August '05 Dive Reports

[MaxBottomtime]

Did you get a chance to see how far the Pinnacles are from the Cabezon Cruiser?

 

[California Diver]

a good quarter mile or so

 

[JDog]

8-13
#1-Black Cavern, Santa Barbara Island
#2-Sutil Isand, " " " " " "
#3-Websters point, " " " " " "
Time IN: 07:23, 09:26, and 11:21
Bottom time: 41 min., 46 min., and 52min.
max depth: 99, 68, and 42ft
vis: 50-60+
waves: (boat dive)
temp in water:55, 59, and this is (no typo) 67 degrees
surface temps:63, 66, 68
mix: 21%

All aboard the Great Escape to Santa Barbara Island. Buddied up with Ann Marie. She introduced me to a couple of friends she has dove with. (Ferhat and Ken, it was great to meet you.)
We had calm seas, great visability and warm water (by that I mean high 60's). The only dive that was cold was the first one at Black Cavern. It's called Black Cavern for a good reason. Don't leave your dive light on the boat for this one. Lucky for us Ken and Ferhat didn't so we were able to make it all the way through to the light on the other side. I have never ever seen so many brittle stars, they covered the seafloor for as far as you could see, it had to be millions of them, Yellows, Oranges, Blues, grey, black, some had two different colors it was cool. I hope Ann Marie will post a couple of photos.
Dive 2 saw warmer water, more brittle stars, seals, stone fish, sheepshead, and the current picked up during the dive, we had a long haul of, hand over hand, to return to the boat. Exhausting but still a great dive.
Dive 3 was great it was more like hiking a nature trail in the forest, onlt this was kelp, you could see sea lions and seals darting through the kelp like nothing. We had a little bit of surge but nothing bad, it was fun in the narrow crevases, like underwater surfing.
All and all a great day.

 

[divinman]

Date: 08/14/05
Dive number: 282
Minutes submerged for August: 646 minutes/60 minutes = 10.77 hours so far.
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 8:15a
Bottom Time: 1:01
Max Depth: 74ft
Avg Depth: 42ft
Vis: 5-15, spots of 20 deeper
Wave height: like glass between waste high sets
Temp at depth: 58F, no really 58F
Surface Temp: 66F
Surface conditions.: Lo tide with little to know surf, like glass passed the break

Images: http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/terry/album10/LJS081405/

Comments:

5 divers showed up for the Sunday morning undersea safari......one did not. Geared up and in the water we headed out to the area of the big blue ball and dropped in past it to about 30ft. We were WAY north so there was lots of sand between us and the canyon edge but we eventually got there. Exploring we found the usual suspects and some no so usual. TONS of California Sea slugs this year! They seem to be every where. Also not one, not two but THREE prickle backs were seen. The highlight of the dive for me seeing a 6 inch ling cod catch a sanddab that was nearly the same size. The fight was on! In the end the ling cod gave up and spit out its intended lunch. Back up in the shallows we saw more D. Iris but no C. Divae. Octopus were strangely present for so early in the day. Conditions below the 'cline continue to be quite nice and the surf has been nearly non-existent. Get out and dive if you can.

Terry

 

[ckaspar]

Date:8/17/5
Dive Location:Shaw's Cove
Time:8:00
Bottom Time:45 min
Max Depth:46ft
Vis: 4-10
Wave height: started off small but as we kicked out it unexpectedly picked up
Temp at depth:55F
Surface Temp: warm
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:

Probably one of the trippiest dive I have done in a while. We walked down to the beach to take a gander at the conditions. The wave action seemed to be OK. It was not a lake or anything but it was nothing to be concerned about. No loud crashes.

Dressed out, went down, started the kick out then it picked up pretty good. The waves were crashing over the rocks with some force.

We dropped down into green haze nd swam to the reef. We were getting throwm back and forth pretty good. It was like one of those dragon swings. At least 6 feet each way.

Saw a bunch of bass, 5 octopi, and the usual suspects.

Great dive if you like a roller coaster!

 

[divinman]

Date: 08/16/05
Dive number: 283
Minutes submerged for August: 730 minutes
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/Marine Room Canyon
Time: 7:38p
Bottom Time: 1:24
Max Depth: 115ft
Avg Depth: 47ft
Vis: 5-15, spots of 20 deeper but hazy
Surface Temp: 71F
Temp at depth: 49F ( I love dry gloves)
Surface conditions.: high tide, a little choppy on the kick out

Image gallery is here: http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/terry/album10/LJS081605/

Tyler and I made the swim out from the boat launch last night. Conditions looked promising on the surface. The tide was way up with water spilling into the street at times so we knew we were in for a long swim. Once we finally got out to the drop in point we completed our final checks and descended into 32ft of water and headed southwest. Tons of life out tonight. Bat rays, thornbacks big and small, 5 ft shovelnose, octopus smaller than a child's marble and a few larger ones out and about as well, purple stripped jellyfish and a few nudibranches rounded out the evening. Oh and lots of little ling cods. I seem to be seeing them everywhere this month.

Nice long easy dive.

