I'm still exhausted from my extended weekend of diving from South Laguna Beach to north of the Ventura County Line. I said I wanted to go dive lots of places that we don't dive as often and I got to dive some of those. Hopefully, it's coherent and others who were there can fill in the blanks with more specifics.
It was a bit too long to fit into one post, so I divided it into Part 1: Saturday and Sunday and Part 2: Monday and Tuesday.
Saturday
Dive #1
Date: 05/28/2005
Buddy: Jim (mccabejc), Thomas (sb_diver)
Location: Laguna Beach - Treasure Island/Montage
Max Depth: 33 ffw
Bottom Time: 37 min.
Visibility: 5 ft. above 20-foot thermocline, 15 ft. below
Wave height: 1 2 ft.
Surface temp: 64°
Temp @ depth: 57°
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
If looking out to sea, our entry was to the right of Goff Island. We accessed this beach via the ramp, which is past the first and second set of stairs to the beach from the covered parking lot. We did a 20 min. surface swim out past the reef that was breaking surface until the depth finder said that we were in a location about 30 feet deep and dropped down.
Thomas told us that he only had 1800-psi in his steel 72, which takes 2250-psi. Jim and I agreed that this would be fine and chose to dive this way with Thomas. Thomas called the dive with 500-psi in 37 min. We decided to exit the water at the first set of stairs, which turned out to be a 40 min. surface swim. :11: That coupled with the long walk to and from the parking lot had us all pretty tired, so we decided to go down the street for lunch before deciding whether or not to do another dive.
Conditions were OK, but not worth the effort that went into this dive. With higher visibility, this looked like it would be a great dive. Unfortunately, most of the structure we found seemed to be above the thermocline, which was at 20 feet. We only saw sand in deeper water. The second set of stairs looked like it would have led to a great location for snorkeling. From what we were told this or the first set of stairs would be the normal place to enter at this dive location.
I look forward to diving this location again with better conditions.
Now that we had worked up a voracious appetite, we all went to Rubys Diner for a hearty lunch.
Dive #2
Date: 05/28/2005
Buddies: Thomas (sb_diver), Seth (Stryker)
Location: Laguna Beach - Cleo Street St. Barge
Max Depth: 59 ffw
Bottom Time: 39 min.
Visibility: 15 20 ft.
Wave height: 1 2 ft.
Surface temp: 64°
Temp @ depth: 57°
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
This was a great dive. Much better vis than on our morning dive and good structure. The entry from in front of the brown house with white windows was better than straight out from the stairs. Much more sand and fewer rocks.
If you head straight out from the brown house with the white windows and line up the bell tower directly north on your compass it puts you in the right spot to drop down and continue directly out from the house under water. As we were told it is about 3 sand burms out from there. The ribs of the structure stick out of the sand about 2 3 feet. It lies parallel to the shore.
We missed the barge heading out. I thought I saw it about 15 20 feet to our left, but it was out of visual range by the time I caught up with Seth who was out in the lead. Thomas found it at about 41 ft deep after we turned around at a depth of 59 feet and headed back to look for it. We almost missed it again because it was at the edge of our visibility.
On the way out to 59 feet, we saw a playful seal watching us from about 20 feet away. The barge had plenty of life on it.
Sunday
Dive #1
Date: 05/29/2005
Buddy: Robert Phillips
Location: Laguna Beach Crystal Cove State Park/ Scotchmans Cove (Reef Point)
Max Depth: 43 ffw
Bottom Time: 54 min.
Visibility: 15 ft.
Wave height: 1 4 ft.
Surface temp: 64°
Temp @ depth: 58°
Comments:
We accessed the beach via a long path/staircase with a switchback in the middle. We had to stumble over lots of big rocks in the entry. Waves were only 1 2 ft. on entry, so it was no big deal.
We swam out toward a rock that broke the surface every time a swell passed by and went to the right of that between it and the rocks that always break surface to reach the outside of the reef. Passing over this structure it was very shallow and at times you could see the reef only 3 feet below you or your fin would occasionally bump a rock. If you kept looking below at where you were going you could clearly stay in the deeper portions of this passage and avoid bumping into the structure. Surge was low and waves were not big, so there was no present danger. It was low tide. At high tide there would be quite a bit more water here.
The dive itself was very nice. We saw a moray eel, an octopus, a bat ray and the usually assortment of fish, nudibranchs, sea fans and sponges.
On the exit, we thought we were coming out in a sand channel but there were still enough rocks to make you stumble. Waves had picked up to 2 4 ft., but there were fewer rocks, so it was a fairly easy exit.
Next stop, the Pacific Whey Café for some great lunch with our little band of merry divers. It was in the mall on Reef Point Dr. right across the street from where we were diving.
Dive #2
Date: 05/29/2005
Buddy: Thomas (sb_diver)
Location: Laguna Beach Crescent Bay / Deadmans Reef
Max Depth: 80 ffw
Bottom Time: 35 min
Visibility: 20 + feet below 60 foot thermocline, 10 15 above
Wave height: 1 2 ft.
Surface temp: 64°
Temp @ depth: 59°
Comments:
We swam out to the lineups expecting to drop down on the reef. We dropped in about 80-foot deep water and then expected to hit the reef by swimming back toward the shore. What we had not counted on was that a current had taken us past the tip of the reef. When we got to about 40 feet, we turned left running parallel to the shore to try to find the reef.
The only structure I was reading with my depth finder was over 100 feet away and we kept chasing after bumps in the sand reading about 40 feet away. By the time we actually ran into Deadmans, we were at the very western end of it and Thomas was already hitting his turn pressure with his steel 72. So, we simply continued to follow the reef into shore.
Also, part of the dive plan was to practice an air share when Thomas got down to 800-psi. This left him plenty of air to work through something with his own tank if anything came up. The added benefit was that we were able to continue the dive toward shore and avoid a long surface swim to make our exit.
It turned out to be a nice relaxing dive to practice navigation and buoyancy on although I would have liked for Thomas to see more of Deadmans Reef. Since it was his first time there, of course, it was the one time I completely missed the reef. Too bad it didnt happen when I was with someone who had at least seen this reef before.
Dive #3
Date: 05/29/2005
Buddy: David (dazedone)
Location: Laguna Beach Pinnacles between Deadmans and Seal Rock
Max Depth: 47 ffw
Bottom Time: 57 min.
Visibility: 15 20 ft.
Wave height: 1 2 ft.
Surface temp: 64°
Temp @ depth: 52°
Comments:
This was a twilight dive where I got to really see the difference between a UK Light Cannon and 10-watt canister light. Compared to the canister light it looked like I wasnt even using a light. Ive really got to get a canister light at some point. It obviously makes a huge difference.
It was a very leisurely dive starting from very close to shore and heading toward Seal Rock to look at the Pinnacles. There was lots of great structure and since it was starting to get dark there were more critters coming out and milling around. We came up right in front of our planned exit and strolled out onto the beach. It was time to go for a nice dinner at Pei Weis.
Christian
