September '05 Dive Reports

[MaxBottomtime]

Date:September 17th
Dive Location:Marineland and Redondo Canyon
Time: 11:42 and 5:49
Bottom Time: :58 and :38
Max Depth: 38' and 70'
Vis: 10' at Marineland, 6-8' at Redondo.
Wave height:Nada at Marineland, 3-4' at Redondo
Temp at depth: 53F and 56F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: While the rest of SoCal was getting beat by the large surf this weekend, Palos Verdes, which is protected by southerly swells by Catalina was a lake today. Unfortunately, that lake has red tide. The poor vis didn't keep us from making two dives, but I didn't get much in the way of good images today. The saddest image is the new sign at the Marineland entrance.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Date: Saturday Sept. 17th, 2005
Location:Wrecks and rock piles on the San Pedro shelf
Times: 0950, 1130, 1330
Max Depths: 99fsw, 97fsw, 80 fsw
Bottom times: 33min, 18 min (wreck or rocks???....oh, rocks...), 24 minutes
Surface temp: 68F (Aeris)
Temp at depth: 53F, everytime. Startling thermocline!!
Viz: 12 - 15 on the first two, then a lovely 20+ on the Georgia Straits wreck
Gas: 21%

Big nasty swell??? What big nasty swell?? Ross-O treated us to a beautiful day of boating and diving out of the San Pedro area: sunshine, flat ocean, glassy until noon wind, but then it calmed down again. Time to go look at some "Stuff"!!!
Joined by ChrisG and ElaineJ, we cruised over lots of targets before dropping down onto a barge covered with corynactis, scorpion fish, gorgonian, and big white metridium anemones. Wild sight: a 4 four-foot long male sheephead snuggled into a partially enclosed space of the wreck. I stuck my head in and was about 12 inches from its toothsome mug. Fish-eating anemones were scattered around on the sand, about 8 inches in diameter. Amazing sight: The back third of a scorpion fish sticking straight up from the middle of one of these anemones. I'm hoping ChrisG will post the picture on Divers.net. These anemones must pack quite a stinging punch to be able to stun and grab a fish. Scorpion fish were Everywhere...cheek by jowl all over the debris.
Back up for a motor trip to a mystery target: could it be rock piles or maybe a new wreck?? Oh, the anticipation! It was rocks...cool rocks with big nudibranchs and corynactis...but, rocks. Save that compressed air.... Bounce back up for a move and lunch and off-gassing as the purple striped jellies floated by.
Ross headed us for the wreck of the Georgia Straits, cautioning that viz there was often poor, but the wreck has great life on it. I dialed my expect-o-meter way down as we slid down the zip line into the green murk. And then leaked some water into my mask by grinning big as the wreck appeared below us in at least 20 foot visibility! Wow! Clearest water all day! This wreck has a neat combination of vertical posts, pocketed wall structure, and flat hull sheets on the bottom. Lots of nets and monofiliment, too. Large areas covered with dark golden fluted bryozoan. Several Spanish shawl FedEx nudibranchs. Beautiful white stalked metridiums dotted the debris, closing partly when gently touched, but almost immediately re-opening. We didn't have alot of bottom time or gas left, but we enjoyed every minute.
Thanks, Ross, for inviting, skippering, describing, diving, and being a great dive buddy. Thanks Elaine and Chris for all the laughing surface intervals and the fun down below.
Claudette

 

[JDog]

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.

Are there more than one Moonie, running around? I thought Moonie was going to Bonaire this week.

 

[MissyP]

Are there more than one Moonie, running around? I thought Moonie was going to Bonaire this week.

