Time for a good early morning dive! I was planning on meeting up with Ben (SB: Ben_ca), Jeff, Al (SB: yangnome), and Ben for a Metridium field dive. Jeff, Ben, and I did our nice long swim out in line with Reedside to try and get to the end of the pipe. Ben and Al met us out there on their scooters. We dropped down in a plankton bloom and Al went scouted for the pipe. The vis was pretty bad, but we did our best to find where we were. Well Ben and Al did their best 
.
We started swimming out but we couldn’t find the fields so we decided just to keep going. We saw some jellies, and Ben pointed out a big maybe 10′ section of chain. Eventually we found the fields almost when we had decided to head back. Ben and Al went off on their scooters and Ben, Jeff and I hung out at the fields for a few minutes checking things out. I could hear a boat or two going by over head. Jeff apparently found a $1 bill down by some rocks. There was a jelly who’s tentacle had been grabbed by a Metridian and couldn’t get away. When we looked up there was just endless jellies swimming to the west all the way we could see in the water column. It looked amazing! I also couldn’t believe how large the Metridians were.
Jeff was getting low on air, IIRC about 1100 PSI and we started back. When Jeff was down to about 600 PSI we swam for another minute or two and stopped for our safety stop. Jeff decided to just surface as he we low on air. Once on the surface we had a very long swim back, but it was worth it. The tide was out and so we had to deal with some extra kelp in the way, but we swam back from the pipe to the steps near the wall to limit our walking distance.
DIVE #15: 52′Depth for 00:47 minutes (Started with 3150 PSI ended with 620 PSI) with 50F water temperatures. We had about 15-20′ of vis at depth. This dive was with EANx33, and I finished with a PO2 of 0.85.
After out 2:55 surface interval we began gearing for our second dive and the plan was to dive the wall. Once in the water we were beginning our swim out and we were having to dodge some classes. Good thing divers make bubbles, makes them easier to find above water. Also we were having to dodge quite a few jellies. They were all over and most looked dead. We swam out slightly past the bend in the wall before we decided to drop down.
We dropped down in about 30′ of water. Once we were under way I was amazed at how much life was actually out. There was a large number of very big sea creatures. Some very large sun stars and even a nudi that must have been about a foot and a half long! The whole dive we were getting visited by the sea lions, mostly because they were diving in above us. Under as well we were seeing a large number of jellies.
Right at about the end of the wall we all got startled by a sea lion that had grazed past us. Apparently there was probably 10-15 of them playing and swimming with us fairly nearby. Its too bad the vis was so poor because at some points they were almost out of sight range. Unfortunately I had started to get a little cold, mainly in my hands and arms but I was hanging in there.
On our way back we saw several large nudi’s and even some large sea cucumbers. We had to avoid one fishing line and other than that just your usual swim back along the breakwater wall. We did our safety stops before surfacing and then began our swim back. It was a nice long relaxing swim back, but again we had to dodge the jellies! Great dive, I saw so many cool things!
DIVE #16: 46′ Depth for 00:51 minutes (Started with 3450 PSI ended with 650 PSI) with 50F water temperatures. We had about 10-15′ of vis. This dive was with EANx24, and I finished with a PO2 of 0.57. (Was planning a 3rd dive so I used my refilled tank, but ended up not making another dive)
Thanks to Ben, Al, and Ben for allowing Jeff and I to come along and cramp their style!
.We started swimming out but we couldn’t find the fields so we decided just to keep going. We saw some jellies, and Ben pointed out a big maybe 10′ section of chain. Eventually we found the fields almost when we had decided to head back. Ben and Al went off on their scooters and Ben, Jeff and I hung out at the fields for a few minutes checking things out. I could hear a boat or two going by over head. Jeff apparently found a $1 bill down by some rocks. There was a jelly who’s tentacle had been grabbed by a Metridian and couldn’t get away. When we looked up there was just endless jellies swimming to the west all the way we could see in the water column. It looked amazing! I also couldn’t believe how large the Metridians were.
Jeff was getting low on air, IIRC about 1100 PSI and we started back. When Jeff was down to about 600 PSI we swam for another minute or two and stopped for our safety stop. Jeff decided to just surface as he we low on air. Once on the surface we had a very long swim back, but it was worth it. The tide was out and so we had to deal with some extra kelp in the way, but we swam back from the pipe to the steps near the wall to limit our walking distance.
DIVE #15: 52′Depth for 00:47 minutes (Started with 3150 PSI ended with 620 PSI) with 50F water temperatures. We had about 15-20′ of vis at depth. This dive was with EANx33, and I finished with a PO2 of 0.85.
After out 2:55 surface interval we began gearing for our second dive and the plan was to dive the wall. Once in the water we were beginning our swim out and we were having to dodge some classes
. Good thing divers make bubbles, makes them easier to find above water. Also we were having to dodge quite a few jellies. They were all over and most looked dead. We swam out slightly past the bend in the wall before we decided to drop down.We dropped down in about 30′ of water. Once we were under way I was amazed at how much life was actually out. There was a large number of very big sea creatures. Some very large sun stars and even a nudi that must have been about a foot and a half long! The whole dive we were getting visited by the sea lions, mostly because they were diving in above us. Under as well we were seeing a large number of jellies.
Right at about the end of the wall we all got startled by a sea lion that had grazed past us. Apparently there was probably 10-15 of them playing and swimming with us fairly nearby. Its too bad the vis was so poor because at some points they were almost out of sight range. Unfortunately I had started to get a little cold, mainly in my hands and arms but I was hanging in there.
On our way back we saw several large nudi’s and even some large sea cucumbers. We had to avoid one fishing line and other than that just your usual swim back along the breakwater wall. We did our safety stops before surfacing and then began our swim back. It was a nice long relaxing swim back, but again we had to dodge the jellies!
Great dive, I saw so many cool things!DIVE #16: 46′ Depth for 00:51 minutes (Started with 3450 PSI ended with 650 PSI) with 50F water temperatures. We had about 10-15′ of vis. This dive was with EANx24, and I finished with a PO2 of 0.57. (Was planning a 3rd dive so I used my refilled tank, but ended up not making another dive)
Thanks to Ben, Al, and Ben for allowing Jeff and I to come along and cramp their style
!
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