New Toy - Nautilus Lifeline

Finally got that Nautilus Lifeline that I've been dreaming of for years.

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Full report to come shortly, once I've had chance to play with it a little!

Post Dive Destination for Monterey

After our last couple of dives at the breakwater, on Cannary Row, we have adjourned to this place.

Massaro & Santos
32 Cannery Row, Suite H-1
Monterey, CA93940

Coast Guard Pier

http://www.massaroandsantos.com

They have a very reasonably priced "Diver Special". But we usually forgo the included soda, and enjoy a cocktail.

Diving Point Lobos, July 14 2013

Dive Site

The annual "Day After Dive" for the Dive Club of Silicon Valley. Went diving with 30 or so of my closest dive buddies.





View on Google Maps

This year we were lucky enough to get a boat charter (actually an inflatable, or RIB) to come drive us out to some less accessible spots, so I did two dives away from the shore. The first at Bluefish Cove Pinnacles, the second at Thumbs Up. After doing two dives from the boat, I managed a third dive from shore, in Whalers cove and Coal Chute Cove.


Click for fullsize


The sights on the two boat dives were similar. I preferred the second site sightly, as it had a more impressive rock structure, the visibility was a little better. The best aspect was swimming upside down at 70ft and looking up towards the surface through some very large school of juvenile red rockfish. We also saw a fair number of large perch, blue rockfish and a couple of reasonable size lingcod hanging out on the rocks.

Neither of these sites are accessible from shore - the surface swim would be too long. Thumbs-up is not a site that I've heard of before. As the map shows, and the captain told us, it's on the edge of Point Lobos, at a place called Mono Lobo. From what I could tell, it's practically at Monastery.

First Dive

Depth	74ft
Duration	30min
Temperature	48F
Visibility	20ft

Second Dive

Depth	78ft
Duration	30min
Temperature	48F
Visibility	20-25ft

After a good long surface interval, we tackled the third dive of the day. By this time, the rest of the dive club members had left, leaving just me and my buddy.

Third Dive

Cave Swimthrough at Coal Chute Cove

Depth	33ft
Duration	38min
Temperature	49F
Visibility	20ft

Click for fullsize

Made an entry from shore, via the boat ramp, into Whaler's Cove. MAde a longish surface swim to the center of the cove, before deciding the kelp was too think to crawl over, and dropping down.

Visibility was pretty good and the views were really nice due to the heavy kelp. Always nice to "fly" through the forest. We were in about 25ft of water at this point. Swam on a 60degree heading towards Coal Chute Cove. The depth got a little deeper as we approached the cove, but only to 33ft.

We hit the corner of Coal Chute Cove perfectly - obvious from the sudden high wall to our right. The sun also started to breakthrough more at that point as the kelp is not so thick over there. We swam a little further into Coal Chute, before turning right (south) to make our way to the edge of the cove.

The purpose of this dive was the swim through the cave. The cave entrance is on the sea floor in Coal Chute Cove, but you exit in Whaler's Cove at the surface.

As always, we were unsure exactly how far into Coal Chute we needed to go. We swam back along the wall, back towards Whalers. We encountered one cave. We swam in. You could see light above, but not a wide enough opening to exit. This was the wrong cave, so we left. We swam a little further, back more towards Whaler's, hugging the cove wall, under an overhang, then to a second cave. We entered. This was a larger cave, with some rubble and a large bolder in the middle. It's initially dark, but once you swim in a little you can see light. There was a slight surge, but we were able to swim through. A little tricky as you have to ascend as you swim through, so there's a change in buoyancy. We popped out into a slightly surgy, slightly wavey Whaler's cove. The last two trees up on the cliff give you a guide as-to where the exit is - I suppose in theory you could make the swimthrough in the return direction, but it would be more difficult - descending into a narrow opening, just below the surface with waves trying to crash you into the rocks.

Due to the short period of time in an overhead environment, this is a dive that requires good buoyancy and at least two flashlights. Provided you can find the cove, you don't need particularly good navigation skills, as you just hug the wall of the cove and look for the opening.

You are force to surface on the Whaler's side of the swim though - as I said, the opening is near the surface. From there we took a new heading back toward the parking lot (220 would have been ideal, we did 210). We dropped back down and swam back across the cove, under the kelp.

Nice swim across. Didn't see much spectacular in the way of wildlife. Visibility was good, until we reached the sand channel at the west side of Whaler's Cove. We swam a little way through the murk, then surfaced. We were still a little way off the boat ramp, so I took a new heading (270) and dropped back down to 10ft and swim in under the kelp.

Great days diving

View from the car across Whaler's Cove towards Coal Chute Cove

Click for fullsize

Diving La Jolla Cove, San Diego, June 2013

Dive Site

View on Google Maps

First Dive

Depth	40ft
Duration	49min
Temperature	52F
Visibility	15ft

Second Dive

Depth	36ft
Duration	59min
Temperature	62F
Visibility	20ft

Carmel River State Beach - May 11, 2013

Dive Site

Carmel River State Beach is just North of Monastery. The conditions here can be very dangerous, but if the weather is right, they are brilliant, and today was one of the brilliant days.

