On Friday, Allison, Kevin and I headed out from Lobos to try to get a dive in (with the weather being as dodgy as it has been this year). We loaded up on Phil's RIB and headed around Lobos to find a moderate swell, but nothing too concerning. Shortly enough, we were around Yankee Pt. and debating what site to dive on. We settled on an old favorite: the SW loop around Mt. Chamberlin's deep walls.
We dropped the hook into fairly clear water with little current and deployed in short order. We headed down the line and fairly quickly the EE sponges on the reef below at about 150' came into view; yay visibility
. After getting sorted on teh bottom, we headed W and found our way to an "alcove" of sorts on the SW side. Allison quickly flashed us as she had found a purple sea fan! I had seen one of these before at similar depth (~220') on Deep E3, but it was cool to see a second one locally. After taking some pictures, we started moving again, but ran quickly into a very friendly ratfish. We played around with the ratfish for awhile until it got sick of us, and continued to head for the the drop-off. Along the way, we passed a second ratfish as well as a rather large basket-star. We found the deep drop-off and played around a bit there before heading a bit shallower to finish off the second portion of our dive. We moved northward toward the K3 pinnacle, stopping to take some pictures and play with the rockfish along the way. In no time, our 40min BT was up, and it was time to deploy the SMB and start our ascent.
Deco was very uneventful, but very cold (I had 44F at some point on the bottom).
I guess we have some clear water in the area right now, even if clear == cold. I suppose that's a tradeoff that I'm ok with
Some pictures here.
We dropped the hook into fairly clear water with little current and deployed in short order. We headed down the line and fairly quickly the EE sponges on the reef below at about 150' came into view; yay visibility
. After getting sorted on teh bottom, we headed W and found our way to an "alcove" of sorts on the SW side. Allison quickly flashed us as she had found a purple sea fan! I had seen one of these before at similar depth (~220') on Deep E3, but it was cool to see a second one locally. After taking some pictures, we started moving again, but ran quickly into a very friendly ratfish. We played around with the ratfish for awhile until it got sick of us, and continued to head for the the drop-off. Along the way, we passed a second ratfish as well as a rather large basket-star. We found the deep drop-off and played around a bit there before heading a bit shallower to finish off the second portion of our dive. We moved northward toward the K3 pinnacle, stopping to take some pictures and play with the rockfish along the way. In no time, our 40min BT was up, and it was time to deploy the SMB and start our ascent.Deco was very uneventful, but very cold (I had 44F at some point on the bottom).
I guess we have some clear water in the area right now, even if clear == cold. I suppose that's a tradeoff that I'm ok with
Some pictures here.
