Abalone Cove?

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If you stand in the parking lot at Abalone, you can see the water and judge whether you want to hike down for a dive. Most of the time, the water looks like cafe a lait - visibility sucks - but once in a while it will be clear. The problem is the Portuguese Bend land slide; muddy water seeps into the ocean along that part of the coast and clouds the water.

One spot you might try for variety is Malaga Cove in P.V. It's a hike to the bottom, but the diving is good. Another option is Christmas Tree Cove.
 
One spot you might try for variety is Malaga Cove in P.V. It's a hike to the bottom, but the diving is good. Another option is Christmas Tree Cove.

I have tried to dive Malaga a number of times....one time, I even got in the water. For about 10 minutes, we kept hoping it would open up....but to no avail. We ended up calling the dive as it just wasn't fun. Unfortunately, the many times I've tried after that have resulted in me checking it out from the gazebo, talking to people, watching divers get in and come back out within minutes....and have never actually made it back in.

WHEN....please tell me when....are the conditions good for Malaga? Summer? Spring? I'm fairly certain it's not fall that's good (as that's when I've tried), and winter has really taken a toll on many normally-reliable dive sites, so being as exposed as it is, I don't think that's the time to dive Malaga. I hear it's a fantastic site when the conditions are good....but when are they good??? I wanna know!!!
 
I had a great dive with Claudette there once. We even found her moray eel. Our entry/exit over the shallow, slippery rocks left a lot to be desired. I have about twenty dives there, with two of them being good. The other eighteen were pretty horrible.
One day as I was looking from the gazebo, the vis was so good I could see the "hidden reef" at RAT Beach. Merry and I dived it and it was nice, but not a whole lot to see.
Hopefully we'll get good vis at Cabrillo when I can get everyone together on the same day. I went out with Merry, Drysuit Greg and Reverand Al once to look for the wreck. We had bad vis and never found it. Josh and Alyson were supposed to dive with us but arrived too late. They saw where we dropped down and they ended up right on the wreck. :(
 
WHEN....please tell me when....are the conditions good for Malaga? Summer? Spring?

Since Malaga is a north facing site, I usually check the site when the south is pumping out some swell. I've only had 2 scuba dives there and both were pretty good. Not much to see besides the normal reef dwellers and mediocre visibility, but its an easy walk down and a pretty easy entry/exit. I have free dove there quite a few times too and have experienced a few really nice days that had over 25ft vis. I would try checking out Malaga during the summer days when the south swell is up. That's when I've had good results.;)
 
Okay, I'm considering going to Cabrillo tomorrow. So I was curious about where the best place to dive is. Based on looking at the satellite map from Google, I would imagine there are really two choices. One is over by the jetty (A), and the other is over by what appears to be kelp (B). I have a picture attached showing the options.

Cabrillo.jpg


Or maybe there's a better option that I didn't think of? I assume what's in the middle is just sand....and if I wanted just sand, I'd probably go to Vet's, so let's make the assumption that we want something more to look at than what we are guaranteed at Vet's :D

Any help is appreciated!
 
Unfortunately, the best diving is a LOOOOONG surface swim. The wreck is in the kelp almost directly south of the end of Pacific Ave. We usually enter from the sand in front of the bath house and swim to the outer edge of the kelp. The good news is that the reef goes all the way into about ten feet of water, so there is stuff to see all the way back in.
If conditions are bad, there is more to see than sand at Vet's, but most divers tend to head toward the "Monument" which is a trash pile in the middle of sand. The three best diving areas at Vet's are the pilings near the Topaz jetty, the Salad Bowl north of the stairs and the canyon itself. The nudibranchs, shrimp, decorator crabs and fringeheads can be found in the Salad Bowl. The pilings are covered with corynactis anemones and schools of small fish. I usually dive between the stairs in front of the main lot and the middle stairs toward the pier.
 
Unfortunately, the best diving is a LOOOOONG surface swim. The wreck is in the kelp almost directly south of the end of Pacific Ave. We usually enter from the sand in front of the bath house and swim to the outer edge of the kelp. The good news is that the reef goes all the way into about ten feet of water, so there is stuff to see all the way back in.
If conditions are bad, there is more to see than sand at Vet's, but most divers tend to head toward the "Monument" which is a trash pile in the middle of sand. The three best diving areas at Vet's are the pilings near the Topaz jetty, the Salad Bowl north of the stairs and the canyon itself. The nudibranchs, shrimp, decorator crabs and fringeheads can be found in the Salad Bowl. The pilings are covered with corynactis anemones and schools of small fish. I usually dive between the stairs in front of the main lot and the middle stairs toward the pier.

Oops, I wasn't meaning to bash Vet's! That was not my intention. I know there's lots of good stuff to see out there, and I've even been lucky enough to find it (after I learned to slow down....after I learned what neutral buoyancy was and didn't have to keep kicking!). I'm just looking for a site I haven't been to, but if it's going to just be sand dollar beds, I'd rather go to Vet's. However, it sounds as though Cabrillo might be worth checking out!

How deep is the wreck? Is it worth checking out, or would it just be better to save ourselves the surface swim and just explore the kelp?
 
The wreck is in about twenty feet. It's basically a three foot wall of rust. :)
It isn't much to see, but it stands out amidst the kelp and reef. The reef itself is low-lying, much like Malaga Cove, except there are no wide sand channels between the rocks. Piddocks are the dominant specie here. There are also the usual reef fish you'll find at White Point or the 120 reef at Marineland. Garibaldi, Calico bass and Blacksmith hover in the kelp, waiting for a diver to "accidently" break open an urchin.
DSCF1144.jpg


DSCF1162.jpg


Calico2.jpg


DSCF1039.jpg

There are marine mammals who fequent the reef. I watched a snorkeller and his dog swim through the kelp one day while two dozen dolphin circled them. When the swimmer made it back to the beach I asked him how he enjoyed the event. He hadn't seen any of them.
During my last dive there we had two playful harbor seals hang with us at the outer kelp. One followed us back to the beach. While making a safety stop in ten feet in the kelp closest to the beach he hovered behind Merry, occasionally looking over her shoulder at her computer. I assumed he had a few minutes of deco left.
Harborseal.jpg


Kelp.jpg
 
You mentioned PV goat trails...where is that and what is that dive like?
 

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