Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

[Rob Wilks]

As for reluctance to travel, I applaud you. There is still the shelter in place order for the state. I have been shocked to see so many people from other areas flooding the Monterey area and not having much care in how they have congregated in masses and violated county efforts to disperse crowds and slow the spread of covid. Does it suck to have to sacrifice what we want to do? Hell yes. This is all a f&$ked up mess. Keep in mind this bug spreads because people travel with it. That’s how this BS got out of hand. I’ve lost a huge amount of sanity and income and counting because people keep choosing to travel. Monterey County is trying to move on and reopen, but nothing will anywhere if there is an increase in cases. Please stay local to where you live. We all have to make sacrifices in order to make a long term recovery. Stay the course.
If you do decide to make the journey, please know that it’s required for everyone to wear a mask in public in Monterey county. Don’t be an ass about it. Be responsible and respectful to the community here, and the gravity of what is happening.
I do hope we as a diving community can support our collective recovery and we need each other’s commitment to do so and get past this heartbreaking mess with all the grace possible.

 

[wnissen]

As for reluctance to travel, I applaud you. There is still the shelter in place order for the state. I have been shocked to see so many people from other areas flooding the Monterey area and not having much care in how they have congregated in masses and violated county efforts to disperse crowds and slow the spread of covid. Does it suck to have to sacrifice what we want to do? Hell yes. This is all a f&$ked up mess. Keep in mind this bug spreads because people travel with it. That’s how this BS got out of hand. I’ve lost a huge amount of sanity and income and counting because people keep choosing to travel. Monterey County is trying to move on and reopen, but nothing will anywhere if there is an increase in cases. Please stay local to where you live. We all have to make sacrifices in order to make a long term recovery. Stay the course.
If you do decide to make the journey, please know that it’s required for everyone to wear a mask in public in Monterey county. Don’t be an ass about it. Be responsible and respectful to the community here, and the gravity of what is happening.
I do hope we as a diving community can support our collective recovery and we need each other’s commitment to do so and get past this heartbreaking mess with all the grace possible.

I am looking forward, very much, to the day when it makes sense to get back in the water. But today is not that day. Technically I think it's legal for me to travel to Monterey to dive, since diving is outdoor exercise and even sitting around having a surface interval is an integral safety procedure. But I am not interested in lawyering my way into doing this. Technically, it's legal to let a fart rip in an elevator, but you still shouldn't. I think about all the things that would be necessary to go for a dive, including bathrooms, how to do buddy checks, and it doesn't make sense at the moment. The swells have been remarkably calm for months after being bad most of the winter, and it's incredibly frustrating that I am 90 minutes away yet haven't gone for months. But this too shall pass, and I'm not about go farting in that elevator.

 

[lostsheep]

I thought this was a thread about conditions.

 

[MichaelMc]

We're checking on the conditions of the surface support infrastructure and the 'roads' to the dive sites.

 

[lostsheep]

Viz at breakwater was about 10’ yesterday, small waves and little to no surge.

 

[lostsheep]

McAbee yesterday was calm with viz opening up to 25’ or better below about 30’ depth. There was a lot of temperature variation going on; 60-50 degrees with an average of 53.

The poor molas have really taken a beating from the sea lions. I’ve never seen so many in one area.

 

[Bigbella]

Yeah, it is truly a bad time to be a mola, in Carmel as well; though I think that something . . . larger than a sea lion had taken a bite out of a sizable sunfish at Monastery, on Friday.

Yikes . . .

 

[wnissen]

What a difference a few months makes! I was in Monterey in February, when the Breakwater was so angry the students were coming out looking like dogs and we choose not to dive. Today was clear, sunny, topside with only the smallest waves, if any. (Doubly amazing since the wind was literally howling last night at home.) Definitely less busy than a typical Saturday with good conditions. Staff at Cannery Row Scuba was masked, as were the patrons. My buddies were unable to make it so I booked a tour with Bobby (?). First dive was along the wall, hoping to see some of the seals that were sunning themselves on the rocks, including one pup! We made it to the rookery, you can tell because of all the broken and discarded mussel shells. No seals, but we saw a couple of live mola molas (sunfish) swimming in the distance. I saw a dead one once and that was pretty cool. If it's possible, they look even weirder in motion than they do dead. Not great vis, maybe 3m / 10ft near the surface, but also pretty warm. Sharp thermocline at around 8m / 25ft, fuzzy and everything, and then you were in cooler (12C / 54F) but clearer water, out to maybe 8m. Saw several lemon nudibranchs, one of my favorites (beautiful spots when you hit them with a light), and a couple that sort of looked like nudis but flatter and harder. And I know everyone is jaded by Breakwater, but I just love seeing all the urchins tucked in nooks and crannies, the strawberry anenomes clumped together in gorgeous formations, nudibranch egg casings in their white rose glory, and the starfish hanging around like a Dalí painting.