We had clear skies, warm weather, flat conditions and great visibility.


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View on Google Maps

First Dive

Depth	39ft
Duration	59min
Temperature	48F
Visibility	30-40ft

We started by swimming out to the wash rock (which looks a long way out from shore! We figured it would be an interesting pinnacle with a lot of life, so we were going to swim around it and look for critters.

As we swam out, through mild kelp, we noticed a lot of submerged rocks that came very close to the surface, and this was causing some sizable waves, despite the otherwise very flat conditions. As a result we changed our initial plan, and decided to dive the kelp just to the left (as viewed from the beach) of the wash rock.

This was a really nice dive. The floor here was very rocky, with large structures causing the depth to change from 20 to 40 ft. There were numerous bolders to swim along and channels between them making for an interesting dive. The kelp was plentiful, but not too thick, so you could swim through it safely. There was no noticeable surge, so you could swim up close to the walls and get a good look at the marine life.

Saw plenty of yellow Nudibranch, a couple of 'white' ones, several of what I thought were black sea slugs. A few lingcod (3-4ft), cabazone (small), abundant blue rockfish, a few kelp bass, kelp wrasse.

My favorite sighting on this dive was the purple, pink and orange hydrocoral that we saw down at about 30ft. There was quite a lot of it and I don't recall ever seeing that before in Northern California. People have told me that it's common at depth around here though (deeper than 100ft) and I've seen it down south (in the Channel Islands).

Really enjoyed swimming amongst the rock structures on this dive. Circled a couple these, before peeling off on an approximately 40degree heading and swimming in towards shore.

Due to the rockiness of the bottom it was hard to hold the 40 bearing, as a result we drifted south down the beach somewhat. As we got into about 20ft water we were swimming above thicker kelp, then onto a sandy bottom in about 15ft of water. Once we got shallow (15ft) we used the ridges in the sand to guide us into shore and infact pulled ourselves along the bottom on the sand - using the waves to carry us back to shore.

Second Dive

Depth	48ft
Duration	45min
Temperature	46F
Visibility	30-40ft

On this dive we dropped down immediately after entering the water - no surface swim. We headed out over the top of the kelp at first, then once depth increased, swam along side the kelp, skirting it down to about 50ft. As the visibility was good, we had an excellent view of the kelp and the sea bed, which was about 10ft below us.

Hit a thermocline at around 30ft, with a very visible shimmer. Didn't see quite as much on this dive as we were further away from the rocks and kelp, but it was a nice view.

On the return to shore we again 'flew' above the kelp for quite a way.

New Dive Buddy

Yay, I have a new Dive Buddy!

My 12 year old is now certified to dive.

Makes me feel a little nervous.

Way to go dude ...

... Ruined a perfectly good dive, asshole.

New Years Resolution

For the new year, I resolve to publish maps of my favorite dive site right here on my blog!

Wreck Alley On The News

On the news just because it's awesome. No shark attacks or missing divers:

http://fox5sandiego.com/2012/11/13/divers-explore-sunkin-ships-off-san-diego-coast

"Street" View

Now Google Maps has street view under water, at some well known dive destinations.



Can't believe they chose to do Hawaii and Gt. Barrier Reef before Monterey. Monterey is much closer to Mountain View than either of the other two dive destinations.

Grouper are awesome!

Grouper stealing dinner from a free-diver



I knew they got big, I'd even heard tales of them swallowing divers whole. Not sure I believe they get that big.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Nothing better than spending a Sunday afternoon - post dive - cleaning my dive gear whilst listening to Scuba Radio.

Sometimes I'll follow that with writing my logbook and having a cold lager.

Perfect!

Freedivers ...

... they're batshit crazy!

North Monastery, April 23 2012

Two incredible dives yesterday at North Monastery. First time in many years that I've managed a dive at Monastery, especially North.

Weather has been really good the past few days, no storms, no recent rain, so the conditions for diving were excellent. Divers over the weekend were reporting excellent visibility and flat seas, so we took a chance and drove down to Carmel on Monday morning (6:30am).

Initially we were planning to dive Pt Lobos, but given we got there so early, the favorable conditions and the fact that we were at Monastery before 8, and Lobos doesn't open until 9 (I think), we just pulled off the road at Monastery and took a look.

Open in Google Maps

Both dives were at the North end of the beach. Since I was last there, a small stream has formed between the road and the beach, and a small "hill" has formed, which you must climb over to get to the beach. These both make access a little more strenuous.

After our "ascent" of the hill we did buddy checks at the top of the beach. We then took the precautions of getting "mask on, regs in mouth" before descending the beach to the water. Crossed the surf zone as quickly as possible. Not many waves, and what there were were mere "ankle biters", though given this was Monastery, we still showed them a lot of respect - pausing our entry and bracing to let them pass. A few yards in, and the beach takes a sudden drop, you got from 2 feet deep, to five. I'm always happier in 5ft of water though, so I was glad to lay back, and start my fin donning. Yes, my BCD was already inflated during the BWRAF!

