Monterey conditions. (let's keep it going )

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So this weekend saw King Tides and a lot of chop/bad vis. Our shop did a Dive 1 for 2 different OW class groups on Saturday morning, but the wind kicked up and the surface along Cannery Row by the Radio Tower became unsafe for OW students. Canceled the rest of the diving for the day (2 more dives). Visibility was maybe 10 feet with surge at 25' running around 6-7'.

Sunday wasn't much better. Calmer on the surface to start the day, but the surge was stronger and as the morning progressed, surface chop got rougher (we saw a few 7 foot waves from the boat) and visibility went down to around 5'. Had one spot by the Radio Tower about 400 yds off shore where we had 15' of vis, but that was short lived.

Also heard that the City dumped 5,000 gallons of treated sewage into the bay as the rain and flooding was making it problematic for proper disposal. Pretty sure I ended up with some in my mouth causing me some violent vomiting as I was hanging on the side of the boat handing gear up to the Captain. I have never gotten sea sick or any type of motion sickness, so I know it was environmental. Kicked my butt and made for a long drive home Sunday afternoon. All in the life of a DM I suppose... Not one of my favorite trips to the bay, but I'll always be happy underwater.

Anyways, hoping conditions get better and you all can get under soon! Cheers!
 
Also heard that the City dumped 5,000 gallons of treated sewage into the bay as the rain and flooding was making it problematic for proper disposal.
Yikes!

Don't forget the several hundred thousand gallons of "treated" sewage that was dumped into the Salinas River during the height of the flooding, earlier this month.

Full face mask for me . . .
 
So this weekend saw King Tides and a lot of chop/bad vis. Our shop did a Dive 1 for 2 different OW class groups on Saturday morning, but the wind kicked up and the surface along Cannery Row by the Radio Tower became unsafe for OW students. Canceled the rest of the diving for the day (2 more dives). Visibility was maybe 10 feet with surge at 25' running around 6-7'.

Sunday wasn't much better. Calmer on the surface to start the day, but the surge was stronger and as the morning progressed, surface chop got rougher (we saw a few 7 foot waves from the boat) and visibility went down to around 5'. Had one spot by the Radio Tower about 400 yds off shore where we had 15' of vis, but that was short lived.

Also heard that the City dumped 5,000 gallons of treated sewage into the bay as the rain and flooding was making it problematic for proper disposal. Pretty sure I ended up with some in my mouth causing me some violent vomiting as I was hanging on the side of the boat handing gear up to the Captain. I have never gotten sea sick or any type of motion sickness, so I know it was environmental. Kicked my butt and made for a long drive home Sunday afternoon. All in the life of a DM I suppose... Not one of my favorite trips to the bay, but I'll always be happy underwater.

Anyways, hoping conditions get better and you all can get under soon! Cheers!
Ick!
 
Two dives -- one in Carmel, at Monastery, with lots of young rockfish and mysid shrimp -- murky, close to shore, but opened up to about five meters at the "splash rock." The outgoing tide this morning, was an express ride offshore. I had yet to put on my second fin and was already off.

The second was at San Carlos Beach, far murkier, with a cormorant pecking away at my hood and gauges -- thinking Cormorant à l'Orange this evening.

12˚C, all around . . .
 
This past Saturday and Sunday, my buddy were in Monterey again working with our shop and OW students. 6 dives over 2 days (3 and 3). Saturday conditions were tough. Swells, surge and lots of green water with low vis. Dove all three dives at Charthouse (couple hundred yards off MacAbee Beach. Not a lot of stuff to see as the vis was some of the worst I've seen outside of 2 weeks ago on the King Tides.

We fully expected Sunday to be a total washout given the forecast, BUT, it ended up being some of the best vis I've seen in a while there. Out at Radio Tower dive site, we were seeing 40 feet, blue water and TONS of life. Purple Nettles, Nudi's, mom and baby otter, Commorants diving between students. Just a fantastic day. Cleaned up a bunch of trash as well including a backpack with 3 teddy bears in it... Talk about weird... Sunday made the drive worth it and wished we could have stayed for today as it was looking like a sweet forecast for bubble blowing. Have a great week SB!
 
Hey Monterey divers… I'm looking for dive buddies who live in Monterey. My parents live in the area but are getting older, so I probably won't have a base there much longer. (I'm in mid-50s.) I've done a handful of dives there over the years, and have been ready to do others but have had to abort due to swells and other conditons.

Would just like to have a few people who know the conditions and sites to dive with while there. Either for soon or in the future. Next time coming up during the last week in March 2023. Would be able to -- and prefer -- diving during the weekdays.

Most interested in diving Point Lobos again, and trying Monterey Wharf II.

Experienced rec diver, less so cold water but used to dive in Puget sound in dry suit and have occasionally dove around California North & South. Would bring basic gear (mask, reg, hood, vest, etc.) but would need to rent rest. Would only bring gear this trip if I knew there were some possibile buddies.

Please message me if interested. I'll start a separate thread if I don't get bites here.
 
Single dive at North Monastery Beach this morning. Conditions were relatively flat; but, oh, that's really going to change.

Visibility, in terms of the well-regarded soup spectrum, landed squarely on miso, right down to the color, complete with kombu and wakame bits floating around. I was told by a fellow diver that San Carlos Beach was much the same; didn't even bother with Monterey.

Stay home.

Since there was little to see aside from dim silhouettes and something that may have been fishes and gazillions of mysid shrimp, I took it upon myself to futz with gear a bit and check out the decompression functions on a new, heavily discounted Teric, to about 45 meters -- about dusk at that depth.

So full of interesting features; and I especially liked that CTH setting (Closest Tim Horton's) while on the first safety stop and countdown; but alas, the closest 24 hour location was 1694 kilometers away . . .
 
This past Saturday (April 1) should have been great visibility with <2 ft waves coming from SW. Morning at Point Pinos had decent 20ft visibility, but wind picked up and by early afternoon near Lovers Point I lost my buddy immediately while descending (we were two feet apart on the surface). My computer recorded water temperature at 50 degrees. I usually don't get cold during the first dive but this time I was glad for the warm sun during surface interval.
 

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