JUN 05 Dive Reports

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 9 June
Dive Location: Casino Point, marine park, Cat. Is,
Time: afternoon
Bottom Time: 38
Max Depth: 61
Vis: 15-20
Wave height: 1-2
Temp at depth: 62
Surface Temp: 72
Tide information: um -- medium-ish ?
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
The point was so uncrowded that we just pushed our carts right into a quiet corner of the patio of the restaurant on the other side of the Casino, and had a quick lunch. Then back to the point, wallets into the locker, gear on and down the stairs we go. I noticed as we splashed in that the viz was declining a bit. We followed more or less the same route, since the fish and critters were so plentiful and beautiful. Yours truly in the lead and on the compass, brought us right back to the float lines. We had enough air to keep going in a NW direction. We swam over two large pipe-shaped objects, where the kelp really began to thin out; then swam toward shore and then SE for our safety stop near the steps. There was some very nice soft corals there, but Chris found a fishing lure and we both found several snarls of fishing line. Later, while taking off our gear, we also noticed a small fishing boat with lines cast out hanging around close to the park floats -- in fact, the fishing boat kept its lines in as it came between the park floats and a larger boat anchored about 60' outside the park that was flying a scuba flag and a divers down flag. A group of divers had in fact entered the water from the larger boat and luckily were hanging out on the surface on their own float when the fishing boat passed close by. We later saw the harbor patrol boat cruising the area slowly -- hopefully providing some deterrent. I should say that I eat fish and am not, in principle, anti-fishing, but there are always some characters who mess up a good thing, and this marine park is definitely a good thing.

 

[Frank O]

Date: June 12, 2005
Dive Location: Albert's Reef, Catalina
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Run time: 39 min
Max depth: 98 ft
Vis: 15-20 ft or ~30 ft, depending on who you asked
Temp at depth: 55 F
Temp at end: 64 F
Gas mix: 32% nitrox (buddy on 30/30)

Two diving days in a weekend is out of the question in my family, so, due to the fact that I'd signed up several weeks ago for a trip to Farnsworth Bank, joining the Wrinkles festivities Saturday was not to be. As the weekend approached I wasn't putting any money on getting to Farnsworth, given the swell -- not that big, but short-period on the other side of Catalina. Even so, Ray shoved off Sunday morning at 5 a.m. and motored for four hours to get to Farnsworth. Rounding land's end it looked pretty choppy, but conditions were remarkably smooth on the other side. We got to Farnsworth at 9 a.m. and were just about set to jump in -- when Ray told us it was not to be. The look of the kelp and behavior of baitschools told him that current was ripping, and it'd be easy to get blown off the bank (eastern high spot at depth of ~54 ft) and out into 200-ft-deep blue water.

So we all loosened up our exposure suits and hunkered down for the hour ride back to Catalina's west end. We ended up at Albert's Reef, a seamount I've been to several times on the Sundiver about a thousand feet offshore from Starlight Beach. Its top is at a depth of 70 or 80 ft. I was feeling the earliest bit of a cold coming on, the right ear a little gummy, and prayed that equalizing wouldn't be a problem. We geared up, jumped in and headed down the anchor line. Everything was copasetic until I got to about 50 ft, when that gummy ear became a major ache. I went back up to 40, gave it some time to work out, then headed down again. When we got to 90 we headed out along the wall, working our way gradually counter-clockwise around the reef. I thought vis didn't look too hot, while my buddy estimated the more optimistic number mentioned above. As far as sea life goes, not an amazing amount -- one nudi egg ribbon in a field of white corynactis, not all that much else. A couple of our scooter-driving dive brethren motored past at one point.

Then, coming around a corner, wham! We hit major current. The dive stopped being as much fun. After a while working our way around, we swam up and over the reef to get back to the anchor line. Only ... when we got to the place we remember it being, it wasn't there. It turns out the current really picked up and the anchor got pulled off the reef; when it was reset, it was some hundreds of yards away. We therefore decided to do a midwater ascent where we were, and then reconnoiter from there. As we came up I noticed teeth aching -- not a good sign, a probable indicator of a reverse squeeze in the maxillary sinuses situated just above the upper teeth.