The dive destination was the wash rocks, which on the first dive was nice and high out of the water (less so on the second dive!). A good body of kelp surrounded the rocks. Of course, that's a mixed blessing. Thick kelp is great during the dive as it attracts the critters that we want to go see. However, during the surface swim, it's an obstacle that requires some navigation. Swimming out to the rocks, and navigating the kelp took a good 15 minutes. Finally we got to the dive site. Compass bearings from the water: 130degrees to the beach, 40degrees (and 30 feet) to the wash rocks.

Dive 1

For the first dive, we dropped down into about 30 ft of water. We started to swim out, directly away from the beach. We were swimming over a rocky/bouldery bottom, which didn't take long to drop down to about 80ft. There were several nice formations, ledges, holes. On this dive we saw many large lingcod (18inch to 3feet). Perched on rocks and also swimming around. I'm used to encountering them sat on or between rocks, but not used to seeing so many of them swimming around near us. There were also a few nice sandy areas where the terrain sloped gently down away from us. I presume those sand channels would take you down, down, down, to the depth of the canyon. Cool!

When we got down to 1500psi we started the swim back to shore, on a roughly 150degree bearing, until we hit sand, and the edge of the kelp, then we swam in along the edge of the kelp until we were in about 10ft of water, where we surfaced not too far from the beach.

Awesome diving!

Dive 2

This dive started at roughly the same place as the first, but this time, when we dropped down, we swam out on a 0degree heading. At first this took us through a narrow channel, between the boulders, but shortly it opened up into a very nice wide, flatter, but still rocky, "ocean garden". We swam out a little way until it got sandy (at about 70ft depth). We saw lots of nudibranch, a vermillion rock fish, a few large (I mean big) sheep crab.

Once it got sandy we turned left (I'm going to assume a 270degree bearing) and swam across the slope, until we encountered a nice big rock, providing us an interesting wall to explore. This rock, 20ft high, 50ft diameter) was quite barren, with the exception of many decorator crab of varying sizes that were roaming around it. There were plenty of cracks in it, which I imagine were full of shrimp, though I didn't see any. I could hear shrimp the whole dive though, even on the surface swim out.

We swam around the wall, and it took us back to a bouldery area (probably the one from the first dive). Saw an incredible sunstar - huge! - 30inches.

Again a few ling cod on this dive, but less than the first. Definitely a "crab dive" this time, but due to the terrain, I would say a nicer dive.

Visibility again was incredible - I would estimate it to be 30 ft. Due to this clarity there was plenty of light down there, considering it was a 70ft dive it was not gloomy in any way.

A real treat to be diving with three other people and to have no trouble seeing every diver in the group as we fanned out to enjoy the views in the kelp forest. None of the usual Monterey worry of becoming separated from your dive buddy. That was another real treat!

The exit was must the same as the first. We swam back to shore skirting the kelp forest, with the kelp on our left. Surfaced in about 10-15ft of water.

The waves had picked up a little by the end of this second dive, but still a very respectable exit onto Monastery beach (no Monastery crawl required!).

Summary

Two wonderful dives. Both exceeded 70ft, and lasted 40 minutes. Visibility was incredible at around 30ft. The wildlife on display was varied and "supersized"! What a great way to start the week. We were wrapped up with the dives and heading back to Jose's by noon.

Dry Suit Class This Weekend

Doing the drysuit class at the moment.

Pool session today was a piece of cake.

At the ocean on Saturday.  My only concern is that I'll like it too much and then I won't want to get wet ever again!

Here's How You Do A Deep Water Entry ...

... NOT!

Incidentally "NOT" is this weeks Sea Sign of the week:

Learn to Communicate under water with Sea Signs

NOVA: Extreme Cave Diving

A new Nova on PBS detailing the exploration of Blue Holes in the Caribbean by cave divers.

NOVA | Extreme Cave Diving

Loved the video of them cruising by the stalactites. These people are crazy though - diving down 300ft to chop off a lump of stalagmite.

Also available online

Dive in an old mine

Alert Diver | Bonne Terre Mine


Read this article in this months DAN magazine.  Now I want to go to Missouri and dive in an old Lead mine.

I presume the lead is all gone.

This explains why Dan looked so happy this morning ;-)

FROM WALLINS WEBSITE

We lost our lease. Store closing sale Saturday, February 11th at 9:00a.m.

- From Wallins Website

New Celebrity Fitness Trend

... it's time to try the new workout that celebs like Jessica Alba, Sandra Bullock, Katie Holmes, and Nina Dobrev of the CW show The Vampire Diaries love: scuba diving!

- http://www.shape.com/blogs/shape-your-life/new-celebrity-fitness-trend-scuba-diving

I'm not sure I want scuba diving to become the latest fad diet of Hollywood celebs. Being a fad diet will just encourage lots of overweight, middle-aged white guys to take up the hobby trying to get fit. And if there's one thing scuba diving has enough of already, it's overweight middle-aged white guys.