July '05 Dive Reports

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:July 17
Dive Location:Marineland
Time: 9:17
Bottom Time: 1:08
Max Depth: 49'
Vis: 15'
Wave height: 2-3'
Temp at depth: 58F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:What a difference a day makes at Marineland. The large surf was gone, mostly. Claudette, Carlos and Jeff joined me for another attempt at beating Mother Nature. Wearing steel doubles, I chose to enter at the cove and make the surface swim to the point. The others decided to brave the surf at the point. After waiting for ten minutes for a lull that never came, they reluctantly trudged back down to the cove. This gave me a chance to nap at the surface and have fisherman point at the "dead diver" floating out there. The surface water was so dirty from the red tide that we were unable to see our fins. I was hoping to myself that it would clear up before we hit the reef. It was only five feet thick. We got below it and it was as if someone turned the light on. Jeff and I paired up and immediately found an octopus, lots of nudis and a Sea Hare the size of a Volkswagon spreading its spaghetti-like eggs. No big fish today, but a cute little baby Treefish more rocks with swimthroughs, overhangs and a blanket of color. We all walked away from the water without any cuts, bruises or broken bones. On the way home I stopped to watch the crowd gathering for the start of the TransPac sailboat race.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Location: Palos Verdes - Marineland, Long Point
Dive Time: 10:55am
pics: http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/longpoint06162005

Sean, Great photos! I'm glad you were able to find and enjoy all the life that Marineland has to offer...and that was not an easy day! Lovely nudibranchs, cabezon, kelp bass, scallops...and thanks very much for posting them.
Time soon for this LA diveaholics to dive "down South"...How about next Saturday?
Claudette

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Two dives in Scripps canyon.
Sat July 16th

Dive #1
12 noon
Depth 117ft
Duration 43 mins
Scripps Canyon North branch



Martin Perez took me to the west side of Scripps north branch. A spot I had not been to before, but will certainly go again, even with the long. long swim, but I think its best done with a bigger tank than my 80cf and probably also better done on 30% nitrox, since the dive is all at or below 90ft. The lineups were good, and we dropped into 95 ft right at the edge of the canyon into 40ft vis. Lots of particles in the water, but the overall clarity was tremendous. It was nudibranch day out today - there were literally hundreds of the creatures out and about. Many, many fish, and so many fried egg jellies it was a bit of an obstacle course. You really had to pay attention not to crash into them. We bumbled around the slopes and boulders for a bit - the canyon wall is a slope here reminiscent of the south walls at the shores with the exception that there is a vertical dropoff starting at about 110ft which keeps on going much deeper than it would be sensible to follow- then we made the blue water swim to the east side, and up the slope back towards shore. It was certainly getting busy at blacks today; we had been watching the dolphins surfing as we kitted up and we could hear a boat mooching around earlier. Now, as I looked up in about 10ft of water, there was this huge black shape right above us, and Martin was in danger of swimming directly into the prop! We surfaced to see who was being idiotic, and saw it was the habour patrol search and rescue, so we decided to be nice to them - if they want to park their boat in the surf zone, then they are welcome to do so as far as I am concerned.


A quick lunch and fill, then:

Dive #2
4:00pm
Depth 110ft
Duration 37 mins
Scripps Canyon South branch

Back in again with Martin and Jason, to poke around looking for a lost computer, then into south branch using the over top route to the first deep crack; the slope was covered with hundreds of hermissendas. Actually, I should have taken a closer look because they really seemed too dark in colour to be crassicornis, but Martin was a man on a mission and we flew right by 'em. Vis not quite so good as this morning, but still good enough to make crossing over to the far side easy. Saw lots more nudibranchs and a trio of swell sharks hanging out in a crack, then crossed back and Jason found a great big octopus fully exposed on a ledge. I think it was eating, since it put on an agressive display as I was photographing it.

