fnfalman
Contributor
I went on a two-days outing with the Great Escape between the 18 and 19 of August 2012. The main destination was Cortez Bank and we made it, so now I only have San Nicholas left to try to hit.
However, upon saying that, I wasn't impressed with Cortez Bank. I know that it's a huge area but we hit three different places and they were all shallow at around 40-50ft. Not that there's anything wrong with shallow diving but the topography and general condition were no different than Catalina. I suppose during lobster season, critters are abound at Cortez Bank but for somebody who is a non-hunter, I was a bit nonplussed.
However, before we got to Cortez Bank, we stopped and did one dive at Tanner Bank. Oh man, that was THE DIVE of the weekend. I wish that we could have stayed at Tanner for another dive. Viz was great at easily 60-ft plus, at depth temp was around low 50Fs but it was nice and warm when you do your safety stop. I saw nudies out of the wazoo!!! Had to break out not just the ID cards but the nudie book to identify some of them: I saw a noble dorid that was a monster, bigger than the ones I've seen at San Miguel, San Diego, Clown, limecia cockerelli, tritonia, Hudson's, and one lone tiny Spanish Shawl. Purple hydrocoral decorated the rim of a ledge that we dropped off to get out of the current. Some weird fish that I've seen before and had to break out the ID book as well. Over all, a great dive. Too bad we only did one dive there.
The next day we did a pre-dawn dive and three day dives at three diferent spots at San Clemente. No explosions this time. The dives to me were a bit ho hum. Water is nice and warm at mid-60Fs, great viz in excess of 60-ft, thick kelp forests with some current to keep things interesting. However, I didn't see anything exotic there. Except for the awesome viz and super thick kelps, it could have been Catalina. Lots of small lobsters though.
Dr. Bill, I didn't realize that bat rays had bad eyesights? There was one that was parallelling me for about a minute then it surged ahead, made a U-turn and headed directly towards me. At about a foot away from contact, it finally saw me and banked away like a Messerschmidt being chased by a Spitfire.
However, upon saying that, I wasn't impressed with Cortez Bank. I know that it's a huge area but we hit three different places and they were all shallow at around 40-50ft. Not that there's anything wrong with shallow diving but the topography and general condition were no different than Catalina. I suppose during lobster season, critters are abound at Cortez Bank but for somebody who is a non-hunter, I was a bit nonplussed.
However, before we got to Cortez Bank, we stopped and did one dive at Tanner Bank. Oh man, that was THE DIVE of the weekend. I wish that we could have stayed at Tanner for another dive. Viz was great at easily 60-ft plus, at depth temp was around low 50Fs but it was nice and warm when you do your safety stop. I saw nudies out of the wazoo!!! Had to break out not just the ID cards but the nudie book to identify some of them: I saw a noble dorid that was a monster, bigger than the ones I've seen at San Miguel, San Diego, Clown, limecia cockerelli, tritonia, Hudson's, and one lone tiny Spanish Shawl. Purple hydrocoral decorated the rim of a ledge that we dropped off to get out of the current. Some weird fish that I've seen before and had to break out the ID book as well. Over all, a great dive. Too bad we only did one dive there.
The next day we did a pre-dawn dive and three day dives at three diferent spots at San Clemente. No explosions this time. The dives to me were a bit ho hum. Water is nice and warm at mid-60Fs, great viz in excess of 60-ft, thick kelp forests with some current to keep things interesting. However, I didn't see anything exotic there. Except for the awesome viz and super thick kelps, it could have been Catalina. Lots of small lobsters though.
Dr. Bill, I didn't realize that bat rays had bad eyesights? There was one that was parallelling me for about a minute then it surged ahead, made a U-turn and headed directly towards me. At about a foot away from contact, it finally saw me and banked away like a Messerschmidt being chased by a Spitfire.
