzil, Mike and Matt at 7:30 at the dock. We were better than last time at getting things done, although I was a bit distracted (long week), and we jumped around 9:00 in pretty flat seas with a barely noticeable current. Descent was fast, 100'/mn :-), with just the usual bubble check and gas switch check. The underwater conditions were very poor for this offshore location, with the 3' vis murk clearing a bit below 220', to a grubby 30'. Sunshine was limited. I followed the line and spotted some small rockfish I didn't recognize and started shooting. In the limited view of my surroundings, engrossed setting up the camera, I didn't realize I went pretty much inside a cavern, roomy enough not to feel claustrophobic. But with this reef's wealth in fishing lines I thought it wiser to inch my way back to more open spaces. Denzil was watching me and thinking I was jealous of his recent cave diving card. Back to the ground surface, lots of small rockfishes were laying low in the moderate bottom current. Some squarespots, some halfbanded, and maybe some stripetails. Also a large cowcod, larger than the ones I saw in the two previous dives, was hiding in a hole way out of reach of my camera. With the low visibility conditions, we stayed the whole dive in a 30-50' radius of the line, what paid off as a Tiger rockfish came out from a hole about 6' from the anchor. I spent the rest of the dive in a futile and frustrating photo attempt. Not that the fish was uncooperative, on the contrary, it came several time to admire his reflexion on my camera's dome, a whole 5" away. The problem came from the idiot (that would be me) that forgot to switch the lens to autofocus after taking out the focus gear. Milton Love asked if I could get close up shots of the fishes. With my 15mm fisheye it means getting very close to the target, what doesn't work well on manual focus. Well, some pics are maybe enough (I can't say good) for identification. Fortunately Denzil wasn't so distracted and shot some pretty good video. Ascent was very smooth, I would grade it at pretty comfortable, even with the current picking up to about a knot. Looking at the pictures (banging periodically my head against the wall) I think the two tigers are actually the same fish. Six feet from the target, that's some fine sharpshooting :-) This fish is very likely to be older than any human he met, adults can get over 100 years. Such a long guard duty on this Italian rise deserves a name. The spot would have been in old Europe, I would have found some Roman emperor worthy of giving his name to our friend. Things being what they are, I choose to christen him Shere Khan. The rather sedentary habits of Sebastes nigrocintus should give our friends submariners a decent chance to see him, he will still be around to hear about the people from up here getting back to the moon.
June 14 and 28 Sebastes nigrocintus, and the hole he calls home.
Probable young Widow rockfish (Sebastes entomelas) and small Bank r. () or Darkblotched r. (Sebastes crameri) or maybe an Speckled r. (Sebastes ovalis)
Vase sponge, the "mark". Denzil and Ken.
260', 20mn BT, 102mn DT.
For the first "interesting" dive of the season we had some new spots to check out, and after a few months since the last serious dive we picked Area 44, a spot looking pretty good on the bathymetry, with a bottom at 260' and a rock going up to 200-210'. Phil couldn't get a replacement on the Cypress so it was Denzil, Ken and myself for this one. Slack was at 11:07 so we could enjoy a late start. We got to the spot around 10:30 and I started looking at the fish finder for some bump. 260, 258, 260, 258, 260, 257 (oh yeah), 259, ..., and it went on like that for 20mn :-( The flying saucer was gone, or is now in some other numbered area. Plan B was to get back to Italian Ledge just 2 nm away, and I picked a spot on the SE ridge, about 1500' from our two previous dives on the NW ridge of Italian Ledge. The fish finder party was an happy one this time with a nice slope from 310' to 230' :-) We sent Ken's arty grapple on the high spot and got ready to dive. Everybody was a bit rusted but we eventually got our ... gear together and got on our way down. Water was clear :-) and cold :-(. We started seeing the metridiums from 150', and we landed on a hill top at 240'. Some rocks a little away seemed to be going up to 220'. Visibility was a little hazy but a good 60' horizontally. Enough sun light to read instruments and see things around. Lots of fishes. Not the big school of Boccaccio of the first dive on Italian Ledge, but a big crowd of red rockfishes. I first spot a couple of very nice Yelloweye and start taking pictures. I screw up the evening before and had only one strobe charged, making it a bit suboptimal. I was keeping an eye for Cowcods and here it goes, a nice one hiding in a big crack. I think I saw 3 different cowcods, although it may be only two. One (or two) looking a lot like the one I saw on the NW ridge, and one a little smaller and more whitish. I managed only to get pics of the bigger one. They are very shy and bolt away as soon as you shine a light on them. I was cursing after the %#$ fish evaded me for the 3rd or 4th time when I see a treefish ... mmm ... big treefish ... mmm ... not a treefish. About twice as big as the biggest treefish I ever saw, more reddish, taller. I spent most of the rest of the dive trying to get pictures. Like the cowcod it wasn't too cooperative and loved getting into cracks. With a partial pressure of CO2 about 9 time greater, breath holding to be discreet isn't so easy at 260'. Looking at the pictures and Milton's book, turns out it's a Tiger rockfish (no confirmation yet from the fish gurus but I am pretty confident on that one). Back to the line, time to go up. The ascent was uneventful but for the cold that started getting uncomfortable for the last 30mn of the deco. I need new gloves.
Bathymetric
map of Italian Ledge (clic for full image). The two first dives were on
the NW corner, and today's dive on the SW high rise. The lines are
submarine dives made by NOAA a few years ago. 