At about 60 ft we ran into a pair of divers who appeared agitated, one giving the out-of-air sign -- before I could blink, my extremely squared-away buddy had his reg out of his mouth, the 7-foot hose deployed and in front of her face. He showed her his SPG, which was greatly reassuring -- since he was wearing doubles, he had tons of gas to spare. The four of us then did a gradual ascent to 20 ft, got in our 3-minute safety spot, and hit the surface. The boat was 'way far away -- and up-current. Ray came out in an inflatable and tried to tow us all back, but it kept pulling the inflatable to one side. One of our scootering friends came out with her Gavin to tow back one of the divers, while my buddy and I ended up swimming.

While on the safety stop, I noticed blood in my mask. Major bummer! That squeeze was more severe than I thought. This happened to me a couple of times on freediving outings, but hadn't occurred in about 3 years. Still, my experience was always that sinuses squeezes only got worse as the day went on, so I reckoned I was done diving for the day. The diver who had gone out-of-air wasn't too worse for wear, but decided too to skip the final two dives (at Lorenzo Beach and Little Geiger).

On the way back o the mainland we ran into a large pod of unusually good-sized dolphins -- Ray identified them as probably Rossi's dolphins. Interesting to check them out. Also very inspiring to see a well-practiced buddy execute air-sharing so smoothly -- that could have easily turned into a major calamity. Good to stay in practice!

 

[California Diver]

well me and roy met up for a dive today despite reports of horrid visibilty and 30 ft waves, well let me tell you, we had at least 30 ft of vis in the canyon and a nice easy entrance into the ocean. we did one of my favorite profiles. lets just say we turned right at the wall with the white veins running down it. we descended down this nice vertical wall, swimming over a ridges that had a gradual slope on one side and a vertical drop on the other forming really cool structure ,it appears that they all link at some point. at the top of these ridges aa nice wall running parallel to the shore, this wall is about 110 ft deeo abnd goes down to 130 and deeper. i would estimate this wall to be about twice the eight of the north wall, im not sure lengthwise as i havent been to the north wall much. i was at 130 and i could cleary see roy above me at the top of a wall at about 100 ft, and i could clearly hearing him yelling things to me. i heard my name a few times, clearly. it was weird. well we were out of bottom time so we started to head in, how sad. one the way up we stopped and took a gander one of the amazing walls we saw. it looks like the recent earthquake collapse a portion of the wall as we could see the rubble laying beneath it. i was a little scared to be directly at the base of it in fear of it collapsing on me, that wouldnt be cool at all. we ascended to the rim of the canyon and started with long swim back toward the beach. on the way in we encountered terrible vis and a 4 or 5 foot halibut, as well as the usual bat ray armies. on the way in Roy caught his first glimpse of the ever so sly pipefish. on the way in i started planning dive profiles in my head for the next dive. this dive was that good. the vis was really excellent in the canyon and i plan on returning very shortly. i wish i had brought my hid, but even my little led light shined on forever. i really enjoyed diving with roy and i hope we can do this same profile when hes diving something other than an hp80 so we can really get a grasp of the terrain surrounding this cool spot. as we swam into 12 feet we came across some huge rockpiles but not the spot i had found containing at least 12 of the infamous mortars. i was disappointed that i didnt find any for roy to see. as we got out steve was in his car on the phone, after we got our gear off the three of us talked for a while and then me and roy went to get some grub. fun times. we'll do it again soon, hopefully more people will show up next time!

