July '05 Dive Reports

[scottfiji]

Location: Point Dume Pinnacles
Date: 7/9/05, 9:30AM
max depth: 40ft
vis: 20ft
temp: warm, 63 degrees
waves: medium, long sets
current: strong, heading east (normal direction)

Austin and I had an awesome dive at the point dume pinnacles. Slow sets of large waves allowed us to do an easy entry at the beach near 2 fisherman. Water conditions were very calm and clear, no chop. A quick 10 minute swim got us to the pinnacles. Underwater it was amazing chaos! Gazillions of fish, strong currents and surges, thrown around in wacky ways, it was great. Lots of garibaldi nests, cabezon, scorpionfish, spanish shawl, lots of treefish, and other fish. Stayed in the shallow area mainly, the colors on everything were just beautiful, lots of red.

Due to the possible of having to fight a current going back we headed back a little early, there was a strong current but it was definitely doable, we swam over beautiful sand dollar beds, saw lots of sheep crabs, a huge starfish eating several muscles (with a few crabs eating muscle scrabs), and then surface swam the remaining half way back, even with the current it wasn't bad and took about 10 minutes. A great dive!

Location: Big Rock, 1:00PM
Max depth: 35ft
vis: 4-9ft, red tide
temp: a little colder, 57 degrees
waves: slow sets, variable size
tide: quite high

A high tide allowed for easy entry at big rock, normally its a difficult rocky entry. vis near shore was terrible, red tide, but it improved a little bit as we got further away. even with poor vis, we saw so many cool things. Fish were literally crawling over us the entire dive, maybe because they couldn't see us. rockfish and perch practically swam through my arms. A beautiful kelpfish who lived in a gorgonian did swim through my arms. we saw 2 large octopus, lots of spanish shawl, lobster, cabezon, about 30 scorpionfish, a few dead sheep crabs, lots of sleepy olive rockfish, and other fish. A great day to be out!

Scott

 

[California Diver]

paul,josh,steve,pim and i made it out to some of the not-so-traveled local wrecks yesterday. to start off we were on the missile tower, descended down into about 30-40 ft of vis and great blueness. upon descending i saw an old bottle laying on the floor, no doubt dropped from a fishing boat. this wreck is pretty cool to explore, towns of fish on it. wioth 2 minutes of bottom time remaining we swam up the missile tube, turned around and swam back out. then we started our mid water deco. at 30 ft we decided to blow a bag to deco on, my first time blowing a bag using a spool as opposed to a reel. definately like the reel better. after handing paul the spool and switching to 02 we completed our deco and surfaced. bill of the hydrodiver was right there to pick us up. our next dive was the hogan. having never done this wreck before we were excited to finally get to explore it after all the good things we heard. we dropped down into so-so vis. maybe 20 ft or so and hit the wreck immediately. wow this thing is awesome. towns of fish all over it and tons of little things to play around in and on. we swam to the bow first, then swam a little past it and turned around to get a good view from a distance. magnificent. this ship lays in 3 big chunks due to it being bombed by the navy. we squeezed our way into several little "rooms" and checked out all the marine life. this has got to be one of my favorite places now, and with a relatively shallow depth of 127 we would have tons of time to explore it. this time we only had 35 minutes but next time there will be a lot more. all in all we had a excellent time and plan to do these little trips monthly. our next excursion will take us to the elusive f-4 phantom and the p-38 lighting both laying off torrey pines. looking forward to more great fun.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: July 10th
Dive Location: Marineland
Time: 8:24
Bottom Time: 1:02
Max Depth: 50'
Vis: 6-15'
Wave height:
Temp at depth: 56F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: After reading reports about the line to the platform being gone, Claudette and went on a Search and Recovery dive this morning. We tied my wreck reel to the safety sausage Al left out there yesterday and headed south, purposely staying to the west of the platform. We reached the end of the reel at 400 feet and tied my spool to it, then continued. 100 feet later I was happy to see that while at the end of my line we were at the right depth. We headed east and found the platform in no time. Four nudibranchs and a couple crabs later, we followed the old line back to find the end. We reattached it to a new rock, just west of the original one and headed back out to retrieve my reel and spool. It was a fun dive because of the feeling of accomplishment and because I autographed Claudette's fin after the dive.