Tiger Rockfish (Sebastes nigrocintus) with starries and one yelloeye.
Cowcod (Sebastes levis)
Two young adult Yelloweye rockfishes (Sebastes ruberrimus), Cowcod hiding in the back (different one ?)
Reef scenes - Juvenile Yelloweye rockfish.
Olive rockfishes (or Yellowtail).
with Tom, Ken and Harry (aka doc wong)
200', 20mn
Three months without diving had to stop before my scales got too dry, and conditions were just looking too good to take into account a badly sprained shoulder climbing a week ago. Tom was in a boating mood and let us pick what we wanted and what we wanted was Sacré-Coeur, a really nice pinnacle we have been diving a few times now. I had a busy week at work and couldn't get to the shop so I was bumming tanks from Tom, with a o2 tank a little too empty. First stop at Bamboo reef with Harry to get a fill, where the booster was out of order, and then at MDBC where it was working but as soon as the tank was filled a strong chlorine smell was coming from the o2. Mmmm, I am not breathing that stuff. Turned out the booster was contaminated with something. Fortunately Harry had a provision of stages and we got a 80cf one to 2000psi of o2 directly from the big o2 tank. We left the dock around noon :) Flat seas, sun, and a fast ride to the spot. Green water :( The anchor line was visible down to about 5'. Everybody was cool with night diving, current was insignificant and we got on our way in good time. We weren't wrong about night diving, it was pretty much pitch black after 130'. Below that depth the vis cleared from 5' to 50' (hard to say, as far as the lights could shine, and we have big lights). We stayed near the anchor which was just on the side of the pinnacle, in about 195'. Nice fishes, vase sponges, fluffy wall. Nothing unusual but a pleasant dive, but for my shoulder that didn't like handling the camera. At 15mn I decided to call it and after warning my buddies I started up for a shortened deco. As soon as I stowed the camera my shoulder got a lot better and I had a uneventful ascent, surfacing at the 60mn mark. Ken and Doc were 15 mn behind me and everybody had an enjoyable dive, even if it was a bit short for me.
with Tom, Ken and Phil H.
144', 30mn
Top side conditions were good and the current minimal on the spot. Visibility was not so good, about 30', a bit milky. Almost no fish at all. I went down the South side of the reef, spent some time trying unsuccessfully to spot a fish, and came back to get some divers pictures in the canyon.
We did a second dive somewhere inshore of Heaven's Gate, top at about 45', bottom 65'-70'. The vis was so so and the water bone chilling. More fishes.
with Ken, Denzil and Phil.
292', 20mn BT, 125mn dive.
Back to the scene of our last adventures with a mission in mind. The primary target was to get a better pic of a Cowcod, the secondary target to get pics of "new" rockfishes (aka I didn't see before). The forecast wasn't so good at the beginning of the week but it kept getting better and we arrived in Monterey to see pretty flat seas, little wind and clear skies. The slack was around 10h30am so we set sail from K dock at 9am and dropped the anchor around 9h30am. The float was staying horizontal at the surface so no big current. Everything was falling into place quite nicely. Denzil and Phil went first and I followed with Ken just behind. I used the scooter to drag myself to the float but there wasn't any significant current so I staged it at the float and signaled Mike to pick it up once we were down. Descent was uneventful but the conditions were quite a bit shabbier than on the first dive. It was very dark and vis was a hazy 40' (compared to 80'+ & I don't need a light). I see Ken is around and I start taking pictures. No Cowcod in sight, damn. Beside the usual rockfishes, small ones I don't recognize, secondary target is in the bag. Incredible sponges. But still no Cowcod. Oh yeah :) Here it is. I start getting close for a good shot and wzzz, I can see how fast it swims. Re-damn. Then I see Ken waving his light frantically. Man, I am busy here, I don't care about your little sponge or whatever trash you found. I do get there to see Ken pointing to something on the ground, I look, nothing. This is not funny. Before I whack him on the head I notice something odd. In my understanding of scooter technique the diver gets pulled by the device. There Ken and the scooter were going backwards, with the scooter sliding on the ground. Then Ken makes a "what now" gesture. Man, I am sorry for your loss, but there's nothing I can do here, just clip the thing to the chain. I think he had the same idea and I just pulled on the chain to get it closer. And I took a picture :) I got back to the place I saw the cowcod, and bingo, he was back in town. This time I was a bit stealthier and started taking pics before getting optimally close. A good thing as it went again in the arrow mode. Mission accomplished. Time to go up, Ken says goodbye to his dead friend and we start the ascent. We were on time at 200' for the switch to 20/35 and the first minute stops. I felt quite happy up to 160', but after that it got less comfortable. My suit was leaking, I was cold and plagued with cramps. I look at the gauge, just 95mn to go, cool. The jelly show was a good distraction. The current picked up a bit but it was very manageable, we hit the surface at the 125mn mark, everybody happy and good. Well maybe not everybody was 100% happy, but we got the scooter with the anchor and it will get fixed.
My pet Vachkiri, an happy Cowcod with a couple of Boccacios buddies. Ken with an unhappy scooter on the right.
Starry rockfishes and squarespot (left), vase sponges and view of the Purisima formation (sedimentary deposits)
The brownish rockfishes on the left are Squarespot rockfishes, the ones in the background with a red stripe are Pigmy rockfishes.
