I was in need of a nice peaceful dive and Tom indulged me by driving the Turkey to one of my prefered spots. I went over the maze of cracks and canyons on the West side of the pinnacle to enjoy the view. Nothing unusual, I just went a couple of hundred feet W and spent 15mn watching the light and shadows of the pinnacle. Visibility was very good below 100'. Second dive at Hang Them High which was a new spot for me. But the visibility was not so good and there was a fair amount of surge. Looked like it would be a pretty dive in better conditions.
10/7/06 & 10/11/06 Bob's Point Sur trip and recovery dive
305', 15mn
Phil was on duty on the Cypress Sea so today's team was a threesome, myself, Ken and Denzil. We ran a little late, we were on the spot at around noon, but conditions were looking really good. Seas were just on the worse side of glassy and the water was a nice shade of blue. We used the same technique than last time to hook the wreck, using the laptop/bathymetry/gps to drag the anchor into the structure. We got it hooked in very little time. The float was lazily laying at the surface, no visible current action. And we could see the line a long way down. It took us some time to get ready but we got eventually going down. At about 100' the current started to kick in but it wasn't bad. We met the rockfishes at 200' (Vermillons and Coppers). Metridiums started drawing the wreck at 240'. The anchor fell near one corner of the barge, next to one of the salmon balls we lost there. Lots of rockfishes everywhere. I first went over Denzil to check how he was doing with his death machine. With his scooter, video, 200w HID light and his inspiration he was quite an impressive sight. After I went around the corner to shoot some pictures with the camera Phil was kind enough to let me borrow. It took some try to get used to it but I did manage to take some shots. I was set to shoot at full strobe power to get an wide overview of the ship but there was an annoying mild current at the bottom that was swirling behind the wreck and it kept pulling me into the structure. There were some interesting looking structures. Some kind of big frame, a 4-5' wide tambour, and other machinery. We should be able to make it out on the pictures. Time goes by when fussing with a camera and I came back to the line after a dozen shots. Ken spent his time taking some film pictures with my Tussey housing. Ascent wasn't totally smooth, rebreathers do do add some spice to diving. But Denzil dealt with it and we got back to the surface some 105mn later (15mn bottom time at 305', 120mn total dive time). I hope I ll have some pictures in a few days.
Ken and Copper rockfish at one end of the wreck.
Diving with Ken, Tom and Roy. First stop was at Ball Buster. Tom and Roy stepped down for their dive and reported nice conditions. Pelicans squadrons were doing low flight, passing at arm length of the boat, pretty cool birds. Second stop a little way off shore. I brought the laptop/gps and we selected a promising little town about 2000 feet NNE of Ball Buster. Two sand channels run on a NW/SE direction with lots of big rocks around. After some delay due to physiological needs Ken and I got in the water. He was carrying my film housing and I was riding my scooter. The layer at the surface was pretty bad and it got dark below 30', although it was far from pitch black. The anchor was right on the sand channel (Northern one). Depth was about 170' at the sand. Lots of rocks about 20' high, big metridiums, sea pens, gorgonians, and a lot of fish. Ken got quickly cornered by 3 Copper rockfish. I let him deal with it, I had my ride and was enjoying buzzing by. I could see Ken from quite a bit away so I guess the visibility was pretty good. Lots of Coppers everywhere, some decent ones. Also a few rosies and vermillons. I probably saw 5 or 6 lingcods and a couple of greenlings. Uneventful deco.
We started to dive Forgotten Pinnacle (we really liked it) when we met Chuck near Ball Buster. He was looking like a cat who just got a bird and gave us some interesting piece of information. When we got to Pinos the ride was getting a little rough and it didn't get a lot of discussion changing plans to dive the Albion. Once there, the sea was a lot calmer but the water was looking like sewage with some red wine in it. Guys I think it's going to be a bit crepuscular down there. The fish finder bumped right on Chucks numbers and it took 5mn to set the anchor. We did the dive in two batches, Ken and Harry first, then I went with Tom when we saw their bubbles near the bow. I let Tom jump first and I tried to follow. But I
couldn't stand up from the bench. I had my big set of doubles (2x130) and it's pretty heavy with stages, but in general I manage to stumble around with it, I must be getting too old for the sport I thought. Then I nearly snapped my neck to see what was going on behind, to find the obvious : I left the bungies strapping the tanks. Not my legs getting too old, just my brain. I managed to unstrap it without having to doff everything and joined Tom who had plenty of time to find his inner soul meditating at the line.
