Monterey January thru March

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boat sju

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Location
Issaquah, Washington
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My Sister in Law just moved to Monterey and naturally I'm looking forward to diving there. I've gotten the impression that late summer or early fall is the best time to dive, but my wife wants to plan a trip in February (or thereabouts).

Is the dive community still very active at that time of year ? I'd like to hook up with some of you for some beach dives but I'd also like to try and go out on a charter. Looks like the boats only go out on weekends throughout the year, correct ? Are charters more likely than not, going to get blown out in Febuary ?

I'm figuring water temps are in the mid to upper 40's that time of year. I'll be bringing my 7 mm FJ. Is there a thermocline to look forward to on your ss ?

boat
 
My Sister in Law just moved to Monterey and naturally I'm looking forward to diving there. I've gotten the impression that late summer or early fall is the best time to dive, but my wife wants to plan a trip in February (or thereabouts).

Is the dive community still very active at that time of year ? I'd like to hook up with some of you for some beach dives but I'd also like to try and go out on a charter. Looks like the boats only go out on weekends throughout the year, correct ? Are charters more likely than not, going to get blown out in Febuary ?

I'm figuring water temps are in the mid to upper 40's that time of year. I'll be bringing my 7 mm FJ. Is there a thermocline to look forward to on your ss ?

boat

We dive throughout the whole year in Monterey, and it's really not possible to justify a statement that one time of year is the "best" and another is the "worst". However, you can defensibly speak in terms of probabilities. Storms and the big seas they bring are more likely during the winter, but because of the indirect angle of the sun and the reduced hours of daylight there is generally less plankton growth during the winter. In other words, the water is often clearer during the winter months, supposing you catch it between major storms. BUT...the clearest water I have ever seen (>100' of visibility) has been in July, immediately following an upwelling event. Upwelling is most likely in the late spring, which means that the water temperatures tend to be the coldest in the late spring. However, upwelling can occur at any time of year and bring up cold, clear water.

If this sounds confusing, it's because it is. I've tried explaining this to the people who call me and demand to know, e.g., what the visibility will be at Lover's Point next Sunday afternoon, but then they just become indignant when I won't "give them the information". One dive shop I know has a script they read for the people asking for visibility projections which admits every possibility. You can hear anything you want to hear in this script, and yet they never mislead you. (In other words, they used a lot of words to say absolutely nothing.) The wonderful thing about California diving is that it's very unpredictable. You can get a great day at absolutely any time of the year. The opposite statement is also true, however. And conditions can change very quickly.

The water temperatures are fairly constant throughout the year. Right now is the warmest. Absent any upwelling, temperatures at depth are now about 53F, and you won't even see that unless you go down to Carmel and go deep. In Monterey Bay I think the minimum is going to be about 56F. A "normal" temperature is about 50F, with the very lows following upwelling being about 46F. Occasionally I hear somebody claim 44F, but I suspect their thermometer needs calibrating. Temperatures below 50F don't tend to last very long. Also, I should mention that we rarely have a termocline. Temperatures do go down a bit as you descend, but there is rarely a well-defined boundary between warm and cold water.

Re boat diving... Yes, they generally run only on weekends. But there are occasional exceptions. You need to check their schedules on the web pages to see when they are going out and how many openings they have.

Bruce
 
I've tried explaining this to the people who call me and demand to know, e.g., what the visibility will be at Lover's Point next Sunday afternoon, but then they just become indignant when I won't "give them the information".

Good reply. But we've all gotten together than decided that you're just hoarding the visibility information for yourself. C'mon, give up the rock. It's 2008, and it's all about networking, not gatekeeping.

Storms aside, I think the biggest differences I notice in winter diving are: 1) No kelp. It makes for a drastically different dive (neither good nor bad), but you owe it to yourself to come during the spring/summer as well and swim in the forest; and 2) brisk surface intervals. If you dive wet, have the thermos prepped.
 
brisk surface intervals. If you dive wet, have the thermos prepped.

In February that's an important consideration, especially if you're on a boat and there's a bit of wind. You can be very comfortable at depth in 50˚ water, then come up and shiver through a SI with 52˚ air temp and additional wind chill.
 
You can be very comfortable at depth in 50˚ water, then come up and shiver through a SI with 52˚ air temp and additional wind chill.

So true. It happened to be in January once and I would never wish that kind of cold on anyone!!
 
How sensitive to cold temperatures are you? We usually dive wet and had a wonderful time this past January, but we simply don't get cold for the most part. As several people have mentioned, it tends to be colder out of the water than in. If you're prepared for that, you should be fine.

The thing we liked best about January, as opposed to this past summer, was the lack of seaweed covering everything. There's no kelp, true, but there's also no other plants hiding the nudibranchs, kelpfish and other little critters we like to check out. All summer we had to deal with big leaves flapping in our faces, especially on high surge days. Granted, there were more fish because there was more seaweed, and everything in life is a trade-off. We like fish, but we're partial to the little stuff so we were partial to the winter months when the seaweed was much thinner. Your mileage may vary, and that's cool.
 
Thanks for the information everyone. Yeah, being from Michigan I'm used to cold water but I'm afraid I'm getting old and don't really enjoy the cold SI's.

I was checking out some of the Charters, the Cypress Sea looks pretty comfortable. Also, the Aquarius II dive shop is right down the street from my SIL's place, so I've got a good idea of what to expect now.
 
We dive all thru the winter...the water and air temp are colder by a few degrees but the water is usually clearer...we have also had some awesome warm weather breaks in Jan. we have gotten temps in the high 70's to 80's...so miracles do happen...I love diving in the winter..I wear a wet suit all year long..
 
In February that's an important consideration, especially if you're on a boat and there's a bit of wind. You can be very comfortable at depth in 50˚ water, then come up and shiver through a SI with 52˚ air temp and additional wind chill.

52F? That's balmy winter surface temps. I've been out with a surface temp of 34F.

My opinion is that winter is the BEST diving IF you can dive. Most of my FANTASTIC
vis experiences have been in winter. BTW, winter isn't the coldest water, that comes
April into the first half of May.

The storms do seem to come on a seven-day cycle. Some years they land on Wed.
and some years on the weekend. I've been blown out four or five weekends in a row,
and other years pretty much dived all winter.
 
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