20 Jan 07 Point Lobos Dive

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wdunne311

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Location
Baltimore, MD
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I was expecting to sit this day out for diving. However, when Doc Wong ponied up his Lobos reservations at the SB get-together at Buzzard's after the 19 Jan diving and no one jumped on them, I decided maybe today would be a good day for diving. I called a buddy and asked if he wanted to go. He was stoked. So I snatched up those reservations after getting change from the bartender for my twenty (since all Doc seemed to have were hundreds) and Doc signed over his reservations. Sweet then off to a night dive, which is how I found out just how hard it is to descend with a BC with no weights in it. Some Scuba fairy must have taken them out of my BC. Ah, but I digress.

I wake in the morning to find 3 messages from my buddy. He can't make it, because of a head cold. And I'm in a pickle because Michelle and most of my other reliable dive buddies from that weekend either already had reservations, were diving off a boat that morning, or went home. Hmm, dilemma...I hadn't dove with James from Aquarius in a while, so I called him. He was working at the dive shop, but he was allowed to go take a few hours to go diving. God bless Wesley! I met up with James, got my tanks filled and we waited for our third, Joe, who had never been to Lobos. He arrived and we headed out for breakfast (it was about 9:30).

After a nice pancakes, eggs and sausage breakfast at the Carmel Black Bear Diner, we headed to Pt. Lobos. We got through the gate with no problem what so ever. Thank you Doc for the hand written note and the dive team number. I then voiced my concern over the possible parking situation. Lo and behold, it didn't look like there was any parking....Hmm, what to do? Well, James decide to pull into the middle of the 3 parking spots (that don't really look like parking spots) next to the tables at the back of the lot. I guess I'm too nice a guy and don't like the possibility of blocking people in. Maybe it's that whole do unto others thing. I voiced that we were setting a dangerous precedent and not 2 minutes later there are cars on either side of us. Oh, well, at least the guys who were blocked in were out diving.

It started to rain as we got out of the car, so we got dressed and headed into the water at Whaler's Cove. Not as cold as I thought it was going to be, but it was still in the upper 50s at the surface. The plan was to go out to the pinnacles and drop to about 100 feet and work our way around. Looking at the way the surf was picking up outside the cove, I suggested staying near Hole in the Wall and Middle Reef since this was not as rough (good thing too since after the dive one of the guys we talked to said it was really surgy down to 90 feet near where they were diving). Reluctantly, James agreed and we dropped down into the sand channel. I think we were nearby the Coldwater Kitty Krewe as I saw a pink dry suit and a bunch of people in doubles (there is a picture of a pair of doubles from the surface but it is really hard to make out).

James is a dive master candidate and I wish I had his navigation skills. He's about 18-19 years old and swims like it too. He's a good kid, but he's still got that I'm 19 and indestructible heir about him. It is sometimes hard taking pictures with him because he likes to just swim by everything where as I like to stop and "smell" the flowers and then take pictures of them. Anyway, we headed off to the left of the sand channel and ran into hole in the wall (I've dove them enough now to recognize where we are---which is good for Mr. No-sense-of-direction). Lots of anemones and starfish, but not so many nudibranchs. We ran across a cabezon rather early in the dive (see pictures). The mouth of Whaler's Cove has been a very relaxing dive every time I've dove there and this was no exception. I saw lots of Gopher Rockfish and Copper Rockfish. We passed by this one large rock formation and my buddies scared out a lingcod accidentally while I was taking a picture of it. It might have also been me getting up in his face to take a picture, but they were screaming through there so I'll blame them. :)

We then swam over to Middle Reef. I was hoping to see the big Vermillion rockfish I've seen there in the past, but I only saw his little brothers. In between a couple of reefs, there was the nudibranch farm. Probably 30-40 assorted nudibranchs were in that area. So far, we had had a really good dive. I also think it was about this time that I turned around to see Joe trying to get me to take a picture of a decorator crab that he had picked up. I am not a fan of messing with the wild life, but I relented and accidentally dropped the crab after he was handed to me, which is when he became the Decorator crab parajumper...

After our antics with the crab, we swam along further. I played with a dead moon jelly top (almost felt like a jelly frisbee). After these shenanigans were done with, we turned a corner to see Joe freaking out pointing at something. Turns out he ran across a Leopard shark, but didn't notice until its tale was two feet from his face. I snapped a couple of wide shots and moved in to take some closer shots and he swam off. Again, so much for not disturbing the wildlife. We swam along further and I pointed out to James that I was at 1500 psi for gas (our turnaround point), so we started back. On the way back, we ran into another cabezon and our leopard shark again. I kept a close eye on my gas and periodically let James know how much I had left, even if he didn't want to know. :) We made it back to the Cove and sat on the bottom for a couple of minutes off gassing.

Deepest we got was about 64 feet, but stayed in the 30-45 foot range for a good majority of the dive. 50 degrees for the temp for 48 minutes.

Long story short, we had a great dive. Thanks Doc for giving me your spot. I saw my first leopard shark. I think I about gave my mom a heart attack when I said I saw a shark (she's not a diver and a worry wart).

Pictures can be see here
 
That sounded like lots of fun. Great pictures. I'm hoping to get out there soon. I need to get a drysuit before I venture in the cold though.
 
Great pics, Brad. Not that I'm seething with jealousy over your ability to go diving without first driving hundreds of miles...
 
I won't have as many spots in Florida to do shore dives, so I'll have to experience driving an hour or so to go diving at times (especially when I go do the wreck diving). I have definitely enjoyed being able to roll out of bed, throw the gear in the car and drive 10 minutes to my dive spot.
 
Great pictures Brad. I love the Telia anemones. While you were taking those shots Sunday we were just around the corner at Mono Lobo Wall enjoying similar conditions and terrain, but I had ditched my camera for the day and was just cruising.
 
Awesome pics and report Brad!! I can't wait to see my first leopard shark. :D Hey, you got quite a few pics of fish faces too. :rofl3:

I'm so sad you're moving to FL :( but I'm looking forward to seeing your pics and hearing about your diving there too.
 
We were there at the same time but dove Cannary Point Wall using our scooters to get out and back. Tons of big fish with a few lings, and three male Sheephead's. Monterey Bay Aquarium write up about Sheephead's. We saw lots of invertebrate life with beautiful corrals and anemones. Strawberry anemones are laid out in carpets as you look up the walls. Looking into all the cracks and crevices reveals just how much life Lobos holds. One of the largest shrimps I have ever seen in the wild was seen this weekend at Lobos. We never went below 81 feet but it was pretty surgy even that deep. Vis was at least 40 feet outside Whalers Cove. Water temp hovered around 51 degrees and we were toasty warm for our over hour long dive.

It was good to put so many names and faces together over the weekend :)
 
Great photos Brad. I am glad that you got some fish faces as well - but am a bit surprised that you weren't able to catch anymore critters in "private moments" a la sea cucumber! :D

Glad that you had some nice dives!
 
Yep, that was us you ran into on the sand channel. Nice to meet you Peter (you were there with Ryan P. right?). Sorry we couldn't chat more, but we were in the middle of a class.
 
You guys looked busy. :) And then when we crossed over that line at the bottom, I figured we needed to steer clear of whatever you guys were doing. Navigation maybe?
 
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