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 10 June
Dive Location: Long Point, Cat. Is
Time: morning
Bottom Time: 44
Max Depth: 48
Vis: 15-30
Wave height: 1 foot or less, a little surge, see below for current
Temp at depth: 55
Surface Temp: 70
Tide information: um, I guess there was tide
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
Back on the Cat Diving Supply boat for what would be my 2 favorite dives of the week. Again, only 4 divers on board; I was paired up with John (also a scubaboarder, apparently his avatar pic. is a head shot with him in a devil's diving hood with two little pointy ears, which he wore that day as well).
We started out over a sandy bottom at about 30 to 40 feet, with not a lot to look at, swimming towards the point in a northerly direction. But we did see a nice bat ray nestled in the sand. Then in only a couple of minutes, the show began. a beautiful reef at the point, lots of kelp around piles of large boulders full of wonderful life. We gradually threaded our way towards the point, which is a major feature along the island's shoreline. We were told during the briefing to look out for current at the point, so I carefully peeked over the last rocks, and wow, talk about current alright -- the kelp only two feet away was lying flat, and schools of fish were zinging by. ("grab shell, dude") So after signalling to John about that, we turned back and explored the kelp forest and rocky bottom. It was simply outstanding. Schools of silversides. 2 other rays. lots of lobster. a small octopus. a moray eel tucked in a hole. a huge sheep crab. scorpionfish. zebra perch, surfperch. a spiny starfish; several larger starfish; beautiful soft crab. John was taking pictures all the while and got some nice images. We had anchored in a mooring field just NW of the YMCA pier, and we swam back to the mooring chains but overshot the boat a bit (oops), so descended again with plenty of air left, only we both had ear pressure with the up and down thing, and just returned to the boat -- unfortunately, John lost a fin strap as he was handing up his fins, but he carries spares and was good to go for a second dive. John very generously let me lead the way, even though he is much more experienced, which was fun.

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 10 June
Dive Location: Henrock, Cat. Is.
Time: mid-day
Bottom Time: 51
Max Depth: 47
Vis: 15-30
Wave height: 1 foot or less
Temp at depth: 55-61
Surface Temp: 70
Tide information: I guess there was tide, its the ocean, right ?
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
We saw several pods of dolphin feeding on the surface on the way to the dive sites, and it was obvious what was enticing them -- talk about thick schools of bait fish !
It clouded over a bit as we descended for our second dive, which was at Henrock, further NW along the shoreline. There is a small point and about 70 yds out from the point, a large rock covered in bird poop, which pelicans and gulls holding court. The depth between the rock and the shoreline is rather shallow, so we were advised to not cut in there, but to swim around. Actually, I think we ended up cutting through on the way out, but we managed to find a nice route close to the rock itself that was comfortably deep. The water was at first quite murky, and near the rock the kelp was fairly thick. Once again, John let me lead the way, again a very generous gesture for a more experienced diver to make, and leading was particularly fun given the kelp and the dive plan to turn at the rock and follow the shoreline. We found a large moray eel right away near the rock -- very pretty critter. Once we swam past the walls of the rock itself, we turned in a more westerly direction, and had sand flats to our right and really thick kelp to our left. A few fish here and there and then about 2 or 3 minutes past the turn, wow, nature turned a switch on and we were suddenly treated to the thickest schools of bait fish I have ever seen. silversides, anchovies, sardines. They were so numerous that it looked like whirling silver sheets shimmering all around us. Five good sized barracuda were in hot pursuit, and in the distance I glimpsed two tuna-shaped fish. The water was particularly cold right there. A pumkin sized jellyfish was drifting along; John ascended a bit to get a nice shot while I hovered at the bottom watching. Then we turned back and I had to guess -- ok, so when do we turn in a southerly direction to get back to the boat ? Its one thing to take bearings on the boat during the briefing, with the rock poking out of the water innocently enough, but below, it was just an indecipherable kelp forest in which everything and nothing looked like the proper turning point. Using time and guess-work, we turned at more or less the right moment and voila -- the boat anchor line appeared right on schedule. yay ! With lots of air left, we took our time getting back to the stern, there was some really nice soft coral fans waving in the light current and surge, with some spots of purple mixed in with various browns, hung out with some smaller fish, poked our noses and lights into a few lobster domiciles, enjoying the gentle motion of this wonderful underwater world. I loved the fish life on this one, and the navigation challenge. Thanks John for a great dive, hope your photos are terrific !!!

