Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )
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Dermochelys
Contributor
Had 2 great days of diving at Pt. Lobos this past weekend. Saturday was a bit rougher than Sunday, but both were wonderful days for me and my buddy. The farthest out we were able to get was to "hole in the wall" on Sunday where the viz was close to 50' with the NW swell at 3' from the CDIP data. Great time to be diving there!
Rob Wilks
Contributor
Carmel river beach was beautiful today. Water temp was 49@ 50ish fsw. Viz was between 30-35ft at depth. Some surge, but not to bad. Lots of salps out and about. Lings are few and far between. I hoped to see more, though they may have been caught and turned into dinner already.
Good day to be in the water…
Ive heard rumblings that bull kelp has all but disappeared, though Im happy to report I saw LOTS of it growing at CRB. The bladders were not at the surface yet, though well on their way.
Good day to be in the water…
Ive heard rumblings that bull kelp has all but disappeared, though Im happy to report I saw LOTS of it growing at CRB. The bladders were not at the surface yet, though well on their way.
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South Monastery was pretty good. Calm with 30-35ft vis but milky. Temp was 51. Saw a rather large salp chain for the first time. Id guess over a hundred strong. Looked to do second at North side but it was getting a little rougher and looked more brown. Here is link to Salp chain.
South Monastery Salp
Second dive was Breakwater Wall. 15-20ft vis after drop off. Noticeable thermocline with temp at 51. An Otter was biting my fins and kissing my camera which was cool. Then he went for my heel. Got more aggressive and followed me for awhile. Topside was awesome at both sites.
South Monastery Salp
Second dive was Breakwater Wall. 15-20ft vis after drop off. Noticeable thermocline with temp at 51. An Otter was biting my fins and kissing my camera which was cool. Then he went for my heel. Got more aggressive and followed me for awhile. Topside was awesome at both sites.
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3D diver
Contributor
Did a quick dive at Lobos this morning in the Cannery Point Wall area. It was low tide and the kelp continues to fill in. There are still two meandering paths through the kelp, but you have to shove some kelp aside in several places to get through them.
There was a heavy overcast and drizzle, but not too cold---68.5F. The water was quite calm---picture a lot of blue in the wave model---and the vis was an excellent 45 to 50 feet. My computer logged the water temperature between 52F at depth and 60F on the surface near the ramp.
We followed the kelp channel nearest the bluff (west side of cove) and dropped a bit early into 33 feet of water. We encountered 3 or 4 large Salp---one individual and the others in a chain, but not many fish. I raced to try to get video of a Sheephead, but it had a different idea. My buddy had a short fill in his 80 so we turned at 1/3 his air and backtracked on a southerly heading, working our way from one sunlit opening in the kelp to another til we got to the worm patch. Here we worked up to 15 feet and swam our safety stop further into the cove. As we were surfacing I spotted a big school of surfperch and raced off to get some video of it before finishing my dive.
Bottom Time: 39 minutes
Max Depth: 50 Feet
Vis: 45 - 50 feet The surface was clearly visible throughout the dive.
Water Temp: 52F to 60F
There was a heavy overcast and drizzle, but not too cold---68.5F. The water was quite calm---picture a lot of blue in the wave model---and the vis was an excellent 45 to 50 feet. My computer logged the water temperature between 52F at depth and 60F on the surface near the ramp.
We followed the kelp channel nearest the bluff (west side of cove) and dropped a bit early into 33 feet of water. We encountered 3 or 4 large Salp---one individual and the others in a chain, but not many fish. I raced to try to get video of a Sheephead, but it had a different idea. My buddy had a short fill in his 80 so we turned at 1/3 his air and backtracked on a southerly heading, working our way from one sunlit opening in the kelp to another til we got to the worm patch. Here we worked up to 15 feet and swam our safety stop further into the cove. As we were surfacing I spotted a big school of surfperch and raced off to get some video of it before finishing my dive.
Bottom Time: 39 minutes
Max Depth: 50 Feet
Vis: 45 - 50 feet The surface was clearly visible throughout the dive.
Water Temp: 52F to 60F
sea_otter
Contributor
Had a couple phenomenal dives this morning at Point Lobos. The ocean looked a bit rougher than we expected as we drove down the coast, but Whaler's Cove was perfectly calm. Arrived at 8 AM to cloudy skies and a very light drizzle. Even from the trail above we could tell we would have great vis and a wonderful day.
