eric gundrum
Contributor
Today my regular buddy and I made two dives at Pt. Lobos. It was a cold 48°F according to my Oceanic computer. My buddy says his gauge read 45°F frequently throughout the dive. :cold: My numb fingers and toes agree with his gauge. (We dove wet.) Even so, we often encountered patches of warmth, or so it seemed. (Another diver reported 53°F before our first dive. Such a tease.)
Surface conditions were cold and windy, but the wind subsided after noon. There was quite a bit of surge throughout the day, making diving quite a bit more challenging, especially on our returns (even with the tide rolling in).
Vis varied from 15' to 30' for our explorations around Cannery Wall in the morning. It was around 40' at the north end of Middle Reef in the late afternoon, but with many patches around 20' or less within the reef. I suppose that's to be expected with all the surge.
Overall, we had a good day in familiar territory after being dry for more than six months. We achieved that primary goal, although we often procrastinated getting into that cold water. :satisfied:
Now for some details...
The exploring objectives of our first dive were three:
1. find Hole in the Wall
2. find Lone Metridium
3. find our favorite bowl that is somewhere west of HitW
Feeling that this was too easy for an hour long dive, we decided to do it in this order:
1. find Hole in the Wall
2. find our favorite bowl that is somewhere west of HitW
3. find Lone Metridium
Or maybe it was that my buddy really wanted to find the Bowl and wasn't confident we'd find it from Lone Metridium.
We'd only ever seen Hole in the Wall once before. We thought it was where the bottom is 40' and the hole was near the top of the reef (about 30'). Boy were we wrong.
We found it from the back at about 45' but the bottom on the east side of its reef is 60', if I recall correctly. And, it is about 30' south of the end of its reef. That is, if we really found Hole in the Wall. (I'm sure others know its location much better than I. I welcome any corrections.) So, that was an easy 15 minutes of the first dive.
Our next step was to head west. We went around the north end of HitW reef and threaded our way between the reef walls where we could and over a few that were below 30'. Most of the time our depth was around 50' but ranged from 65' to 40'. Sometimes we headed south. We saw a lot of discarded mollusk shells and what I think were worm patches. We stopped heading east when we hit a wall that topped out around 20'.
We never found our sandy bowl. I think we were to far north, but it's hard to say. This bowl is sand in the middle and mostly round. I think the rim is around 40'. It has a chute at the north end with a depth starting at 55'. When we follow the chute out it drops to 70' over a path of about 30' or so, then opens up to a sandy plain going deeper. I think there is a pinnacle or something at this mouth. If I head north around the left of the pinnacle, then turn east, I think it will lead to Lone Metridium. (I found Lone Metridium the first time I exited this bowl, but I didn't record the details.) The last time I left the bowl thru the chute, I turned east as soon as I was out of the chute, but I couldn't find Lone Metridium on that path. (This is why I think I may have to go left around the pinnacle.)
So, we never found our bowl. Instead, we headed for deeper water hoping that by chance we might find the Lone Metridium (after having got thoroughly lost in the reef). Once out of the reef at about 65' we turned east, keeping walls and such on our right. We never saw the metridium. When we thought we'd reached the last reef, we turned mostly south (heading 160°, I think) following the wall a bit. Very soon we came across a tire in the sand. (That should be a landmark someone will recognize.
)
We continued on 160° along the sand channel, always passing kelp and other barriers on the left. At 18' we decided to surface. Unfortunately I couldn't hold my stop at 10'. I'm not sure if I had a bit of residual air in my BC or just not enough weight. I was cold and I wanted out of the water.
We surfaced just east of the parking lot stairs. That was a pleasant sight.
Within the reef we saw quite a few solitary fish hiding from the surge. A few large ling cod, I think and plenty I don't know the names of. I saw a few small white nudis with white spikes. I don't think I'd seen them before. Vis was often clouded with billions of tiny fish, and in very patchy ways. If only it weren't so cold, I would have enjoyed the dive much more. Total bottom time was about 58 minutes. (We were diving HP 130s. )
After an overly long surface interval, we convinced ourselves to make our second dive. Our goal was to find the north point of Middle Reef, then explore the reef as we head south.
