8-10-08 Monterey Pics

[AndyT]

Great stuff Larry !!

 

[Larry C]

Thanks Ken, Gary and Andy.

How did you get the rockfish to line up like that? Do you have some kind of underwater whistle or duck call device?? ++Ken++

I'm a PE teacher. I just called them back to their numbers for some push-ups!

The lifevest is classic!!! Hey Larry, nice pics. Isn't it time for some stacker lenses so we can view the tonsils on some of those shrimp? I missed a dive opportunity in Cali last month. My housing was in the hands of Oly. I've only dived once in Cali and that was my 1 day business trip to Catalina Island. I loved the dive and can't wait to dive places like La Jolla and others further north.

Carol had me special order the life vest to match the pink on Otter's collar. Obviously, she's a girly-girl. (also helps people who cringe and start shaking when they see an American Staffordshire Terrier, err Pit Bull). One of these days, I'll have to try close-up lenses and get a decent WA lens-hopefully before I house the D300. I use the diopters on the D300 topside and have been very impressed with how close I can get with a big zoom lens. They sure have a narrow focal range though. We're heading for the Channel Islands ourselves this week on the Vision. You should try one of the 3-day live-aboards that they do. We always get to some great dive sites. One of my favorites is Farnsworth Bank, but I'm always bumping up against my no-deco limit there because there's so much to see and it tops at about 60 feet as I recall, with most of the dive at about 80. Last year I hit my limit just as we got to the anchor, then spotted a great Octopus. I ended up with a 20 minute deco stop and surfaced with about 300psi.

 

[ronbeau]

Short dives and not too many pictures because my dive buddy was too worried about our new pup Otter's first day on the boat (she was an emotional wreck, but did better the second dive--Otter that is)

In the Breakwater lot

First time on board

First mate

This whole diving thing is wearing me out!

Now for the UW stuff. First dive, Trevor's Pinnacle near Aumentos

Painted Greenling

School of Gopher Rockfish in a crevice

Crab on a White Spotted Rose Anemone

Not a great picture, as it was in a hole, but the first Longfin Sculpin I've seen

From Shale Island

This Shrimp probably doesn't know that the Tunicate colony it's sitting on is mounted on the back of a decorator crab.

Larry

Does that make him a DUI DOG?

You ought to send the picture of the dog posed next to the young lady in the DUI dry suit to DUI.

 

[ce4jesus]

You should try one of the 3-day live-aboards that they do.

Who do you recommend and what's a good time to go?

 

[Larry C]

We use Truth Aquatics (Vision, Conception and Truth) and they're excellent. Our trip this week was on the Vision. Their trips leave late Wed. night with the first dives Thursday morning and return Saturday late afternoon out of Santa Barbara. My wife has done several trips on the Peace out of Long Beach. The Peace is a smaller boat and the bunks are connected but have a divider. They serve their meals sitting (because of a smaller eating area) but they have a hot tub and some other nice stuff. Mid August is a great time to dive the Channel Islands, probably early September as well. You can never tell about California weather. They generally never cancel trips, they just try to take you to more sheltered sites if it's rough. Water temp on our current trip was 59 to 73 depending on exposure of the site and depth. Most divers wear either a 7mm wetsuit or a drysuit. I don't recommend October or Feb trips as they are centered around hunters. Especially don't go near the Channel Islands on opening week of Lobster season. Otherwise, watch the weather and offshore swell reports, but CA conditions are day to day and you just never know. Often, really good diving can be had midwinter, between storms, but you can't predict that much ahead. If you can book short notice and there's a run of good weather, conditions can be terrific. You might look for some local websites for So Cal diving that give current reports. Depending on the Island and the dive sites, you can get tremendous variety. We found Octopi at all our sites-my wife spotted 6 or 7 of them and became known on board as the Octopus Wench. We had a great dive with about a dozen Giant Black Sea Bass ranging from bigger than me to humongous. We saw lots of little horned sharks, plenty of the usual suspects (Garibaldi, Calico Bass, Senoritas, Sheephead) plus some good size Tuna, and while travelling between Islands, some dolphins as well. There were also quite a few Spanish Shawl Nudibranchs around and one of our photographers got a nice picture of a Chromodoris Macfarlandi.