I had a pretty nice time at Anacapa last Sunday. (Partly due to an excellent-for-me instabuddy -- similar experience, dive style, pacing, air consumption, fun attitude.) Our first dive (Rat Rock) seemed at first like it would be an urchin + brittle star barren, but it seemed that we stumbled onto a sea hare breeding party. Or something -- at least ten nice big sea hares spread out over the dive, some in pairs or clusters. It was my first time to see them in the wild, and in fact, I'd just seen them for the first time ever at the aquarium the week before. (And to think I thought the one at the aquarium was big...)
Second dive (Canyons), we hit some kelp forest, and I FINALLY found spanish shawls, so I was super happy. Three of them popped up throughout the dive, plus two more new-to-me nudis that I can't name. Giant lobster, clouds of shrimp, good times. I should note that it's important to leave your camera on the boat if you want to spot awesome stuff like spanish shawls
Third dive was very frustrating, as a swift current picked up just after they opened the gate. Almost everyone called the dive. We tried descending flying like flags on the line to see if it was calm enough at depth to dive. It was way better, but still enough current that I was uncomfortable with risking not exactly finding the line to ascend, so it was back up the line and onto the boat. Not the way you want your dive to go, but it was a good learning experience.
On the last dive, I made a sea lion friend, though didn't get the sea lion circus I hoped for. I had been to this site (Underwater Arch) over a year ago, and was pleased to see that I a) recognized my sea lion spot from before, and b) could tell we had approached from the opposite direction last time. Other highlights -- more nudis, a very odd looking crab (?), I'll see if any of my photos turned out.
Edit: I keep adding to this, but I forgot -- dolphins on the way out! And the entire surface was covered in salps on our last dive.
Now, can you tell me what these things are? (Please forgive the not great photography, due to surge and lack of skill.)
