Ok as I promised:
Went on a 3 dive charter through the LDS on the Cypress Sea. There were 8 divers on the boat so there was plenty of room. The plan was to go out to the point and see how the weather was so we head out and at a few spots go knocked about a little. Once we get out Phil comes back to discuss the options and it is decided that we'll stay in the bay.
First dive spot was Ball Buster which we were briefed was 70' to 100'. All but one diver decides to go. Well upon hitting the water three divers decide to abort including my buddy. So no deep dive for me. After this abort I think that one of the divers decided to call the day. Talking with my buddy it seems he just isn't used to Monterey diving with the thick wetsuit and double the weight. So when he hit the water he wasn't expecting to fight the current and inertia that much
No biggy for me as I was a little nervous about diving that depth (not enough to not do it but enough that I'll use an excuse
)
Second dive spot was Eric's Pinnacle. My buddy is feeling good. The diver that abstained from the first one joined us. Phil put out a buoy line to the anchor line for us to use. We jump in and get to the anchor line. Well the diver that joined us aborted at the surface. Can't really blame him as we were bouncing around a bit. So the two of us descend down the anchor line and had a great dive. We kept the pinnacle to our right. Vis was about 20'. Saw a wall of metridium, bunch of fish, and other fun stuff. I'm most happy about easily finding the anchor line after the turn around was called.
Third spot I don't know the name of. As we anchored we noticed a lot of harbor seals on the shore side. My buddy quit after the previous dive so I became the third with two other divers. We decided to go to the shallow side near the harbor seals. Great decision. As we get the reef area one seal comes up and starts spying on us. He'd look over the top of the coral and if we'd look at him he'd move over to behind the kelp. Well I guess he thought we were alright and let his buddies know. For almost the rest of the dive we had 3-4 with us. They'd swim between the group and I swear a few came within petting range. My buddies told me after that my blue force fins had them curious because they were right up behind me a bunch of times. Bad side to all the fun is that we lost our position and ended up getting carried off a ways by the current. One buddy surfaced to take a bearing and then came down and we swam under but eventually I had to surface as I was getting down on air (~750) and wanted to have some in reserve in case I needed to go under again. The swim back and the ribbing was worth it. Vis was easily 20'+.
Both dives had a light current that with a mildly surge but nothing too bad. If my computer is to be believed the temp was 54 degrees.
For most of the day it was overcast with scattered sprinkling. Nothing too bad. Phil and the crew were great and I really enjoyed it. They really take care of their passengers including doing some fin surgery to fix a diver's fin after the strap broke. Having a galley to get in from weather was nice as it was a little cool at times.
On the way into the dock the rain really picked up but everyone had packed up already so it was a quick step off the boat. And since we had a 6:30am load time all of us had really close parking.
