Finding the deeper Metridiums near the Breakwater

[powerofslack]

Hi. I used to be able to find a patch of Metridiums at about 70' by staying in line with the (north) edge of Reeside, and getting about even with a line between the end of the Breakwater and another point on the shore, but the last couple of tries have come up empty handed and we've had some dissension / confusion now about exactly what bearings we used to have the best luck with. These are a different patch than the ones you get to by following the pipe out. Can anyone give me a reliable set of shore bearings or compass headings that they've had good luck with for finding these? Thanks! Apologies if I missed this somewhere when searching to see if it'd been asked before.

Thanks again-

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

That sounds like sorta the outside end of the the Metridium fields. The
CSUMB bathymetry shows the hard substrate going to about 65' (below the
zero tideline, so maybe 5' more on a highish tide.) There are several
"patches" but they are all real close together, you can see one from the next
if the vis is 20' or so.

 

[Ben_ca]

Here's Rainman 02's webpage... it has the bathy info... It doesn't show the Met Fields clear enough though. I agree with Chuck I think you are a bit too deep, I use the pipe most of the time with success most of the time

I remember someone had a nice bathy map that even showed the end of the pipe and the barge...I'll post a link if I find it

When we scooter around the fields it's a bit easier to get a picture of where the rocks are in relation to each other.

 

[powerofslack]

Thanks guys! I actually thought to Google 'metridium + reeside' after I posted and found Chuck's GPS info for the Metridiums; I'm going to try to look at the printed out chart of those coordinates and eyeball a compass heading to the end of the breakwater if I'm along the left edge of Reeside. I'm not going down til the 7-8 but I'll let you know how I do. Thanks again.

 

[Anti-Hero]

Just like Ben_ca we use the large pipe running out from the gray pump house, at the end of the pipe we sort of zig zag outward until we find them, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't if we submerged early or spent too much time browsing the pipe.

 

[CA_Diver]

The pipe is a great way to find the Metridium and is a great dive in itself, so usually I've burned all my air before reaching the end. After talking to some locals and powerof slack, I got some bearings that worked pretty well. They said swim out along the right (north) side of Reeside (I used the left side to be safe on my attempt) until you can line up the front of the bathrooms on the breakwater with the front of the cafe then you'll be basically on top of them.

In my attempt to find then, I used the left side of Reeside and dropped in on barren sand. We then took swam due north probably about 60-100 feet (hence the right side of Reeside is probably better), and landed on a big patch of metrium at about 60ft. With the vis at ~20, the next patch was at about the limits of vis...sort of a glowing white blob in the distance.

North side of Reeside and when the front of bathroom on breakwater lines up with the cafe. This way worked for me, good luck everyone and happy diving.

 

[Brewski]

The Line ups I use are to Line up with Reeside and swim out until you can see the tip of the breakwater on one side and the large white colored rock near the aquarium on the other side. place your self directly in line with those two points and descend. You should be right over them.

Line up map

 

[bbianchi]

I usually want the bathroom building to be at about 180 degrees. If you find the rest of the lineups right but drop shallow swim out at 30 degrees. IIRC from my mapping project with a 0 tide they are as shallow as 45 feet, but one time I dropped too deep (72 fsw) and the rocks and metridium were all gone.

 

[btroxell]

There is a map in the files section of ba_diving on Yahoo groups. You must register to access it though (but it's free). Look in the "San Carlos Cove (Breakwater" directory. It's a pretty thorough navigational map of the whole Breakwater area.
I have created a 3D view of Breakwater and some other areas in Monterey Bay and it can be found at:
divemonterey.info/MontNEGE.html

Ben

 

[openhelix]

Good stuff! best "non dead reckoning" instructions I've seen