 

[scubacalifornia]

Date: Sunday, 7/10/05
Time: 8:07 AM
Dive Location: Laguna Beach / Heisler Park
Buddies: Ron Hawkins, Marshall Krupp
Bottom Time: 79 minutes
Max Depth: 40'
Viz: 5-10'
Wave height: 1-3'
Surge: 1-3'
Temp at depth: 64 degrees Suunto
Surface Temp: 66 degrees Suunto

Just a few small patches of red tide. Viz on top of the reef was hazy/milky; much better with less surge along the edge. Temperatures have warmed up considerably - 12 degrees warmer than same time last weekend; nice long bottom time with no blue digits.
Dive happy,
Kevin

 

[Grey_Wulff]

Date: 7/10/05
Dive Location: Marine Room, La Jolla Shores
Time: 8:24am
Bottom Time: 62 mins
Max Depth: 24ft
Vis: 5-20ft
Wave height: 1-2ft
Temp at depth: 66F
Tide information: Low tide
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: The first of two shallow dives on the reef at the Marine Room following reports from kayakers of excellent visibility earlier in the week. We were a bit concerned about the low state of the tide on arrival but the surface looked calm enough over the reef so in we went. Visibility was variable, but in places it opened up nicely. We enjoyed encounters with bugs, several large sheepheads, barred sand bass, juvenal senorita, garibaldi, calico bass and several good sized rays (at least one was a bat ray).

Date: 7/10/05
Dive Location: Marine Room, La Jolla Shores
Time: 11:30am
Bottom Time: 36 mins
Max Depth: 22ft
Vis: 2-5ft
Wave height: 2-3ft
Temp at depth: 64F
Tide information: Coming in rapidly
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: About the only thing I can say about the second dive was we wished we had headed for the canyon rather than trying a repeat of the first dive. Visibility had really deteriorated and the surge was just horrible. It was like being in a washing machine. Thoroughly cycled and spun, we abandoned the dive dizzy and glad for the feel of firm land.

Grey_Wulff

 

[JMdiver]

Date:7-10-05
Daive location: Anacapa- Garden spot,West Channels, & Cathedral Cove twice
Time:1st dive-9am, last dive-3pm
Bottom time:34-39mins
Max Depth: 40ft
Vis: 15-25ft
Wave Heigth: 1ft
Temp at Bottom: 61
Tide: Started at low ended with high
Gas Mix: Air
Comments: This was one of the best dives I've had in a long time. We saw 7 bugs on the 1st dive & one was huge. Then on the last two dives we were dancing with the Sea Lions at Cathedral Cove. They just keep coming around to check us out. On the 2nd encounter my dive buddy blow his whistle underwater & the Sea Lions went wild. He had his dig. camera with & got some awesome shots when he e-mails them to me I will post. BTW this all happened from the Spectre a great boat & crew.
Happy Diving
John

 

[Diver_Jan]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delayed report. Just got back home. I had the pleasant opportunity of DMing to the Oil Rigs on Saturday. Here is my report:

Saturday, July 9th

Oil Rigs

Dive #1: Eureka; Dive#2 Ellen; Dive #3 Elle

Surf: 0

Swell: 2-3'

Surge: Moderate to heavy near the Rig during safety stop; 0 away from the Rig

Current: 0 to minimal

Viz: 6-10' near surface; 60+ at depth

Depth: 124'; 117'; 110'

Bottom Time: 41 minutes;36 minutes; 35 minutes

Water Temp: 50 Suunto at depth; 66 Suunto 50' and above

Saturday was a beautiful day to dive the Oil Rigs. We had a group of 14 divers and 3 DM's. After the first group of divers were back on the boat, John and I went out for my #275th dive. Due to one of the divers forgot his hood, I loaned mine out, so I did not wear one. As we were descending deeper, my ears felt like two ice cubes. Once at depth, I was able to adjust to the icey 50 degrees at 124'. The viz was Awesomme. We could see clearly the structure of the rig with all of its pylons and cross beams gleaming with an abundance of sea life. We spotted right off the bat the large (enormeous) white sea anemones. (sorry, don't know correct name for I do not have my invertebrate book here in front of me). This was my first time seeing these. I immediately started snapping pictures. We also saw lots of scallops; muscles; nudibranchs; cabezon; scorpionfish; brittlestars; bat stars, ochrestars in a wide variety of colors from pinks, reds, purples, lavendars, oranges, ect.

Pretty much saw the same stuff on all three rigs, with the exception that on the Ellen and the Elle, we were greeted by several GIANT Purple Jellyfish!!! Their manes had to have been 20 feet if not longer. I had never seen jellyfish that big. I also spotted a solo Moonjelly in which I got a really cool picture.