At the surface it was near impossible to see our fins and at 100' it was getting too dark to read instruments. But the vis improved a lot below 30' and once we got to the wreck it was probably 40-50' with some large jelly poo floating around. The line was a few feet aft of the bow and we started swimming along the port side. We got very quickly to where the boat is cut in half and didn't see the missing stern. We then dove the starboard side. Small metridiums everywhere ( the biggest was about a foot). Lots of rockfishes (green brown ones I am not sure of the species), Olives, Vermillons. Decent Lingcods lying on the wreck or on the sand. Back to the anchor I spent 2-3mn getting it away from the wreck and we started our ascent. We got back to the surface without incident 45mn later (max depth was 188'). I can't say I ll get back there every week-end, the wreck is kind of small, but it was still a decent dive. One small step at the time towards Monterey Bay Wreck Alley.
The plan was to anchor on a spot at East Pinnacle to have one team diving the shallow side (100 and above) and the other the deep side. But we ended up a little too far from the deep side so Tom and Mary went for their dive while we played surface support. It was more than a little while I was itching to dive Kawika's Forgotten Pinnacle and this was looking like the right opportunity with very nice conditions and apparently little current action. I had my laptop plugged to my gps and using the sea floor lab bathymetric charts it was a peace of cake to get the anchor right on the good spot. I drove the boat over a promising sand channel in 175' of water next to the main pinnacle and Ken dropped the hook. We got into the water and the topography around the anchor was exactly as in the chart. I ll never thank enough the sea floor lab people for sharing these incredible maps. The sand channel was pretty flat, maxing out at 180'. It is a gorgeous spot with a lot of fishes. Juveniles Rosy rockfishes everywhere (two sections of my forefinger = 2"). A pretty decent Vermillon. A mean looking old Starry rockfish. One real nice Ling. And the bigger Greenling Ken ever saw (I didn't see it). The walls were well covered with life, some ear sponges, no vase sponge. The usual slugs. Also some cute hydrocoral near the top (85'). We ll get back there. I brought my old film camera (nikon 8008 in Tussey housing) out of frustration with my fancy but not so watertight Aquatica 20d housing. I took turns with Ken shooting pictures. I may post something when it gets processed (the joy of film).
Team 1, 309', 15mn.
Team 2, 309', 17mn.
Spectacular conditions. Very clear water, I could read my computer at 300' without the big light. Pretty much flat seas and very mild current. We were using a new anchoring/grappling system I was toying on these last weeks and Ken fabricated. Needless to say it was an arty piece of marine engineering. And it actually worked pretty well. Things didn't start very well for me, my camera housing started leaking. I stopped at 100' to check on it and saw a drop inside the dome. Back to the surface to get it on the boat. Meanwhile Phil and Denzil went down and I resumed my dive with Ken. After last week cold it took me a few trials to clear my ears but I got it under control and we eventually got on our way downward. Still a lot of light down there and at about 200' we saw a ghostly line of metridiums, some 70' below us. The line went above the hull and the anchor was laying deck side. Three or more masts/gantry/crane were lying on the sand, 90 degrees from the deck. Huge vase sponges, bigger than anything we ever saw before, were sticking out from the steel structures. We met Phil and Mr big ass light Denzil and joined the picture party. Unfortunately Phil will found out later that his camera was stuck on zoom, but he managed to get some nice shots. Beside the usual big vermilions, copper and swarms of rosies, we saw big schools of juveniles rockfishes. And a very cute wolf eel inside a mast.
Ascent and deco was problem free actually quite comfortable. The only incident was my 30/30 stage getting dropped from the surface :-( This time not being a hover didn't pay as the stage was too full to be buoyant and went strait down. I don't think I ll see it again, unless Blueberry send his body builder cousin on a rescue mission into the deep. Well, that's part of the adventure.
Top of the wreck with the railing and the line on the left
Some gantry structure with a large vase sponge on the right.
Wolf eel inside some mast structure.
Large pipe inside a hatch.
TODAY...SE WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. MIXED SWELL NW
SWELL 4 TO 6 FT AT 9 SECONDS AND S SWELL 2 TO 4 FT AT 15 SECONDS.
PATCHY FOG AND DRIZZLE IN THE MORNING.
Point Pinos, California Current
5 August 2006
2006-08-05 07:40 PDT 0.54 knots Max Flood
2006-08-05 11:00 PDT -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
2006-08-05 12:51 PDT -0.24 knots Max Ebb
At the spot, 10h30, it looks goood. The water is a shade of blue and swells are languid. We get our apparatus in order, find some structure, and send the hook on his 50 fathom journey. After the imagined BONG the anchor team needs some slack to cut the line and attach the float, the helm gives some engine, and then some more, and again some more. Knots are done and the
float set free. The 80lbs Riffe float went down, a few inches emerging from the water. It's settling we said, you have to keep positive. Then the little turbulence morphed into a 6' long wake. You may at that point conclude this is a no brainer. Human psychology isn't that deterministic. We discussed the matter a long time. Afterwards we were able to enjoy watching Phil's Alaska pictures.
We will be back.
