May 05 Dive Reports

[scottfiji]

Date: May 7th, 2005

Dive #1 - Avalon Wreck, palos verdes
Vis: 30-40 feet - very nice!
max depth - 82ft
Dive buddies - Cesar, dan rood
Temp - 53 degrees - felt warm compared to April!

Dive #2 - Palos verdes kelp beds
Vis: 15-25 feet, with particles in the water
max depth - 37ft
Dive buddy - Cesar
Temp - high 50's?

did 2 morning dives off the Island Diver out of redondo today, chartered by Dan Rood. These were my first dives since I slipped my disk 3 weeks ago. Its nice to be back in the water! Cesar - thanks for carrying my tanks! Merik got to try out his new doubles today - nice going Merik! One of the diver's today was a no-show, so there were 7 divers and 1 captain.

Excellent conditions at the Avalon wreck today.. vis was great below 40ft depth. saw dolphins from the deck...large numbers of lingcod, calico rockfish, island kelpfish, gobies, and rubberlip seaperch. Dan - thanks for helping me find photo subjects.. especially the large lingcods and the TORPEDO RAY. It was my first one, I followed it for a few minutes, got real close, got a couple pics, (*behavior studies of the torpedo ray edited out*) sucked down a lot of my remaining air. Sorry if I worried my buddies! But I came back to them. Had a nice slow decent up, the current carried us a little during our long safety stop. Since my breathing was elevated from the torpedo chase, Cesar let me breathe his air as we ascended from 75ft to 45ft, then I switched back to mine, so I had plenty of air for a long safety stop. We were hoping the boat would come and get us, but cesar's safety sausage wouldn't inflate. Nice swim back to the boat with a sea lion.

Palos verdes kelp beds were nice, lots of rocky reef structure, lots of sheephead, senoritas, blacksmith, lobster, 3 very large large horn sharks, a large sheep crab. One horn shark let me get a great pic of his face. Lots of surge during this dive. One of the divers had to sit this dive out because they were too cold from the Avalon! Dan dove with Rick this dive. Vis on this dive was 10-15 feet at 25ft depth, but kept getting better (20-25) as we swam west into deeper water.

Scott

more pics:
http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/Avalon20050507

Torpedo Ray

Sheep Crab (in macro mode!)

Horn Shark

 

[pasley]

Date: May 7, 2005
Dive Location: Laguna Beach, CA Deadmans’ Reef
Time: 9:28 A.M.
Bottom Time: 44:00
Max Depth: 55 FSW
Vis: 15-20
Wave height: 1-2 feet
Temp at depth: 57F SUUNTO degrees
Surface Temp: 63F Suunto degrees
Tide information: Low 3:35 a.m. 0.7 High 9:47 a.m. 4.0
Comments: Met Stoddu, Stryker and Snobordjon for this dive. We did the surface swim out to Deadman’s Reef. Lined up the reef coming out from shore and the flag pole on the green roof house with the right hand seal rock, dropped down in arms reach of the reef. Stoddu and I explored the inside of the reef till we came to the end and then followed the reef back to shore. Spotted large schools of blacksmith and the usual suspects. Stoddu spotted a large octopus, which disappeared into plain sight. We saw him again after a brief search hanging on the side of the rock looking like a rock. After he realized he had been spotted, the swam off for safer grounds. Appeared to be 2.5 feet head to end of tentacle. Great day to be back in the water.

Date: May 7, 2005
Dive Location: Laguna Beach, CA Crescent Cove
Time: 12:30 A.M.
Bottom Time: 49:50
Max Depth: 55 FSW
Vis: 8-10
Wave height: 1-2 feet
Temp at depth: 57F SUUNTO degrees
Surface Temp: 63F Suunto degrees
Tide information: High 9:47 a.m. 4.0 Low:3:00 1.2
The delightful Lexy, Stoddu and I did this dive. We walked down to the water to find some idiot had parked his boat (about a 25 foot boat, with a very small cabbin and a very large deck space, looked like it use to be a work boat and painted all black) about 30 yards or less off shore and was busy fishing. No less than 7 SCUBA divers in full gear could be plainly seen on the beach, and anohter 15-20 were in the water. So I swam out and had a polite chat the the oblivious captain and he motored off very slowly. After he left I spotted a Pepsi can floating in the water, no doubt where that came from.

Visibility was down a bit for this dive, but still fun. Swam out towards Seal Rock at first then turned south and followed the reef structure and pinnacles. On the way back in it got real dark and I looked up to find the cause was a very large bait ball of fish blocking out the light. Light surge and a bit of current running, but good fun all around.

Dive 196 in the bag.

 

[divinman]

If pictures are worth a thousand words......

Water temp was mostly high 50's up top and mid to low 50's at depth
NO SURGE
Surface flat mostly
Vis ranged from 30-50ft.

On to the pictures

San Clemente Island Pictures

 

[Stryker]

Noticed a medium-sized octopus in a small cave against the sandy bottom. Then noticed 6 inch-long white strands of tiny grape-like clusters hanging from the cave ceiling...about 15-20 strands vibrating in the strong current...then noticed the octopus weave a couple of armtips into the egg masses...then wrap "her" arms very protectively around the eggs, firmly interceding between my light and her eggs...OMG, an octopus nest!!!! I've looked for this all my diving life...everytime I found an octopus I'd wonder if maybe someday I'd get to see this! The eggs had the same glowing super-whiteness of squid eggs, but small and delicate, hanging down like wisteria blooms in a garden. I will never forget this, realizing I may never see it again.

Claudette,
All I can say is I am GREEEEEN with envy on that find.... sounds like you had a great day...

 

[scottfiji]

If pictures are worth a thousand words......

