Daily report for TsandM & WADiverBob

[Drewpy]

Im glad you and your wife are enjoying the trip! You PNW guys seem to hit it just right...Your day at Monastary sounds a lot like the day I took NW Greatfuldiver (Bob) there in the spring! (no sharks though)
You will love Point Lobos..probably one of the finest shore dives in CA.Ill be next door at Monastary if its calm...
Mark is a good man! He has been a great source of advise,and I have enjoyed a few dives with him as well.He'll show you some neat stuff for sure! I often tease him about paying rent there..

Hopefully things will hold up for Lynne..
Enjoy the rest of your stay!

Drew

 

[mweitz]

Here is a little map of our dive on Wed. Interesting perspective when you can see it like this ...

Data used in this post were acquired, processed, archived, and distributed by the Seafloor Mapping Lab of California State University Monterey Bay.

 

[limeyx]

Here is a little map of our dive on Wed. Interesting perspective when you can see it like this ...


Data used in this post were acquired, processed, archived, and distributed by the Seafloor Mapping Lab of California State University Monterey Bay.

That's an awesome view -- how do you make those?

 

[mweitz]

Oil on canvas, then I take a digital shot of it and upload it.













Here is the link:

http://seafloor.csumb.edu/SFMLwebDATA_mb.htm

Use the Fledermaus scene, bathymetry and use the link to D/L the lview3D viewer.

Navigating is a bit tricky. Just play around with it. Once I got the view I wanted I just did a print screen, then copied it into MSPAINT, cleaned it up a bit, put the path in and saved it. Then I used another program to crop it, resize it and convert it to a .jpg. I’m sure there is an easier way.

Mark

That's an awesome view -- how do you make those?

 

[limeyx]

Oil on canvas, then I take a digital shot of it and upload it.













Here is the link:

http://seafloor.csumb.edu/SFMLwebDATA_mb.htm

Use the Fledermaus scene, bathymetry and use the link to D/L the lview3D viewer.

Navigating is a bit tricky. Just play around with it. Once I got the view I wanted I just did a print screen, then copied it into MSPAINT, cleaned it up a bit, put the path in and saved it. Then I used another program to crop it, resize it and convert it to a .jpg. I’m sure there is an easier way.

Mark

OK smarty pants
I meant how did you get your dive course overlaid onto it -- or is that not what the blue line is?

 

[mweitz]

Oh, sorry.

I towed a GPS, then I used a cray to plot the coordinates into the scene.

I just used MSPaint to draw the line in of where I think we went. There is a large margin of error .

Mark

OK smarty pants
I meant how did you get your dive course overlaid onto it -- or is that not what the blue line is?

 

[limeyx]

Oh, sorry.

I towed a GPS, then I used a cray to plot the coordinates into the scene.

I just used MSPaint to draw the line in of where I think we went. There is a large margin of error .

Mark

I like the cray idea better than the second, although if I got to "draw" my own course, then I'd never miss the boat/shore exit point at least!

 

[Rick Inman]

Man! I wish I could be there. Ben asked if I was going to be able to make it down while you are here Rick and unfortunately I'm just way to busy. At least I'll be able to make Lobos next Saturday for when Lynn and Peter are in town. Have fun with Mark, he's an excellent tour guide.

Wish you could be here too! And you are absolutely right about Mark. Can't wait for tomorrow's dive - slow down and actually take a look at something (see today's report below).

Mark is a good man! He has been a great source of advise,and I have enjoyed a few dives with him as well.He'll show you some neat stuff for sure!

I'm counting on it!

Here is a little map of our dive on Wed. Interesting perspective when you can see it like this ...

That is soooooooooo cool! But you forgot to paint in the shark.

 

[Rick Inman]

OK, this has turned out to be my favorite diving vacation ever. Today I did my first scooter dive.

I met our own Cali68 and his buddy at the Point Lobos gate at 8:30am. Cali68 (Chris) brought Ben CA’s scooter for me to use, because (so sad, so sad… ) Ben is out of town.

Chris gave me a detailed briefing on the use of the scooter, which went something like, “Here’s the trigger –ok, lets dive!” At least, by the time we hit the water, that was all I remembered.

So the park opened, we did our sadddddddddddd, suited up, did a head to toe, and hit the water. Let me tell you, this guy Chris does not screw around. He was not there to mess around – he was there to dive! These guys threw on their gear and jumped in so fast I had to rush to keep up – and I’m a hyper diver.

We hit the water, did a short surface swim and descended. I hit the scooter’s trigger and off we went. What a ride! We jetted over to the Hole in the Wall, flew over to the Sisters, sailed back to see the whalebones, and scooter-ed I-don’t-know-where. Everything went buy so fast, with Chris pointing out this and that and flying past it before I could respond. I heard myself laughing out load.

Did I mention the vis? Once we got out of the cove, the vis opened up to 70’ or 80’ feet!! What a sight – sailing over rainbow colored mountains, twisting through perfect kelp forests, crossing sandy white channels. It was indescribable. And seeing Chris and his buddy cruising along between rocky channels, their HIDs beaming into the distance, flipping and twisting and turning and flying up and over the next ridge…it was something to see.

We saw a ton of stuff, but the most interesting site was a six foot long Salp Chain undulating along at about 85’. We all came over to it and just stopped - looking, hovering motionless above it. Then with a pull of the trigger we were off again.

Suddenly the dive was over and we were climbing out. Did more than an hour really go by so fast?? It seemed like only a few minutes.

What an awesome dive. 65 mins, max depth 99’. We hadn’t even used half of our gas.

Thank you, Ben for the use of the scooter, and thank you Chris for the dive. Say what you want about DIR, there is something wonderful about traveling and diving with people you’ve never met before, and finding their skills totally top notch, and their protocols so compatible that it’s like you’ve always dived together.

We were out of he water, cleaned up, hosed down, packed and heading for lunch by 11:30am.

The fish tacos at Turtle Bay were fantastic and the conversation and coffee afterwards at Starbucks a joy.

Priscilla commented to me later, “You just can’t seem to get that smile off your face.”

Two more diving days to go.

The pics:
Cali68
Johnathan (sp?)
The Team

 

[mweitz]

Sweet!

Mark