April '05 Dive Reports

[headhunter]

Date:
Dive Location:
Time:
Bottom Time:
Max Depth:
Vis:
Wave height:
Temp at depth:
Surface Temp:
Tide information:
Comments:

 

[SoCalAngel]

I am sooooo gload you finally put up the sticky...been waiting since 9 am!

Date: April 1st
Dive Location: Diver's Cove
Time: 6:30 am
Bottom Time: 1:45min
Max Depth: 48'
Vis: 50+, aka whoowho!
Wave height: ankle slappers
Temp at depth: 85F
Surface Temp: chilly at 65F

Comments:

Well, what a beautiful way to start April off! I couldn't beleive I was actually able to wake up this early on my last day off of spring vacation. The drive down to the beach was wonderful, as the sun was rising to the east.

We donned our gear and walked down the stairs to enter Diver's cove. Immediately saw a school of bat rays laying in the sand. We stealthily stole closer and were actually able to pet a few before their blinked their eyes and took off in a graceful v formation. I couldn't get over how far we could see them. It was like vis went on forever.

We continued to make our way to the first small reef, when we came accross an angel shark. Now in the past, I learned not to mess with these aggresive animals. Imagine the shock when the shark glid off the sand and came to nuzzle me? It was amazing. This is not the type of creature I would imagine as a cuddler!

We finally got the angel shark to get off of us and continue along to the reef. I was amazed at seeing all the colorful nudibranchs. There were pink hopkin's roses, many purple and orange Spanish Shawl's, and several lemon and orange peels. I even got to see my first lemon snot snail. It looked like lots of mating haad happened over night, as what wasn't covered by nudi's, was coverd by those pretty little rosy egg rings. The reef looked like a bouquet of flowers.

Well, we still had over 2000psi left, so we continued out into the sand. I started to hear some strange sounds. It wasn't boat noise or jet skis. It was sort of whistle like, but deep. I looked at my buddy and both our faces lit up at the same time. "Whales?" Sure enough out over the edge of vis, we could see a small grey whale about 40' away. It slowly moved over to us. I couldn't beleive it. It was so curious about us and our bubbles. It swam right up to our masks. I put my hand out and touched it. Wow! It stayed for only a moment, but what a moment that was! As it glided away, I could barely move. I was completely awestruck! My buddy found himself to be immobilized, as well.

We checked gauges, and found it was turn around time, as we only had 1400 and 1000psi left. As we swam back over to shore, past the reef, thinking there is no way this could get better, we saw a pair of leopard sharks mating. We both sank to the bottom and watched as the male inserted his clasper into the female.. It was rather quick and clumsy. No foreplay was observed, no holding of each other afterwards. It was done and done. The female went one way, the male the other.

As we exited the water, we both simultaniously exclaimed "April Fools."

 

[mccabejc]

Oooo, I oughta......

BANG, ZOOM, to the MOON, Alice !!!!

 

[kelpmermaid]

Had me going, Laurel! LOL!

 

[headhunter]

Very cute Laurel!

You were waiting since 9am, huh? I put the sticky up at 12:12am in anticipation of fun dive reports like yours! So, actually it was me who was waiting for you!

Glad you finally made it!

Christian

 

[SoCalAngel]

Very cute Laurel!

You were waiting since 9am, huh? I put the sticky up at 12:12am in anticipation of fun dive reports like yours! So, actually it was me who was waiting for you!

Glad you finally made it!

Christian

Those who know me, know I don't wake up on a day off until 12:30 or so! HAHAHA

 

[SoCalAngel]

Date:April 1st
Dive Location: Shaw's cove, Laguna
Time: 8:30 pm
Bottom Time: 1 hour on the nose
Max Depth: 33 feet
Vis: 5-15 depending on how close you were to the reef or shore
Wave height: none of which to speak
Temp at depth: COLD, er 56F
Surface Temp: warmer, thank goodness
Tide information: huh? low, on the way to high
Comments:

Wow...truly another awesome dive. And a real one this time! HAHAHA

Went into the crevice, like last night. There doesn't seem to be as many lobsters hanging in there as usual. We saw a cute little baby one on a rock, though.

Went into the tunnel by crescent bay...lots of surge. I was a tad underweighted, so I was struggling to stay down, when my light went out. I grabbed a rock. The same surge sent my poor buddy to the surface (we were only in 15 ft of water) and her light went out, too. I started to think about panicing, but then the biolumenescence (sp?) got my attention...very Dory of me, n'est pas?

After we met back on the surface, We decided to go to the sand. We saw a baby bat ray (the same one I saw on Tuesday and Thursday night), a couple of thornback rays, one was about 3 feet, the other maybe 5 inches, some more mating swimming crabs, a couple of ghost shrimp (so cool how they use their antennae to cover up with sand), a sheep crab, and a lonely lobster out in the middle of the ...sand. Oh, also a turbot that allowed me to pet it (don't worry you fish huggers, I took my glove off first!).

