First cold water boat dive

[melfox26]

Sorry, I posted when I was pretty tired.

So, there were large swells, which contributed to a mild case of seasickness (I am usually bulletproof). It got worse as the day progressed so I don't remember the dives as well as I would like.

Those were some of the biggest swells we've seen in a while. We took 3 Zodiacs out and there were times that I couldn't see the lead zodiac due to the swells. The Bonine I took didn't help and I deposited my breakfast at the edge of the Point Pinos kelp bed, on Coastal Cleanup Day too =( Great vis regardless, but it's not easy putting on a bp in 7 ft swells in a soft bottom inflatable boat.

Mel

 

[Brian Gilpin]

Could your dive at Butterfly House have been done from shore. In other words how far out were you to get that depth?

I hear ya about the tanks. I dont blame the boat but bigger tanks are the way to go IMO. At least they were steel.

 

[mweitz]

Could your dive at Butterfly House have been done from shore. In other words how far out were you to get that depth?

I hear ya about the tanks. I dont blame the boat but bigger tanks are the way to go IMO. At least they were steel.

Uh, I don't remember exactly. It was a loooong way though and there was a LOT of kelp between us and the shore....

Mark

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

But the Express was undoubtedly anchored just outside
the kelp bed. The outside edge of the kelp is doable as
a beach dive with careful planning and gas management.
But only just. I've done it once, but my buddy had to do
the kelp crawl back in. I've also given a couple of divers
who had bad gas management a ride in my boat from
the outside edge of the kelp (they had like 400 PSI)
around to Carmel River Beach where one of them hoofed
it back to BFH for the car. Turns out they were in an
advanced class. Dunno which was (or would have been)
worse: the reaming out they got from their instructor,
the kelp krawl if they'd had to do it, or how sea sick they
got sitting on my boat while I did my dive. (They
surfaced after I'd anchored and Linda was ready to roll
in, so I let them sit on the boat while we did our dive).
I'm sure they learned their lesson.

 

[northcoast_diver]

Could your dive at Butterfly House have been done from shore. In other words how far out were you to get that depth?

I hear ya about the tanks. I dont blame the boat but bigger tanks are the way to go IMO. At least they were steel.

You can read about the beach dive site for Butterfly House in Bruce Watkin's book on Monterey diving.

https://secure.inno-tech.com/sbc/bookorder_web/bkorder_watkins.htm

 

[northcoast_diver]

...I didn't really like diving on Steel LP 80's. I felt our dive time was very short for the price, but the ship / crew / amenities seemed top notch. Any idea why they would use LP 80’s?

The crew or DM should have told you to remove at least 2 lbs from your normal weight belt, with the LP steel 80s. You were probably diving overweighted. And if you were accustomed to diving with aluminum 80s, then you were possibly 8 lbs overweighted. And that is why it may have seemed uncomfortable to you. And that could have been why you were breathing more too. Or it could have been due to the surge. It was a rough weekend to be out diving, this past.