Two dives with Tom, Ken, Harry and Jeff at Honeymoon Rock. Seas were a bit rocky and we had to dismiss Alan's arch. Unfortunately visibility was rather poor at Honeymoon, about 20' at 100', and pretty green. Wide angle impossible chunky at 70', a little better at 100'. It was not a day to get wide but I still tried to get some pics. The housing started to leak a little at the end of the 1st dive but the camera stayed dry. Something wrong with the port. Anyway a fun day ending with a great party at Chucks. Not bringing a swim short was a bad idea with the 110F.
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The main purpose of the day was to get my new macro setup (for my canon EF100mm macro) at Backscatter and to attend a couple of meetings. In between I went to the breakwater to try the new toy. Luck wasn't on my side, vis was terrible, 5-10', and it was surgy. I quickly discovered that surge is a problem when trying to focus with a 1:1 macro lens :-( Anyway it was fun to get in the water and good training with the camera. The first meeting hosted the presentations of Tom Laidig, the juvenile rockfish guru, and Kawika's Less Than Usual Suspects. On a fun note, it took 4 laptops, 2 windows and 2 macs, and two projectors to get something working. Windows won on that one, but nobody in the room was a mac expert. Tom's presentation opened our eyes on the unknown and rich world of juvenile rockfishes. The main lesson I got is that we can see at places like the breakwater juveniles of very deep rockfishes that we d need a sub to see as adults. Kawika's show had an amazing number of fishes I didn't even suspect the existence. That went a long way helping John Wolfe efforts to get us start counting :-)
After that I went with Ken, who showed up at the fish show, listen to Jarrod Jablonski at the BAUE meeting. The part about the planning of a 600 minute bottom time cave dive got my attention but, I have to admit, by that time I was getting a bit tired and the 2h+ speech got the better of me and we bailed out at the pause. Dinner at Sapporo.
(clic on the pics to get
the full size) Batman's uw wings (I think sabellid polychaete worm, Myxicola infundibulum. This is the egde of the plume) |
 Some kind of worm |
 Coryanactis |
 Bug city |
Ken picked me up at noon to get in time for Steve Lonhart's REEF presentation on invertebrates. We got there well in advance and had some time to chat with Steve. The presentation was very interesting and interactive and I have learned quite a bit about invertebrates identification. About half of the people attending were scientists and half divers. After setting dive time at 9pm with John Yasaki we had dinner at Taboulis with John Wolfe, his (and our) buddy Dan and a couple of other REEF divers. To be allowed desert we had to pass some REEF fish identification tests.
We met with John Yasaki at the parking lot, got ready, loaded the boat and set sail to the Steam Engine. This time Ken got the reel job and we went down to find Blueberry, our usual Bull sculpin a few feet from the anchor. Dangerous that. We have to show him Shark tale. This is the same fish I saw now a few times. I started taking pictures until I was distracted by Ken showing off with his ILS landing skills. I think Blueberry wasn't so impressed. John found one of the fringeheads and after some pictures we took off to the engine and then in a northward direction. A couple of sea lions made a fly by. John found a Tochni and after he turned away we found another one. Also another Bull sculpin. Soon we are going to say they are abundant ;) Clearly a different fish, about 50 yards away from Blueberry. I wonder if they are territorial. I christened him Blackberry. Soon after I saw another Tochni and a cute octopus. We turn around at 32mn and Ken founds a Horned flatworm in a fight with a starfish. Question : who is eating who ? Also Spanish shawls were everywhere. A little way after I am taking pictures of some seaweed when I see a fancy sculpin just under my nose. My bet goes for a Threadfin sculpin but it may be a Spotfin sculpin, see the pics. We were getting a bit late so I did just some quick shots that aren't very good. We got to the anchor 55mn into the dive and just as we start ascending Ken spots a strange crab, I think a Lithoid crab and we eventually start climbing the line 3mn later with some hanging to do. But the 20' hang was very cool, I shut down my light and spend the time playing with the incredible bio-luminescence.
We got back to the parking lot without any mishaps. I got to my bed at 3am the head still underwater.
PS: The spines behind the head (3rd pic) give the clue, it's a spotfin sculpin.
 Blueberry (Bull sculpin) |
 Blackberry (Bull sculpin) |
 Spotfin sculpin |
 Spotfin sculpin |
 Spotfin sculpin |
 Onespot fringehead |
 Spanish shawl |
 Spanish shawl |
 Tochni |
 Tochni |
 Horned flatworm |
 Small scallop |
 Urchin |
 Red octopus |
 Lithoid crab |
It was just me and Tom. First dive with the scooter from Tom's boat. We dropped the hook at Ball Buster to find great conditions. No current and a good 50' visibility. I started by a loop around the reef. It's a lot smaller with a scooter. After that I went North for about 500' and got back to the anchor line. I didn't see anything unusual but I was enjoying the ride rather than looking closely at things.