So many nidibranchs seen, I decided to list them at the end:
Acanthodoris Lutea
Cadlina Limbaughorum
Doriopsilla Spaldingi
Chromodoris MacFarlandi
Dialula Sandiegensis
Doriopsilla Albopunctata
Flabellina Iodinia
Dialula Nobilis
Hermissenda crassicornis

and this time around, my camera behaved itself, so you can see photos at:

http://www.mcguinness-family.net/albums/diving/SanDiego/ScrippsCanyonJuly05/index.php


here's one to whet your appetite (locally known as D. Legendi):

Peter

 

[divinman]

Date: 07/17/2005
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/ Secret Garden
Time: 07:27
Bottom Time: 1 hour
Max Depth: 117
Vis: 10-15 shallow 25-40 deep
Wave height: 2-4 but weak
Temp at depth: 53F
Surface Temp: 71
Gas mix: Air (21%)

Date: 07/17/2005
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/The Sand
Time: 10:50
Bottom Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Max Depth: 21ft
Vis: 5-15ft depending on how far from the students I was
Wave height: 1-3ft
Temp at depth: 67F
Surface Temp: 71F
Gas mix: Air (21%)

Images: La Jolla Dive Images
Comments:

Krowsea, California Diver and I met the main lot at 7am and started gearing up. One of us decided to rip our neck seal so CD and I went diving while the pool unfortunate went back to bed.

Walking out into the mild surf we knew it was going to be awesome. Guitar fish in 8 ft, huge top smelt school at 12 feet buying herded by cormorants and passing bat rays. Dolphins swam past out by the buoy. And we still weren't underwater yet. :11:

We dropped in at 25ft and turned toward the canyon edge and the draw that leads down to the Secret Gardens. Ten fin kicks west we found our first of at least 20 F-E jellies. They were like mosquito's in a swamp today. We had used our Deep Ocean Off so we didn't get stung. :11ztongue
Fried Egg Jelly

Moving on we found 1 of two 3ft halibuts for the dive. Very mellow he let us approach but no autographs were given. From there we continued down the draw and past the no unrecognizable sea lion carcass. I AM REALLY GLAD you can't smell anything through the mask cause that has got to reek!!

At the gardens we say the usual gorgonians and gobies and such along with a California sea slug and an interesting snail. ID anyone?
Zoanthid anenome covered gorgonian

California Sea Slug

Unknown Snail Species

After reaching our turn pressure we paused at the base of the wall and looked WAY up to the top and way down to the bottom and we could see it all. Easily 40ft of vis. WOW!!

Back in through the shallows and more guitarfish and a HUGE bat ray that was nearly buried in the sand and appeared to be a large hump unit I touched it and two feet of sand on either side of my hand exploded upward and the ray was off like a streak of lightning. Heart thumping we continued in. Just as we were about to surface a lovely purple stripped jelly drifted by. I had already clipped off the camera so no images were taken but it was still nice to see. Up, out and back to the trucks we went. We stood around for an hour talking and irritating the 'Zonies looking for parking spots and then CD headed home for some sleep before work and I strolled over to the local dive shop classes to say hello to some instructor friends. Good thing I did.

While talking to a friend and his students he invited me to tag along and as the tank he offered had plenty of air, I obliged and off we went again. This was dive two of the open water course so we stayed shallow and while his excellent and friendly students performed there skills flawlessly, I puttered around the perimeter working on some manual white balance techniques I have been wanting to try. This was a perfect opportunity as there was no surge and lots of ambient light. The buoy was anchored near a small rock field so there was plenty of life to fine and photograph.

Juvenile Bass (sp)-manual white balance

AtlasThe Swimming Crab-manual white balance

Lots of Life and Color- manual white balance

I even snapped a few of the students as well.

Working skills

Skills done we headed in and again ran the gambit of rays and guitarfish, Jellies and more jellies......

Up, out and changed we all went to breakfast. Great dive with friends old and new.