Last time we tried to do this we swam out too far, descending to 70' or so in poor vis. That time we totally missed Middle Reef, but got all excited at this really cool wall we found. As it turned out, that was just Granite Point Wall; the same wall we had seen that morning. :doh:
This time we swam out to nearly the same place in the channel as we had for the first dive, but just a little east. We dropped to 42', turned east and found the reef 20' away. We turned north and explored the reef wall as we searched for the northern tip. This is a great wall. We didn't spend nearly enough time with it. However, along the way we found a memorial to someone who died in November 2008. I think the name was something like Stephen Philip Davies. :reaper: I'd love to know his story. (Google was no help.)
Once we found the north end of the wall, we noted the depth (62'), then turned into the reef on the east side of the wall. This was the best vis of the day. Some of this reef looked familiar to me; I'm pretty sure I've been through there at least once on a return from Granite Point Wall.
We spent much of our dive just exploring the crevices and ledges within the reef. Our intent was to travel mostly south, but nearly every time I checked my compass we were headed north or east.
Within the reef we saw quite a few large Gabezon, common yellow and white nudis and some other reef fish. Because of the cold, we didn't go very slowly.
Vis wasn't too good once we were in the reef, and we were fighting surge almost all the time. I'm used to just riding surge, leaving it to push me in the general direction I want go. Today it didn't work out that way.
We did manage to head more south later in the dive. Got to some sandy patches around 20' deep or so. Shortly after we hit our PSI limit we turned much more west to make our way to the sand channel and exit. Then I spotted a black weight belt stuck in a black bag lying in the sand. Thinking of Kristina, I retrieved it. :angel: This was heavy. I added air to me BC, thinking carefully, if I drop this, I'll be on the surface fast. Carrying this was exhausting. It felt like a bag of cement. Really I should have taken a moment to see if I could lighten it, but we were rushing to get out of the kelp before we ran out of air.
As we were returning, we tried slowly reducing our depth, but with this awkward extra weight, my buoyancy control was off. :ermm: Sooner than I wanted I hit 400 PSI and signaled the end of the dive. We actually had a good, slow ascent with a nice stop at 10'.
We surfaced about as far south as the boat ramp, but nearly on the far side of the cove. OK, I thought, we've been here before and there was a lot more kelp then. I just rolled over and started kicking. It wasn't long before I reached the ramp and my buddy was right there ready to take my package. Along the way the sand in the bag softened and I dumped much of it, lightening the load.
Once out of the water we opened our treasure. It was some sort of integrated weight pouch with a 5 pound soft weight and probably 15 pounds of sand. It had been in the water long enough for some critters to attach themselves. My buddy was pleased; this made up for the 2 pound soft weight he lost last time we dove Lobos. :sigh: The rest went in the trash.
We hadn't been quite as cold this dive, although my computer reported the same 48°F. We were pleased overall, in spite of the missed navigation to exit. I was much more comfortable seeing some of my lost dive skill return for the second dive. A few more dives and I might be ready to dive with my Essentials classmates again.
Total time was 48 minutes each of us diving AL80.
One last bit: I tried an interesting DIY attempt at a handle for my light. My dive light (a Torrent, I think) is about the size and shape of a classic flash light. During Essentials I enjoyed the use of a can light. I thought I might replicate that with my Torrent with a bunch of shock cord wrapped to make a handle. Aside from flopping around somewhat, it worked well, but the cord was too tight on my gloved hand, making it uncomfortable. I decided to remove the cord for the second dive. I was quite surprised at how much I missed it. :shocked2: I really liked the freedom of not having to carry and manipulate the light. Now I'm anxious to get a can light, but I think so much other gear is more important to get first (dry suite & BPW). Maybe I'll try to fabricate a better handle for my flash light.
