Dive Report: 15.May Monastery

[bbianchi]

Don't mind the title, I am a day off, thats what I get for thinking I posted after midnight. These are May 16th reports...

So the original plan this morning was for us to Dive Lobos. However, apparently if you don’t make your reservation super early, the ladies don’t process it and you make it to the gate only to be turned away. We decided to make the quick drive over to Monastery and see how it looked. Fortunately it was a pretty mellow day for Monastery. It wasn’t like the 3rd, but it was better than the 4th. As I was the only one of the three Ron, Todd, & I that had dove there they relied on me to make the call. They were willing to go with my green light assessment.

We geared up and headed to the beach. The entry was fairly calm. We just walked in and stopped right past the surf and put our fins on. From there we swam out a ways and noticed a dead otter in the kelp. We didn’t go to investigate obviously and then swam a little ways out and began our dive. Ron and I were a little concerned initially about the dive as there was a LOT of debris in the water. Fortunately once we made it to the rocky reef area things cleared up. The good thing about this dive from the last was that there was not nearly as much surge as the prior. That brought out a lot of life. All of the anenomies and a lot of fish were out today. There were all kinds of fish that I can’t even begin to identify. The nudi’s werent out in as much force but there were still a few of them.

I always seem to enjoy swimming through the thick kelp there and looking back up at the surface. Either at the fish and kelp above me or just the light shining through the kelp. The surge was a little rough in some of the rockier areas so we stayed more to the outside. There was still plenty to see, plus we even ran into the A-Frame again. Hey, thats the extent of my wreck diving so I enjoy finding it.

Once we got to about 1700 PSI we turned back and made our way back to the shore. It was a nice scenic swim back. No longer do I feel like the kelp is going to reach out and pull me in, so I enjoy swimming through the stocks of kelp. Our exit was pretty mellow as well. We still did the crawl but it was not a taxing crawl. Great enjoyable dive in the end.

DIVE #19: 50′ Depth for 00:44 minutes with 52F water temperatures. We had about 25-30′of vis. This dive was with EANx34 and I had a PO2 of 0.85. Ill eventually have some pictures up, just check my blog in a few days.

 

[rainman_02]

There were enough teams at Lobos on a Friday to keep you from diving there?

 

[bbianchi]

Yup 9 reservations (not counting my phantom one) and then the rest were people waiting.

 

[Brewski]

OK so when we did the meet and greet there I was a little disappointed that we descended early and had to swim to the field so this time I was determined to show that the line ups work. Brandon Todd and I headed out to the fields in very calm surface conditions. We lined up the tip of the breakwater with the white rock checked that we were still in line with Reeside and descended. the first 30 feet was clouded with plankton, not too thick but there. I was happy to see the form of Metridium materialize below us. I took some shots to adjust the camera's exposure setting, looked at Brandon who was pointing out two mating snails. We saw quite a lot of Nudi's, snails, etc. at the 2000psi mark we decided to head in toward the pipe. After finding the pipe I saw the largest slug I've ever seen. took a couple of shots, moved on then again another one. Finally as were heading back toward the beach I see Brandon pointing out something under a kelp frond, a small white octopus. Unfortunately i didn't get any good pictures of it, But I think I need to bring Brandon along to spot more often as he spots all kinds of things I miss.

 

[snickelfritz76]

We dove south monastary today - first dive at 8:30 was good, second dive at 11:00 was with very strong surge.

I usually pass monastary and dive lobos, so this was my first time there. Is the surge typically strong?

 

[dannobee]

We dove south monastary today - first dive at 8:30 was good, second dive at 11:00 was with very strong surge.

I usually pass monastary and dive lobos, so this was my first time there. Is the surge typically strong?

It depends, so always check the swell model before you go. It appears that the swell reading was about 7 ft @13 seconds on your second dive. The longer the interval, the deeper the surge will go.

Monastery is an exposed site, so the full energy of the swell is typically directed at you. Obviously, if the ocean looks like a lake, there won't be much surge to contend with. If it looks rough and the wind is up, be prepared for some surge.

 

[sarita75]

OK so when we did the meet and greet there I was a little disappointed that we descended early and had to swim to the field so this time I was determined to show that the line ups work. Brandon Todd and I headed out to the fields in very calm surface conditions. We lined up the tip of the breakwater with the white rock checked that we were still in line with Reeside and descended. the first 30 feet was clouded with plankton, not too thick but there. I was happy to see the form of Metridium materialize below us. I took some shots to adjust the camera's exposure setting, looked at Brandon who was pointing out two mating snails. We saw quite a lot of Nudi's, snails, etc. at the 2000psi mark we decided to head in toward the pipe. After finding the pipe I saw the largest slug I've ever seen. took a couple of shots, moved on then again another one. Finally as were heading back toward the beach I see Brandon pointing out something under a kelp frond, a small white octopus. Unfortunately i didn't get any good pictures of it, But I think I need to bring Brandon along to spot more often as he spots all kinds of things I miss.

Nice report and photos Ron. The Metridium are so hard to photograph and I think playing with the exposure really helped you on those ones because the white actually looks pretty good on those pictures - Congrats. I've all put given up on trying to get good photos of them.

We had a nice day at the Metridium yesterday and Tom got us lined up great on the surface using the street lamp, stop sign and the end of the 2 story building with the Russian Deli. We dropped down pretty much within a few yards of the Metridium - great! Viz wasn't stellar although there were just tons and tons of students from UC Davis there, so we weren't expecting much. I'll post a report and photos probably later today.