Also an adult Rosy and a baby one near the center of the pic.
On the right pic a Vermillon, a Rosy, a Starry and Yellowtails rockfishes.
Olive and/or Yellowtail, Blue and Boccacio rockfishes and yellow sponge on the right
Vermillon rockfish on the left. Vase sponges and starfish on the right.
Two juvenile Yelloweye and two juvenile Rosy rockfishes on the rightmost pic. The small clam-like shell fish are brachiopods.
The plan was to dive Sacre-Coeur but fog and current were in the way, so after some discussion we went back to the bay for some further exploring the area NNW of Ball Buster we call Copper Coral. We found a bump on the fishfinder, rising from 180' to 160', and dropped the hook. As the boat settled we could see the current was still pretty strong. Tom wasn't thrilled by the spot and seing the current he decided to stay on top. I dropped with Ken and we quickly saw that the vis was going to be good. After passing the clouds of moon jellies, at 100' we could see the sand 80' below. We were over a 100' from the rock and we could clearly see the metridiums. On the rock itself lots of rockfishes, nice patches of purple hydrocoral, big gorgonians and a crinoid sitting on a gorgonian. On the sand I spotted an Armina californica. We ended up staying 30mn at the bottom with a cold 55mn deco.
A pretty good day on the ocean. Some gear/organization issues (I hadn't my hood for one) didn't distract us from having a good time at Heaven's Gate. As we had to play musical chairs with some dive gear items we dove in two teams. I went first for a leisurely 35mn bottom time hiking and photographing the landscape. The vis was a good 50' out of the swarms of little fishies in a layer around 11'-120'. You can see it in the pictures. Tom and Mary also reported a good dive. I found my hood outside my door when I got home, I guess it fell from my tub when loading the car.
The plan was to dive Sacre Coeur, but with the current we had yesterday at Heaven's Gate we got to the Cypress Point buoy to check on it. Big wake, about the same current as the day before, around 2 knots. We then move to Monastery but Tom gets on the radio with Chuck who is at East pinnacles and has little current. We get there, find a spot where the reef gets from 85' to 150'. We get ready and get in but Tom got some gear issues and decides to call it. I get down with Ken to find the anchor on a big rock topping at 85', on a 120' bottom. As Chuck mentioned, lots of little fishies cut down the vis to about 20'. Out of the cloud it cleared up to 30-40'. Nice spot with hydrocorals on the big rock and a few nice fishes at the bottom. Nothing unusual. I was experimenting with the camera and one strobe didn't fire, my fault, I hadn't charged it, I was hopping to get a few shots but nothing. We didn't get below 130' so we extended our bottom time and did an overall 80mn dive. Deco was entertaining with all the moon jellies passing by.
Vermillon rockfish in cloud of little fishes - Moon jelly
Deco with the jellies - Ken climbing into the boat.
The plan was for a dive at HG
and we got there pretty quickly of dead flat seas. But once there and
the anchor down we immediately saw an impressive wake behind the boat.
My big reel hanging on a line was surfing at the surface. We decide to
relocate on a more protected spot but we couldn't get the anchor, it
went up ok but then hang on something while the line was pulled. So I
ended up diving with Harry to get it. Just pulling ourselves to the bow
was hard work. Once down to the anchor stuck on a ledge at 118', it was
actually easy to get and I shot it to the surface. We spent 5 mn
drifting around at 100', hopping from a pinnacle to the next. Pretty
spot. After the exertion getting down and dealing with the anchor I
didn't want to ingas too much and we ascended with a conservative
profile. Tom and Mary dove Ball Buster and reported very good vis.
276', 20mn
I was itching to dive on this spot for about 4 years, but then we found the Art Riedel Sr in 2005 and we have been busy diving it for next couple of years. Diving the wreck was starting to get boring ;) and it was time to move on to new adventures. The name of this very large reef lying at about 4nm offshore of Pt Pinos varies depending on the source, and for a long time I was calling it Portuguese ledge. But I found a number of scientific articles naming it Italian Ledge, Portuguese ledge being a sand stone formation some distance to the East. The spot we dove, lets call it Italian ledge, is a Purisima formation, which is basically a pile of huge slabs of stone. The top of the reef seems to be around 230' (we haven't sounded everywhere and the bathymetric map is a low resolution one). All around it gets to 310'-320'. The reef is grossly circular and about 1500' wide. We dove the NW corner. A friend at NOAA was kind enough to show me some video of past submarine dives and I knew it was going to be a good spot. It turned out I was way too pessimistic :) First conditions were as good as it gets in Monterey, with no swells, little wind and clear sky. We were able to book the Sanctuary a day when the current prediction was near optimal, with a slack at 9h20am and about 0.4knot at the max ebb and max flood. We set the anchor on a spot at 240' and jumped just around 9am. The water near the surface was rather clear with some chunks. At about 180'-200' we all thought we were seeing the bottom but then we realized it was a thick carpet of rockfishes, mostly olives (or yellowtails). Once I got past the cloud of fishes I could see the bottom behind, and I found myself in a store with way too many toys. The first obvious thing just 6' in front of me was a 3' yelloweye rockfish. I spend one mad minute fumbling to get my camera to see the fish swim into a deep crevice. When I started chasing it I saw the place is filthy with fishing lines and I had to waste 20s cutting one from my scooter leach. I go again about getting pictures but I was dumbed by the sheer number of cool fishes and other critters around. Boccacios everywhere, yelloweyes, others I couldn't identify (beside the usual vermillons, rosies, starries, coppers, etc). Amazing vase sponges, all sorts of other sponges, nudibranchs. I spotted a really cool looking vase sponge some 50' away and started swimming when I saw in a crevice a 2'-3' (closer to 3) red rockfish looking pretty unusual. It wasn't too cooperative but I managed a few shots. Looking into Milton Love book I am thinking it was a Cowcod, the kind of fish a diver is unlikely to see, 240' being the top of its depth range. The 20mn went really fast and we had to say goodbye. We hit the surface 80mn later after a very smooth deco.