Reported visibility wasn't encouraging but after a couple of weeks land locked Ken and I had to get wet. We decided to have a go at a BW night dive. We got to Monterey at about 7pm. Kawika was at the parking lot and we waited for darkness chatting about cameras. I was curious about Kawika's strobes and got a piece of information I was wondering about for a few months. John Yasaki came by and had pity of two poor pedestrians and offered us a hitch on his deluxe rigid inflatable. I love diving the breakwater at night but we didn't hesitated to long on that one. We got to the Steam Engine under very calm and pleasant conditions. Initial plan was, after paying a visit to the pipe fringehead, to reel to the stam engine and from there to the propeller, but we got distracted by too many critters to make it. Visibility was rather poor, about 10'. I had just clipped the reel line that John signals he found something and point to a nice Bull sculpin, the same or a twin of the one I saw at the same place in march. After some pictures we resume the dive and somewhere near the steam engine (that we never saw) John's has once again the good eye and points at a grayish small slug I had never seen before. Right next to it another slug that I first took for a Laila cockerilli, it was sized a bit below my direct eyesight capabilities, but turned out to be a more common Flabelina trilineata. Looking at Clinton's web this morning the grayish slug appears to be a Aegires albopunctatus (I first hesitated with Polycera zosterae). A little after I spotted a nice octopus, about a foot, but it played hide and seek too well to get a good shot. Just before heading back a foot long Cusk eel swam by. A great night dive, John, thanks a lot for the ride.
Onespot fringehead
Blueberry (Bull sculpin)
Aegires albopunctatus
Flabelina trilineata
After my car let me down Saturday on my way to the beach photo comp, Denzil had to pick me up this morning for a dive that went a good way helping me forget the previous bad day. We met Russ at his house and went to Lobos to meet Jeff. I was trying out one of Russ silent submerge. Everybody had one and everybody beside me was bubble less. The plan was to scooter out to Twin Peaks if the conditions were good. I was planning to be conservative as I had the limited gas supply and no experience of this scooter dive, but it actually proved to be more than enough. A big dead seal was floating near the beach and after the GWS report we remembered fondly Pete's dead seals story
. After some time watching my bubble
less buddies fiddle with their machines and staging the scooters and
stages on buoys, we eventually headed out of the cove. The vis inside the cove was pretty low but it cleared a lot outside and at 100' and below the vis was about 30', better deeper, maybe 40' at 180'. We followed the wall and got to Beto's reef and as everybody was doing fine we got to Twin Peaks. It was about 3 years I didn't dive Twin Peaks and I enjoyed scootering around the wall, It's really a pretty reef. Nothing out of the usual, lots of slugs, some nice sponges, no GWS. The way back went without incidents and total dive time was about 85mn. The water was pretty cold and my dry suit right leg leaked quite a bit, but it wasn't bad.
Another great day of diving. Today's crew was, beside
myself, Tom, Roy and his buddy. Tom got the boat over the shallow side
of Canyon Land. About the same conditions than yesterday, 50ish
visibility below a surface layer of green 5' vis. We had EAN32 so
we stayed in the 100' range flying along the wall of the canyon. This
specific wall is very plush with coryanactis. Lots of hermissendas. The
dive was a bit on the sporty side with the current. It was enough
before the dive to get the current line out but nothing too bad. It
picked up a lot while we were down. But everybody behave and got back
on the line. Second dive at the steam engine. I dove with Roy, the
others staying dry. Good visibility also, 30'+. The pipe fringehead
wasn't home. But lots of slugs, all kind of dorids, t festiva, clown
nudibranchs, spanish shawls and, at the end of the dive 3 small (for
the specie) tochnis. A sea lion inspected the back of Roy's hood from a
few inches while Roy was taking a picture of something on the ground.
Too bad I didn't bring the camera.
05/28/06 Deep Ball Buster
With some reports of mediocre vis in the bay and Beto's post about 30' vis at deep ball buster, choosing a dive site didn't take too much discussion. Today's Turkey's crew was Tom, Ken, Jeff, Todd and myself. The ocean was a bit rough with a very short interval swell but little wing in the morning. We got there and dropped the hook next to the main boulder. Four of five big rocks are disposed on a half circle on the North side of the central reef, looking like a cat footprint. I dove with Jeff and Ken with Todd. We got in first and after passing through a very thick layer of green whole pea soup the vis opened up and was 20-30' at 110' near the anchor. The N rocks are in around 140-150'. Lots of metridiums, ear sponges and some hydrocoral. Some nice slugs (Cadlinas, Spanish shawls) and sizable rockfishes (mainly Vermillons, Coppers, Chinas and Rosy). Ken and Todd reported a nice Treefish, I was expecting to see it but I and Jeff were a bit E of his usual location. No wolf eel or GPO. It was the first time I was diving with Jeff and we did work together quite nicely. Deco was event free and we got to the surface at the hour sharp.