We went back to the reef...uneventful...so back to the sand and it was cold, so we turned early. On the way in we saw a really big halibut. poked it to scare it away, so none of you hunters can eat it! HAHA

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:04/02/05
Dive Locationipes and a rocky reef
Time: 10:00-Noonish
Bottom Time:Short, 17 and 10 minutes
Max Depth:140'
Vis:20 at depth, 2 within the first 25 feet.
Wave height:1-2', 4-6 second intervals
Temp at depth:53
Surface Temp:55F
Comments:Ross-O and I went out to check out some more possible wreck targets We found some 8' diameter concrete pipes last weekend in an area where many have been dumped. The life there was THICK! Metridiums everywhere, very large sculpins and good conditions. Today was a little different. The upper 25 feet was a mucky brown thanks to a red tide. This also prevented much ambient light at the bottom. My camera housing, which is rated for 230 feet refused to function correctly at 130, so no pics today. We dropped down to find another set of pipes with only 10% of the life on the ones we found last week. We cut the dives short today due to the visibility, the fact that my drysuit is in the shop and Ross tearing a neckseal on the second dive. We were both cold and wet.
The second site turned out to be a rockpile with lots of Blacksmith, gorgonians and not much else. No new wreck discoveries today. Hopefully the conditions will improve by the time I get my drysuit back. I had forgotten what 53F feels like in a wetsuit.

 

[mccabejc]

Date: 4/02/05
Dive Location: Crescent Bay, Laguna Beach
Time: 8:39 am
Bottom Time: 37:10
Max Depth: 38 ft.
Vis: 5-10
Wave height: 1-3
Temp at depth: 57 deg. F
Surface Temp: Water 59 deg. F, Air 63 F
Tide information:

5:38 AM Sunrise
10:48 AM -0.30 feet Low Tide
6:14 PM Sunset
6:17 PM 3.59 feet High Tide

Date: 4/02/05
Dive Location: Crescent Bay, Laguna Beach
Time: 11:33 am
Bottom Time: 42:20
Max Depth: 39 ft
Vis: 5-8
Wave height: 1-3
Temp at depth: 59 deg. F
Surface Temp: Water 61 deg. F, Air 69 F

Myrna and I left home around sunrise, and zipped down to Laguna. We hit Crescent Bay around 6:40, and grabbed the last parking spot near the North stairs. I was surprised to see so many divers gearing up, so early in the morning. Went down and checked the ocean, and the waves were mostly 1-2 ft., with long flat spells. Looking good. Beautiful, clear morning, and already you could feel the warm sun heating things up. Took a stroll over to the locked restrooms :11: , then walked over to Shaw’s. Again I was surprised to see so many divers gearing up. Even my private parking spot on the one-way street just west of the Shaw’s stairs was taken. Okay, heads are gonna roll....Lots of divers on the beach. We decided to walk back to Crescent via the beach, and climbing over the reef, and were surprised at how low the tide was. Then got a call from OCScuba and Captain Marvel, and walked over to the south side and met, for the first time, Lexy, OCScuba, Captain Marvel, and Steve. This was the first Crescent dive for all but me and Lexy, so I gave everyone a short rundown of the site, and off we went to gear up. The report from a diver going up the stairs while we were going down was "if I can't say anything nice, I won't say anything at all". His buddy said that conditions were pretty poor even at Deadmans. Steve and I decided to buddy up, so we went over our checks and hit the water. By that time I was starting to roast with all my gear on, so that water felt wonderful. We decided to hug the West reef, and since Steve was starting with 2100 psi we figured it would be a short one. We dropped down in about 13ft. of murky water, and headed towards the reef. Viz was about 10 ft in the best spots (mostly in the shallower area near the reef), but there were a lot of suspended particulates dancing around due to the low tide sucking stuff up. Quite a bit of surge, too. Saw the standard marine life (Garibaldi; Black Eyed Goby; schools of Blacksmith, some BIG, pinkish starfish; a few Sheephead, etc.). As we rounded the tip of the penninsula, the viz dropped sharply (to maybe 5 ft.), and I didn’t feel like it was worth the effort, so I decided to hang a U’ey and head back. We both surfaced with between 1000-1500 psi, mostly because of boredom (well, for me at least; probably because of my recent trip to Kona… )

Second dive was pretty much a replay of the first, though viz had dropped even more. As usual, we did see a number of boats coming VERY close to shore (one came about 50 yds), some speeding right over Deadmans, and some inside Deadmans. And there were also some fishermen (kyak and boat) hanging real close to shore and to the reef, so we kept our eyes open for fishing lines. Afterwards Steve and Myrna and I headed up to Husky Boy for some of them incredible burgers. As usual, Myrna talked her boogalooga talk to the Filipinas behind the counter, then we decided to call it a day. The diving today was okay, the beach was gorgeous, the burgers were super fine, and it was great to meet Lexy, OCScuba, Captain Marvel (NOT wearing his cape for some reason) and Steve. And thanks Steve for the dives.

 

[Grey_Wulff]

Date: 4/2/05
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 08:05am
Bottom Time: 31 mins
Max Depth: 74 ft
Vis: 10 - 15ft
Wave height: Knee slappers
Temp at depth: 53F
Surface Temp: 62F
Tide information: Approaching low tide
Comments: Attempted to find the Main Wall and missed it completely. Did not account for the low tide height and stayed at too great a depth. Vis was poor in places and for the most part there was not to much to see. That being said, we did see our first Giant Sea Bass at the shores. It cruised slowly past us like a fridge out for a stroll, that was one large puppy! Shame it did not hang around for a second look.

Date: 4/2/05
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 10:10am
Bottom Time: 33 mins
Max Depth:65 ft
Vis: 15 - 20ft
Wave height: Knee slappers
Temp at depth: 53F
Surface Temp: 62F
Tide information: Past low tide
Comments: Never made the same mistake twice and this time we landed right on the button. With the turning tide, visibility improved noticeably. Explored the wall slowly and met more than a few other divers. The large sheephead was in his hole and several others kept a watchful eye. Goby, bass, starfish, baby flatfish and the odd nudibranch were around as well.

Great to be out on such a beautiful day!

Grey_Wulff