Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )
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Chavodel8en
Contributor
I saw a bunch of ~4" clown nudibranchs on the Breakwater rocks yesterday, which I had never seen before.
Four dive over two days -- two each in Carmel and Monterey, at Monastery and San Carlos Beach and Lover's Cove.
Given the heat and the swell lately, we've had a sizable bloom on both sides of the peninsula; though the water on both sides, below ten meters was 9.4˚ C, a balmy 49˚. Visibility, was 3-4 meters, tops.
I briefly dropped a fin, while adjusting my boot -- bright red fins, that I received for Christmas one year -- and could barely see it in thigh-high water . . .
Should it settle out a bit, visibility should be on the upswing, given the recent cold . . .
Given the heat and the swell lately, we've had a sizable bloom on both sides of the peninsula; though the water on both sides, below ten meters was 9.4˚ C, a balmy 49˚. Visibility, was 3-4 meters, tops.
I briefly dropped a fin, while adjusting my boot -- bright red fins, that I received for Christmas one year -- and could barely see it in thigh-high water . . .
Should it settle out a bit, visibility should be on the upswing, given the recent cold . . .
I dove Whaler's Cove (Pt Lobos) yesterday afternoon with 1 buddy. Min temp 51F, max depth 75', average depth 39', in at 1:17 pm, out at 2:15pm, 32% in single-tank config. The tide was the lowest I've seen it, with a vertical foot or so exposed below the end of the boat ramp.
Not a whole lot of water movement inside the cove, but the swells were somewhat high outside of it. It's pretty kelpy within the cove this year, but there is a passable surface swim along the sand channel, in NNE direction from the boat ramp.
This vis at the boat ramp was pea soup, maybe 5-7' (I could barely see my orange fins while upright), so we surface swam out. We were glad to bring snorkels for climbing over the giant kelp. About halfway between cannery point and coal chute point is the end of the kelp forest, maybe 150 yards from the ramp, we could see the bottom, so decided to begin the dive there.
Ends up we couldn't see the actual bottom, but were dropping in onto a boulder with a top around 20', and the bottom was around 40', so the vertical vis was maybe 25' or so. Horizontal vis at the bottom was similar, but pretty hazy. I spotted the silhouette of a sheepshead as we descended, but it went out of sight before I could point it out to my buddy.
We had taken a heading of 30' or so (NNE), and followed it along a string boulders, for maybe 100-150 feet. The boulders were nicely decorated with little anemones and sponges, we saw a few lemon dorid, white nudis that I couldn't identify, and one yellow nudibranch, about the same shade as a lemon dorid, but I didn't see the little frilly crown on the specimen, so maybe a different species.Lots of little grey and blue bony fish out as well, and one good-size red rockfish (lingcod?), about the thickness of my bicep but shorter than my arm.
After the boulder formation, we continued with the same heading deeper into the sand for 10 or 15 minutes, not seeing much, despite the 30' vis at 75' depth. I don't regret exploring there, but it would have been better to head East toward the main rock structure of Granite Point. A little bored and at our turn pressure, we turned around and headed approximately toward the boat ramp.
My buddy and I had slightly different ideas about the best way to get home, so we kinda zigzagged SW back into the cove. After we'd swam for what seemed like enough time to be back in the kelp forest, but there was no sign of kelp, I got worried that we had overshot things and might be headed toward the shallow area between Whaler's and Bluefish, so we decided to ascend, do a stop, and have look around on the surface.
At the safety stop, my buddy spotted a male sheephead fish, which we followed a little ways to a boulder, the top of which was about 15' deep. We just kinda hung out with the sheephead for the rest of the safety stop, it stayed very close to the boulder, it seemed to have staked out a territory there. When we surfaced, lo and behold, we were just about 40-50 feet from where we started -- I could see the lonely string of kelp we used as a reference to descend. So this boulder was in the same formation as the ones we followed out, and this might have been the same sheephead I spotted, it's hard to say.
We took a heading to the boat ramp, and descended again, and headed in that direction. In a few minutes, we saw another male sheephead, the largest I've seen, maybe 2 or 2.5 feet in length. We got pretty close to it before it skittered off into the bullkelp on the bottom. As we headed into the kelp forest, it got pretty dark and the vis dropped to 10', as little as 4-5' in places. With so little surge, it was actually pretty fun navigating through the thick kelp forest in **** vis.
