I was sitting at home last week thinking Friday was going to be slow. Then I saw there was a trip on the Peace to Anacapa - so I called Chica and we got on.
Conditions were OK. Not too much wind, mellow swell, but with the full moon a day away, the tide swing was monstah - so there was going to be current.
There was.
Capt'n Eric took us to the back side (read: not the pretty side) of Anacapa to escape the wind and swell.
Dive one was on Cat Rock (read: Urchin Barren rock) - Chica and I had the scooters so we went away from the herd, went deep and found lots and lots of Nudis.
Dive two was on "Coral Reef" - the dive of my life at Anacapa was on this same site in May of this year (its become simply known as "dive three") so I was pretty fired up. Again, with the scoots we were able to cover a lot more ground. We went pretty deep on this dive, stayed long, fizzed up a bit and took a circuitous route back to the boat. The good news is while we were over the sand we saw many, MANY Salp chains (the round ones, not the vacuum tube ones.) The bad news is I had on the 105mm Macro Telescope lens...
Dive three was going to be on the front side, but a peek around the corner confirmed it was getting pounded, so we anchored not too far from dive two. 'dette and I enjoyed dive two so much that we took the scoots and while the other divers went off the stern line, descended shallow and northwest (into the island) she and I went off the bow line, deep and southeast. More Nudis, lots to see, clear beautiful.
Three great dives. We didn't see another diver on any of these three dives the whole day after we made our initial descent. We dived way off the beaten path, and I gotta say, I was loving it. Scooters rock for this kind of diving. Current? Whatever. Surge? Please. Stay close to the boat and dive in the fishbowl? You're kidding right...?
'Chica - you dive hard and you always bring the fun. Thanks for another great day.
It was all macros - here are some shots. Full gallery here: Linky
Enjoy.
---
Ken
Hudson's on the brittle star carpet. These guys are just funny, with their floppy "ears!"
Stearnsi - we saw several of these on dive two - Coral Reef is the best Nudi site on Anacapa, IMO. We say 14 species on this trip, with two of our dives on that one site.
This is a new one for me. I have no idea what this species is, but I'm pretty sure it's NOT a Sandy. If you have any ideas, let me know. I love hosting a Nudi I've never shot before. Sorry for the Science Class shot - but I wanted to be sure I got enough so we could ID it when we got home.
Lots of Hermi's on this trip. Its been awhile since I've seen so many. On dive two we found a lobster trap at 104 feet that had 5 different species on it, and about 15 Nudis just on TOP (this Hermi is from the trap.) I love that site.
This baby Hudson's was not having a good day. He was crawling on a brittle star, when he lost his purchase with all but the very butt-end of his foot. So he was swinging in the surge, barely hanging on. It was too funny. To give some scale - the cup coral on the left is about the size of a Nickel. This little Hudson's was about half-a-coffee bean size. Poor little guy.
On that side of Anacapa, the Brittle Stars dominate everything. This very large Sandiegensis was not fond of walking over them. He was all "hot foot hot foot" as he was moving over the biomass - like barefoot on the street in the summer.
There were lots of Clown Nudis. This one was pretty Phat.
Here's what they're supposed to look like!
Camo Cuthona! Check the cuthona, trying to blend into the Hydroids... I love this shot. When Nudi's play Hide-and-seek!
Lil Tritonia - this is another baby Nudi. I love the tight rope feeling of him out on the branch over the Red Gorgonian. The surge kept blowing another gorgonian in front of the cam. It took a long time to hold steady and compose this one. I like how it came out, especially the depth of the shot.
Right place, right time, wrong lens. OY! Some of the salps we saw.
For those of you keeping score at home - Flying Hermissendas are not half the subject Flying Alabaster Nudi's are. Here are some flying Hermi shots - one with Chica's fat glove mixed in (as she was desperately waving at the Hermi to coach him to do SOMETHING. He did nothing but fall. BORE-ing.)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Conditions were OK. Not too much wind, mellow swell, but with the full moon a day away, the tide swing was monstah - so there was going to be current.
There was.
Capt'n Eric took us to the back side (read: not the pretty side) of Anacapa to escape the wind and swell.
Dive one was on Cat Rock (read: Urchin Barren rock) - Chica and I had the scooters so we went away from the herd, went deep and found lots and lots of Nudis.
Dive two was on "Coral Reef" - the dive of my life at Anacapa was on this same site in May of this year (its become simply known as "dive three") so I was pretty fired up. Again, with the scoots we were able to cover a lot more ground. We went pretty deep on this dive, stayed long, fizzed up a bit and took a circuitous route back to the boat. The good news is while we were over the sand we saw many, MANY Salp chains (the round ones, not the vacuum tube ones.) The bad news is I had on the 105mm Macro Telescope lens...
Dive three was going to be on the front side, but a peek around the corner confirmed it was getting pounded, so we anchored not too far from dive two. 'dette and I enjoyed dive two so much that we took the scoots and while the other divers went off the stern line, descended shallow and northwest (into the island) she and I went off the bow line, deep and southeast. More Nudis, lots to see, clear beautiful.
Three great dives. We didn't see another diver on any of these three dives the whole day after we made our initial descent. We dived way off the beaten path, and I gotta say, I was loving it. Scooters rock for this kind of diving. Current? Whatever. Surge? Please. Stay close to the boat and dive in the fishbowl? You're kidding right...?
'Chica - you dive hard and you always bring the fun. Thanks for another great day.
It was all macros - here are some shots. Full gallery here: Linky
Enjoy.
---
Ken
Hudson's on the brittle star carpet. These guys are just funny, with their floppy "ears!"
Stearnsi - we saw several of these on dive two - Coral Reef is the best Nudi site on Anacapa, IMO. We say 14 species on this trip, with two of our dives on that one site.
This is a new one for me. I have no idea what this species is, but I'm pretty sure it's NOT a Sandy. If you have any ideas, let me know. I love hosting a Nudi I've never shot before. Sorry for the Science Class shot - but I wanted to be sure I got enough so we could ID it when we got home.
Lots of Hermi's on this trip. Its been awhile since I've seen so many. On dive two we found a lobster trap at 104 feet that had 5 different species on it, and about 15 Nudis just on TOP (this Hermi is from the trap.) I love that site.
This baby Hudson's was not having a good day. He was crawling on a brittle star, when he lost his purchase with all but the very butt-end of his foot. So he was swinging in the surge, barely hanging on. It was too funny. To give some scale - the cup coral on the left is about the size of a Nickel. This little Hudson's was about half-a-coffee bean size. Poor little guy.
On that side of Anacapa, the Brittle Stars dominate everything. This very large Sandiegensis was not fond of walking over them. He was all "hot foot hot foot" as he was moving over the biomass - like barefoot on the street in the summer.
There were lots of Clown Nudis. This one was pretty Phat.
Here's what they're supposed to look like!
Camo Cuthona! Check the cuthona, trying to blend into the Hydroids... I love this shot. When Nudi's play Hide-and-seek!
Lil Tritonia - this is another baby Nudi. I love the tight rope feeling of him out on the branch over the Red Gorgonian. The surge kept blowing another gorgonian in front of the cam. It took a long time to hold steady and compose this one. I like how it came out, especially the depth of the shot.
Right place, right time, wrong lens. OY! Some of the salps we saw.
For those of you keeping score at home - Flying Hermissendas are not half the subject Flying Alabaster Nudi's are. Here are some flying Hermi shots - one with Chica's fat glove mixed in (as she was desperately waving at the Hermi to coach him to do SOMETHING. He did nothing but fall. BORE-ing.)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