Our next dive we decided to follow the pipe and see the metridium fields. Again, even the "normal" sights here are fascinating. Saw a tiny striped shrimp grooming what looked like a tiny abalone, a bunch of 10cm little conch things feeding on a decorator (?) crab carcass, a sea star with purple fringes, and a new nudibranch for me, a rainbow. The book says they grow up to 20cm, and I think ours was right around that size! It looked like a poodle exploded in a streamer factory. Super weird, the appearance is more plant than animal. Viz was not quite as good.

But just as we were getting to the end of the pipe, my trusty guide spotted several molas! We swam toward the metridia and suddenly we were surrounded. These were small, maybe 1-2 ft. One group of 9 and another of 10. Double shakas for sure. It was fun to see another group come through as we were heading back and you could read their excitement from body language alone. Unfortunately, I was so excited that I began slowly but steadily rising in the water column. Not looking forward to see how far I went up, but the descent of shame took more than a few kicks... A couple of them trailed us back the pipe, and one got close enough I could see its uncanny, sharklike eyeball. It was scanning me, jerkily rotating around. They don't like it when you look at them, so I tried to glance sideways, though I probably wasn't as subtle as I thought because I ended up several unintended meters above my guide, again. This buoyancy thing is a whole lifestyle, I guess. What a day to be diving!

 

[bjd001]

Did 2 great dives at South Monastery on Saturday. Beautiful sunny day and great viz! Up to 30 - 40 feet. Temp was a chilly 48 degrees on my computer; 50 degrees on my buddy's. Pretty calm, so for the entry it was easy to walk in and put our fins on in the water. But we crawled out, just to be safe!

First dive we swam out to the kelp and followed the line with kelp and rocks to our left and sand to our right. Lots of the little purple sea urchins but they thinned out as we got farther out. There were a lot of fish, including a good-sized lingcod. I saw 3 live abalone, which was great because there are a lot of abalone shells on the bottom. Lots of feather duster worms. Dive time was 47 minutes with a max depth of 50 feet. (We use a compass heading of 320 to find the kelp.)

For the second dive we swam along the rocks to the left, at a bearing of 270. After a few minutes, we headed due North to look for some rocks we found before. Great viz made it easy! We found a wolf eel (probably the same one we saw out there a couple of months ago.) Coming back we triangulated the headings and ended up coming back along the same rock/sand boundary as the first dive. There were clouds of tiny fry. Dive time was 37 minutes with a max depth about 42 feet. (Next time we're going to try to find the rocks in a straight line. Figure a heading of 315 or so.)

There were not many people there when we arrived at 8 am, but quite a few when we left around 2 pm. Our group was wearing masks (except for when we ate lunch!) and maintained social distancing. I saw very few other people wearing masks. They were allowing people to set up shade structures and hang out on the beach, but the groups were pretty well spaced.

Stopped at Aquarius on Del Monte to drop off my tanks on my way home. I knew they were going to need vis, but hadn't realized they were due for their first hydro this month too. There was a sign on the door that masks were required and only 6 customers could be in the store at the time. One staff member did not have a mask on but the rest did.

I was surprised to see the usual southbound afternoon traffic backup on Hwys 1, 156 and 101. I guess people are starting to get out and about.

 

[wnissen]

There were not many people there when we arrived at 8 am, but quite a few when we left around 2 pm. Our group was wearing masks (except for when we ate lunch!) and maintained social distancing. I saw very few other people wearing masks. They were allowing people to set up shade structures and hang out on the beach, but the groups were pretty well spaced.

You reminded me, another buddy reported excellent visibility at Monastery on Friday, 60+ feet at 124ft. Too deep for my blood, but would have been neat to see.

Another aspect I forgot was that my SAC was way worse. I had near-identical dives back in February, maybe a couple degrees warmer, with SACs at 17.5. But I haven't been in the pool even since early March, so it shouldn't be surprising that on these dives I was up at 20.5. Something to think about when gas planning.

The beach spacing was the worst, as we were coming back from the pipe there were a bunch of people and not much separation or mask wearing. I was grateful that there was a bench for my DM to sit on across the sidewalk from me, so we had well over 6 ft of separation. And I thought the southbound traffic at 1:30 p.m. was way worse than usual. I think there will be a huge crush of people.

The economy has really been hurt, so do try to reward the folks who are putting themselves in contact with the public for your benefit. I tipped 50% on my tour and $20 each on a burrito and a latte. If you can afford to do so, I recommend you do the same.