mikemill
Contributor
So yesterday was the NCD monthly club dive at Gerstle Cove. Finally the stars aligned and I made it and boy am I glad I did. I meet up with Andy, Odie, Kevin, Joy, Eric, and Ericson. All were friendly, inviting, and willing to help me out in doing my first north coast dive.
The first thing I noticed was the drive there was a lot prettier. I took I-80 from Sacramento to CA-37 to US-101 to River Rd in Santa Rosa which meets up with CA-116 and then US-1 to Salt Point State Point. Half the distance was the turn onto the 101 but that only took about 1/3 of the time. From there on there was lots of tree covered areas, twists and turns, and nature. It was a nice drive though that section of 1 took me for a surprise about how long it'd take to go the 20 miles
The dive was setup to be South Gerstle but since the climb down and entrance were a bit more then I'm used to Kevin got me to North Gerstle where it wasn't as bad. So after swapping gear around Kevin, Joy, and I went to North Gerstle, dropped the gear off, parked, and started getting geared up. Kevin gave what has to be the most compressive pre-dive communication and dive plan I've had in a long while We proceeded basically straight out of the cove and the turned around to come back in. I got to see lots of cool stuff like the different kind of kelp and plant life, a nice big white nudi, and a huge arse octopus chilling in some kelp. Also saw a bunch of abs and had a chance to look at one up close. Was a nice dive and really got a chance to practice the side by side by side buddy system. Though at the turn around point we had fun playing musical positions and "where'd he go?" as I was floating above Kevin
Dive details:
54 mins
Max depth 39ft
Avg depth 22ft
Temp: ~52
Vis: 10 to 15 ft
After the first dive we all meet back up, played a game of "are Odie and Eric coming back from the campsite?", and after their return it was "Kevin and Joy took off with all the tanks, I guess we are all going to the camp site". Had a good SI talking to everyone, enjoying some freshly caught scallops, and just chilling.
For the second dive we all did South Gerstle using a different place to enter. Of course it required climbing down the side of a hill using a worn area and not really a path. This time I went with Odie and Joy doing basically the same thing as the first dive (straight out and back). This time the vis was about half and there didn't seem to be as much to see, but there was a lot more kelp Saw some crabs and something that I swear looked like a seahorse but upon closer inspection wasn't (don't know what it was).
Climbing over those slime covered rocks was a pain but kinda fun in its own way. The hard part was once you were in the water you really didn't know if you were really deep enough to put your fins on. Didn't seem like you found a proper place where it was going to be deep enough as a spot between some rocks. But if you moved a foot in any direction there was another rock. Coming back in the other 4 were already there and helped us in. I immediately laid down on some rocks to catch my breath and prepare for the climb back up the hill. Surprisingly the climb back didn't seem as bad as the climb down.
Dive details:
48 mins
Max depth 47ft
Avg depth 26ft
Temp ~50
Vis 7 ft
All in all it was a great day and I'm looking forward to my next trip north.
No pictures as my camera is with Sea&Sea getting the hot pixel issue taken care of. Probably a good thing though
The first thing I noticed was the drive there was a lot prettier. I took I-80 from Sacramento to CA-37 to US-101 to River Rd in Santa Rosa which meets up with CA-116 and then US-1 to Salt Point State Point. Half the distance was the turn onto the 101 but that only took about 1/3 of the time. From there on there was lots of tree covered areas, twists and turns, and nature. It was a nice drive though that section of 1 took me for a surprise about how long it'd take to go the 20 miles
The dive was setup to be South Gerstle but since the climb down and entrance were a bit more then I'm used to Kevin got me to North Gerstle where it wasn't as bad. So after swapping gear around Kevin, Joy, and I went to North Gerstle, dropped the gear off, parked, and started getting geared up. Kevin gave what has to be the most compressive pre-dive communication and dive plan I've had in a long while
We proceeded basically straight out of the cove and the turned around to come back in. I got to see lots of cool stuff like the different kind of kelp and plant life, a nice big white nudi, and a huge arse octopus chilling in some kelp. Also saw a bunch of abs and had a chance to look at one up close. Was a nice dive and really got a chance to practice the side by side by side buddy system. Though at the turn around point we had fun playing musical positions and "where'd he go?" as I was floating above Kevin Dive details:
54 mins
Max depth 39ft
Avg depth 22ft
Temp: ~52
Vis: 10 to 15 ft
After the first dive we all meet back up, played a game of "are Odie and Eric coming back from the campsite?", and after their return it was "Kevin and Joy took off with all the tanks, I guess we are all going to the camp site". Had a good SI talking to everyone, enjoying some freshly caught scallops, and just chilling.
For the second dive we all did South Gerstle using a different place to enter. Of course it required climbing down the side of a hill using a worn area and not really a path. This time I went with Odie and Joy doing basically the same thing as the first dive (straight out and back). This time the vis was about half and there didn't seem to be as much to see, but there was a lot more kelp
Saw some crabs and something that I swear looked like a seahorse but upon closer inspection wasn't (don't know what it was).Climbing over those slime covered rocks was a pain but kinda fun in its own way. The hard part was once you were in the water you really didn't know if you were really deep enough to put your fins on. Didn't seem like you found a proper place where it was going to be deep enough as a spot between some rocks. But if you moved a foot in any direction there was another rock. Coming back in the other 4 were already there and helped us in. I immediately laid down on some rocks to catch my breath and prepare for the climb back up the hill. Surprisingly the climb back didn't seem as bad as the climb down.
Dive details:
48 mins
Max depth 47ft
Avg depth 26ft
Temp ~50
Vis 7 ft
All in all it was a great day and I'm looking forward to my next trip north.
No pictures as my camera is with Sea&Sea getting the hot pixel issue taken care of. Probably a good thing though