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 10 June
Dive Location: casino point, marine park, Cat. Is.
Time: 3 pm -ish
Bottom Time: 34
Max Depth: 68
Vis: 10-15
Wave height: 1 to 2, not much current or surge
Temp at depth: 58-60
Surface Temp: 68
Tide information: um, don't know, still a lake diver
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
This one was a work out. I got off the boat and felt that since Chris was still on the island, it would be good to meet up and do at least one more dive with him. Did not think about the logistics though ! Since the CDS trailer at the casino point area was closing at 4, I had to pick up air and weights for both of us, toss my now wet gear on top, and haul that cart all the way to the point. hmmm, the sport does have its grunt work moments. Met up with Chris at the point, we geared up, put our wallets in the locker, and splashed in. This time we tried a different plan. We desceded at the floats and swam straight out in a NE direction along the downward sloping bottom. At first, not as much marine life, and then we found the heap of 3 small boat wrecks. The park map suggests they are well inside the boundaries, but they are obviously sliding down hill. Right now, they have slid right against one of the mooring ball chains for the floats that mark the park boudnaries on the surface. It was fun to do a little circle around them, and shine our lights in the murky spots. There is a trunk on the bottom at the SE corner of the wrecks and I was just hovering there with one finger on the trunk corner when this garibaldi bit me, quite hard really. I was wearing gloves and he did not wrip the material or anything, but hey it was really painful for a second. I swooshed him away with my other hand before he could have another go and backed up -- I guess I stumbled on his nest. sorry little guy, my fault ! Then we turned SE and followed the outer park boundary line at about 60 feet or so. Swam over an abandoned outboard motor. Viz deteriorating, and water seemed to be a bit colder. Saw the wreck in the outer SE corner again, and turned around. Worked our way a bit shallower and followed a NW route back, cruising slowly at 30 to 40 feet, viz continued to deteriorate, and light dropping, esp. in thickest kelp. We saw the dive floats and since we had lots of air left, we kept going NW and then wow ! we saw 2 batrays swimming one on top of the other in tight circles. being new to the ways of ray romance, I wasn't sure exactly what we were witnessing. They came apart and the larger one settled down on the bottom right in front of us, and was quite content to be patted by both of us. Later, when the guys at Cat Diving Supply filled me in on their mating dance, I realized that there was a good reason the male batray was so tame right then. The female flitted around too, but was a bit more timid. Finally, he pushed off, and we turned back towards the stairs for our safety stop. There we saw a couple of lobsters and a smallish octopus hanging out in the rocks. A nice dive, and thanks Chris for the buddying !!!

 

[jerryn]

June 14 (Tuesday)
Escondido Beach, Malibu
32%
46' for 60M
waves 1' - 2'
surge: plenty
visibility 2' - 5'

Easy entry, no red tide but vis still churned up. Saw the usual creatures including a number of purple globe crabs and two california cone snails. Nice way to spend lunch hour.

Only intellegent life I spoke with this morning.


Jerry

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 11 June
Dive Location: West Quarry, Cat. Is.
Time: morning
Bottom Time: 40
Max Depth: 85
Vis: 40
Wave height: 1 foot or less, light surge, moderate current
Temp at depth: 57- 60
Surface Temp: 68
Tide information: haven't a clue, really
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
out on the Cat diving Supply boat one last time -- all good things come to an end. Buddied up with Sandy from San Francisco. We motored along the shore in a NW direction almost all the way to Two Harbors, again the captain and crew carefully checking several sites along the trip to monitor conditions. As we dropped the anchor, we noticed that the bait fish were being pursued so intensely that they were ripling the surface of the water. Sure enough, this was the best dive of the week for marine life -- fish, coral and critters alike. The attendees included: senorita, rock wrasse, blackeye gobies, sheephead, surfperch, rockfish (black and yellow, copper and black), giant kelpfish, blacksmith (I think), guad. caridnalfish, cal. scorpionfish. Lots of schooling bait fish: anchovy and sardines. The outstanding thing on this dive was the sighting of tropical black and yellow banded butterfly fish. According to our briefing, they strayed northwards during El Nino. We swam in a simple box pattern, and hit the boat right on schedule. The water was a bit chilly at first during the deepest parts of the dive and I was quite happy to be finning into the current for a while after that. Again, if I had had all my gear with me, this would have been a drysuit day for sure.

 

[Sail 'n Dive]