First dive we hopped in and descended at around 20' in the sand channel. Even though it looked like it would be clear, we definitely needed fog lights in the shallower area. We did have a little bit of swell, but visibility improved dramatically as we continued deeper towards Hole in the Wall. Rounded the reef and swam home underwater, stopping to watch a big school of black rockfish over the worm patch.
We both came up with a decent amount of gas left, so we opted to go a bit further with tank 2. We swam farther on the surface, beyond dog rock, and dropped at around 35'. Swell was gone and visibility was even clearer. Swam around the end of middle reef and headed NNE towards Granite Point Wall. It was probably a 15 minute swim over the sand until we reached the wall, but it was well worth the trip! Saw a couple huge lingcods, a big male sheephead, cabezon, a masking crab, and lots of schools of different fish. Great day to explore a new (to us) site with a wonderful buddy and incredible visibility!
Dive 1: Hole in the Wall & Worm Patch
Bottom time: 48 min
Max depth: 62 feet
Vis: 15' shallow to 40' deeper
Dive 2: Middle Reef & Granite Point Wall
Bottom time: 49 min
Max depth: 72 feet
Vis: 50 to 60 feet amazing!
Water temp: 51-55F
First dive we hopped in and descended at around 20' in the sand channel. Even though it looked like it would be clear, we definitely needed fog lights in the shallower area. We did have a little bit of swell, but visibility improved dramatically as we continued deeper towards Hole in the Wall. Rounded the reef and swam home underwater, stopping to watch a big school of black rockfish over the worm patch.
We both came up with a decent amount of gas left, so we opted to go a bit further with tank 2. We swam farther on the surface, beyond dog rock, and dropped at around 35'. Swell was gone and visibility was even clearer. Swam around the end of middle reef and headed NNE towards Granite Point Wall. It was probably a 15 minute swim over the sand until we reached the wall, but it was well worth the trip! Saw a couple huge lingcods, a big male sheephead, cabezon, a masking crab, and lots of schools of different fish. Great day to explore a new (to us) site with a wonderful buddy and incredible visibility!
Dive 1: Hole in the Wall & Worm Patch
Bottom time: 48 min
Max depth: 62 feet
Vis: 15' shallow to 40' deeper
Dive 2: Middle Reef & Granite Point Wall
Bottom time: 49 min
Max depth: 72 feet
Vis: 50 to 60 feet amazing!
Water temp: 51-55F
3D diver
Contributor
Waiting on new cameras, but hated to waste these flat conditions so dove the Breakwater last night. The sea was flat, but the viz wasn't as good as it looked from the surface---10 to 15 feet. Chewy the resident harbor seal joined us early & we saw lots of interesting critters: red tuna crabs, a couple of salps, an octopus, and a lingcod trying to hide under a sea cucumber.
Max depth: 45 feet
Bottom Time: 75 minutes
Viz: 10 to 20 feet
Water Temperature: 52 to 58F
Max depth: 45 feet
Bottom Time: 75 minutes
Viz: 10 to 20 feet
Water Temperature: 52 to 58F
Did 3 dives with Mubin today. First was Butterfly House. Construction has made parking pretty spotty. Water was fairly calm. Vis was 30ft +/-. Not the best dive. Second was North Monastery. Very nice dive. Blue water 30-40ft vis. Best vis was at depth. Went around the point and kelp was standing strait up and a huge school of blues. Third dive was in the shallows at North Monastery to burn off the last of my 120s. Had a very relaxing dive and just went with the surge. Water temp was 53.
3D diver
Contributor
Fun day diving at Point Lobos with Raftingtigger (and other's whose SB names I don't know, sorry). I was a little bowled over by all the Facebook and SCUBAboard friends who came over to say Hi.
It was overcast and a bit cold. My computer logged air temps between 68F and 70F, but I know it was at least 5F cooler when we arrived.
The seas were fairly flat, though small swells did make for some surge at times. The tide was not quite half way up the ramp which was a welcome change from all the low tide dives I've done lately. The water temperature ranged from 51F to 59F over the course of the day. There was a very noticeable current heading out of Whaler's Cove. At one point we stopped kicking and just kept heading out.
The visibility in the cove was milky and poor 10 feet maybe, but from worm patch out it cleared up nicely and we had 30 to 40+ feet on both dives.