Terry, I love the pics! Especially the light bulb tunicates, juvie sheephead and the halfmoons. Glad you guys finally got to dive at San Clemente. Water clarity looked great.

Scott

 

[Frank O]

Dive #1
Date: 5/7/05
Dive Location: Pirates Cove, Catalina Island
Time: 8:14 a.m.
Run time: 46:40
Max depth: 44 ft
Vis: ~25 ft
Temp at depth: 63 F
Temp at end: 61 F

I managed to persuade Christian to break his long boat-diving abstinence twice in one week with a two-tanker morning run to Catalina on the Island Time. Every now and then I get out on this boat when I only have a half-day to dive.

Rich the capt made a beeline for Long Point, then pulled in adjacent to the moorings offshore of the YMCA camp on the east side of the point (a.k.a. Pirates Cove). It looked like some kind of father-daughter event going at the Y camp, with dads and elementary-aged girls paddling around in kayaks. It turned out that everyone on the Island Time except for us and one visitor from out-of-town was involved in a buoyancy class for newer divers. Christian and I jumped in, then headed out through boulders and kelp toward the point. Several big lobsters were on the doorsteps of holes, which afforded me opportunities for some macro experiments. Lots of in-your-face garibaldis and a few small sheephead trying to crowd into the shot. At one point I saw something slither behind a rock, which turned out to be a middling-small octopus that ducked into a hole. One of two octopodes I saw on this dive. Also a treefish loitering in a hollow. At one point emerging from the kelp, a big school of bait was over us, shadowed by a lone barracuda. As we left the kelp and headed over the sand toward the boat, we could see the class finishing up below.

Dive #2
Date: 5/7/05
Dive Location: Little Italian Gardens, Catalina Island
Time: 10:01 a.m.
Run time: 59:40
Max depth: 34 ft
Vis: ~40 ft
Temp at depth: 63 F
Temp at end: 63 F

For the second dive I asked Rich where he was going to go; he pointed toward the point and said, "Around the corner." He wasn't kidding. He maneuvered the boat around the point and anchored in the small cove just beyond, perhaps 800 feet from our anchorage at Pirates Cove. Is this cove to the west called Little Italian Gardens? As we were gearing up, I noticed the Sundiver a little further still to the west -- would that be at Italian Gardens itself?

At any rate, as Rich was finishing his site briefing he said, "And over there in the cove you sometimes find mantis shrimp ." This perked me up -- I'd been looking for those for a long time. Christian and I agreed to take a brief swim back toward the point to check out the scenery on this side, then spend some time shallow in the cove looking for those elusive shrimp with the assassin appendages. After ducking around the boulders near the point, we passed the class in the cove on the way to the shallows. Rich told us to look along the transition zone from gravel to sandy beach. However, we didn't see any sand at all -- just gravel right up onto shore. In the end, we patrolled back and forth at depths around 15 to 20 feet. I later kidded Christian that we went on the longest safety stop of either of our diving careers. As we swam along, I occasionally heard a percussive sound which I later remembered was probably the croaking of white sea bass. Alas, no ninja shrimp were to be spotted.

Just at the tail end of the dive, I spotted one more middling-small octopus (making three for the day) which was trying to pass for a random rock. I started taking pictures, and the octo knew he'd been sussed. Rather than bolting off, though, he sort of edged away, tried to blend into a hollow, then 'walked' around behind a rock to do its camouflage act again. Departure time was fast approaching, though, so Christian and I resisted the instinct to stay in the water 20 more seconds to make an even hour, instead getting back to the boat. All in all a very relaxing morning, and a very cool buddy!

 

[Frank O]

Noticed a medium-sized octopus in a small cave against the sandy bottom. Then noticed 6 inch-long white strands of tiny grape-like clusters hanging from the cave ceiling...about 15-20 strands vibrating in the strong current...then noticed the octopus weave a couple of armtips into the egg masses...then wrap "her" arms very protectively around the eggs, firmly interceding between my light and her eggs...OMG, an octopus nest!!!! I've looked for this all my diving life...everytime I found an octopus I'd wonder if maybe someday I'd get to see this!

Incredibly cool experience, Claudette! Sounds like a top lifetime diving event.

 

[Frank O]

These were my first dives since I slipped my disk 3 weeks ago. ... TORPEDO RAY. It was my first one, I followed it for a few minutes, got real close, got a couple pics, (*behavior studies of the torpedo ray edited out*) sucked down a lot of my remaining air.

Glad to hear you're back in the water, Scott. I did something to my lower back earlier this week, and have been moving kind of slowly -- didn't seem to do too much averse to it with a couple of boat dives yesterday, though I'd like it to heal up more before trying a beach outing. Neat encounter with the electric ray!

 

[Frank O]

Just at the tail end of the dive, I spotted one more middling-small octopus (making three for the day) which was trying to pass for a random rock. I started taking pictures, and the octo knew he'd been sussed. Rather than bolting off, though, he sort of edged away, tried to blend into a hollow, then 'walked' around behind a rock to do its camouflage act again.

A couple of views of that last octo ...

http://www.inkbox.net/catalina/octo1.jpg

http://www.inkbox.net/catalina/octo2.jpg

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Met with Jeff Shaw (sockpuppet for Jeff Shaw) this morning at Marineland. The objective was to find the structure that may have been the loading platform from the old pier. We were unsuccessful, but we did manage to spend about 40 minutes looking at sand and sea pens. The visibility at depth was barely over five feet. When we arrived back at the nearshore reef the vis opened up to 15 feet, where we found a single octopus, one lobster, a school of Blacksmith and not much else. The waves weren't large, but close together just enough to knock us down on entry and exit. Temperature at depth was 51F. Still, a very fun way to spend a Sunday morning.