Date: 11 June
Dive Location: "Gator Rock" aka Italian Gardens
Time: mid-day
Bottom Time: 54
Max Depth: 55
Vis: 40-50
Wave height: 1 foot or less, moderate current going every which way
Temp at depth: 60
Surface Temp: 68
Tide information: sorry, no clue on this
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
Last dive at Catalina Island for me, again buddied up with Sandy. The Cat. Diving Supply guys knew I had been there and they said that usually they try to make sure that no one dives the same place twice, but we were with over half a full boat (14 divers) and there had been lots of requests for the giant sea bass. Actually I did not mind that much because these huge fish are really something. Following the briefing directions, Sandy and I dropped down to 25-30 feet and swam NW parallel to the shore for about 2 mins. Did not see a lot going on there. We turned and swam SE, somehow the current seemed to be against us for every leg of this dive, but it was light enough that it did not matter much. A safety diver had dropped down from the boat and waved hello, just as a huge sea bass swam slowly and majestically into view at about 35 to 40 foot depth. wow, they grow them big over there on the west coast. Checked us out and then swam slowly out into the darkness of deeper water. We continued SE , parallel to the shore, at about 40 to 50 feet for several minutes, and saw another one of the giant sea bass. Actually we were quite lucky as several divers did not see any. This guy was equally huge and impressive. Then we saw a jelly fish about the size of a large melon, and then some weird looking jelly-like string that we later found out was a sea salp. Also saw a black sea hare with its smooth body and tiny little ears. a fair-sized sheep crab. some schooling bait fish, a few senoritas. the ubiquitous garibaldi. As we returned to the boat, at about 25 feet, my air guage read over 1,000 and Sandy showed me that hers read about 800. no worries. then I catch some odd movements behind me out of the corner of my mask and I look back at Sandy breathing on her air 2. thats odd, I thought, she is practicing switching regs back and forth. Then she put her primary back in her mouth and showed me her air -- about 350 ! not knowing what had happened, it struck me as really odd that she had lost so much air in what seemed like 10 seconds. So I look at my air and verify that I've got lots and offer to buddy breathe with her, and I figure there is something really odd here and hold onto her front BC strap in case we need to share air. She keeps saying no, she's fine and just wants to surface. So I reply, ok, but I need to do my 3 minute safety stop, are you sure you do not want to share air ? She's really calm and keeps saying she is perfectly fine, and I watch her breathe normally and I look at her air guage again and it seems to be behaving normally. So we agreed to part. I stayed on the bottom at about 25 feet and watched her slowly ascend to the surface and swimming to the stern of the boat where she exited without any problem. I ascended a bit and hung out at the bottom near the stern of the boat, tapping rocks together to get the attention of the smaller fish, and generally saying goodbye to the island's underwater world. Saw seals at the surface but unfortunately they did not want to play with us. When I got back on board, Sandy was perfectly calm and perfectly ok. Turns out that after we had checked each other's air underneath the bow of the boat, I had turned to keep swimming and had executed a flawless reg-stripping kick, thereby slapping her reg right out of her mouth. what are buddies for anyway ? Even better, my peerless finning technique had tossed her reg right over her shoulder, where it started an admirably robust free flow just beyond her initial backward sweeps. hence the sudden and dramatic loss of air. Since we had followed a conservative dive plan and returned back to the boat with plenty of air on hand, it was no big thing and Sandy handled it perfectly. Very sorry Sandy !!! and thanks for putting up with me anyway !!!
So again, thanks to the Catalina Diving Supply folks for their very kind and capable assistance, to my buddies: Olivia, Jeff # 1 and Jeff #2, Chris, John and Sandy, and to the scubaboard folks for supplying such detailed info on diving Catalina Island that made planning this trip a breeze. I hope to visit the area again really soon; it was a blast. If anyone needs to practice reg recovery, come diving with me in the upstate New York/Lake Ontario area anytime; we dive 12 months of the year. (a final shoreside note: the stand-up comedy at Flipp's "got sushi" restaurant was hilarious, and the customers doing kareoke at El Galleon cheat because most of them can sing)

 

[divinman]

Date: 06/15/05
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 1930
Bottom Time: 54 min
Max Depth: 130ish
Vis0-3 above 40ft) (5-8 above 80ft) (35-40 below 90 ft)
Wave height: 1-3 no real power
Temp at depth: 50F
Surface Temp: 68F
Tide information: high tide
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:

Went out to the orange buoy and down into the canyon. followed it south, and then up to the wall and back north. crossed the sand.

Vis above about 80 feet was mocha brown soup, below was farther than my light cannon would shine.

sighting if HUGE moonsnails, octopus large and small, rays of bat on sting variety. odd worm that didn't appreciate me illuminating it for the waiting mackerel to gobble up.

Nudibranchs and crabs were also seen.

Terry

Images are here. Not many, like I said, it was soup.

La Jolla Dive