This is a super long post. If you made it this far, I'm impressed; I'll buy you a beer.
After six months of no diving (and infrequent lurking on SB), I'm glad to have gotten back in the water. Hopefully I'll make it again next month.
Surface conditions were cold and windy, but the wind subsided after noon. There was quite a bit of surge throughout the day, making diving quite a bit more challenging, especially on our returns (even with the tide rolling in).
Vis varied from 15' to 30' for our explorations around Cannery Wall in the morning. It was around 40' at the north end of Middle Reef in the late afternoon, but with many patches around 20' or less within the reef. I suppose that's to be expected with all the surge.
Overall, we had a good day in familiar territory after being dry for more than six months. We achieved that primary goal, although we often procrastinated getting into that cold water. :satisfied:
Now for some details...
The exploring objectives of our first dive were three:
1. find Hole in the Wall
2. find Lone Metridium
3. find our favorite bowl that is somewhere west of HitW
Feeling that this was too easy for an hour long dive, we decided to do it in this order:
1. find Hole in the Wall
2. find our favorite bowl that is somewhere west of HitW
3. find Lone Metridium
Or maybe it was that my buddy really wanted to find the Bowl and wasn't confident we'd find it from Lone Metridium.
We'd only ever seen Hole in the Wall once before. We thought it was where the bottom is 40' and the hole was near the top of the reef (about 30'). Boy were we wrong.
We found it from the back at about 45' but the bottom on the east side of its reef is 60', if I recall correctly. And, it is about 30' south of the end of its reef. That is, if we really found Hole in the Wall. (I'm sure others know its location much better than I. I welcome any corrections.) So, that was an easy 15 minutes of the first dive. Our next step was to head west. We went around the north end of HitW reef and threaded our way between the reef walls where we could and over a few that were below 30'. Most of the time our depth was around 50' but ranged from 65' to 40'. Sometimes we headed south. We saw a lot of discarded mollusk shells and what I think were worm patches. We stopped heading east when we hit a wall that topped out around 20'.
We never found our sandy bowl. I think we were to far north, but it's hard to say. This bowl is sand in the middle and mostly round. I think the rim is around 40'. It has a chute at the north end with a depth starting at 55'. When we follow the chute out it drops to 70' over a path of about 30' or so, then opens up to a sandy plain going deeper. I think there is a pinnacle or something at this mouth. If I head north around the left of the pinnacle, then turn east, I think it will lead to Lone Metridium. (I found Lone Metridium the first time I exited this bowl, but I didn't record the details.) The last time I left the bowl thru the chute, I turned east as soon as I was out of the chute, but I couldn't find Lone Metridium on that path. (This is why I think I may have to go left around the pinnacle.)
So, we never found our bowl. Instead, we headed for deeper water hoping that by chance we might find the Lone Metridium (after having got thoroughly lost in the reef). Once out of the reef at about 65' we turned east, keeping walls and such on our right. We never saw the metridium. When we thought we'd reached the last reef, we turned mostly south (heading 160°, I think) following the wall a bit. Very soon we came across a tire in the sand. (That should be a landmark someone will recognize.
)We continued on 160° along the sand channel, always passing kelp and other barriers on the left. At 18' we decided to surface. Unfortunately I couldn't hold my stop at 10'. I'm not sure if I had a bit of residual air in my BC or just not enough weight. I was cold and I wanted out of the water.
We surfaced just east of the parking lot stairs. That was a pleasant sight. Within the reef we saw quite a few solitary fish hiding from the surge. A few large ling cod, I think and plenty I don't know the names of. I saw a few small white nudis with white spikes. I don't think I'd seen them before. Vis was often clouded with billions of tiny fish, and in very patchy ways. If only it weren't so cold, I would have enjoyed the dive much more. Total bottom time was about 58 minutes. (We were diving HP 130s.
)After an overly long surface interval, we convinced ourselves to make our second dive. Our goal was to find the north point of Middle Reef, then explore the reef as we head south.