Terry

 

[divinman]

Outstanding Peter. We have got to go diving together sometime so you can learn me some fotografic stuff

Terry

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Peter and Terry,
Thank you for taking me along on your wonderful dives by sharing the photos and writing great reports! Excellent.
Claudette

 

[Kayak Diver]

Date: July 17, 2005
Dive Location: Leo Carrillo
Time: Brunch.
Max Depth: About 30 ft.
Vis: Almost FRIMO to about 5 ft.
Wave height: Not a problem.
Temp at depth: Warm enough for a wetsuit (60's).
Surface Temp: About the same.
Tide information: Sometime after low tide.
Comments: We dove at the thick kelp that is just east of where the surfers hang out. The water was really green and there was a lot of suspended sediment. It was pitch black under the kelp, and there was a moderate surge. We did however did see a lot of nudibranchs and an octopus. It's always a good day when you get to say hi to an octopus. My dive buddy and I (sorry...can't remember his screen name) were rite on in terms of staying together, communicating, etc. in the adverse conditions, which was really cool becuase we hadn't dove together before. At one point I think we were both over it, so we surfaced to take a look at where we had ended up and to figure out how to get to shore. Seems like we managed to surface in the only clear patch in the kelp. (!) We took a bearing and made a swim plan...it looked like it was going to be a long swim, but the surge carried us to shallow water in just a few minutes.

Needless to say, conditions at this site aren't ideal right now...hopefully it will clear up soon.

We all went to Neptune's afterwards. It was really great hanging out with everyone.

-Geoff

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Outstanding Peter. We have got to go diving together sometime so you can learn me some fotografic stuff

Terry

Ha! you'll be teaching me, mate!

Yes, we should go hunting octopus and stuff someday soon.

Peter

 

[Grey_Wulff]

Date: 7/17/05
Dive Location: Yukon
Time: 09:49am
Bottom Time: 32 mins
Max Depth: 93ft
Vis: 40 - 50ft
Wave height: small
Temp at depth: 53F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: Went out in the Dive Animals zodiak for training intending to dive the Ruby E but ended up on the Yukon, as it was easier to moor. Certainly worked out for the best - the Yukon was spectacular! Not only did we have outstanding visibility but also the huge shoal of juvenal fish hanging over the wreck just added to the magic. We worked our way from the bow to close to the stern at depth and then returned on the topside. Definitely one of the best dives of the year!

Date: 7/17/05
Dive Location: Hope Rock, Kelp Fields
Time: 11:55am
Bottom Time: 39 mins
Max Depth: 36ft
Vis: 10ft
Wave height: small
Temp at depth: 62F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: Attempted to find Hope Rock on our second dive but the GPS coordinates must have been off. If someone has coordinates please let me know off list. Completed the remainder of our training exercises and headed for shore.

Grey_Wulff

 

[shark.byte.usa]

Date: 7/20/05
Dive Location: Deadman's/Shaw's
Time: 7:30PM/9:20PM
Bottom Time: 39/34
Max Depth: 61/28
Vis: 10-20/1-10
Wave height: 1-2
Temp at depth: 61/65
Surface Temp: 72
Tide information: High, very High
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:

Since I only have a few more days in town and heard the rumors that below 25' was good viz, my buddy and I decided to give Deadman's a try.

#1 Deadman's (my maiden night dive by the way) :thumbs_up:
Swim out was clear with the occassional patch of red tide. On the sand viz was 10-15 on the reef a solid 15-20. Saw a huge sheephead, my buddy says biggest he's ever seen by far. Lots of fishes on the reef. Nice dive worth the swim.

#2 Shaw's :thumbs_down:
Since Deadman's was so good, decided to give Shaw's a go. At first it looked promising decent viz of 10, peeked into the crevice, but a bit too surgy to go through. Just before turn-around rock hit a wall of red tide, dropped viz to 1. Turned around and the red tide followed us in with 1-5' viz after that, with lots of bioluminescence. Lots of small rays running around, a decent sized octo, halibut, and quite a few lobster. OH and the tide was so high as soon as you stepped off the last stair you where in water.

-Garrett