Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[3D diver]

Lobos was open for diving today. Some friends had reservations, but one dropped out & I got the call last night. The fact my tanks needed a fill wasn't a problem, so we rendezvoused at Bamboo Reef for fills and headed down to Lobos for a visit to Hole in the Wall and Lone Metridium.

My, what a difference a week makes---colder water & pretty good viz!

Bottom time: 42 minutes
Max depth: 61 feet
Visibility: 30-40 feet
Water temperature: 50.7 to 55.8F
Sea state: Small waves, low tide rising during our dive.

Good thing we headed down early, as there was a nice diver turnout today. The water was lapping at the bottom of the ramp when we entered & I managed to do so gracefully this week. We kicked well out on the surface with in-cove visibility in the 10-15 foot range. After dropping, we followed the crowd to Hole in the Wall & continued on our own to Lone Metridium. Visibility was in the 30 to 40 foot range. In 50 feet of water I could see the surface clearly.

Didn't see any Lings, but there were the usual assortment of rockfish and a couple of schools of Blue Rockfish. Lone Metridium was in full bloom when we arrived, but closed up after accidental contact. We headed back the way we came, turning south in the channel behind HITW. We continued on, surfacing about even with the bluff. The tide had come up a couple of feet which helped our exit up the ramp.

The cold water induced us to make it a single dive day.

 

[sea_otter]

Wonderful dive today with @elgoog. We were another of the many teams diving Point Lobos (seriously, the lot was full at 8:20 AM - it seems the local crew of divers is a bit desperate after some challenging conditions!). The water was calm and blue. There was a very low tide this morning, so we loitered for a good amount of time chatting and waiting for the ocean to rise. Eventually we geared up and made our way into the ocean.

As soon as we dropped down in the sand channel we were greeted by three big male sheepheads. We swam out around Middle Reef and made our way to Granite Point Wall, which we circumnavigated. Lots of varied rockfish, one canary, a smaller lingcod, and the usual nudibranchs and other invertebrates. Noticed a couple scallops too. After going around the wall, we made our way back towards Middle Reef, pausing briefly to say hello to a big sheep crab in the otherwise empty sand. I swam right past the end of Middle Reef (unintentionally), and we wound up at Lone Metridium. Made our way back up the sand channel to wrap up a nice long dive (and probably close to a mile of swimming!).

Buddy did a few skills over the worm patch, but I was too cold. My left wrist had a slow leak, and my hand was frozen and barely usable. The water was much colder than it has been! We were happy to have sunshine above as we packed up our gear to head home.

Bottom time: 1 hour 46 minutes
Max depth: 73 feet
Vis: 20-30 feet
Temp: 49F (Brrrr.....)

 

[JellyMan777]

Date: 3/4
Site: McAbee Pinnacle (via McAbee Beach)
Depth: 67fsw
Temp: 50F
Vis: 10-15ft (5-10ft in shallows)
Comment: Upwelling in effect, which should have brought with it clear, cold blue water. Unfortunately, remnants of the runoff are still present. Vis was low,even at depth -- the haze is likely heterotrophs munching on whatever is left of last week's fecal buffet. Interesting that the larger filter feeders weren't interested in the menu -- giant metridiums remained closed while other anemones were feeding.

Date: 3/4
Site: Aquarium Wall/Hopkins (via McAbee Beach)
Depth: 64fsw
Temp: 54deg
Vis: 10-15ft (5-10ft in shallows)
Comment: A decent longshore current picked up in the afternoon (SE @ ~1 knot) -- strong enough to drift dive from Hopkins back to McAbee in <40min. (Molested by an overly-amorous seal during deco/safety stop. Poor little guy followed me back to the edge of the water.)

 

[Blueringocto_73]

Did 2 checkout dives at San Carlos on Saturday and visibility went from somewhat clear or 10-15 feet to very silty with about 2-3 feet visibility. Depth about 25 fsw. Temperature was noticeably cooler later in the day. Saw a small bright red anemone. For a first time experience it was a blast. Rental wet suit issue, for another thread.