Rockfishes
Lots of fishes, rock structure
Wall and fishes
Young Yelloweye with 3 Boccacios hiding and Lingcod
Vase sponges garden and Denzil
Cowcod
Cool vase sponge
I was on a trip to Arena Rock with Dave in 2005 and I can't say I seen much at the time, the vis being about 2'. When Dave got back to me a month ago about getting there this labor day week-end I thought what the hell, the vis sucks but it is still a great adventure with great people. On this trip I was meeting Tom and Steve for the first time and had a good time with them and Dave so at least that was good. The trip started by a pretty miserable fog and thick drizzle. Friday morning Dave drive us to the rock in a steep 6' swell. The anchor is dropped next to the rock and the boat sets a little away from the breakers. Vis looks good. We start diving and while getting some scallops for dinner I take some time for sightseeing. The vis was about 30'. Lots of fishes, very large Vermillons and a lot of Chinas. The rock wall is undercut by large caverns and thick with life. Second dive is on a spot nearby. We had a quite good dinner to feel very full of fish and scallops :). The next day I was freediving, so I let the others dive the rock, there wasn't any kelp and the breakers were a little big to freedive on the rock. Dave relocated the boat South of the point near a kelp bed and I went in. The top of the pinnacles were around 40' with very nice walls going down to 60'+. Vis was about 40', I could see the top of the rocks from the surface. I had a real great time and got a couple of fishes for dinner. The others got in as I was freediving around and it was pretty fun to see a couple of them at the bottom. Sunday we went back to Arena Rock in calmer seas. The weather was gorgeous and the visibility a good 40'. Thanks to the Gualala fill station attention to detail I had a pretty good fill in my double 80s lp, near 4000psi, and I decided for the first dive to spend some time a little away from the rock in the 120' area. After going down a couple of walls I swam over a boulder area to get to the sand. It was actually a mix of shells with some very big mussel shells. Swimming back to the rock I spooked Lingzilla, a good 5' lingcod, that took off towards the walls. He buzzed me a little later when I was following the bottom of the wall and looking into the really big undercuts. I saw another large ling and a couple of smaller ones. Also a very large Vermillon, some Canaries and lots of Chinas. Also a couple of juvenile Yelloweye (still with black robe), one 8 already orange and a 20in one. In the deep area there were some 1-2in juvenile rockfishes looking like juvenile canaries (dark spot on the dorsal, a pair of saddles). In the 60' range there were again thousands of juvenile blues. I had a fair amount of deco so I did a shallow the second dive and brought my pocket digital. Lots of Dirona albolineata mating and spawning eggs and some other cool stuff. Some of the pictures have some cool second subjects hiding that I discovered looking at the pics.
Diving with Tom and Phil. We tried to get to Carmel but with the very short interval and the wind picking up we turned around and got back to the Albion location. Tom and Phil didn't want to dive it and decided to dive Anchor Farm after I had my dive. To avoid having the anchor dragging like last time I got ready before they set the anchor and I jumped just after. Vis wasn't so bad, maybe 30', but once I got in view of the bottom no Albion in sight. No debris, no sign the anchor had dragged more than a couple of feet, nothing, beside a seal buzzing a couple of times. I reeled about 200' NW and then made a big circle with no luck. A little group of flounders were wondering what I was doing and followed me around. Back near the anchor I spent a few minutes taking pictures and ascended at the 25mn mark Deco was uneventful.
Diving with Tom and Ken. The plan was for a threesome dive at Sacre-Coeur, now Tom got a real suit he deserves to see the next level. Surface conditions were pretty good but when we got there and dropped the anchor the current was on the high side, about a knot. Tom decide that it was more work that he asked for and I dove it with Ken. Visibility was looking good at the surface but as we struggled along the line it degraded quite a bit. The vis at the bottom was a darkish and snotty 30'. The anchor was near the bottom on the SE side of the pinnacle. With the low visibility we didn't have a general view of the area but the bottom around us was quite interesting, with lots of vase sponges from tiny 5" ones to a couple of 3 footer. Also some red finger sponges we saw last time. Lots of olive rockfishes and a few reds (vermillons, rosies). I found out now on the upper right picture something looking like a gunnel on the left bottom corner. My camera was acting up, one strobe not firing and the focus light very weak, so I upped the iso to 800 and tried to use some of the scarce sun light.
Right : Ken Left : vases sponges and fish on the lower left.