There were two clear channels through the kelp today. The one on the near, west, side seemed a bit better looked at from the bluff so that's what we followed.
First Dive: Middle Reef and Granite Point Wall
We kicked well out before dropping to middle reef which we followed to the end in about 60 feet of water. We then headed east and reached Granite Point Wall further out than I've ever been before. We headed north along the wall rounding the end as I reached half air. We just continued around, returning for a while on the far side, eventually cutting back through a gap in the wall. We headed back to middle reef and turned south 'til it came time to surface. We then dropped under the kelp and cruised for another 4 minutes to get to the middle kelp channel.
Critter highlights include an eel---Wolf Eel, I think. It's face didn't seem as gnarly as a Monkey Face, but I need to review the video. We also encountered a couple of Salp chains and the usual collection of rock fish.
Bottom Time: 63 Minutes (including kelp run)
Max Depth: 70 feet
Visibility: 40+ feet
Temperature: Air 69.6F Water 51.4F to 58.6F
Second Dive: Middle Reef
We dropped just a tad past the worm patch and wandered around Middle Reef. There is a big school of Pile Surfperch that we encountered at the beginning and end of our dive. I also raced off to film some fish feeding on a dense cloud of invertebrates---small salps and/or box jellies. I also had a nice close encounter with a big male Sheephead. We returned well into the cove, clear of the kelp.
Bottom Time: 74 Minutes
Max Depth: 45 feet
Visibility: 30+ feet
Temperature: Air 68.4F Water 52.9 to 59.4F
It was overcast and a bit cold. My computer logged air temps between 68F and 70F, but I know it was at least 5F cooler when we arrived.
The seas were fairly flat, though small swells did make for some surge at times. The tide was not quite half way up the ramp which was a welcome change from all the low tide dives I've done lately. The water temperature ranged from 51F to 59F over the course of the day. There was a very noticeable current heading out of Whaler's Cove. At one point we stopped kicking and just kept heading out.
The visibility in the cove was milky and poor 10 feet maybe, but from worm patch out it cleared up nicely and we had 30 to 40+ feet on both dives.
There were two clear channels through the kelp today. The one on the near, west, side seemed a bit better looked at from the bluff so that's what we followed.
First Dive: Middle Reef and Granite Point Wall
We kicked well out before dropping to middle reef which we followed to the end in about 60 feet of water. We then headed east and reached Granite Point Wall further out than I've ever been before. We headed north along the wall rounding the end as I reached half air. We just continued around, returning for a while on the far side, eventually cutting back through a gap in the wall. We headed back to middle reef and turned south 'til it came time to surface. We then dropped under the kelp and cruised for another 4 minutes to get to the middle kelp channel.
Critter highlights include an eel---Wolf Eel, I think. It's face didn't seem as gnarly as a Monkey Face, but I need to review the video. We also encountered a couple of Salp chains and the usual collection of rock fish.
Bottom Time: 63 Minutes (including kelp run)
Max Depth: 70 feet
Visibility: 40+ feet
Temperature: Air 69.6F Water 51.4F to 58.6F
Second Dive: Middle Reef
We dropped just a tad past the worm patch and wandered around Middle Reef. There is a big school of Pile Surfperch that we encountered at the beginning and end of our dive. I also raced off to film some fish feeding on a dense cloud of invertebrates---small salps and/or box jellies. I also had a nice close encounter with a big male Sheephead. We returned well into the cove, clear of the kelp.
Bottom Time: 74 Minutes
Max Depth: 45 feet
Visibility: 30+ feet
Temperature: Air 68.4F Water 52.9 to 59.4F
Dos Cylindros
Registered
Two dives today. First dive was North Monastery. Vis was 35-40 feet at depth (max depth of 104') saw a few scools of blue rock fish and a couple of big lings. Surge was present on the 30'-shore range but mild. All in all, a great way to start off summer vacation.
Second dive was the metridium fields at San Carlos beach. Vis was decent, about 30', with a lot (like in the millions) small translucent jelly like animals I couldn't identify. Perhaps juvenile Salp? Anyway it was a great day of diving.
Second dive was the metridium fields at San Carlos beach. Vis was decent, about 30', with a lot (like in the millions) small translucent jelly like animals I couldn't identify. Perhaps juvenile Salp? Anyway it was a great day of diving.
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