SeaYoda
Contributor
It was time for my first dive of the year and I can say "Mission Accomplished" and mean it. I headed to ScubaTech about 2pm for fills. It has been so long since I filled one of my tanks that it needed a visual. Nancy and the gang had brought the SeaCobra back from painting, repairs, and inspection -they said they were cold on the bay. They all thought I was nutts trying to dive the jetties today. The wind had been from the south and air temps not bad. The wind had begun to shift to the west and get quite a bit stronger. I ignored the weenies at the shop and headed to the parking area at the jetties. There were a surprising number of cars there for a January Monday. I did get a good spot and as I unloaded the gear into the sand yacht GFWB pulled up. I headed across the sand against a horrific west wind while GFWB geared up at the car. I took a breather at the end of the wall and met some folks on vacation from the Philippines. I finished the walk and took some pictures of the weather conditions. People were surfing on the south side of the finger jetty if that tells you anything about the winds. GFWB came down the beach and informed me that scuba066 was right behind him. GFWB and I became international superstars while waiting - the Philippine tourists took a picture with us. I'm sure they will go home and tell all their friends about the crazy American divers they met 
. After the arrival of scuba066 we hit the water. I had been given a report that viz at the bridge rubble was 50'. We were hoping for some of the same but soon found that the waves had stirred up the sand into about a 15' viz of tiny specks. It remained surprisingly bright through the dive given the sun heading down quickly at the time of the dive. Dive lights were needed for pics and spotting stuff but we could have navigated around without them. I got a water temp of 59 degrees at about 30'. There was the noticeable winter lack of fish schools but still had sandfish, sandperch, seabass, grouper, damsels, and stone crabs. We tried to go around the point but the current was too strong to one hand crawl (due to camera) so we stayed on the north side and took what pictures we could. We ended the dive and the wind had shifted to the north / northwest. It had died down a little but was colder. We decided to get some grub at Golden Corral after the dive. By the time we came out, the wind had picked up and was much cooler. We said our good-byes quickly and got in the heated vehicles for a toasty ride home.
Here are the pictures I could salvage - just click the picture for a slideshow.
. After the arrival of scuba066 we hit the water. I had been given a report that viz at the bridge rubble was 50'. We were hoping for some of the same but soon found that the waves had stirred up the sand into about a 15' viz of tiny specks. It remained surprisingly bright through the dive given the sun heading down quickly at the time of the dive. Dive lights were needed for pics and spotting stuff but we could have navigated around without them. I got a water temp of 59 degrees at about 30'. There was the noticeable winter lack of fish schools but still had sandfish, sandperch, seabass, grouper, damsels, and stone crabs. We tried to go around the point but the current was too strong to one hand crawl (due to camera) so we stayed on the north side and took what pictures we could. We ended the dive and the wind had shifted to the north / northwest. It had died down a little but was colder. We decided to get some grub at Golden Corral after the dive. By the time we came out, the wind had picked up and was much cooler. We said our good-byes quickly and got in the heated vehicles for a toasty ride home.Here are the pictures I could salvage - just click the picture for a slideshow.
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My computer showed max depth of 46 feet, with a 44 minute bottom time. Our plan was to try to make it out to the anchor, and then drift back and take pictures and look around. I would estimate that we made it about 2/3 rd of the way to the anchor. The current was so strong that Yoda signaled me and we decided to drift back. When Yoda let go of the rock he shot back out of sight within a few seconds...the current was really ripping. We drifted back to around the shell bed where the current wasn't so strong.