Left : vase sponge Right : pinnacle at 170' Both pictures in natural light (no strobe), iso 800 and the power of RAW
I met a very excited Tom for a
dive in the bay with Patty. After years of engineering his dry suit is
arrived. The plan was for Tom and Patty to dive Ball Buster and I then
I would dive the Albion. We get to Ball
Buster, we watch a Dior Drysuit line defile, they eventually start diving and I start napping. They come back reporting good visibility (30 to 50' depending on the teller) below the usual crap layer. We get to the Albion location, I get ready to drop the anchor, Tom shouts let go, and 10s later shouts stop it. After some dangling driving around the anchor is on its way. Hopefully somewhere near he wreck. I drop a few minutes later and dive down into the soup, expecting it to clear at some point. It may have cleared below 185' but I wasn't carrying a shovel. I could see the mud a good 15' around. I followed the slug line of the anchor for 100' to where it landed, searched a bit around and gave up. I might as well save some gas. One thing worth noting was
what I took for a large dead rock crab shell almost buried into the mud. I poked it, and It got pretty close of taking my finger off. Too bad I didn't have a bag. Deco was short and warm in the soup.
Buster, we watch a Dior Drysuit line defile, they eventually start diving and I start napping. They come back reporting good visibility (30 to 50' depending on the teller) below the usual crap layer. We get to the Albion location, I get ready to drop the anchor, Tom shouts let go, and 10s later shouts stop it. After some dangling driving around the anchor is on its way. Hopefully somewhere near he wreck. I drop a few minutes later and dive down into the soup, expecting it to clear at some point. It may have cleared below 185' but I wasn't carrying a shovel. I could see the mud a good 15' around. I followed the slug line of the anchor for 100' to where it landed, searched a bit around and gave up. I might as well save some gas. One thing worth noting was
what I took for a large dead rock crab shell almost buried into the mud. I poked it, and It got pretty close of taking my finger off. Too bad I didn't have a bag. Deco was short and warm in the soup.
Ken's report : "
INARP-8 The Saga Continues
Following the plot of all great sea adventures, our fearless team once again tested the deeper offshore waters.
Week-long predictions threatened sporty winds. But, as Saturday approached, the winds remained a lingering threat, while the swells were lying down. Morning fog (in patches throughout the week) still posed to put a last minute damper on our little mission.
Diving the tide at full moon seemed a question--the shift from slack to flood could test the limits. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained as scooters lined up along the dock, and tanks were heaped in impressive piles, then loaded on the boat. Clear blue skies and white caps where the theme of the day--what a glorious day for sailing on the Bay. Our past experiences with dropping a line on the wreck have been met with both successes and failures. We've tried anchors and 30 and 40 lb. salmon balls, a 16-lb. dart, and our current model; weighting in at 42 lb. is something between a javelin and a grapple. This manly tool is predicted to drop like a smart bomb and spike that target through tides and high water--then that's only the prediction, after all. Our grappling dart as worked perfectly on pinpoint drops on reefs and other spots. But, wreck diving has its traditions and opinions. There's dropping,
and dragging, and hopefully hooking. You can go with what works until it doesn't, or continuously adjust, tying to outsmart your goal, trying to stay on top of this shifting game. The drop seemed okay, but a drag test was inconclusive. We made another
pass, dragging the dart until we hit something convincingly solid. We tied off our floats. The first float was quickly standing on its nose, bobbing a third of the way under water, settling back, bobbing. The tag line and second float merrily followed along like a little duck happily enjoyed the sun. We though we'd give it a shot. After all, we brought scooters to defeat
these currents. Who's the master of this domain anyway? Phil and Denzil went in. Marcos and I quickly followed. Getting to the float was a problem. Ahead of us, Phil and Denzil disappeared below the surface. On full prop my scooter was just keeping even with the current. Only by kicking was it possible to overtake the line. Finally at the line, Marcos and I discussed the conditions before the drop. He suggested we meet at 150' and see what it was like, and whether or not to call the dive. Phil and Denzil were nowhere in sight. Okay. I dropped down the line, motoring through the murk. Viz was pretty bad. I couldn't see Marcos behind me, only my bubbles and the toxic waste of yellow haze. Jellies were floating everywhere. They were coming on the tide in a
constant assault. Bellow me there was only more murk. And no evidence of Denzil or Phil. Brown nettles--an odd and beautiful sight. I could have made a meringue in the prop if I'd hit one of those egg yokes--they were everywhere. At 70 feet the murk cleared away. The endless, bottomless blue was before me, dark, exhilarating, and inviting. No sign or lights in the darkness below. No shadow of Marcos coming down the line behind me. I eased along in the darkness, slowly checking for a sign from Marcos. At 140, in perfectly clear and black water, I waited. The drop was too slow. This wasn't a go. I turned around with incredible reluctance. Those glorious depths were calling with those familiar and beautiful voices. For a few minutes I slowly made a careful ascent back through the jellies, backlit this time in the yellow, soupy haze--magical floating jellies, pulsing mindlessly on parade. Marcos could not keep on the line with his camera and all his gear. At 50 feet he had turned around. The current had blown him off the line. Back on the boat we watched the bubbles. I had seen the darkness, so near and so far. It's siren call still singing a melody in my head as we sipped cold drinks and watched the bubbles--damn, they had made it down. After a while bag popped up 30 feet down current. Two tanks came up the line. We watched the bag and watched the bubbles. We grabbed the tanks and followed the marker down wind and down current. By the time we picked them up we were more than a mile away, Tom and the Turkey came up as we were fishing Phil out. Well? How was it? Well? There are stories. There was lots of sand. The anchor. And a broken piece of pipe flange. All of our dives are learning experiences. Tides and currents, wind and fog, night dives, cold waters. But, diving this Saturday off the Sanctuary with Mike and his able hand, Matt, was a total adventure. Not necessarily
successful, but we're happy to be back. I saw some jellies. Marcos met a nice lady walking her dog that thought he had an accent (what?) and struck up a conversation in French. We met here husband, Holger, and some of his friends filling up the parking lot with Reggae and dive gear. They got some halibut. I saw some jellies. Denzil and Phil saw a metridium covered broken piece of pipe flange. Life is good.