Terry

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Tuesday August 16, 2005
Redondo Canyon (Entered straight out from stairs, went north along 55fsw contour line)
Splashed in at 7:40 PM
Max depth: 61 fsw
Run time: 1:14
Temperatures: Murky and warm (69F) above 40fsw, 62F and clear below.
Visibility: 20-25 feet in canyon, 5-8 in the shallows
August dives so far: 15 hrs, 44 minutes on 12 dives. I LIKE August!
(Yeah, I cheated geographically... 6 of the 12 were in Hawaii...ahhhhhh! But SoCal has more profuse life and more interesting creatures, IMHO...I'm so fortunate to come home to such astonishing diving and wonderful dive buddies!)

The Redondo canyon Tuesday night was lousy with octopuses (dozens...too many to count), cusk eels, masking crabs and sheep crabs covered with sponge/algae/barnacles, red kelp crabs, pipe fish, many sarcastic fringeheads out in the kelp, 4 kelp fish (each matching a different colored kelp,) little striped perch, fast swimming 1 inch long polychaete worms, tiny skeleton shrimp (white fuzzy ones and red smooth ones), pink scorpion fish and little brown juveniles, 1 horn shark, and 2 big purple jellies billowing along (Jeff saw 4) and 2 juvenile ling cod sitting on the bottom and snapping at the swimming worms.

Dazzling bioluminescence with our lights turned off...blue sparkles exploding from my moving hands...Jeff's bubbles outlined in blue as they danced upwards.

An octopus coiled firmly within a partly opened mussel shell stayed absolutely "put" as I gently picked up the shell, looked at it from all sides, handed it to Jeff, and then placed it back in the sandy divot where I found it. Octopuses varied from small-grape-sized to almost soft-ball sized. Several camoflaged by making their arms dark like the mud and their heads light-colored and bumpy like the odd bushy beige algae that's proliferating in the debris zone (45 - 60fsw). Found an odd cucumber-y thing buried in the sand at 35fsw that looked like a red/yellow sweet potato.

Descended from a dazzling orange-red setting sun, and emerged beneath a black canopy of stars, wispy clouds and a sterling moon.

Good ending for a work day.
Thank you, Jeff, for a delightful submarine ramble!

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

08/17/2005
Time: 6:00ish
Max Depth: 65 fsw
Bottom Time: 50 mins
Vis: 10-20 feet

I met Steve(divetahoe) and Dan from Nevada (I think it was Dan) at Vallecitos and discussed the dive. We then headed into a choppy 1-2 foot swell. We kicked out to about 30 feet and dropped within 30 feet of the canyon edge. The visibility was very poor in spots but opened up in patches below 50 feet. We headed southward along the edge of the canyon, slowly examining the wall structure. We found the usual suspects as well as a juvunile Ling Cod (looks like a baby croc), a Fringehead, a Bay Pipe Fish, several octopi from tiny to a nice size, a few juvinile rockfish, 1 fried egg jelly, 3 Diaulula sandiegensis, a few California Armenas, many California Lizardfish, and a Cuthona Divae. Although the vis wasn't so great, the dive was still great!


no pics, I put the wrong battery in my camera :ne_nau:

 

[MissyP]

Date:17Aug
Dive Location: Marine Room(La Jolla)... again.
Time: 5:03pm
Bottom Time: 76min
Max Depth: 63ft
Vis: 5-8 shallows, 30+ past 25 ft
Wave height: 1-3 ft
Temp at depth:Suunto says 52. I say "unfreakingbelievablycold"
Surface Temp: 70
Tide information: high (made for a bad exit on the stairs)
Gas mix: Air (21%)

Headed back to Marine Room for the 3rd time in less than a week and once again, I was not disappointed. The vis in shallows was poor with thick greenish water, but it opened up around 25 ft or so to an easy 30+ vis. Headed over towards the canyon, but the thermocline hit me like a ton of bricks- it was COLD- I thought my dry suit had a leak (it didn't- the water temp was just that cold!). Found the oh-so-handy ladder again- you know, the one that you have to climb down in order to get into the canyon.. (seriously, its just a ladder laying down there around 46 ft ). Saw 2 lobsters sitting under the top rung peering out at me; suddenly it got dark & I realized a school of fish had surrounded me.. which only meant one thing- another encounter with a giant sea bass Sure enough, within 30 seconds I was being checked out face to face by a bass... which seemed to be moving in slow motion.. Reached out and slid my hand along its tail as it swam by, which didn't seem to bother it in the least.. Unfortunately, the temp was getting to me so headed back to shallower waters.. Lots of baby octos out & about again, got inked by a little guy no bigger than a quarter with tentacles.. Saw another one peeking out at me from under a rock in the sand dollar bed.. Usual critters were around- nudis, sheepcrabs, pipefish, several flatworms, navanax, halibut, 2 more lobsters "hiding" in the sand dollar bed, etc.. Practiced buddy breathing for our 3 min safety stop and headed in after our 76 min dive.. unfortunately, the high tide was causing waves to slam into the wall by the stairs and onto the stairs themselves. Cement doesn't feel or taste good.

 

[divinman]

Temp at depth:Suunto says 52. I say "unfreakingbelievablycold"

I was down to 115ft two nights ago. Both my computers said 49F. Brrrrrrrrrrr. Glad I had the ultra warm jammies and the dry gloves on.