fobturbo
Contributor
Met up with Kristina @Breakwater on Sunday morning. I arrived a bit early to scope out the conditions and to my surprise:
1) Extremely low tide
2) Water was really flat with ankle slappers
And the biggest thing of all, there was ample parking along the wall. I didn't even have to leave my table/tank out to hold a spot for Kristina.
With conditions as these (and hopes of good vis), I figured we'd try to hit the barge on the first dive and maybe look for Kristina's "big round thingy" out in the middle reef area somewhere for the second.
While gearing up, Kristina saw James and one of his buddies and so we had a quartet for the barge. Dive plan was to all kick out to 13 marker along the wall, then Kristina and I would descend, look for the bottle and then shoot a SMB to lead the others down and then haul arse over to the barge. Before Kristina and I went down, I spotted a lone sea nettle beneath us. I silently said a prayer that we weren't going to have an invasion of the bastards like we did last year around this time and dropped silently down. To my delight, they were present, but fairly sparse. It took us a little bit of time to locate the bottle, but we eventually found it and up goes the bag. A short while later, Bogie and buddy descended. There was a bit of confusion as to whether or not I was going to reel it in and stow things away prior to heading off. I tried to signal that I'd stow things on the way back in but it took a little while to get the point across. I remember how big of a PITA it was to get the SMB properly stowed during Essentials and I didn't want to waste precious air fumbling with it. Everything else goes to plan, we follow the line out to the barge, find the barge. Spend some time exploring it and then upon turn around pressure, start heading back. Thanks to some good navigating skills from James & Kristina we're actually able to find the line and follow it back (first for me anyways).
Once we get back to the bottle, my trusty reel and SMB are still there like I left them. Next comes the arduous task of reeling it back down without taking too much time. When shooting the SMB, I tried to put in the minimal amount to get it to the top and standing up, but I put in way more than was necessary. Even when I was totally negative, I couldn't reel it in with out being pulled up. I signal to everyone that I'm going to the surface to pack things up, but Kristina dumps her air and goes totally negative and takes the reel and starts reeling the line in. It basically took both of us being totally negative to reel the SMB down and empty it. A few minutes later, everything is stowed and we start heading back towards the beach. Rock bottom hits and we start ascending to the surface. Once we're all at the surface and we confirm that everyone is okay, we start kicking on our backs to shore marveling about what a good dive it was.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a sea otter pop up, get on it's back and start rubbing it's tummy. He/she stops takes a look at us and pops down. A little while later he/she'd pop up, look around and the pop down again. He/she did this a few more times, but each time getting close. A small sea lion does a quick dive by and darts away. I'm thinking this is a nice way to end a good dive. However, the sea otter is getting closer and closer...at about 15 feet away, he/she gets on it's tummy and start swimming straight towards James...I'm thinking that he/she will turn away at any moment and don't bother with my camera but just watch...he/she doesn't turn away so I start reaching for my camera. According to James, he/she bounces on his fins and then dives off. Kristina and I are thinking that was really cool and are envious of James' close encounter. James on the other hand, is excited, but the first thing following "did you see that?" was "You guys would have protected me if anything were to have happened right?" Being good dive buddies, we would have. Only, I'd have waited until I could no longer record video before going over to do anything to help
After a short SI, we decide to hit the middle reef area and look for Kristina's fabled "big round thingy". Well we didn't find it, but saw lots of fish. I haven't seen so much in that area before. Stuff ranging from the typical sheep head crab, to a bunch of young rockfish to some good sized cabezons. Kristina even spotted a Hopkins' Rose nudi. From then on, she and James were spotting them almost all over the place. James also spotted a rainbow nudi swimming in the water column. As James and I both have our cameras with us, paparzzi action ensues. James is firing away, I'm switching between between photo and video. If the rainbow nudi was trying to "head for the light" for any reason, it would have had a couple directions to pick.
Looks like SB is still having issues with picture uploads, so I uploaded a few pictures to picasaweb. Unfortunately, the pictures of the of Hopkin's Rose is partially blocked by some seaweed. I hope you had better luck James with your pictures.
