Monterey conditions this weekend?

[capybara]

Hey, we're headed down to Monterey today for the New Year's weekend. How have conditions at Breakwater, Lobos etc. been for the past few days? With all the recent rains and predicted storms for this weekend, I'm trying to decide whether to bring all our gear or leave it at home.

 

[dannobee]

.FRI NIGHT...S WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES 4 TO 7 FT. W SWELL 14 TO 19 FT AT 14 SECONDS. RAIN WITH A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. .SAT...SW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES 4 TO 7 FT. W SWELL 14 TO 18 FT. RAIN WITH A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. .SAT NIGHT...S WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING SE AFTER MIDNIGHT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT. W SWELL 14 TO 18 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. .NEW YEARS DAY...S WINDS 25 TO 35 KT. COMBINED SEAS 14 TO 19 FT. RAIN LIKELY.


Not just big and ugly, but downright dangerous. Go to the aquarium instead.

 

[Jim Ernst]

Hey, we're headed down to Monterey today for the New Year's weekend. How have conditions at Breakwater, Lobos etc. been for the past few days? With all the recent rains and predicted storms for this weekend, I'm trying to decide whether to bring all our gear or leave it at home.

monterey is tottally blown out i have been in contact with both of the major dive shops down there through the week and they both said stay home, we were taking a new 26 ft dive boat down for its maiden voyge, we are all not going we cancelled all reservations, and have been told that breakwater has 6 ft breakers and that it is getting worse, the noaa says 12-18 ft swells and 40 kt winds, and i have also recieved info of 1-2 ft vis, all of this info was of both dive shops(monterey bay dive center,and glens aqurius dive center) and that was as of this morning at 1140 am, sorry for the bad info, i am also very dissapointed as this was going to be my new years weekend with 5 days off with pay, bummer!!!!!!!!!! good luck and stay safe

 

[Jim Ernst]

if anyone is still interested, i just got the conditions and it looks ok for diving down at the breakwater, there is a small swell and the vis is at about 12-15 ft, and so we may still load the boat and go!!! report came from friend that is there now!!!

 

[mjones]

Here is this weekends forecast for Jan. 6-7
MONTEREY BAY-
302 PM PST THU JAN 5 2006

SAT
W WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS.
W SWELL 7 TO 12 FT. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN.

SUN
NW WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 2 FT OR LESS.
W SWELL 5 TO 10 FT.

The `small crap' advisory ends Friday night. It looks like Monterey will be diveable but I wouldn't recommend it. If you have a new 26' dive boat to do a shakedown on, this would be a good weekend to see how it handles some bumps. I would pass on the diving but if you dive you probably won't want to dive beyond the aquarium on Sat. Shore diving especially will be challenging on Saturday. Boat diving would be better but there will probably be a lot of surge. Viz fair.

That's my read from the NOAA Monterey forecast. But I have been so wrong, so many times....

 

[slingshot]

Original post was for the New Year's weekend. Bigger than 2 foot waves by most accounts! I'd say a 35 foot boat would be great for Monterey, eh mjones?

 

[capybara]

New Year's weekend in Monterey, we saw a giant sea bass, a mola mola, giant octopus, wolf eel, hammerheads...yes it was at the aquarium, but the hotel manager at Monterey Bay Lodge gave us her tickets to the New Year's Eve aquarium party for free! We had a blast.

We left our gear at home because it was so rainy & windy. We talked to a couple of dive shops down there who basically laughed when we asked how dive conditions were. And a new year's Lobos trip got cancelled. Oh well, next time. We're headed to FL in a week.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Original post was for the New Year's weekend. Bigger than 2 foot waves by most accounts! I'd say a 35 foot boat would be great for Monterey, eh mjones?

That 2 foot forecast was for the wind waves. Swell forecast was much bigger.

 

[BrianM]

the hotel manager at Monterey Bay Lodge gave us her tickets to the New Year's Eve aquarium party for free! We had a blast.

Hey Capybara, how did you like your stay at that motel? I have stayed there quite a bit and it's my favorite place to stay in Monterey without question.

Brian

 

[capybara]

Hey Capybara, how did you like your stay at that motel? I have stayed there quite a bit and it's my favorite place to stay in Monterey without question.

Brian

It was our first time to stay there but definitely won't be our last. It's not much more expensive than the basic motels (we paid about $120/night) but had some nice touches like the gas fireplace, the pool & hot tub, free wireless internet and 2 free water bottles in the fridge on check-in. The manager & desk staff were friendly & suggested places to eat & called for reservations--they also give you "VIP cards" for free appetizers at some of the restaurants. We had a problem on New Year's Eve where Fish House claimed they didn't have our reservation & after waiting in vain over 30 minutes for a table while they seated people who arrived after us we called the hotel manager & she got us into Cafe Fina right away (which was a much nicer restaurant anyhow). When the internet went down for a bit they called us a couple of times to update us & let us know when it was back up. And the free aquarium tickets were a nice bonus! A friendly and helpful attitude goes a long way and is so hard to find nowadays.

If we want to stay somewhere nice on the water we'll still go to Monterey Bay Inn, but it's gotten much more expensive (though much fancier!) since their renovation. So the rest of the time we'll be staying at Monterey Bay Lodge, our new favorite!

Brian, congrats on your daughter just getting certified--your new buddy!