With some reports of mediocre vis in the bay and Beto's post about 30' vis at deep ball buster, choosing a dive site didn't take too much discussion. Today's Turkey's crew was Tom, Ken, Jeff, Todd and myself. The ocean was a bit rough with a very short interval swell but little wing in the morning. We got there and dropped the hook next to the main boulder. Four of five big rocks are disposed on a half circle on the North side of the central reef, looking like a cat footprint. I dove with Jeff and Ken with Todd. We got in first and after passing through a very thick layer of green whole pea soup the vis opened up and was 20-30' at 110' near the anchor. The N rocks are in around 140-150'. Lots of metridiums, ear sponges and some hydrocoral. Some nice slugs (Cadlinas, Spanish shawls) and sizable rockfishes (mainly Vermillons, Coppers, Chinas and Rosy). Ken and Todd reported a nice Treefish, I was expecting to see it but I and Jeff were a bit E of his usual location. No wolf eel or GPO. It was the first time I was diving with Jeff and we did work together quite nicely. Deco was event free and we got to the surface at the hour sharp.
05/21/06 Canyon Lands
That was a strange day. First Jeff feels like not diving but come anyway to ride along. He very kindly propose I use his tanks as I had some sub optimal mix after last day screw up. Then, when he is helping me to untie and push the boat from dock he slips in street clothes in the very cold Pacific. He got out ok, actually looking to have endured the cold bath quite well. At that point he decided to stay on shore, I can understand that. Jeff, I hope we will get to make it for the bad day.
That was a strange day. First Jeff feels like not diving but come anyway to ride along. He very kindly propose I use his tanks as I had some sub optimal mix after last day screw up. Then, when he is helping me to untie and push the boat from dock he slips in street clothes in the very cold Pacific. He got out ok, actually looking to have endured the cold bath quite well. At that point he decided to stay on shore, I can understand that. Jeff, I hope we will get to make it for the bad day.
We get underway, and back to breakwater to change the
propeller that wasn't getting us on plane. But Tom was really quick and
we were back heading South in less than 10mn. When we got close to
Cypress Point we see something making big splashes in the water a few
hundred yards away. Then we realized it was a whale breaching all the
way to the tail and getting back flat on his back. And it kept doing it
again and again. I tried to get some shots with my little point and
shoot but as usual with the lag I got only the splashes. After 30mn of
this show we drove the rest of the way to outer pinnacles. We got to
Canyon Lands at the exact point Tom dropped me Saturday. I drove around
5mn and found a spot with a depth of 200' at about where I
estimated I ended my Saturday dive . While Ken and Denzil got into
their dive machines I decided to sit the dive. I was feeling a bit off
all morning and it wasn't getting enough better to do a long deco dive.
So I played surface support what it is a lot of work with Denzil with
his rebreather, 3 stages and scooter ;-).
They surfaced 70mn later and reported awesome
conditions, 10' of pitch black pea soup all the way to the bottom.
Looks like I chose the right day to take a sick leave and the tank mix
up Saturday was a blessing
Point and Shoot Depression
Syndrome
It was supposed to be recreational but we got a bit
mixed up with the double sets and I ended up having the set with trimix
for Sunday. Fortunately I had o2 and Phil could loan me his 50% so I
dove as a second team. I was feeling it was a day to get far from shore
and we went to outer pinnacles. Phil, John and Roy dove the main reef
and reported good conditions. Once they got back to the boat I got
ready and Tom dropped me on Canyon lands shallow, a spot near outer
pinnacles. I landed in a narrow canyon with sheer walls starting at 90'
and a bottom at 150'. Visibility was good, about 50', and I had a lot
of light from the surface. I followed the gentle slope of the canyon to
the edge of the main Carmel Canyon. I started seeing small vase sponges
half the way there and then really nice ones. I think one was 4 to 5'
high. Near the end, the narrow canyon opened up and I arrived at 220 at
the beginning of the rubble that makes this part of the Carmel Canyon.
At a big square stone I then spotted 2 white crinoids, a rather rare
find. It's only the second time I see it in this part of the world. And
the second time I don't have a camera 
I stayed with them for the time left
and I started my ascent. Deco was event free and I joined my ride 50mn
later.
I stayed with them for the time left
and I started my ascent. Deco was event free and I joined my ride 50mn
later.
Malta (aka Wreck
Island)04/22/06 - 05/03/06
When I planned my trip to France I wasn't too hot for spending weeks in the usually cold and rainy April in Paris. So I decided to take my mother a few days a couple of thousands kilometers south for a little cultural trip to Malta. The island is inhabited since about 5000BC and has seen invaders and settlers from about all European civilizations, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Norman, Arabs, Saint John Knights and English rulers before being an independent state and joining the EU. Its strategic place in the Mediterranean sea made it a rich playground in a variety of wars, with lot of naval action and subsequently more than a few ships chose these crystal clear waters as a last resting place. But that didn't influence at all my choice ;-) I had made arrangements with Hubert Borg of Sea Shell Cove Diving who proposed an attractive menu of dive sites. He is a mixed gas instructor and own a dive shop in Melliha in the North of Malta. I did all my dives with him and had a very good and safe time. Malta is an amazing spot for wreck diving and it is very likely I ll be attracted back there to dive some of the deeper wrecks.