Ken Gwin
My report :
Ken summed up things pretty well. If it was easy it wouldn't be quite the same adventure. When we got to the dock things seemed to be better than forecasted. I was concerned with fog but the sky was very clear and the sea pretty flat. Current was the last potential problem. Once we got the down line out it became clear it wasn't just a potential anymore. But for the 1st time everybody had scooters and it was making sense to check out the potential of the toys. Phil and Denzil dropped first and it was clear they were struggling to get to the float. But they eventually got there and dove. When I got into the water with all the stuff (camera) I had to help the scooter with some kicking to make any significant headway. This was getting from marginal to stupid conditions and once at the float I suggested to Ken we go to 150', meet there, see if it's any better and decide from there. I let Ken go
first and start diving. At 30' I was struggling to keep the line in sight. At 50' I was blown away. I surfaced half a football field away
and it took me several minutes to get back to the float. I waited for Ken to come up. We had a coffee in good company on the boat. From Phil and Denzil report I can't say I have lots of regrets.
Scooter practice day with Ken. Denzil had dad obligations and had to stay home. We drove by his place to get a scooter for Ken and eventually got to the breakwater, after lunch and a short nap. We started along the wall up to 3/4 of the after the bend part, turned North until getting past 60' deep. Then we turned West and almost immediately ran into the barge. We spent a few minutes there and resumed our trip W, then WSW until getting to 40' deep. Then turned South until getting to the bw wall. A good 1h practice dive. Visibility was poor. Only noticeable thing was a school of juvenile fishes very much like the ones in the picture from last week.
We met John getting his boat out of the water, chat a bit about the night dive and decided on something around 9pm. Meanwhile Mike and his wife drove by and we got to a Korean place Mike suggested, where we met some members of his club. Back to the breakwater we load John's boat and drive out to the steam engine under a thin moon crescent and a bunch of stars. As 90% of the gear on the boat was ours ;) myself and Ken get in the water first. Scootering down the line wasn't so easy with a very soupy visibility. And a jelly invasion. At the bottom we just scooter a few yards along the ridge to find the steam engine and I spend the rest of the time taking a few pictures just under the line. Actually some nice fish there. Two Plainfin Midshipman and a Spotfin sculpin (I think). Got stung in the lip by the jellies. Not the best night dive ever, but still fun (beside the jellies, I am no masochist). The best was the ride under the stars, I love boating at night. Thanks John.
Plainfin midshipman
Diving with Tom, Mary and Karen. The day didn't start very smoothly. When I got to Tom's place at 7h30, everything is quiet but for a hissing noise coming from Tom's jeep trunk. A quick inspection showed a set of doubles slowly bleeding out. I close the faulty valve, knock the door. Nothing. Tom got to wake up at the sound of a slightly accented "Get you lazy ... out of bed" :) The ladies show up, get some gear and we get on the road. Half an hour later I realize it's going to be a cold day without my thermals. Fortunately our Santa Cruz friend Phil H. is about my size. He sounded very sleepy on the phone but he very kindly agreed on letting me borrow his thermals. We eventually got to the the boat, at K dock, when Karen found out that her yoke regs won't work on Mary's 300 bar DIN, even with adaptors. That was quickly fixed by renting a couple of tanks. Not very far from noon we set sail.
The plan was for Ball Buster but this time we couldn't even dive there. Tom, Mary and Karen did a first dive at Hopkins Deep. I sat it out as I am not a big fan of that spot. They reported so so conditions, with vis estimations varying from 10' to 20' depending on the teller. We then moved to the Steam Engine. Mary and Karen jumped first and I followed a few minutes after. The layer was like yesterday pretty bad down to 50', but below the vis was in the 20'+ range. The anchor wasn't anywhere near the steam engine and I followed Mary's line to a 5-6' ridge. They were coming back from the left, I tried to get a pic of two of the ladies but they were too ephemeral to let me adjust my settings (I was shooting a clown nudibranch and set for 1' distance). I went a bit left and then right along the ridge. A lot of slugs as usual and just a few fishes. Until I stumbled into the kind of strange encounters that makes all the charm of the deep shale beds. In a deep shelf of the ridge a quite cosmopolitan group was having a party. The fish UN must have been having a truce meeting as I would have imagined this party being the kind where some guest end up in the plate of his table neighbor. But everything was very civil. Not shown in the pictures were 3 greenlings attending the feast from a safer distance.
Diving with Ken, Tom and Phil H.
The plan was for myself and Ken to dive Sacre-Coeur and for Tom and Phil to dive Heaven's Gate, but that proved to be wishful thinking. I know Chuck, you told me so ;) We decided we were going to dive the Albion first and then Tom and Phil would dive Mile Buoy. We dropped the anchor and wererather quickly on our way down. There was a very soupy layer of plankton down to 30-40' and then it opened up to 40-50', a pretty good vis for this spot, although very dark. I wasn't too impressed with this wreck the first time I dove it, but today we were happily surprised by the amount of life already on it. Also some rather unusual rockfishes, I am not 100% sure what they were, so I ll wait to hear from the fish guys before committing myself, see the pics. Deco was smooth with warmer water higher in the water column, pretty cold at the bottom. Back to the boat the wind had somewhat lessened and Tom and Phil dove Ball Buster and reported very good visibility at the bottom.
