July '05 Dive Reports

[HBDiveGirl]

Date:July 3, 2005
Dive Location:Marineland, again
... Will I ever get bored with Marineland?...No way!

I'm voting right along with you!!! Great spot for invertebrates and octopus and Headhunter sunked docks and running into lots of friendly divers!! Thanks for posting the cool photos...great macro! Awesome octopus photo.
Claudette

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I looked down and thought the visibility looked pretty lousy, but my relentlessly optimistic dive buddy bubbled enthusiastically: “It looks great! What are you talking about??” I really should try to be more ‘up’ when diving…thanks for the nudge!

Who wrote this? Whoever you are, you're a terrible Claudette impersonator.

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Sunday, 7/3/05
Time: 7:17 AM
Dive Location: Laguna Beach / Cress Street
Buddies: Ron Hawkins, Marshall Krupp, Gerry Lattimer
Bottom Time: 62 minutes
Max Depth: 46'
Viz: 15'
Wave height: 0-1'
Surge: none
Temp at depth: Brrrrrrr! 52 degrees Suunto
Surface Temp: 54 degrees Suunto

Made the marathon swim through the red tide and out to the reef, dropped into surprisingly nice viz. I must have really enjoyed myself today; not bothering to look at my compass and busy enjoying the environment, apparently I swam 4 circles around the same chunk of reef. Paid dearly with post-dive razzing by buddies. Learned that my new 2mm gloves are worthless at 52 degrees, as are my 5mm booties. Fingers defrosted quickly, but toes stayed blue for a good half hour. Lots of blacksmith and a sheep crab on the way back. Will go back tomorrow morning for more thrills and chills.

Kevin

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Marineland, The Point
July 1, 2005
Splash at 8:15 AM
Max depth: 61 fsw
Run time: 53 minutes
Temp at depth: 50F (Aeris)
Surface temp: 60F
Gas: air
Visibility: 20-25 feet below the thermocline
(At Cobble beach it was 3 foot viz: brown soup!)
Met up with Frank O, Jon D, and Ray S (‘Radinator’) for a Friday morning dive. Malaga Cove looked like café mocha at 0700, so off to Marineland to zoom through the open gate and see calm, glassy water with no obvious red tide. Down to the point for a very easy entry-and-swim out to the pinnacles. It looked bad from the surface: “OK, let’s descend and look…if it’s bad, let’s call it off and exit here where it’s easy.” But delight spread rapidly as we found at least 20 foot visibility in the 50F water below the 30fsw thermocline. How lovely! I practically landed on a lingcod that Ray pointed out to me! Hermissenda continue to run rampant over all the boulders…10 and 12 within a few square feet. I found a 3inch navanax hot on the slime trail of a tiny Hermissenda. Right next to predator and prey were 2 more Large Hermissenda. Next, we found several other species of nudibranchs, including Triopha catalinae and a Doriopsilla albopunctata on a large brown sea cucumber. I left them all right where I found them...I swear!! A lovely little juvenile tree fish played coy, disappearing up into a little cave. Coon-striped shrimp alternated with blue-banded Catalina gobies and ghost gobies. I found lots of little stuff while Ray pointed excitedly to the fattest Cabezon I’ve ever seen anywhere. It was halfway up a vertical wall, about 2.5 feet in length. But it was the head that was almost beyond belief! It looked like a fat brown frogfish…the head looked like a flattened volleyball, wide and oval with a mouth that almost looked small by comparison. It let me and my light to get right up close underneath it before scurrying off. Great sight! We swam through that wonderful sandy-bottom vertical canyon between the big split boulders. We had lost Jon and Frank back when we stopped to feed the navanax, but a trace of silt hanging here and there made me think we were just about 50 feet behind them most of the time. Ray was excellent to dive with, using clear and easy-to-read communication, and a passive light spot when we finned parallel so I barely had to turn to confirm we were still together. Another wonderful ambassador from the land of BP/W/5FootHose&bungie/DIR. (Pass the koolade, I’ll be applying for a visa soon!) We continued toward Cobble beach, staying just below and off-shore of the thermocline, which looked like a red/brown smoggy cloud hanging just inshore of us. We surfaced with enough psi to keep seawater out of the tank, and surface-swam over to Frank and Jon who were some ways ahead of us. Easy walk-out exit was fun except for the dismal sight of water on the wrong side of the o-ring on Frank’s camera housing…ouch! Other than that unfortunate event, we all had a great time. But only Jon left the parking lot looking well-pressed, spiffy, and ready for work. The rest of us zoomed out looking pretty recreational, planning our transformations in some phone booths somewhere…if any still exist.