1st dive : The Rosy
To know each other a little better and to test my housing that I hoped fixed, Hubert picked the wreck of the Rosy, a tugboat that sank near the small harbor where the ferries leave for Malta sister island Gozo. It lies at about 100' on a sandy bottom and is a very accessible shore dive. That day the ocean was starting to get a little rough and visibility was down to only 100'. I had to tell Hubert we are used to much better in California ;-) I had a last minute problem with the camera and I ended not diving with it. The wreck is rather small but fun to dive. But the best part of the dive was the reef near it. It is not teeming with life as in our colder waters but the rocks formations and caverns compensated largely. We did see a couple of small but very pretty morays.
2nd dive : The inland sea
This is not a wreck but Hubert really insisted on showing me that Malta has to offer some really spectacular natural dive sites. I do not regret caving in. The inland sea is a blue hole formation in the North coast of Gozo island. So this shore dive starts in an emerald sea water lake that is connected to the sea by less than 100m of cave. The cave is not totally immerged and small boats carry tourists from the inland sea to tour the nearby sea caves. We swam on the surface to the center of the lake and went down. The lake is 20' to 30' deep until the beginning of the cave and then the depth quickly increases to 120' at the exit on the sea. The side wall are very close, maybe 20' wide and the blue light coming from the ocean in this very narrow and deep crack is just amazing. I was banging my head on the rock for not having the camera. Out in the sea we followed a wall going down to about 170'. On the way we found a crab trap with a nice fish inside and we spent a few minutes freeing it. Visibility was well over 100'. The rocks are pretty barren but fish life was interesting with morays and other fishes I didn't recognize. A big fish, probably a Denti scouted us at the limit of visibility. We did our deco making slowly our way back by the cave, what makes it a lot more entertaining. I understand now why Hubert was insisting on this dive, the light from inside the cave is o0ne of the most beautiful things I ever saw underwater.
3rd dive : The Um el Faroud
I eventually got my camera and housing together and wanted to try it. The sea was too rough for the boat and we had to find a plan B. The Um el Faroud is an artificial reef made of a 150m (500') long freighter that was damaged in dry dock and sank for divers 100m out of the boat ramp of Wied El Zurrieq, a tiny and charming fishing harbor in the South of Malta. The ship rests on a 120' bottom with the bow about 50m from shore. The top of the castle is about 45' deep. As we wanted to see the whole ship and then a very nice reef a couple of hundred yards from the wreck we planned for a deco dive with one stage. There is a jump in platform and it's a short uw swim to the wreck. On the way we met a small school of John dory fish and a very nice cuttlefish. We had a bit of surge and the debris in the water made photography difficult even if the visibility was descent. This is a big ship and we spent a good 40mn on it. Second part of the dive was on a reef with dramatic rocks formations and caverns. Plenty of fish and morays. Walk out is on the boat ramp and the swells made it a bit sporty with doubles, stage and camera.
4th dive : HMS Stubborn
This submarine was in my dreams since Hubert wrote me about it a few months ago. The HMS Stubborn made most of the WWII in the Baltic Sea where he had some success before getting severely damaged by depth charges and plunging to record depths. After the war it was scuttled off shore of Malta as ASDIC practice target. After 3 days of bad weather the sea eventually flatted out and we got our chance to dive it. We planned for 25mn with an option for 30mn if we had enough gas. The boat quickly set the down line and we jumped in. The first thing that strikes me is the blue water. Then at 70' I clearly see the shape of the sub. We started at the bow and slowly got to the cunning tower to be welcomed by a mola. I keep having a fear : do I have my camera ? Oh yeah :-) The cunning tower has some weird shapes, I guess they weren't so good at being sleek at the time. After seeing the propellers at the stern we made our way back to the bow, looking at the open hatches. Very tempting but there is no way to get inside without removing the gear. After some last pictures, well past 25mn, we had a pleasant deco through a cloud of small jellies.