Yesterday when Tom asked if I was diving Sunday I was kind of lazy, a good morning in bed sounded very good. But I eventually got convinced, and I don't regret :) We met at the harbor with Barbara and Bill, a friend of Tom I was meeting for the first time. Ocean was looking pretty good and we got to Two-boat pinnacle where Barbara and Bill did a dive and reported good conditions. We then drove to Heaven's Gate and I dropped with Tom. Water a fairly clean, about 40' of vis. I first started diving a 30' wall with some very nice hydrocorals. I spend about 10mn taking pics when Tom signal to follow him. Right by the corner there was a quite pretty canyon. Lots of rockfishes. Top of the rock was about 80', sand was at 140'+.
Another gold mining mission with Tom, Ken and Phil H.
Last time we got a potato, this time it's diamonds. Tom and Phil were set for a recreational dive while myself and Ken were geared up for the 200' range. Tom and Phil were diving first and I chose for them from my magic piece of paper a set of numbers on a reef topping at 80' with drop offs to 140' and more, somewhere on the way to Carmel. They drop into blue water, Ken drops into the cabin for a nap, while I am on watch duty. Some 50mn later, Tom and Phil get back into the boat with enlarged eyes and big smiles. Must be a decent spot :) Tom suggested to christen the spot Heaven's Gate, I have nothing against that. I ll have to check it out when possible. I unfolded my piece a paper and plugged the next spot. On the bathymetric maps this pinnacle tops at 130' and drops quite sharply to 190'+. We get there, get ready and get on our way down. There was a layer of plankton down to 30-40', but then it opened up to 50-60'. At 130' I started seeing the pinnacle, the anchor was on the sand just next to a quite impressive wall topping just in front of me. Closer I got better it was looking. A huge, nearly vertical wall, maybe 50-60' tall, plush with coryanactis, ear sponges, tunicates and other stuff. And fish everywhere. We spent 20mn taking pictures. I was a bit struggling with the strobes and didn't pay enough attention to background exposure, but the pics are not so bad. At the end, just near the anchor, Ken spots a kind of sponge I don't remember seeing before. Next to it another sponge had a small white nudibranch, maybe laying eggs, like luteomarginata but with a white margin. Maybe Berthella, although I don't think so. Unfortunately my 15mm fisheye lens is not optimal for slug identification. We stopped for pictures on the way up and ended doing a 90mn dive. This spot is in my view the best pinnacle this side of Lobos. As good as E3 or Flintstone. And it's quite a bit closer to Monterey. Sacré-Coeur is a fitting name for this spot.
Three years ago I did the early registration, paid the fee, and totally forgot about it, instead diving, from Tom's Narcosis, in 1' of visibility just out of Moss Landing. The year after I was out of commission. Last year I was supposed to dive with Roy but had a car breakdown. And had to listen to Roy's "you should have ... bla bla ... dumb ass ...bla bla " for one year. Well, this year I finally managed to get to Monterey, get wet and sandy, and submit my 5 pics. Still diving with Roy, with Hunter as a model and Tom in the support job.
First dive at S Monastery. No big surf, grayish sky. To make it short, vis was lousy, didn't see much worth a pic, what didn't really matter as I was pretty unprepared to take pictures in this kind of conditions. I can't remember last time I had less that 40' vis. Shore diving sucks. But all the fun was in the people, diving with Roy is always a fun show :)
Second dive at the wharf. Did I mention shore diving sucks ? There I was with my 15mm fish eye lens, in a gorgeous 5-10' dirty greenish water. Mmm, great, I am going to win this :-o. I never dove this place before, so it was at least a bit of a novelty. I found a rock crab trying to get a lunch from a fishing line rig. That was kind of cool and I spend sometime taking pics until the bug gave up. A little away I found a spider crab in a kind of nice setting with a big starfish, but it was not easy to get the camera to fit in a good angle. I did manage a few pics. I finished the strobe battery on a piling which by some miracle hadn't been silted out by the crowd, with some plush coryanactis, bryozoans and a few starfishes.
After the dive we got to backscatter to select our pics. As I was expecting the pics from Monastery were total garbage, and I had only half a dozen half bad pics from the second dive. The fishing line crab pics were actually not so bad but all had a rather ugly negative space. I took two of them anyway for the portrait category, along with one of the spider crab. For the wide angle category, the only couple of piling pictures that were well framed had a bad focus (I was in a pretty uncomfortable position), and I picked two with a somewhat better focus, but not so good otherwise. We had a good time at the dinner party, I met quite a number of people, the food was good, and enjoyed Jason's photography.