 

[uspap]

Monastery looked to be bad vis from shore and a bit of a surge. Did not feel like working that hard for bad vis. Did Breakwater wall. Dropped past the 13 looking for Seals and didn't see any. Worked our way out farther under water and then back to shore. 10-15ft vis 53 degree water. Clearest water was above 30 feet.

 

[elgoog]

Forecast looked good for Saturday - 4-6ft NW swell and 5ft high tide at 0930. Our plan was to get in the water around 0900 and dive around the slack high tide in the hopes of calm water and good viz. There was a fair bit of chop on the surface past the dog rock and we dropped early into 15-20ft viz. This didn't improve as we swam along Middle Reef and cut across to Hole in the Wall (this was the first time I've successfully found it - technically, it was my buddy navigating but still). We swam back along the west side of the channel to the Worm Patch and ended the dive with some drills. Not a lot of fish around aside from the couple of resident vermillions at the end of the channel and a school of pipefish in the shallows. I also saw the largest Monterey dorid I've ever seen - it was larger than my thumb and index finger could span. Buddy saw a pelagic red crab on our swim back in the cove which I thought was strange since the water was pretty cold.

-> 73min, 75ft max, 48F at depth, 59F at the surface

 

[3D diver]

Two fun dives at San Carlos Beach today with Raftingtigger.

First dive: Breakwater
Bottom time: 78 minutes
Max depth: 48 feet
Visibility: 10-15 feet
Water temperature: 54F to 59F
Sea state: Small waves, High dropping tide.

It was very foggy when we arrived and started our dive. The tide was up, close to the stairs, but the waves quite small. There were lots of students in the water. We kicked out to the 5 1/4 and dropped for 3 minutes hoping to see the admiralty anchor (reported to have been fully exposed by the storms), but the vis was too poor & we missed it. We surfaced, kicked out to the 10 & dropped again into 10 to 15 foot vis and cruised along near the bottom of the wall. There weren't a lot of fish on the way out besides a small Lingcod who seemed to want attention. A sea lion checked us out at the edge of visibility and I got buzzed by a Cormorant. The fish population picked up toward the end of the wall and while we returned---rockfish, Pile Surfperch, and schools of small fish that would dive into the rocks whenever I tried to film them, d'oh! We surfaced near the 5, again missing the anchor.

Second dive: Metridium Fields
Bottom time: 79 minutes
Max depth: 47 feet
Visibility: 10-15+ feet
Sea state: small waves, lots of beach due to dropping tide.

The sun came out during our surface interval and the tide headed out revealing lots of sand. Forgoing the walk down the beach and pipe cruise, we dropped in the shallows near the stairs and headed due North 'til encountering a couple of reefs with Metridiums on them, wandered around a bit, then returned on a South heading 'til we hit the breakwater, surfacing at 5 1/2. (Still no anchor.) The Metridiums were in full bloom. We encountered lots of the Pyrosomes reported a while back, but they all appeared to be dead, to me, and many were being munched by anemones. We were treated to a couple of swimming Dendronitis Iris, a squid egg nest, got buzzed by another Cormorant, and saw more fish than along the wall.

 

[KRL1973]

Did a dive just north of north monestary on Carmel river beach yesterday had waist high surf at entry for a fin on entry and beach crawl exit.

Vis was about 20ft. I did not measure temp.
Big school of blues, a few lings, had a sea lion stop for a brief visit with me. couple of sheep crab walking out on the sand. I like this site. it has great structure with steep sided pinnacles and lot's of holes and channels among the rock. Enjoyable dive and warm ,clear and sunny topside. great day.

 

[uspap]

Breakwater Wall today had 15-20 foot vis. Water was 51 degrees. Water had best vis below 20feet depth and also was the coldest there. Saw a Mermaid's Purse. Second dive was Breakwater kelp. A bunch of Nudibranchs. Vis was 10-15.

 

[uspap]

Did a couple of afternoon Breakwater dives. Vis along wall was 10-15 but decreased a lot as you got deeper. Water temp 54. Second dive was in kelp. Vis was slightly worse than first dive. A diver said hidden beach had 20-25ft vis today.