Arnaud
Contributor
I drove up to Malibu yesterday. The water looked like sewage all over. Same condition in MB and Hermosa. Apparently though, it's been clearing past Zuma.
Hypothesis on Poor Vis and GW's
- Thread starter drbill
- Start date
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Laguna Beach Saturday and Catalina Sunday. Should prove to be an interest contrast in conditions....
Went skin diving in Laguna on Sunday, 9/14 (Divers Cove) no red tide, visibility not too good (maybe 10 feet), but lots of life, good stuff to look at even with a pretty strong surge. Bat ray, garibaldis, rock fish, halibut... No complaints.
Drove around a bit that day - PV looked red everywhere now and El Porto was the reddest I've ever seen it. Soup. Hope it clears up soon. Low vis is one thing, but this red tide needs to go.
Guess I will be driving back down to the OC, or maybe coughing up for a boat. Maybe it's a good thing my gear still hasn't arrived...
Drove around a bit that day - PV looked red everywhere now and El Porto was the reddest I've ever seen it. Soup. Hope it clears up soon. Low vis is one thing, but this red tide needs to go.
Guess I will be driving back down to the OC, or maybe coughing up for a boat. Maybe it's a good thing my gear still hasn't arrived...
We took O/W and Advanced students to Diver's Cove on Saturday.
The first dive was absolutely awesome. Lake Laguna has an occasional 1 foot wave, other than that it was flat as glass...I told one of our students that she might stub her toe on a wave. Visibility was a solid 15-20' and there was absolutely NO surge. Probably the closest to 'pool like' conditions I have seen there in a long time and a great experience for the O/W students doing dive 1.
However, by the time we got back in the water around 8:30, viz had gone sour. Still no waves, but the surge had picked up a bit maybe 1-2 feet. The clear waters had been replaced with the pea soup (undoubtedly aided by a dozen or so student divers in the water) that had become typical. I haven't had a chance to look at the tide tables, but I suspect they were against dive 2.
On Sunday, we took a group over to Catalina on the Pacific Star. Leaving Redondo, it looked like we were driving through Chocolate milk (others had different views of what it looked like, but I would prefer to dive in Chocolate milk vs. their assessement). Thankfully the red tide cleared up several miles of the coast.
The ride over and back was uneventful........except for all of the the whales we saw!!!! Having grown up in SoCal, I really hadn't gone whale watching often (actually once, with my eldest son) and it was obviously quite a treat for everyone on board. Multiple whales all blasting plumes of white water 20 feet into the air! Every once and a while, we would see one dive and their tail rise out of the water....it sounded like 4th of July with all of the oohs and aaahs on board. Someone said they were Finbacks, but I didn't see a dorsal fin and am not qualified to identify a whale by its tail alone.
We had Advanced and Speciality Students on board and so decided to head to deeper waters at Eagle's Nest. As an Instructor, I often miss some of the action -- busy keeping an eye on the students vs. the wildlife. The group of 'fun' divers headed to shallower waters and had friendly encounters with sea lions and a mola mola amongst the normal Catalina Island dwellers. Those of us who went deep enountered several thermoclines on the way to 95' & 125'. Viz at depth was a reasonable (for this summer anyway) 20 feet. Shallower it was progressively worse, again typical for what we have been encountering. After the two dives at Eagle's Nest, we headed for shallower waters near Black Rock. Nothing two exciting here as well, viz was probably 15' at 25-30 fsw and I just worked with my two PPB students.
As mentioned above, the return ride aforded us the opportunity to see more whales and the skipper was kind enough to slow down and manuever a bit to let us enjoy the show.
I have to admit, that the first dive on Saturday renewed my faith that better dive can be had, even this summer, you just need a combination of luck and opportunities (read: dive lots).
We are headed to Shaws Cove on Friday night for a night dive, lets hope my luck holds and viz is good.
Otter
The first dive was absolutely awesome. Lake Laguna has an occasional 1 foot wave, other than that it was flat as glass...I told one of our students that she might stub her toe on a wave. Visibility was a solid 15-20' and there was absolutely NO surge. Probably the closest to 'pool like' conditions I have seen there in a long time and a great experience for the O/W students doing dive 1.
However, by the time we got back in the water around 8:30, viz had gone sour. Still no waves, but the surge had picked up a bit maybe 1-2 feet. The clear waters had been replaced with the pea soup (undoubtedly aided by a dozen or so student divers in the water) that had become typical. I haven't had a chance to look at the tide tables, but I suspect they were against dive 2.
On Sunday, we took a group over to Catalina on the Pacific Star. Leaving Redondo, it looked like we were driving through Chocolate milk (others had different views of what it looked like, but I would prefer to dive in Chocolate milk vs. their assessement). Thankfully the red tide cleared up several miles of the coast.