If you're talking about the gnome Moonie, he was with me last week and I sent him off to Natasha in Texas on Friday. From Texas, I think he's heading off to see El Orans or Mania, then he'll be back in the US for a dive with Chatterton/Kohler on the U 352 in early November. (ok I just checked the Moonie movement thread & posted it below)

Sept 24 thru Oct 1-2 Natasha

Europe
Oct 8-9 El Orans
Oct 15-16 Mania
Oct 22-23 Scuba Freak
Oct 29-30 back to USA

 

[dazedone]

Date: Saturday Sept. 17th, 2005
Location:Vet's Park Redondo
Time: 5:48pm
Max Depths: 67.5fsw
Bottom time: 38min
Surface temp: 70F
Temp at depth: 57f
Viz: 10ft below 55ft and as low as 1ft at 20ft.
Gas: 21%

After a day of exploring and hiking around PV dive sites, Christian and I decided to get into the water. The original plan was Malaga, but conditions looked terrible, so we opted for good ol' Vet's Park.

We geared up, got in the water and once we descended below 50ft, it was black as night. We headed north until we started seeing empty frozen squid containers and other fishing paraphenalia, a sure sign we were near the pier, so we headed back south. There were lots of the usual redondo suspects. The one really interesting thing we found was a big sheep crab chowing down on a shovel nose guitarfish.


Date: Saturday Sept. 17th, 2005
Location:Vet's Park Redondo
Time: 5:48pm
Max Depths: 70fsw
Bottom times: 48min
Surface temp: 68F
Temp at depth: 55f
Viz: 15ft below 55ft and as low as 1ft at 20ft. Vis was improved on the 2nd dive.
Gas: 21%


We were all geared up ready to go, Christian turned his tank on and it only had 700psi, either the shop did not fill it correctly or it has a slow leak. We thought we were SOL and I started removing my gear when I remembered that Sport Chalet is open until 9pm. We really wanted to do the dive, so I drove over to Sport Chalet (still wearing my drysuit) and got him an airfill. You should have seen the look on the Sport Chalet employees' faces when I came waling in there with my drysuit on, carrying a tank. They must have thought "now THERE is one hardcore diver!"

We got into the water and we both had a good feeling that this was going to be a great dive, and it was. We decended to the bottom at 32ft and proceeded down to 65 ft. We saw crabs galore, shrimp. Lots of sculpin, octopus. Exit was a little tricky as the surf had picked up and the waves yanked one of my jetfins off since they are a little too big for my drysuit boot and the spring strap was a little on the loose side. We spent about 20 minutes looking for it in the surf. Oh well, now I am forced to go out and buy fins that actually fit.

Despite soaking overnight and rinsing thoroghly this morning, my gear still stinks of the red tide crapola. Yuk. Hopefully it will smell better when it dries out.

 

[headhunter]

The 2nd dive was fantastic! (except for the fin loss, of course) The vis was up in the 25-foot plus range.

Since we were now at high tide some clearer water had made it's way in and there was a real party going on down there. We ran across a group of crabs that were in a big huddle. There must have been 25 - 30 of them walking all over each other.

The Sheep Crab munching down on that Shovel Nose Guitar fish was huge. I put my hand across its body to make sure it wasn't one of those "objects are smaller than they appear" things. The body was much larger than my hand, which would have made it about 10 - 12 inches around. There was another one that was just a bit smaller about 5 feet away watching.

Overall, it really was worth it to get the last second tank fill.

By the way, I found out what the problem was today and it was not my LDS giving me a 700-psi fill. I had just over 750-psi last night and only had 600-psi when I got to the dive shop today. We bled the tank dry, pulled the valve off and took it apart. The seat was worn out, so we put a new seat on it and now things are as good as new.

Today is the aniversary of me getting back in the water last year at a Wrinkles Dive on Catalina. So, last night was the last dive in a 1-year period. I remember I showed up at the Dive Park a year ago and asked, "Who wants to dive with the rusty guy that's been out of the water for a really long time." Everyone looked the other way or at the ground except Jim McCabe. He enthusiastically said, "Sure, I'll dive with you!" I said, "You must be the newbie in this group." We did a dive and he stamped me with a seal of approval and then my second dive was with David (dazedone). So, last night brought me back full circle with David. I did, however, fall way short of the number of dives I wanted to do in a year. I had a wimpy dive year and last night was dive 69.

