The Lexy October '05 Dive Reports Thread

[MissyP]

I will let others write the report....

Here are the pictures.

I am the other...

Date: Oct 26, 2005
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 3:13PM
Bottom Time: 1 hr 20 min
Max Depth: 57 feet
Vis: 4- 25 ft
Wave height: 1-2
Temp at depth: 57
Surface Temp: 66
Tide information: low
Gas mix: Air

Divinman & I hit the shores today for a leisurely mid-afternoon dive. After gearing up in the main lot, we headed out to sea and made our way through the surf zone, which continued to throw back to back sets of waves at us. Fortunately, the waves were powerless so we made it through the zone pretty effortlessly, but had to contend with quite a bit of surface chop afterwards. We chose to drop down shallow and made our way to the canyon- encountering quite a large halibut along the way. Vis continued to improve as we got closer to the canyon, nice 20-25 ft vis with blue water. Unfortunately, the temperature was also dropping as we got closer ! Brrrr!!! The usual life was out- sheepcrabs, octos, pipefish, sea slugs, lobster (saw about a dozen crammed into one hole), moon snails, lizardfish, juv. horn shark, school of mackerel, etc. On a buoy line, we saw a dozen + hermissendas- Terry has some awesome shots of that! We headed back to shallows, dealing with milky vis and surge... but found many bubble snails and a juvenile dendronotus iris. There was obviously a south running current because we surfaced south of Vallecitos! That made for a lovely walk back (ha!). Cleaned up, packed up, headed to Ihop. To my horror, Ihop was no longer there- they closed it down!!
Nice day, another nice dive. Thanks Terry.

 

[Stryker]

Date: Oct 28, 2005
Dive Location: Musandam, Oman
Bottom Time: 53 min
Max Depth: 60 feet
Vis: 20-30ft
Wave height: 0
Temp at depth: 81

Comments: So my second diving excursion started with a nice looooong trip (same as before) of almost 2 hours to get to the shore.... It was a nice drive and the company was very cool... Was greeted with a very nice and professional dive boat that was full of people (unlike the last one).... I had been talking to a guy from England and we decided to buddy up... He hadnt been diving in quite a while so he asked me to help him if he needed it...

The boatride took a good 45 minutes and we suited up and were off. Was welcomed by very warm water again, and this time the visibility was quite a bit better. We dropped onto the reef (much like S. Crescent) and followed it all the way around to the other side. Friendly residents included many boxfish, Morays (new kind with yellow mouth... see picture below), parrotfish (talk about a goofy but colorful fish), a few nudis, random grab bag fish EVERYWHERE, and very beautiful coral everywhere....

At the end of the dive while approaching our safety stop I saw a decent sized sea turtle moving away from us and tried to hunt it down for a photo oppertunity, but was much too slow,the batteries in my camera died, and in the process banged my knee into some hydracoral (the kind that burns like hell)... Hence the dive was over...

Date: Oct 28, 2005
Dive Location: Musandam, Oman
Bottom Time: 53min
Max Depth:73 feet
Vis: 25-40 ft
Wave height: 0
Temp at depth: 82

Comments: So during the surface interval we travelled up the coast a few miles to our 2nd dive site... The entire boat emptied out and everyone went freediving/snorkelling in the EXTREMELY clear water.... This part was almost as good as the dive itself (Morays, lobsters, various exotic life, ect)... The only downside is when you forget that you cant breathe underwater without gear... I almost forgot this at about 25 feet down HAH.

So we got back on the boat, suited up and were off.... This site was almost the exact same structure wise, but we started on the other side (would compare to Shaws side but much bigger).. this time since I had no camera, I was on a mission... My buddy wanted to see either a stingray or octopus.. I wanted to find a shark... after some very painstaking searcing, there were none to be found.... There were thousands of fish in a school surrounding us.. I am not sure what type, but it was AMAZING... It was almost as though they were circling us and didnt want us to leave....

The visibility was much better in the shallower areas on this dive, but we decided to go a bit deeper... Saw another honeycomb moray and a few albino morays on this dive, and some unidentified VERY large fish.... After circling around the point we ended the dive, both completely satisfied....

Lessons Learned:
1) When not wearing a wetsuit, make sure you know where all your limbs are at all times (hydracoral hurts!!!)
2) Always have extra batteries, because even though you charged them the night before, they will go dead....
3) Learn how to convert from metric BEFORE you start the dive
4) ALL sea life is quicker than you, so dont try to chase it down for a picture...
5) The other group ALWAYS sees everything you want to see and visa-versa
6) When freediving, breathing is not encouraged underwater

Now for the pics... Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated...

 

[mccabejc]

Seth,
Dang, I had no idea that diving in the Persian Gulf was so cool !! I'm thinking we should put it on our list of monthly SoCal Scubaboarder dives. Sounds like it's fairly popular. Are the divers mostly Europeans on vacation in Dubai ?

 

[pasley]

Seth,
Glad to hear your are finding opportunities to get wet. The diving looks fantastic. I will have to keep that in mind should (when?) the opportunity presents itself. Did you have your gear shipped over or are you renting everything?

The photos are very nice too.

Happy Holloween.

 

[Stryker]

Jim,

Yes most of the people here are European visitors on vacation.... but there are a lot of Europeans that live in Dubai....

Melvin,

I brought all my gear with me (but unfortunately my 1st stage blew on me like a week ago)

 

[divinman]

Rumor has it that Krowsea will come out of retirement and write the report for today.....:11:

Took the DCI boat out to the Tower and then to the kelp. Full report to follow....maybe. In the meantime. Here are the pictures. All images are straight out of the camera and resized only. Cause sometimes ya just gotta post em and let the world decide.....:shade: and I am tired :asleep:

Image Gallery is Here: http://photobucket.com/albums/v109/divinman/Tower Kelp 102905/

 

[Roughwaterjohn]

Note / *****Warning*****

Well, it's been awhile since I've sent in a report, although I have been diving. This has been a joy to many I'm sure, but I've received enough prodding from a few of the more demented divers to renew the onslaught I like to call, dive reports. You know who you are, and you only have yourselves to blame.

