TLDR: 30 foot vis at 40 fsw at the Breakwater on Sunday, temp 56 F
My partner did her OW course dives in Monterey this weekend, so we made a trip of it. Stayed at Hotel Pacific, which I very much recommend -- the rates are reasonable, the rooms are huge, and the location is right downtown next to Troia's Market. Our suite had a gas-burning fireplace, which we made liberal use of, especially for drying out her neoprene gear. Only downside is that the building is a little old, so you can hear street noise through the single-pane windows (you can also hear the waves and the sea lions, so it's not all bad).
The conditions at the Breakwater as viewed from above were about as good as I've ever seen them. Waves under 1 foot high with a 12-13 second swell in the morning, closer to 2.5-3 feet by 2pm as the wind picked up. On Saturday I heard a visibility report of over 40, maybe 50 feet, but it was from a guy who came off as a little hyperbolic, so I took that with a grain of salt. I didn't get a dive in on Saturday myself, so cannot confirm or deny.
On Sunday, my friend came down to meet me for a dive while the OW students finished their course dives. Sunday had a bit more wave action, and the swell period had increased to perhaps 10-11 seconds.
By the time I got in the water with my sleepy-head dive buddy (11am or so), visibility in the put-your-fins-on depth was about 5-7 feet. We swam to the bathroom building around the 4 and 5 wall markers, and we could clearly make out the seafloor from the surface. Dropped in perhaps 30 yards away from the wall into about 16 feet with 15-20 foot visibility. Headed Northeast until the sandy bottom turned to the more mucky/kelpy bottom in the 40 foot range, where we spent most of the dive. Visibility was a little better in the 30-40 foot muck away from the wall, I'd put it at 25-30 feet or so, with a sandy-white haze delimiting the outer edge.
Saw more than 20, less than 50 individual opalescent nudibranchs in the muck between 15 and 25 feet. Smallest one I saw was about 1/4 inch, largest was a little over an inch. Also spotted a San Diego dorid, a few Monterey dorids (or were they peltodoris lemons? who is to say), an orange-and-white shrimp about 1 1/2 inch (spot shrimp?), and the largest gumboot chiton I've ever seen, about 11-12 inches. I saw a group of about a dozen silvery fish about a foot long with 4-5 dark bars that I
think were treefish. My other pals were diving further along the wall (dropped in at the 7 marker), and they spotted a large male California sheephead, which is neat, I've never seen one north of Monastery Beach.
My goal for this dive session was to try out my new Fourth Element Arctic two-piece drysuit undies. It was so much more comfortable than my DUI DuoTerm single piece, I don't think I'll ever wear the DuoTherm again. The DuoTherm is a fine product, but it never really fit me well, which is why I sprung for a two-piece instead. I left the X-core vest in the truck, and found the warmth to be sufficient for the 56F/13C water, when paired with a merino wool base layer, trilam drysuit, drygloves, and a 5mm neoprene hood. As a note to self, bring more lead next time!!! I was a little bit light with 600psi in the tank at 10 feet deep, with 16 lbs lead, a steel backplate, and a single PST HP100 tank. Will try 18lbs next time, or 22lbs if I take the X-core vest along.
Breakwater 6:30am Saturday
Open Water class around 8:30am Saturday
Outside of Tidal Coffee at 6:45am on Sunday