It was great to see you again, Frank, and fun to meet Jon and Ray. May this be the beginning of a wonderful diving friendship.

Thanks, all, for a Fun Friday Dive.
Claudette

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Who wrote this? Whoever you are, you're a terrible Claudette impersonator.

Oh no! Maybe it's contagious from Evil Jeff!!! "Ack-Ack! Do not run away! I am your friendly dive buddy!!"

 

[scottfiji]

Location: Marineland, 10:30AM
Max Depth: 52ft
Bottom Time: 65 min
Waves: none
vis: 10-20ft

Rayna, Jeff, and I suited up for what we knew to be zero surf, and lots of nudibranchs down below! claudette, phil, and carlos had aleady done 1 dive and were getting ready for #2. Reports of low temperatures left me wondering if these drysuit divers would leave me in the freezing dust though! Roland and his wife had also just completed a dive - nice meeting you Mrs. Baker!

we entered at the point, with no waves or surge, unbelieveable conditions! Water was a little murky green, but there was definetely vis to be found, without a doubt. I immediately spotted an island kelpfish and a juvie sheephead, and turned the camera on.

jeff and rayna were excellent photo subject spotters and found me numerous nudibranchs. Scorpionfish were all over the reef today, always well camoflauged. I saw 4-5 juvenile treefish with bright black-and-yellow colors, always a nice treat.

All in all we spotted seven species of nudibranchs, including 2 I had never seen before! thanks jeff and rayna for helping me spot them.

An unbelieveable sight was 2 large fish battling it out, taking the other fish completely into their mouth in a fight for dominance. They were completely ignoring me, and I could even grab hold of them if I wanted to. I think they were very old treefish, but I couldn't be sure, one of them had really strange eyes!

I exited a few minutes before rayna and jeff, and as soon as I exited they were surrounded by 15-20 large feeding bat rays, who came very close to them. Next time I'm the last one to leave the water!

Just before I surfaced, I spotted a laughing blenny. Why was he laughing at me? Perhaps I'll never know, but he was certainly a jovial fellow.

Scott

photos (six selected photos, normal size)
http://forums.scubapost.net/showthread.php?p=4187#post4187

complete set of photos from this dive, showing thumbnails:
http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/Marineland20050703

 

[headhunter]

So a hermissenda and a navanax walk into a bar...

Christian

 

[MaxBottomtime]

So a hermissenda and a navanax walk into a bar...

Christian

and Claudette the nudi killer steps on both of them. :11:

 

[Frank O]

We had lost Jon and Frank back when we stopped to feed the navanax, but a trace of silt hanging here and there made me think we were just about 50 feet behind them most of the time.

What, my frog kick was less than impeccable? Next thing I know they'll be pulling my fundies card ....

(Nah, it must've been the halibut scooting away.)

 

[SDNetGeek]

Date: Sun July 3, 2005
Dive Location: North Coronado Is. - Lobster Shack (x2)
Time: 16:45 & 18:06 PDT
Bottom Time: 20min, 24min
Max Depth: 54ft, 64ft
Vis: 20-30ft
Wave height: 0-1ft
Temp at depth: 59F, 57F
Surface Temp: ~62F
Tide information: -
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
I kept saying "I gotta dive more!" so I did. I had not worn a 7mm suit in 6 years, and this was my first dive of '05, but by all means have a chuckle over the bottom times, I did. Went out aboard "Ocean Express" from Mission Bay, 19 divers aboard, departed 2:40PM. Anchored 40yds offshore, at Lobster Shack (we did both dives here because the anchor windlass was out). Nothing unusual to report, sea life-wise, I'm not very good at IDs but it seemed much the same as I remember. Noticeably colder below 60ft. But overall conditions were very good, current was steady but quite light, no noticeable surge and no wave action.

Still, I had a blast! (I *gotta* dive more!)

Paul Trivino