Last time we tried to do this we swam out too far, descending to 70' or so in poor vis. That time we totally missed Middle Reef, but got all excited at this really cool wall we found. As it turned out, that was just Granite Point Wall; the same wall we had seen that morning. :doh:
This time we swam out to nearly the same place in the channel as we had for the first dive, but just a little east. We dropped to 42', turned east and found the reef 20' away. We turned north and explored the reef wall as we searched for the northern tip. This is a great wall. We didn't spend nearly enough time with it. However, along the way we found a memorial to someone who died in November 2008. I think the name was something like Stephen Philip Davies. :reaper: I'd love to know his story. (Google was no help.)
Once we found the north end of the wall, we noted the depth (62'), then turned into the reef on the east side of the wall. This was the best vis of the day. Some of this reef looked familiar to me; I'm pretty sure I've been through there at least once on a return from Granite Point Wall.
We spent much of our dive just exploring the crevices and ledges within the reef. Our intent was to travel mostly south, but nearly every time I checked my compass we were headed north or east.
Within the reef we saw quite a few large Gabezon, common yellow and white nudis and some other reef fish. Because of the cold, we didn't go very slowly. Vis wasn't too good once we were in the reef, and we were fighting surge almost all the time. I'm used to just riding surge, leaving it to push me in the general direction I want go. Today it didn't work out that way.
We did manage to head more south later in the dive. Got to some sandy patches around 20' deep or so. Shortly after we hit our PSI limit we turned much more west to make our way to the sand channel and exit. Then I spotted a black weight belt stuck in a black bag lying in the sand. Thinking of Kristina, I retrieved it. :angel: This was heavy. I added air to me BC, thinking carefully, if I drop this, I'll be on the surface fast. Carrying this was exhausting. It felt like a bag of cement. Really I should have taken a moment to see if I could lighten it, but we were rushing to get out of the kelp before we ran out of air.
As we were returning, we tried slowly reducing our depth, but with this awkward extra weight, my buoyancy control was off. :ermm: Sooner than I wanted I hit 400 PSI and signaled the end of the dive. We actually had a good, slow ascent with a nice stop at 10'.
We surfaced about as far south as the boat ramp, but nearly on the far side of the cove. OK, I thought, we've been here before and there was a lot more kelp then. I just rolled over and started kicking. It wasn't long before I reached the ramp and my buddy was right there ready to take my package. Along the way the sand in the bag softened and I dumped much of it, lightening the load.
Once out of the water we opened our treasure. It was some sort of integrated weight pouch with a 5 pound soft weight and probably 15 pounds of sand. It had been in the water long enough for some critters to attach themselves. My buddy was pleased; this made up for the 2 pound soft weight he lost last time we dove Lobos. :sigh: The rest went in the trash.
We hadn't been quite as cold this dive, although my computer reported the same 48°F. We were pleased overall, in spite of the missed navigation to exit. I was much more comfortable seeing some of my lost dive skill return for the second dive. A few more dives and I might be ready to dive with my Essentials classmates again.
Total time was 48 minutes each of us diving AL80.One last bit: I tried an interesting DIY attempt at a handle for my light. My dive light (a Torrent, I think) is about the size and shape of a classic flash light. During Essentials I enjoyed the use of a can light. I thought I might replicate that with my Torrent with a bunch of shock cord wrapped to make a handle. Aside from flopping around somewhat, it worked well, but the cord was too tight on my gloved hand, making it uncomfortable. I decided to remove the cord for the second dive. I was quite surprised at how much I missed it. :shocked2: I really liked the freedom of not having to carry and manipulate the light. Now I'm anxious to get a can light, but I think so much other gear is more important to get first (dry suite & BPW). Maybe I'll try to fabricate a better handle for my flash light.
This is a super long post. If you made it this far, I'm impressed; I'll buy you a beer.
After six months of no diving (and infrequent lurking on SB), I'm glad to have gotten back in the water. Hopefully I'll make it again next month. 
. Maybe December, again, trading Essentials class, for bringing my drysuit 
