Christmas Tree Cove 7.3.09

[FrankPro1]

Excellent dive at Christmas Tree cove with Military Bob today. We started our day at White Point, but Leebobo was just exiting and said there was no vis. Conditions looked fair from atop the hill, but there was some moderate swell which apparently was churning things up. We then made our way to Marineland. It was flat there, but the cove looked awfully green. Finally we reached Christmas Tree which surprisingly looked good. Last Sunday, my main buddy "SpKelpDiver" and I started doing a new dive pattern at CTC. We surface swim out to the point and then drop down heading directly out away from land. After a few kick cycles we turn to 330 "parallel to shore" and cut our way across the cove. We've done various headings at CTC before but this one is especially good. Bob and I decided to do this pattern again and we weren't disappointed. Some of the largest reef structure at Christmas Tree can be found on this pattern. Nice mini walls and overhangs blanket the area with a variety of life. Highlights of the dive were a pair of Porters Chromodorids "which Bob found", Yellow Dorids, Beautifully colored Painted Greenlings and some unique anemones. The swell map wasn't showing particularly good conditions for CTC today, but I guess we got lucky with over 20ft of vis.

Some Pics:

 

[MaxBottomtime]

You've gotten really good at the G10 in a short time. Those are all excellent shots. The cove at Marineland wasn't bad. In fact, it was the first time in a long time we could see the rocks at the entry point clearly. It sure makes the entries/exits easier when you can see where you're stepping. Vis at the point was a murky ten feet, though.

 

[FrankPro1]

Bob and I only looked from the Nansket trail and not from the resort. Conditions didn't look terrible but we didn't want to chance it, especially since we've had two consecutive 120 dives with less the 10ft. Thanks for the photo compliments. I'm starting to mess around with using different apertures to get that "blur" effect. Also since I now have a strobe "DS-51 w/ sync", I don't have to worry about targeting my subjects in the top left hand corner "like I used to because of the port shadow".