The ride over and back was uneventful........except for all of the the whales we saw!!!! Having grown up in SoCal, I really hadn't gone whale watching often (actually once, with my eldest son) and it was obviously quite a treat for everyone on board. Multiple whales all blasting plumes of white water 20 feet into the air! Every once and a while, we would see one dive and their tail rise out of the water....it sounded like 4th of July with all of the oohs and aaahs on board. Someone said they were Finbacks, but I didn't see a dorsal fin and am not qualified to identify a whale by its tail alone.
We had Advanced and Speciality Students on board and so decided to head to deeper waters at Eagle's Nest. As an Instructor, I often miss some of the action -- busy keeping an eye on the students vs. the wildlife. The group of 'fun' divers headed to shallower waters and had friendly encounters with sea lions and a mola mola amongst the normal Catalina Island dwellers. Those of us who went deep enountered several thermoclines on the way to 95' & 125'. Viz at depth was a reasonable (for this summer anyway) 20 feet. Shallower it was progressively worse, again typical for what we have been encountering. After the two dives at Eagle's Nest, we headed for shallower waters near Black Rock. Nothing two exciting here as well, viz was probably 15' at 25-30 fsw and I just worked with my two PPB students.
As mentioned above, the return ride aforded us the opportunity to see more whales and the skipper was kind enough to slow down and manuever a bit to let us enjoy the show.
I have to admit, that the first dive on Saturday renewed my faith that better dive can be had, even this summer, you just need a combination of luck and opportunities (read: dive lots).
We are headed to Shaws Cove on Friday night for a night dive, lets hope my luck holds and viz is good.
Otter
OP
Otter- I've seen one or two other posts referring to agle's Nest as a dive site on Catalina. As the former VP of the Catalina Conservancy, and GIS/GPS mapper of the entire island, this place name usually refers to Eagle's Nest Lodge in Middle Canyon where the old stage coach stop/hunting lodge is. Certainly not a dive site unless the spillover and seepage from the main reservoir is your cup of tea!
There is also Eagle Rock and Eagle Reef. Can you tell me where Eagle's Nest is? Curious.
Dr. Bill
There is also Eagle Rock and Eagle Reef. Can you tell me where Eagle's Nest is? Curious.
Dr. Bill
Frank O
Contributor
I know from hanging around on a few boats that every captain has his or her name for favorite coves ... there's one a little west of Two Harbors, for example, that Dave Long at the Two Harbors Dive Shop calls Bathtub Cove, but Capt. Ray of the Sundiver calls Eel Cove.
Anyway, Otter can tell you what he means by Eagle's Nest. I know from going over to Catalina on the Sundiver a fair amount during the past year that Ray Arntz uses "Eagle's Nest Cove" to refer to a little place about one cove in from land's end on the front side (mainland-facing side) of west end Catalina. There's said to be a nest up on the hilltops where boat crews have seen eagles nesting with a pair of binoculars. As for the cove, last March I and a few other divers on the boat had some funny up-close-and-personal encounters with a harbor seal there (like, _very_ up close and personal ... seemed to be a lovelorn pinniped).
Anyway, Otter can tell you what he means by Eagle's Nest. I know from going over to Catalina on the Sundiver a fair amount during the past year that Ray Arntz uses "Eagle's Nest Cove" to refer to a little place about one cove in from land's end on the front side (mainland-facing side) of west end Catalina. There's said to be a nest up on the hilltops where boat crews have seen eagles nesting with a pair of binoculars. As for the cove, last March I and a few other divers on the boat had some funny up-close-and-personal encounters with a harbor seal there (like, _very_ up close and personal ... seemed to be a lovelorn pinniped).
OP
That "Eagle's Nest Cove" sounds like what is officially Starlight in our maps. No wonder islanders get confused when mainland divers talk about Catalina dive sites... different names used on different boats and all!
A cove by any other name would still be fun to dive!
Dr. Bill
A cove by any other name would still be fun to dive!
Dr. Bill
Looking up, their appeared to be an Eagle looking down from a rock and something that could have been a nest. I was looking on my Frankos' Map and couldn't find the site either. For that matter, I couldn't find a Black Rock, but did find a Black Point/Cove Rock. That site was a large cavern like opening was North and a outcropping of black-ish rocks was west. The fact that we headed east for a short trip from "Eagle's Nest", support Frank-O's location and that Black Point/Cove Rock is Black Rock. It looked like we were near Land's End and were defintely on the lee side of the island.
As I was typing this it hit me that Frank-O might be the "Franko" of Franko's map, but a quick profile search suggests otherwise.
Otter
Frank O
Contributor
Actually I used to use the login name "Franko" (all run together, lowercase "o") until someone sent me a private email once inquiring about getting a run of custom maps made. I probably passed up some significant change on that deal .... ;-) (Being a good sort, I did give them the email of my cartographic namesake.)
Frank O
Contributor
Actually the way I've heard the dive site names used this would be farther out toward the far west end -- i.e. between Starlight and land's end, and a distinct spot from Starlight. At least as it's marked on Franko's map, Starlight is another cove or so toward the southeast. Do you think of it as being the very last indentation before the end of the island?
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