All in all, a great day was had by all. If you are an advanced diver, I highly recommend this dive trip!

I will post pics ASAP.

Regards,

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Date: July 10th
Dive Location: Marineland
...It was a fun dive because of the feeling of accomplishment and because I autographed Claudette's fin after the dive.

...and I'll treasure it always! It's not often that I get to enjoy diving with a celebrity :dazzler1: . Since we did our surface interval literally floating on the surface, untying lines and floats, I was witness to 5 different divers swimming over and saying to my buddy, "Are you MaxBottomTime? Thanks for the line...this is really FUN!" It was fun being the masked sidekick.. , and exploring such a big swath of sand as Max found the platform...again!....and re-set the line. If you visit headhunter reef, look closely for several kinds of nudibranchs, (albopunctata, Polycetra, Flabellina iodinea, Facellina stearnsii, San Diego dorid, and probably more,) and beautifully camouflaged masking crabs. And thanks for being gentle with the lovely rotting old hulk...it's getting more attention than it's probably had in a looooong while. Thanks for a fun dive-with-purpose, Max! I'll never wash that fin again!
Claudette

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Thanks for a fun dive-with-purpose, Max! I'll never wash that fin again!
Claudette

Good thing I didn't sign your drysuit. :lick:

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Dive #1
Date: 07/09/2005
Time: 10:30am
Site: Eagle Reef, La Bufadora
Bottom Time: 40:00
Max Depth: 90 feet
Temp at Depth: 50 degrees
Temp at Surface 57 degrees
Visibility: 40-50 feet

We headed north from the boat launch in search of clear water for diving. We went to Eagle Reef which is a non-poopy rock sticking out 25 feet. Roy, Max and I dropped into the hazy water, going down to the bottom of the pinnacle. The vis opened up and we explored all the granite boulders and overhangs. I saw several interesting critteres including a crab who was inside a hole in the top of an overhang (the hole was facing the bottom). Lots of rockfish, tons of nudis, massive amounts of sponges. The walls were overwhelming. You had to focus on small sections to take in the details. I think this was the best dive of the whole weekend. My camera fogged up for the 1st 10 minutes of the dive, but I got a few shots. We saw a friend egg jelly and a nice bat ray swimming past us on our stop.

Dive #2
Date: 07/09/2005
Site Name: Roca Chica
Time: 12:38pm
Bottom Time: 51:00 mins
Max Depth: 111 feet
Visibility: 40-50 feet
Temp at depth: 50 degrees
Temp on Surface: 59 degrees

This site is just south of Rocka Blanca. We dropped in and decended to the nice vis below 50 feet. We explored some swim throughs, and great walls all around this pinnacle. Lots of massive granite boulders on top of one another. Same amount of life as the previous dive. I stayed down a little to long and had a 15 minute safety stop. I was cold doing the deco, but it was worth it!

Dive#3
Date: 07/10/2005
Site Name: Roca Blanca
Time: 10:35am
Max Depth: 128 feet
Temp at Depth: 52 degrees
Temp on Surface: 63 degrees
Bottom TIme: 34:40
Visibilty: 40-50 feet

We went south initially but turned around after we discovered the whole bay was filled with red tide. We headed back and dove on the White Rock Pinnacle which I have dove before. We all geared up and dropped down on the South side of the pinnacle and swam to the west end. We were looking for Terry's Light Cannon, but no luck. Sorry Terry. The vis was quite nice at depth. We saw the same critters and life on the pinnacle. I took a lot of pictures and enjoyed the dive! The vis was pretty bad on the surface so the dive was dark. Roy shot a bag and we did our 3 minute stop, surfacing near the boat.

Dive #4
Date: 07/10/2005
Site Name: Roca Chica
Time: 12:29 pm
Bottom Time: 36:20
Max Depth: 92 feet
Temp at Depth: 50 degrees
Temp at Surface: 63 degrees
Visibility: 50 feet +

Max and I headed down the pinnacle's side through the bad vis to find it open up to 50 feet+. We explored some caves and overhangs while observing the life all around us. We saw some schools of small fish, lots of nudis, tons of sea stars, sun stars, sponges and more. You'll have to check out my pictures to see what I saw. I have 2 videos I will add in later. We all really enjoyed the diving and the company of the Dive Animals. Great fun!!

pics: http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/labufadora07102005

video here: http://sean.scubapost.net/video2.html