One of the local clubs was having a special on the Marissa today, so I decided to go :cool2: They actually had a boat yesterday that was supposed to go out too, but the swells at the buoys were 6' so the dive was canceled. I'm perfectly fine with that, because today was as good as flat! I decided to dive nitrox today, and it was a great decision because I don't feel too bad considering the water temp was 53ºF and we were down in the 70-80fsw range both dives. Thankfully this time I remembered my 7mm, not that it makes any difference at 80fsw. Here's the view on our way out:
Point Loma
My first fill came out to something like 36.8%, so I decided I wasn't going to figure out where the bottom was, because the first site was fairly deep. It was Dino Head, which supposedly has a rock which is shaped like a T-Rex head. The terrain is rocky cliff-tops at ~80fsw and canyons down to (or maybe past?) 90fsw. I stayed in between the 76-80fsw most of the dive, which was just a couple feet off the top of the cliffs so I don't really know what's going on below. I did hit 86fsw but decided that made me nervous, but luckily we were circling back to a little higher point. I couldn't see the bottom from there, but that's because it was 'regular San Diego viz' = 15' or less. My group and I (3 of us) decided to stay close to the boat because one of my buddies was doing a reef survey and would be going slowly looking in all the nooks and crannies anyway. Viz was a little milky so I didn't get too many shots, and I was busy working on holding 76fsw or thereabouts because I don't usually go from a boat in San Diego so this was pretty much a new site, and it's only my second dive on this wing (35lbs lift vs. the 20lbs I used to dive). Here's an interesting fish we saw, and my buddies after our ascent up some kelp as a line:
Oh, and a nice school we saw while we were holding a stop for a while
Back on the boat, we got a nice view of the Coronados, a group of islands right off the North Western coast of Mexico (Mexican owned islands):
(the stuff on the top of the water is kelp poking through)
The second dive was at NRAD - it was the stuff my starfish dreams are made out of! The second we dropped, starfish then nudis, and schools of fish, piles of anemonies, and just tons of awesome bottom-dwelling critters. We even saw a cowrie hiding under a rock. That cowrie pic didn't come out, but here are the other ones that look halfway decent:
The view -
Here's my buddies again
(their lights are red because is 'under water' mode, my camera makes lights red)
I was searching a rock for Spanish Shawls, but my buddy found it first and pointed it out:
I always manage to get the interesting fish from straight above so you can't actually figure out what it is
No idea what these are.. I assume somebody's living inside
Point Loma
My first fill came out to something like 36.8%, so I decided I wasn't going to figure out where the bottom was, because the first site was fairly deep. It was Dino Head, which supposedly has a rock which is shaped like a T-Rex head. The terrain is rocky cliff-tops at ~80fsw and canyons down to (or maybe past?) 90fsw. I stayed in between the 76-80fsw most of the dive, which was just a couple feet off the top of the cliffs so I don't really know what's going on below. I did hit 86fsw but decided that made me nervous, but luckily we were circling back to a little higher point. I couldn't see the bottom from there, but that's because it was 'regular San Diego viz' = 15' or less. My group and I (3 of us) decided to stay close to the boat because one of my buddies was doing a reef survey and would be going slowly looking in all the nooks and crannies anyway. Viz was a little milky so I didn't get too many shots, and I was busy working on holding 76fsw or thereabouts because I don't usually go from a boat in San Diego so this was pretty much a new site, and it's only my second dive on this wing (35lbs lift vs. the 20lbs I used to dive). Here's an interesting fish we saw, and my buddies after our ascent up some kelp as a line:
Oh, and a nice school we saw while we were holding a stop for a while
Back on the boat, we got a nice view of the Coronados, a group of islands right off the North Western coast of Mexico (Mexican owned islands):
(the stuff on the top of the water is kelp poking through)
The second dive was at NRAD - it was the stuff my starfish dreams are made out of! The second we dropped, starfish then nudis, and schools of fish, piles of anemonies, and just tons of awesome bottom-dwelling critters. We even saw a cowrie hiding under a rock. That cowrie pic didn't come out, but here are the other ones that look halfway decent:
The view -
Here's my buddies again
(their lights are red because is 'under water' mode, my camera makes lights red)
I was searching a rock for Spanish Shawls, but my buddy found it first and pointed it out:
I always manage to get the interesting fish from straight above so you can't actually figure out what it is
No idea what these are.. I assume somebody's living inside