Sunday we got late to the award ceremony (Roy's short cut) but just in time for the presentation of the winning pics. I was looking in the flyer what was the door prize when Roy elbowed me "that's you". Here was one of my piling pics getting an honorable mention. I liked better my crab pics, shows how much I understand photography. Roy got 3 pics selected, 2 3rd places, and a trip to the Maldives. I had to tell him it's a strict Muslim place that doesn't allow alcohol. I got myself a nice book. It was a fun week-end, and I may redo it next year. Next week-end boat diving :)
Portrait category
Wide-angle category
This one got honorable mention
Diving with Tom and Ken on a filling the blanks
mission. I had a few coordinates written on a piece of paper but as
soon I we got near Point Pinos it was clear that we would better stay
hidden. The swells weren't huge but very short and getting quite deep
with the wind picking up. Fortunately I had a few spots to try near the
harbor. One a few hundred yds from Mile Buoy and a couple in the deep
shale beds, all in the 170'-180' range. We settled for the one near the
Mile Buoy, a suspicious bathymetric shape 50'L x 20'W x 10'H, lost in
the middle of the sand. Temporary name was the Lunch Box. With the
wind, anchoring on a small thing in the sand wasn't a sure thing so I
got down there in a hurry to set the anchor, it had already slipped a
couple dozen yds. Below the green layer the vis opened up quite nicely
to 40' and I saw the metridiums glow from 100'. The very square angle
of one side gave me some hope but quickly it was clear that it was just
a couple of large 20' high rocks. It was actually quite pretty with
very healthy metridiums, sea cucumbers everywhere and some scallops. I
took a few pics, checked the anchor wasn't moving and got on my way up
at the 20mn mark. Despite the sea conditions deco was very comfortable.
Potato Ship got the votes for the spot.
04/21/07 Electric Flats at Pinos Buoy
Diving with Ken and Denzil from Tom's boat.
After staying dry for one
month I
needed a tune up dive before getting back to the lower floors. We were
all up
to try some new spot so I suggested something near Pinos buoy. We found
some
bumps in the 160'-180' range, about 100yds from the buoy. We dropped
the anchor
and got ready to dive. The swim down was a bit sporty die to some
current, but
we eventually got to the bottom to discover a lot of sand. These guys
are going
to hate me came to mind, but I immediately spotted a tiny torpedo ray
sleeping
on the sand while Denzil and Ken started reeling away. I stayed. I got
a few
pics and then thought of an experience. Would the torpedo trigger my
strobe if
I incited it to play ? I confirmed that it doesn't need much of an
incitation
to show his bully side, and no it didn't trigger the strobe. By that
time my
buddies had come back and we swam to a few nearby rocks, small but
quite
pretty. The current was getting annoying and the ascent wasn't very
comfortable, but we had a fun time any way. Denzil saw 3 torpedo rays
and
proposed to name the spot Electric Flats. Thanks Tom for driving us.
Day was warm and sunny with seas a little rough. We managed to get to outer pinnacles for a dive on Canyonlands. As almost everyone was diving nitrox this was supposed to be at the shallower side of Canyonlands, with ridges topping at 80'. Sea conditions, lack of laptop/gps (waiting for vista gps drivers for my new laptop) and other adverse conditions decided otherwise. I was the first to jump to find nice blue water and a visibility around 50'. When my computer showed 100' the bottom was quite a bit deeper. I was not diving nitrox, a secret mixture instead, so I could get down to measure the actual depth, must be my scientific streak. I stopped at 150', bottom was about 10' below. Small patches of sand with 20' high rock ridges, nice life on the rocks, lots of gorgonians. I was in the middle of a very large canyon, I could see the shadows of the big walls. I swam to one of them and it went up to about 80'. I took a couple of pics and then I had my 10s of "where the f... is the line", got back to it to see Ken coming down. After making sure, lost in his meditation, he wasn't getting too deep for his mix, I went back down to get some pics of the deep ridges. I dove with only a half fill (on my double that's about 90cf), so I had little time to climb my learning curve with my new strobe setting. Tom and Patty completed the gliding team at 100' (the 80' ridges weren't visible from the line). Second dive at 2 boat pinnacle. I sat out and had a good nap.
At the bottom (sand at 160')
Top of the canyons, 80-90'.
After surviving a couple of months without tanks and news of my housing being ready for pick up at Backscatter, I was eager to get a couple of dives over the week-end. Conditions were looking awfully good and Tom was all excited about going to his new sweet dive spot, Alan's Arch. Ken and Jennifer never dove it, what closed the deal. Alan's Arch is a very cute spot with a 20' wide and tall arch thick with coryanactis and, scallops and other stuff. Next to the arch there is a wall also very rich with life. It's an advanced spot due to unpredictable strong currents that makes it seldom divable. It's about 105' at the bottom of the arch.
I assembled to housing rig at the shop (dome repaired) and could see I didn't have the whole cable routing right (new 2nd strobe) but we were already late and my main goal of the day was to test if the water was staying outside. One hour later we are at the spot, some white caps after the corner but the wind was calming down and there are almost no swells. Once I got into my dry suit it was obvious that the stitches in my knee were going to be a problem. I had to ask Tom to don my right fin. In the water I was pretty clumsy with very low power in the right propeller, but had a good time fussing with the camera at the arch. One thing, I couldn't figure out why the new strobe was a lot weaker than its older twin (ys350s). Answer back at the boat : I forgot to take out the diffuser, duh. Visibility was quite good with some large particles and it was a neat dive, although I was too engrossed with the camera to spot anything unusual. Getting back into the boat was a bit of work, thanks Tom for doffing my right fin. I sat the second dive. Tom, Jennifer and Ken had a good time at "Big Ass Crack" somewhere around Pinnacles (ask Tom). Also we had some whales close by with some tail displays a couple of time, too bad I had only the 15mm fisheye.