Catalina right now...

[John H. Moore]

trymixdiver once bubbled...
sounds like i didnt miss much this summer.

Oh, man, what a mistake! Sure, the shallow water vis has sucked, but the vis deep has pretty consistently been amongst the best I've seen here. And now that it's just a regular red tide on the top, the bioluminescense at night is spectacular!

Seriously, the vis deep has consistently been in the 30 ft range, and sometimes 40 or 50 -- which is really really good for San Diego. (Maybe not so good for Channel Islands, but... I'd imagine you can get below it out there also.)

Just avoid afternoon dives, when the sunlight seems to drive the blooms deeper. Early morning or evening/night.

John

 

[drbill]

Two dives today with 8-15 ft vis in the upper 50 ft. Friday I went deeper and there was still very little vis. Have heard people having to go to 90+ ft to get good visibility around Catalina.

Not sure where you were living on Catalina SoCalAJ, but this has probably been the worst year I've seen here in 35 years. I heard there was vis at the West nd so if you were living at Two Harbors, or at one of the West End camps it is quite possible you got much better than we did in the Avalon area.

Just talked to a fishermen who said it was green 50-70+ miles out.

Dr. Bill

 

[Arnaud]

On Thursday, we had a pretty good viz at Italian Garden, Hen Rock and Long Rock, below 50ft.

On Friday, the first dive at the park (at 12:20 pm) was nice. We started around the Kismet and worked our way up. The Viz was 30 ft +.

On the second dive, Dr. Bill joined us and the viz went down to 10 ft. Plus, the surge started to pick up in the shallower part.

Just for the record, Dr. Bill's diving is not what affected the conditions... unless it's some kind of bad karma

 

[JeffMandell]

Well, it's always nice to be out on a boat in the sunshine, but that's the only thing that went well today around Catalina. Italian Gardens looked like fog had settled in. My alert dive partner spotted two giant sea bass, but they looked like ghosts in the murk. Then on to Red Rock (aka Red Lava) which was worse - vis about 10 feet.
I almost didn't go for the third dive, but that turned out to be the best - yellowtail point. Not many fish, still murky, but viz to about 30 feet in some areas and its a really pretty spot.
All in all, NOT the clearing up of this gunk that I'd hoped for.

 

[alaity47]

Wow, you got sunshine?

We didn't see much of that at Casino Point! Did our first dive around 8:30 - cool, cloudy, vis about 15-20 ft, I'd guess. Second dive around 10am, still cloudy, wind and surge picking up - and the vis was down to 10 feet or so.

We did see some sun start peeking through after lunch, but it was also pretty windy by then and we just couldn't get warmed up, so we called it a day.

Still an ok dive day, though; we took some friends out for their first California dive, and they claim it actually =exceeded= their expectations! Can't wait to show them what it's like on a good day!

 

[kelpmermaid]

Alaity, you beat me to it! We got in about 11 am, and, depending upon where we were, it was 64-66 degrees, 10-20 ft viz, to about 50 feet. It was green, though, not that nasty red/brown stuff.

I did see one big critter, though -- Dr. Bill, underwater!

 

[RichLockyer]

JeffMandell once bubbled...
Well, it's always nice to be out on a boat in the sunshine, but that's the only thing that went well today around Catalina. Italian Gardens looked like fog had settled in. My alert dive partner spotted two giant sea bass, but they looked like ghosts in the murk. Then on to Red Rock (aka Red Lava) which was worse - vis about 10 feet.

West end was better last night. Viz near the west end light was pretty bad, but just around the corner into the first cove it opened up a bit to 15 ft or so. Saw a small BSB resting in a crevice at 30ft. Neither of us had ever seen one before, and my buddy has been diving Catalina for 25 years... he was totally stoked, and we both just hovered in awe for close to 10 minutes.
Caught a few decent sized bugs and headed over to Bird Rock.

Got to Bird Rock and there was already a dive boat sitting on the high spot, so we headed over to Cherry Cove. The kelp was pretty thick (I keep hearing of a kelp die-off, but Cherry was in good shape). Viz there, from the surface down to 40ft, was about the same at 15-20ft.

I was not optimistic... on the way out of Huntington it looked like we were driving through MUD... really intense red tide. On the way back in, we could still see the biolume in our wake nearly 1/4 mile behind us.

 

[drbill]

10/4/03- Water warmer (59 at 60' depth) but vis mediocre 15-25 ft at the Point on my dives. Didn't look like much deeper either. I keep hoping for another day like last Monday- 51 degrees and 70-80 ft vis.

Will try again tomorrow.

Dr. Bill

 

[sapphire]

drbill once bubbled...
10/4/03- Water warmer (59 at 60' depth) but vis mediocre 15-25 ft at the Point on my dives. Didn't look like much deeper either. I keep hoping for another day like last Monday- 51 degrees and 70-80 ft vis.

Will try again tomorrow.

Dr. Bill

Hey Dr. Bill -

Sorry about the current mediocre vis out there. I feel honored that you ordered such great vis last Monday, since it was my first dive back in the cold water in about 7 years. Thanks again !!

sapphire

 

[drbill]

Sapphire- I think you and Walter should make a return visit. Since I dive here all the time, the two of you were probably the cause of the change to that great visibility on our first dive. Hope I get a few more of those once my housing comes back from L&M.

Dr. Bill