5th dive : Le Polynesien
This French 19th century steam liner was sunk in 1918 by the torpedo of a German submarine. The ship was 153m long and is now resting in a sandy bottom, 65m under the sea. The locals called the wreck the "plate ship" as many divers brought china as a souvenir. When we got there after 20mn boat ride the seas were pretty flat. The boat owner tied the down line to the boat instead of using a float and the current was pulling hard the line. Hubert jumped first and warned me about a strong current. I back rolled, got quickly my camera and started going down. Actually the current wasn't so bad, about a knot, and it was a lot calmer at the bottom. Visibility was maybe a little down compared to the submarine dive but it was more than decent. The line was close to the stern and we began by a look at the huge propeller and rudder. On the way up we saw the small deck canon and a large opening with a ladder. I went a bit inside to inspect but I stayed near the entrance. We finished by the skeleton of the upper decks. We hadn't a chance to get to the bow, it's a big wreck and we had only 25mn of bottom time
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Gozo
seen from Malta
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Wied
El Zurrieq harbor and wreck of the Um El Faroud
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HMS
Stubborn
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Le
Polynesien
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Cavalaire sur Mer, France04/12/06 - 04/14/06
After a week skiing in the Alps I joined in the French Riviera my French doctor buddy Jean-Philippe, his wife Nathalie and his youngest boy Vincent. Beside the extravagant villas and the beautiful coastal landscape that reminds of Carmel, Cavalaire is a hot spot for deep wreck and wall diving. Visibility is in the 100-150' range, water temperature in the 60-70s. Dive support and boat was provided by Arnaud and Francoise Niel of Eau Bleu Plongee. Arnaud was Jean-Philippe trimix instructor so we were in known territory. Plan was to dive the a wreck, the Togo, and then to do a couple of deep dives on the Tombant des corailleurs. Arnaud had scouted a very deep and narrow trench on one side of the wall and we were curious to get a look down there. Unfortunately I had some problems with the camera housing and I have no pictures to show.
1st dive : The Togo, 180' for 30mn
The Togo, a freighter 78m long, hit a mine in 1918 and sank on a sandy bottom of 205'. It lost part of the stern and the main wreck is now about 200' long. The stern can also be a dive. More info (French) at http://scubaspot.free.fr/epaves/togo.html
2nd dive : "Le tombant des corailleurs", 250' for 15mn
This was meant to be a warm up dive for the deep one the next day. Condition were looking better than the previous day and indeed visibility had improved by quite a bit. This is a descent in the blue dive with the drop off starting from a 200' deep flat plateau. The wall is actually a giant stair with a series of sheer cliffs covered with very large gorgonians. We quickly dropped down to 250' and then slowly made our way up the the plateau. The gorgonians, sponges and small bits of coral are really spectacular. There were also small nunibranchs and melon urchins. Drift deco was very smooth and comfortable, I am going to get spoiled by this warm water. We surfaced and were picked up quickly by the boat. Unfortunately things turned to less fun things about 15mn after getting back into the boat and ended by a drive to the hospital for a diver. On the happy side he did recover and will soon be back in the water.
Monterey Bay
I saw a very cool fish today near the Steam engine. I first thought of an Irish Lord but it had one very long spine on each cheek. It was out in the open, just laying on the bottom and I could get a good estimation of the size with my hand. Straitening the short tail that was curled it was about 6" long (about the length of my hand) with a very large head, a good 3" wide. It had usual sculpin vertical stripes alternating grey and rosy. I had a rosy patch on top of the head. The size of the fish and very long thin cheek spine would only match a Buffalo sculpin in Humann. I was camera less but diving with Elizabeth who had a little digital, so we may have a pic (was looking good on the little lcd). Also in the same dive we saw a 10" octopus trying to grab a Painted greenling and failing twice. It would sneak to about 3" of the fish and go for the grab. The fish each time moved a foot away looking at the predator with obvious contempt. To bad Mike Boom wasn't around.
The forecast wasn't looking so hot but Denzil talked me into getting up at 6am to try to get wet Sunday and I had to test my 20d housing so I caved in. Phil had a class on his RIB with some spare room to accommodate the two of us, at least it was what he thought Saturday, with Turkey's dive buddies Phil and Doc Wong. Turned out we were 6, 1 above the record number of tech divers in the boat. The 6th was Kevin, another no bubble guy on a sport KISS. Good thing we were only going to the Mile Buoy and the bay was almost dead flat. In fact it wasn't bad at all, actually less gear than when we do a big one with 4 divers. We let Phil and his group get in and looking in the water I was seeing the divers quite a long way, that was looking good. We splashed a few minutes later to find a chunky 40' visibility. We were on a 35mn bottom time and I was on reel duty. Highlights were 2 basket stars (first time for me) and an octopus. Lots of Spanish shawl and Tritonia festiva. Phil had let out a lot of scope in case the weather changed for the worse but the wind was so dead that the boat wasn't pulling at all on the line and all the extra scope was one big web on top of the anchor, with nice wrappings around big rocks. We got some last fun straitening things and headed up for a very relax deco. I tried some lead2camera spells to take pictures of the basket stars but that works only for gold.
Diving with Tom, Barbara and Elisabeth.
