September '05 Dive Reports

[wetrat]

Date: 9/11/05
Dive Location: Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach
Dive Number: 25
Time: 7:45 am
Bottom Time: 42 min
Max Depth: 28'
Vis: 8 to 15'
Wave height: 3-4'
Temp at depth: 59F
Surface Temp: 66F
Gas mix: Air

Met with my open water instructor and some other LDS rats. Easy entry and soon made our way along the reef to the north. It was surgey and vis was down but we made it into the crevice. Abundant urchins, gorgonians, garibaldi and a couple blacksmith here and there. The crevice was a bit of a wild ride - we alternated between not making any headway to "flying." We turned around and exited (were spit out, more like!) the crevice and headed west again along the reef where vis cleared up to about 15 feet. Overall, a great experience practicing surf entrys and navigating in the surge.

 

[scottfiji]

Dive Report Anacapa, Sunday 9/11/2005

Dive buddies: nick, randy
# of dives: 4
bottom times: all 60 minutes
max depth: 40ft on all dives
vis: 20-40ft
temp: 63-64 degrees
locations: 3/4 dives in the game reserve (cathedral cove area), 1 dive on the other side of the island

Went on the Spectre, LAUPS chartered boat. Saw lots of fish, invertebrates. took lots of photos & some video . Had a great time. Hot tub was nice.

Male Sheephead who bit my finger hard (Ouch!)

Orgy of Tylodina fungina (snails)

FeatherDuster Worm (Bispira species?)

The highlight was playing with sea lions on the 4th dive, near cathedral cove. About 6 sea lions were playing in the sand, flipping around, biting each other, buzzing us. This continued for 15 minutes or so, they were not going anywhere! We watched from close and afar, and the 3 of us took a lot of sea lion video! Unfortunately the vis was bad due to us and the sea lions mucking up the sand.

Complete set of photos: (click photos to enlarge, or view slide show; add_comment option is on the left menu)
http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/scottfiji/Anacapa20050911

more "best of" photos here:
http://forums.scubapost.net/showthread.php?t=972

 

[divinman]

Exceptional images Scott. Thanks for sharing. I think my favorite image is the sulfur sponge image. The lighting is perfect and the focus is crisp. Well done.

Terry

 

[SoCalOffshore]

Saturday 9/10 and Sunday 9/11 at the Catalina Dive Park.
Vis 50 plus feet
71 degrees at surface.
we did a total of 6 dives, including one night dive. the conditons were spectacular.

 

[scottfiji]

Exceptional images Scott. Thanks for sharing. I think my favorite image is the sulfur sponge image. The lighting is perfect and the focus is crisp. Well done.

Terry

hey Terry, thanks a lot! I love those sulfur sponges...

 

[jefe]

Just finished reading this thread of reports. Makin'itchy to get wet

 

[divinman]

Date: 09/13/05
Dive number: 292
Dive Location: San Diego/Marine Room Canyon
Time: 6:51p
Bottom Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Max Depth: 74ft
Avg Depth: 30ft
Vis: 8-10ft, murky and green
Surface Temp: 67F
Temp at depth: 56F
Surface Conditions: large swells and high tide always makes for an interesting entry at the Marine Room

Image Gallery: http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/terry/album10/091305/

Tyler, MissyP, Doug(?) and I met on the hill near the Marine Room stairs and geared up. We opted to wait to dive until the swells had increased the tide was high....it's just that much more exciting to exit the staircase that way.

We all made it out without loss of life or gear and kicked northwest toward the canyon edge. At our drop in point we could see the sand ripples 15ft below so we were expecting great visibility for tonight's dive. And it was......for about 5 minutes. The farther we kicked toward the canyon the worse the vis got. At the rim it was 5-8 ft but it was warm so all was not lost and we ventured on. This was a nudibranch hunt but they would be few and far between tonight. What we did see was lots and lots of lizard fish, juvenile rockfish, purple globe crabs, a lone lobster, a 6 ft angel shark, and dozens of brown shrimp. Two highlights for me were watching a lizard fish eating another unknown fish. The poor meal wiggled and writhed but could not get free and slowly disappeared down the lizard fish's mouth. Moving shallow to the sand dollar beds I found a tiny red octopus in an old welk shell and then a few minutes later a smaller octopus in an old wine bottle.

Near an hour and half later we exited through bumpy but not dramatic surf. Luckily the tide had receded beyond the stairs and our exit was uneventful.

Great dive. Thanks to those who showed up, without you there I would have been home replacing tile in my shower....

Terry S.

 

[MissyP]

Date: 09/13/05
Dive Location: San Diego/Marine Room Canyon
Time: 6:51p
Bottom Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Max Depth: 74ft
Avg Depth: 30ft

Tyler, MissyP, Doug(?) and I met on the hill near the Marine Room stairs and geared up. We opted to wait to dive until the swells had increased the tide was high....it's just that much more exciting to exit the staircase that way.

Terry, aren't you forgetting someone? Little guy about 6" tall who was showing his best side to everyone? Moonie, the SB traveling gnome was with us!
And we also spotted a 5+ ft giant sea bass around 22 ft, very mellow guy (or girl) but the pictures didn't come out well due to particulates in the water.

 

[divinman]

Terry, aren't you forgetting someone? Little guy about 6" tall who was showing his best side to everyone? Moonie, the SB traveling gnome was with us!
And we also spotted a 5+ ft giant sea bass around 22 ft, very mellow guy (or girl) but the pictures didn't come out well due to particulates in the water.

Of course! How rude of me! Moonie was there and had the best sac rate of all of us.

I traded the sea bass for a lovely angel shark. Hmmmmm, that's a tough one. Angel or sea bass...... both are awesome to find but perhaps the sea bass is a little more dynamic than the shark. It does just kinda lay there.

Terry

 

[divinman]

Date: 09/16/05
Dive number: 293
Dive Location: San Diego/Vallecetos Point
Time: 6:06p
Bottom Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Max Depth: 58ft
Avg Depth: 35ft
Vis: 3-15ft, murky but clear below the wicked thermocline at 53ft.
Surface Temp: 68F
Temp at depth: 54F
Surface Conditions: swells and high tide but actually quite easy to manage



Image Gallery: http://gallery.scubapost.net/v/terry/album10/091605/



Sean and I met at Vallecetos Street. Parking is SOOOOO much easier once the tourist go away. The swell was maybe 3 ft and far enough apart that entry was actually quite easy. The wind was up so the surface chop was dramatic but again, nothing that couldn't be managed. We kicked out until we past the buoy and dropped into about 30ft of clear-ish water. Turning south west we finned over the sand to the canyon wall and followed the edge south. I was looking for nudibranchs but was strangely skunked on this dive. Sean found some San Diego Dorids but I was otherwise occupied and didn't see them. I did see one small bat ray digging for dinner, some odd worms, rockfish, scorpionfish, baby horn sharks, 3 medium halibuts and a small thimble jellyfish. Visibility in the canyon below the BRUTAL thermocline was a fair 15ft. Not fantastic but I have seen worse conditions on nicer days so I wasn't complaining. I was glad I had put the dry gloves on though.



Once we reached our turn around pressure we headed up the slope and back northeast across the sand. Halibut, stingrays and a very small elbow crab were found. Visibility was reduced and the surge was increased as we got more and more shallow.