Two fun dives at Lobos today with Raftingtigger.
The tide was way low, and the ramp was slick, so entries and exits were "fun".
There was a long period swell coming in that made for more surge than I was expecting from the wave model & a noticeable outbound current in the Cannery Point Wall area.
I was feeling the cold today. The lowest my computer logged was 49 degrees F, but my VEO was displaying 48F.
Vis varied. It was 30+ on the first dive, but heavy overcast made it hard to estimate. On our second dive it was a milky 20 to 30 feet, better back in the cove.
FIrst dive: the vis was so nice we dropped early in, I believe, the Worm Patch area. We cruised along Middle Reef to a 62 feet where we encountered a Lingcod, harbor seal, and pair of divers in quick succession. There were more fish than we saw on Wednesday including a wonderfully camouflaged Cabezon. Bottom time: 74 minutes, Max depth 62 feet, Temperature 49.3F to 56.5F. Viz 30+ feet
Second dive: The sun came out and warmed us up for our second dive. We dropped in more-or-less the same place and cruised 'til I recognized a cave with a hole in the back we saw on the first dive and bore westerly, heading for the Cannery Point Wall area. I'm not used to dropping so early & was never quite sure where we were, though we were in some nice reef structure the whole time. Eventually, I noticed Raftingtigger checking out a familiar looking rock and looking to my left discovered we were at Hole in the Wall. I had enough air to push on for Lone Metridium, but we'd had a significant current at our backs the whole way out so turned around to give us more time for the retreat. Again, there were more fish about along with a cormorant swimming by and a nice school of Blues just under the kelp canopy. We were getting cold so initiated our safety stop, but chose to keep cruising at 15 feet instead of hanging. This warmed us up and we just kept going back into the cove. We did a pop-up to get our bearings and discovered we were about 30 meters from the ramp, so we dropped down and dove all the way there.
Bottom time 69 minutes. Max depth 59 feet. Logged temperature 51.4F to 56.8F. Viz a milky 20-30 feet.