Picasa Web Albums - Matt - Breakwater
Details
Dive 1:
Site: Barge
Dive Time: 50 minutes
Max depth: 64 FSW
Temp @Depth: 52
Dive 2:
Dive Time: 55 minutes
Max depth: 26 FSW
Temp @Depth: 52
1) Extremely low tide
2) Water was really flat with ankle slappers
And the biggest thing of all, there was ample parking along the wall. I didn't even have to leave my table/tank out to hold a spot for Kristina.
With conditions as these (and hopes of good vis), I figured we'd try to hit the barge on the first dive and maybe look for Kristina's "big round thingy" out in the middle reef area somewhere for the second.
While gearing up, Kristina saw James and one of his buddies and so we had a quartet for the barge. Dive plan was to all kick out to 13 marker along the wall, then Kristina and I would descend, look for the bottle and then shoot a SMB to lead the others down and then haul arse over to the barge. Before Kristina and I went down, I spotted a lone sea nettle beneath us. I silently said a prayer that we weren't going to have an invasion of the bastards like we did last year around this time and dropped silently down. To my delight, they were present, but fairly sparse. It took us a little bit of time to locate the bottle, but we eventually found it and up goes the bag. A short while later, Bogie and buddy descended. There was a bit of confusion as to whether or not I was going to reel it in and stow things away prior to heading off. I tried to signal that I'd stow things on the way back in but it took a little while to get the point across. I remember how big of a PITA it was to get the SMB properly stowed during Essentials and I didn't want to waste precious air fumbling with it. Everything else goes to plan, we follow the line out to the barge, find the barge. Spend some time exploring it and then upon turn around pressure, start heading back. Thanks to some good navigating skills from James & Kristina we're actually able to find the line and follow it back (first for me anyways).
Once we get back to the bottle, my trusty reel and SMB are still there like I left them. Next comes the arduous task of reeling it back down without taking too much time. When shooting the SMB, I tried to put in the minimal amount to get it to the top and standing up, but I put in way more than was necessary. Even when I was totally negative, I couldn't reel it in with out being pulled up. I signal to everyone that I'm going to the surface to pack things up, but Kristina dumps her air and goes totally negative and takes the reel and starts reeling the line in. It basically took both of us being totally negative to reel the SMB down and empty it. A few minutes later, everything is stowed and we start heading back towards the beach. Rock bottom hits and we start ascending to the surface. Once we're all at the surface and we confirm that everyone is okay, we start kicking on our backs to shore marveling about what a good dive it was.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a sea otter pop up, get on it's back and start rubbing it's tummy. He/she stops takes a look at us and pops down. A little while later he/she'd pop up, look around and the pop down again. He/she did this a few more times, but each time getting close. A small sea lion does a quick dive by and darts away. I'm thinking this is a nice way to end a good dive. However, the sea otter is getting closer and closer...at about 15 feet away, he/she gets on it's tummy and start swimming straight towards James...I'm thinking that he/she will turn away at any moment and don't bother with my camera but just watch...he/she doesn't turn away so I start reaching for my camera. According to James, he/she bounces on his fins and then dives off. Kristina and I are thinking that was really cool and are envious of James' close encounter. James on the other hand, is excited, but the first thing following "did you see that?" was "You guys would have protected me if anything were to have happened right?" Being good dive buddies, we would have. Only, I'd have waited until I could no longer record video before going over to do anything to help
After a short SI, we decide to hit the middle reef area and look for Kristina's fabled "big round thingy". Well we didn't find it, but saw lots of fish. I haven't seen so much in that area before. Stuff ranging from the typical sheep head crab, to a bunch of young rockfish to some good sized cabezons. Kristina even spotted a Hopkins' Rose nudi. From then on, she and James were spotting them almost all over the place. James also spotted a rainbow nudi swimming in the water column. As James and I both have our cameras with us, paparzzi action ensues. James is firing away, I'm switching between between photo and video. If the rainbow nudi was trying to "head for the light" for any reason, it would have had a couple directions to pick.
Looks like SB is still having issues with picture uploads, so I uploaded a few pictures to picasaweb. Unfortunately, the pictures of the of Hopkin's Rose is partially blocked by some seaweed. I hope you had better luck James with your pictures.
Picasa Web Albums - Matt - Breakwater
Details
Dive 1:
Site: Barge
Dive Time: 50 minutes
Max depth: 64 FSW
Temp @Depth: 52
Dive 2:
Dive Time: 55 minutes
Max depth: 26 FSW
Temp @Depth: 52