Hopefully, this next year gives us less rain and better conditions for a bit fuller dive year.

Christian

 

[JDog]

If you're talking about the gnome Moonie, he was with me last week and I sent him off to Natasha in Texas on Friday. From Texas, I think he's heading off to see El Orans or Mania, then he'll be back in the US for a dive with Chatterton/Kohler on the U 352 in early November. (ok I just checked the Moonie movement thread & posted it below)

Sept 24 thru Oct 1-2 Natasha

Europe
Oct 8-9 El Orans
Oct 15-16 Mania
Oct 22-23 Scuba Freak
Oct 29-30 back to USA

Ahhh so it IS the one. I am going to Bonaire with Natashas group this week.
Thanks for the info.

 

[mark99]

Date:September 18th
Dive Location:Frontside Catalina:Little Farnsworth, W. Rock Quarry, Bird Rock
Time: 9:30, 11:45, 2:00
Bottom Time: :24, :42, :35
Max Depth: 103', 62', 51'
Vis: 25', 40', 50'
Wave heightretty flat
Temp at depth: 53, 57, 57
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: Took the overnight on the Encore to San Clemente (!) but about 6 am, just as we were arriving, we learned the cook had sliced his finger to the bone. We turned around and back to Avalon to drop him off for med. attention. What looked to be a lost day actually turned around thanks to the crew of the Encore and the Sports Chalet group. A few of us lobbied for LF, especially since we were almost sitting on top of it when we passed the injured to the Harbor Patrol. It was a little murky but still with generally acceptable vis and a little chilly. After we headed west to the cove just east of the W rock quarry, the reef there was just small rocks in 25' with surge. Last again west to anchor just west of Bird Rock, we swam North over the wall and then East along the wall. The current was ripping at 20' and carried a few of the unaware away, but they were quickly rescued by the Zodiac and returned to the boat. The vis at the rock was fantastic and the dive along the wall was one of the best Catalina dives I've had this summer.

 

[wetrat]

The saddest image is the new (Terranea Development) sign at the Marineland entrance.

MaxBottomtime,

I shot an e-mail to the Terranea developer at old Marineland asking him if divers will still have access to the coast when their development is finished. Here's his reply:

Hello John,
To answer your question...Yes! An important goal of Lowe Enterprises and the California Coastal Commission is to maintain access and keep this special location open to the public. If you are able to stop by our preview center, I can use our site model to point out the area designated for future public parking. I spoke with a diver earlier this week and he said the parking lot will be positioned in roughly the same area he currently uses. In addition, we will also provide pathways to the beach and a public bathroom/shower area.

Thanks for your interest in Terranea Resort and please let me know if you are interested in further information regarding our Ocean Villas and Ocean Casitas for sale. Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best Regards,

David Rockey
Terranea Resort Property Associate
Direct: 310-802-7455
Mobile: 805-455-3282
Toll Free: 866-366-7474


Just thought you'd be interested,

wetrat

 

[HBDiveGirl]

The 2nd dive was fantastic!
...
Today is the aniversary of me getting back in the water last year at a Wrinkles Dive on Catalina. So, last night was the last dive in a 1-year period.
...
I did, however, fall way short of the number of dives I wanted to do in a year. I had a wimpy dive year and last night was dive 69.
Hopefully, this next year gives us less rain and better conditions for a bit fuller dive year.
Christian

In diving, Christian, as in so many wonderful things, it's not necessarily the quantity that makes it worthwhile.... it's the quality, the companions, and the memories. Numbers?? We don't need no stinkin' numbers! Numbers only take precedence when nothing else does... the last resort in the search for meaning.

Welcome back into the pool on the anniversary of your renaissance...your re-birth. Happy Birth-Day! Life begins in salt-water and pressure. Dive on with joy everlasting.
It was great to see you yesterday,
Claudette