Some of the tech divers from BAUE were also out yesterday, doing scooter dives on CCR. I happened upon one of their backup lights in the pea soup near the boat ramp -- it was funny, even though it was still turned on, I saw the boltsnap first. Luckily its owner was still there: a guy whose name I didn't catch, but who was diving one of the new chest-mounted Optima CCR rigs, he was happy to get his light back.
Overall, not the best conditions, especially for Lobos, but I had a good dive. I hadn't actually been diving locally in Monterey in almost a year, so it was really nice to get out there again.
Not a whole lot of water movement inside the cove, but the swells were somewhat high outside of it. It's pretty kelpy within the cove this year, but there is a passable surface swim along the sand channel, in NNE direction from the boat ramp.
This vis at the boat ramp was pea soup, maybe 5-7' (I could barely see my orange fins while upright), so we surface swam out. We were glad to bring snorkels for climbing over the giant kelp. About halfway between cannery point and coal chute point is the end of the kelp forest, maybe 150 yards from the ramp, we could see the bottom, so decided to begin the dive there.
Ends up we couldn't see the actual bottom, but were dropping in onto a boulder with a top around 20', and the bottom was around 40', so the vertical vis was maybe 25' or so. Horizontal vis at the bottom was similar, but pretty hazy. I spotted the silhouette of a sheepshead as we descended, but it went out of sight before I could point it out to my buddy.
We had taken a heading of 30' or so (NNE), and followed it along a string boulders, for maybe 100-150 feet. The boulders were nicely decorated with little anemones and sponges, we saw a few lemon dorid, white nudis that I couldn't identify, and one yellow nudibranch, about the same shade as a lemon dorid, but I didn't see the little frilly crown on the specimen, so maybe a different species.Lots of little grey and blue bony fish out as well, and one good-size red rockfish (lingcod?), about the thickness of my bicep but shorter than my arm.
After the boulder formation, we continued with the same heading deeper into the sand for 10 or 15 minutes, not seeing much, despite the 30' vis at 75' depth. I don't regret exploring there, but it would have been better to head East toward the main rock structure of Granite Point. A little bored and at our turn pressure, we turned around and headed approximately toward the boat ramp.
My buddy and I had slightly different ideas about the best way to get home, so we kinda zigzagged SW back into the cove. After we'd swam for what seemed like enough time to be back in the kelp forest, but there was no sign of kelp, I got worried that we had overshot things and might be headed toward the shallow area between Whaler's and Bluefish, so we decided to ascend, do a stop, and have look around on the surface.
At the safety stop, my buddy spotted a male sheephead fish, which we followed a little ways to a boulder, the top of which was about 15' deep. We just kinda hung out with the sheephead for the rest of the safety stop, it stayed very close to the boulder, it seemed to have staked out a territory there. When we surfaced, lo and behold, we were just about 40-50 feet from where we started -- I could see the lonely string of kelp we used as a reference to descend. So this boulder was in the same formation as the ones we followed out, and this might have been the same sheephead I spotted, it's hard to say.
We took a heading to the boat ramp, and descended again, and headed in that direction. In a few minutes, we saw another male sheephead, the largest I've seen, maybe 2 or 2.5 feet in length. We got pretty close to it before it skittered off into the bullkelp on the bottom. As we headed into the kelp forest, it got pretty dark and the vis dropped to 10', as little as 4-5' in places. With so little surge, it was actually pretty fun navigating through the thick kelp forest in **** vis.
Some of the tech divers from BAUE were also out yesterday, doing scooter dives on CCR. I happened upon one of their backup lights in the pea soup near the boat ramp -- it was funny, even though it was still turned on, I saw the boltsnap first. Luckily its owner was still there: a guy whose name I didn't catch, but who was diving one of the new chest-mounted Optima CCR rigs, he was happy to get his light back.
Overall, not the best conditions, especially for Lobos, but I had a good dive. I hadn't actually been diving locally in Monterey in almost a year, so it was really nice to get out there again.
runsongas
Contributor
so shark diving at lovers on saturday?
Not diving til Monday but I’ll be in the area
Dzydvl33
Contributor
How are thing looking? I'm thinking about heading over for a dive this weekend.
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