John A.



Saturday morning dives, Oct 29th

NOSC tower and Point Loma kelp



The Info:

Swells 2’ or less with mild surge

Temp 55 @ NOSC and 54 @ Point Loma

Visibility was approximately 15’ at both locations

NOSC tower, 61’ max depth for 54 minutes

Point Loma kelp, 41’ max depth for 1 hour 5 minutes

Terry took pictures, so they should follow shortly



The Report:



NOSC tower:

An easy 20 minute boat ride from Mission Bay found us mooring over the tower. We were moored, briefed and left to our own devices, so Terry and I were in the water and watching the surface disappear while the remaining divers were gearing up. As we dropped straight down ignoring the mooring line, Terry’s camera decided to drop even straighter down. Discovering it’s loss shortly after it’s departure, we went (successfully) into rescue mode before continuing to the tower.



Since we were already on the bottom, we decided to start our exploration there. The greenish 15’ of visibility didn’t increase with depth, so we took our time and explored the structure in 15’ sections. During the occasional lull in large sea life sightings, my mind began to wonder, as it is wont to do. Left undirected, the first mental directions tend toward the childish, and such was the case this morning. Hovering over the tangled structure, with memories of Tinker Toys and Erector sets in mind, I started musing, ‘if I move that piece over there, and……take those two pieces from the bottom and lay them across here, hey, I made an airplane!’ One battleship and two space stations later, I bent myself back to the task of exploring.



Terry didn’t point out any Nudibranchs and I didn’t see any on my own, but there were schools of Sargo and varieties of Perch, along with a prison break of Barred Sandbass. We saw the occasional Scorpionfish, while multitudes of Senoritas and baitfish swirled around the structure. We ended the dive with Terry first photographing the large Two Spot Octopus in his lair near the top of the structure, then proceeding to insure everyone who approached the mooring line got a chance to see and photographic the Octopus also.



Point Loma Kelp:

Since the tower tends to be a Richter Scale dive profile, we chose an easy shallow dive for our second endeavor. Anchoring somewhere off Point Loma, we were at a site I didn’t recognize and wasn’t identified, so it’s just going to have to be Point Loma Kelp. Spurning the anchor line, Terry and I, once again first off the boat, dropped down at the stern of the boat and started a meandering and slightly psychedelic square course, taking an initial bearing S/W, eventually giving all the compass points their fair share of attention.



We didn’t find much structure here, mostly sand or decomposed shell bottom, but Southern Sea Palms were abundant and Macrocystis loomed often in the distance. We saw several good sized Lobster in pre-main course condition, lacking only a small steak to complete the picture. Kellet’s Whelks, some of decent size littered the bottom, while an abundance of Norris Top Snails dotted almost every ‘I’ of kelp leaf. Sargo and Perch shared and fought for lane position on an underwater highway only they could see, cruising passed us at speed and off into the distance. Terry’s navigation, although psychotic at best, did bring us right under the boat as we neared the end of our dive, the boat being visible as a dark undulating shadow above as we passed underneath.



We spent the remainder of our dive exploring and photographing the kelp and the life that dwells upon it. It’s a pleasure to simply ascend slowing, circling a massive stalk of kelp, admiring the play of light in it’s structure and looking for life in all it’s hidden wonder. We easily spent 15 minutes admiring and discovering, while not moving more than 5’-10’ either up or down. Having run out of bottom time before we ran out of air, we headed back to the boat, swimming on our backs at various depths, enjoying the play of bubbles, light, kelp and fish. After swimming under the length of the boat, we popped up at the swim ladder, did the swim fin hand off, and reboarded, last as usual.



John A.

 

[pasley]

Date: October 29, 2005
Dive Location: Malaga Cove/Haggarty’s Palos Verde SANDEATER DIVE.
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Bottom Time: 32.20 minutes
Max Depth: 30 feet
Vis: 10-15 depending on location
Wave height: 2-3 feet
Temp at depth: 63F SUUNTO Degrees
Surface Temp: 63F SUUNTO Degrees
Tide information:
8:16 p.m. PDT 4.44 feet High Tide
01:13 a.m. PST 0.90 feet Low Tide
Gas mix: Air (21%) Air
Comments: Sandeaters weekly dive
Met up with 4 other intrepid divers from Sandeaters including scubagirl411 and off we went. We buddied up into groups of 2 and 3 and set out on our dive. The first group dropped down shortly after entering at Malaga Cove the water while my group headed out to Haggarty’s. Dropping down opposite the church we proceeded to look for lobster and other marine life. Found several bugs, all too small to invite home. In conversations with a total of 10 divers that night, no one found any legal bugs. Visibility was not bad and varied with the depth and location. Spotted an octopus out for a stroll but he crawled into his hole as I approached. Ended the dive and did the surface swim back into shore. Just as we entered the trail on RAT the DFG greeted us, no one had any lobsters so he had little to do.

Are you a SANDEATER (beach diver) visit http://www.sandeaters.org and our private forum with interactive calendar here on Scubaboard.

 

[headhunter]

Hey John Boy!

It's great to read one of your reports again. We missed them!

I hope to see you at a dive sometime soon and hope you are enjoying your home on the water.

Christian

 

[Roughwaterjohn]

Thanks Christian, it's good to be back. The aquatic life is pretty sweet, but that's what kept me so busy of late. You should start seeing my smiling mug again soon.

John