This week-end I was on night boat watch. Turkey accommodations are actually quite comfortable even for my 6'2 frame. First dive at the steam engine with a good visibility, about 30'. I did a tour of the domain, to the remaining anchor (under the pile), the concrete bloc, the propeller and finally said hello to the pipe fringehead.
Second dive near Hopkins. Barbara sat out and I buddied up with Elisabeth. Vis was about 20'. We followed the various cables that run the place. Highlight was a one spot fringehead in a hole in the sand. I turned the dive around while Elisabeth had still most of her gas, but diving with a lady really good diver I knew I wasn't going to have a chance at that game. No pictures.
Diving Mile buoy with Tom, Phil and Roy. We made a try at Carmel but the wind was really up so we went back to the bay. Conditions were nice with 30-40' of visibility. The dots in the pictures are drops of water dripping on my dome port. So my dive was a little shorter but I saved the camera that was perfectly dry.
At the surface interval Chuck told us the propeller was still at the usual spot and I did a dive there with Roy. We had quite a bit of fun.
Tom
Phil got a new computer
Diving Honeymoon Rock with Tom and Ken. We left Monterey under a grey drizzly sky to meet with Ra South of Lobos. The vis was looking quite good from the surface. I got down first and waited for the others in the vicinity of the anchor. The top of the rock is about 60', the bottom of the wall about 115'. Visibility was in the 30-40'. A little later Tom got a few drills done before a little tour around the rock. I saw the usual critters and spent time taking pics of the small world. Tom and Ken went for a second dive at Local ledge where they reported good conditions.
Sculpin
Something on kelp stack
Mr Slug meets Mr Bug
Diving Ball Buster with Tom and Phil Horne. Conditions were still a bit rough but manageable at Ball Buster. Visibility was a milky 20' with some surge. Not my best Ball Buster dive but it was good to get back into the water. Nothing unusual, the crack where the old wolf eel used to hang out had three dwellers : the usuals china and treefish had a 2' ling for roommate. I didn't venture far from the main pinnacle, spent a leisurely 55mn bottom time looking into the holes. About the archimedes 2, I had both computers on nitrox 30% with O2 as 2nd gas. Both on the less conservative setting. The archimedes was the 1st to hit deco, 4 mn before the vytec. But on the way up (30mn deco on the vytec), at 30' the archimedes displayed a time to surface 3mn inferior to the vytec. As the vytec's time to surface includes the 3mn safety stop and the archimedes doesn't they were actually asking the same deco. When I switched to O2 the archimedes asked 9mn (not including 3mn safety stop) where the vytec asked 13mn. All in all the archimedes cleared out about 50s before the vytec. Then at 10' the vytec displayed about 60mn ndl and the archimedes 200mn (on O2).
Back at the dock Phil found a tiny octopus in his tub. It probably came from the light canon he salvaged on the dive.
Spanish Shawl
Archidoris montereyensis and starfish
Sculpin
Tunicate
Long fin Sculpin
Phil's catch
Freediving from the King Neptune at Catalina
Diving Canyonlands and Nomad Anchor Farm, to use Chuck's terminology, with Tom, Ken and Denzil.
Surface conditions were gorgeous and we dropped the anchor Just South of Outer Pinnacle in a spot we call Canyonlands for the quite dramatic canyons running S/N. In the North side the ridges are about 80' deep and the sand in the 130s. It gets quickly deeper going South. We were diving the shallower side. Down there the visibility turned to be pretty good, about 50'. I and Tom followed Denzil and Ken (Denzil was on reel duty) along a very narrow canyon and Tom saw his first vase sponge. Unfortunately at that point I noticed that mu port was fogging and a drop starting to form, so I thumbed up Tom and we went back to the anchor and ascended. Turned out good for the camera that was really dry, at least until I started dripping on it. That apart everything went pretty smooth.
For the second dive we drove back to the bay to join the anchor quest. As traffic was low and Tom decided to sit out we dropped without anchoring at #s suggested by Chuck on the radio and swam NW for about 700' (depth 105') and then went S for about 200'. To avoid deco, and it was getting dark, we called it at 20mn and I shot my big smb from the bottom. The ascent was uneventful. I don't think we saw anything really indicating the anchors came by. But it was fun and we spotted some respectable Canary and Vermillons rockfishes.
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Missing Anchor Farm with Tom, Phil Horne and Ken ? (not KGBird)
We dove the location given by the harbor master for where the cruise ship got free. We dove in 3 groups, each trying one way. I first followed a ridge heading SE for my all reel line (500'). On my way back stopped for some pictures. From the initial point I then followed the ridge NW for another 500', with big sweeps on the way back. No luck. Highlight of the dive was a mola that came take a look at 1' from my camera.
We met Chuck, John and Dave on the water, maybe somebody had more luck.
Depth varied from 85' to 95', 55BT, 75mn total dive time (some deco on o2 at 20').
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