Monterey Pics 3-22-08

[Larry C]

Finally! Back in the water, with my shoulder and my camera both working. Any dive is a good dive. This picture is not a bad picture and has no backscatter. This is my son Matt (six dives out of open water) and my wife Carol doing a green water ascent from 80 ft. when we just couldn't find the anchor. This is what it really looked like to me from three feet away.

The resident Fringehead, back in his pipe at the Steam Engine, now that his pipe is unplugged and back in place. (Thank you, John Yasaki)

The Steam Engine

A nice Bryozoan

San Diego Dorid

 

[parabolic]

Nice Larry!! Glad you are back in action!!

++Ken++

 

[MontereyCADiver]

Larry,

Glad your shoulder is better and it's great you're back. It doesn't seem like you lost your photographic touch -- nice work.

Jeff

 

[AndyT]

Must be great to be back in the water - cool pics !!!

 

[gary-ramey]

Hey the Oly SP350 King is back! ...and shooting just as well. Wow Pea soup....but I bet you were thrilled to just be there.

 

[kapula]

Nice pics Larry! Good to hear you're back in the bucket

 

[Larry C]

Thanks Ken, Jeff, Andy, Gary and Kapula. Good to be back. Now if I can just shake this darned cold. Two weeks and a day so far. This weekend I was taking about 10 minutes to drop, by the time I cleared my ears, and worrying the whole time about reverse block. Can't hear a thing right now, my ears are so clogged up.
With all that green, the conditions have been like night diving. You drop below a 60 foot layer and finally find about 10-20 feet of vis, then get out your light and go searching. Of course, we keep getting reports of "Wow, the water looks great today!" on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Saw a really cool Jellyfish today, (Scrippsis Pacificus?) I am trying to remember from the book I looked at after the dive. Couldn't get a decent pic, as it was at 10 feet, where the layer was so thick that I lost Carol five feet away during the safety stop. Couldn't even get the thing in the viewfinder, so I just aimed and shot blind. It was half off the page and not enough contrast to even see what it looked like. I'll try to process one or two from today and post them later. I only got in one 40 minute dive (99 feet) with more than half of it spend descending and ascending before I gave up on my ears. I think a couple came out OK, though. Vis was stellar at the bottom, maybe 35 feet, but man was it dark.

 

[midwestdvr]

Larry, that fringe head looks like he's pissed off at you

 

[Larry C]

Yeah, Gio, I think he was trying to tell me that I wasn't getting his good side. He wanted a three quarter from the right to minimize the difference in his left and right cirri. He probably also was a little annoyed with being blinded by a flash 8 inches from his face.

 

[Ed_Dman]

Cool shots, Larry! The Blenny is really cute and the #1 shot looks kinda scary! Hehe...

Ed.