The Lexy October '05 Dive Reports Thread

[divinman]

You do realize I'm insanely jealous now :11: Nudi hunting tomorrow (but only at the shores/marine room). And, just so you know- I was so in love with your light that night at marine room that I had to buy one...
I wanna be just like Terry :10:

I see Ocean Enterprises is selling the light cannon for $165 this weekend for their scuba sale.

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH IT. Expect about 3.5 hours per set of batteries. BUY A GOOD CHARGER AND BATTERIES. Thompson distributing sells good chargers and batteries. http://www.batterysupply.com/. You will save a fortune in the long run. Buy two complete sets of batteries and mark them as set 1 and 2 or something like that. Batteries should always be charged as a set.

Now that I have severely hijacked the thread I will go to bed.

Terry

 

[Grey_Wulff]

Date: 10/1/05
Dive Location: Ruby E
Time: 08:18am
Bottom Time: 35mins
Max Depth: 87ft
Vis: 15ft
Temp at depth: 54F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
First of two dives on the Ruby E. Dropped on the bow, headed down to the sand and proceeded along the starboard side around the bottom of the boat. Little surge but a fairly stiff current coming directly at us. Spotted spanish shawl, several types of nudibranchs and the usual fish. Poked around the stern by the port propeller that was well exposed and then proceeded to literally drift dive down the port side. Having reached the bow, we came up onto the deck to look at the wheelhouse.

Date: 10/01/05
Dive Location: Ruby E
Time: 10:00am
Bottom Time: 33mins
Max Depth: 79ft
Vis: 15ft
Temp at depth: 55F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
On the second dive we worked bow to stern along the deck, peeking into the swim throughs and the various hatches. The real find however was the top of the smoke stack. Here there were nudibranchs everywhere. We counted thirty and numerous photographs were taken. As we reached the back of the ship, deco time started to run real low and eventually this forced us to lift off the deck and swim back high above the superstructure. A little chilly by the end of the dive but better than last week.

Grey_Wulff.

 

[scubapro5]

Just a quick report on diving conditions in the Redondo/Pv area.

Palos Verdes/Flat rock area

Still bad red tide but deeper then 20ft you can get under the red tide and have pretty good vis.

Depth 25-40ft
vis 15+
Water temp 59
surface temp 69
swell 2-3ft
wind 5kts

Redondo breakwall

Bad red tide

5ft vis above 20ft and 10ft below 30ft
water temp 58
surface temp 69
swell 2-3ft
wind 5kts

Palawan ship wreck

depth 115ft
vis 20+ really nice right now!
water temp 59
surface temp 69
swell 2-3ft
wind 5kts

 

[scubacalifornia]

Dive #1
Date: 10/1
Time: 1:12 AM
Dive Location: Church Rock - Catalina
Bottom Time: 15 minutes
Max Depth: 27'
Viz: What Viz? 2' maybe
Surge: 1'
Temp at depth: 64° Suunto
Surface Temp: 64° Suunto

Hitched a ride on a buddy's 26' motorboat over to Catalina. We were determined to find the Ultimate bug spot for opening night. Decided to try the backside of the island and anchored close to Church Rock on the tip of the east end. Dropped into almost nil visibility and spent 15 minutes finding nothing but a shovelnose guitarfish. Enough of that. Off we went in search of the next Ultimate bug spot.


Dive #2
Date: 10/1
Time: 2:54 AM
Dive Location: Between Italian Gardens and Twin Rocks - Catalina
Bottom Time: 71 minutes
Max Depth: 25'
Viz: 50' ish - pretty much as far as my light could shine
Surge: 0'
Temp at depth: 66° Suunto
Surface Temp: 64° Suunto

Bingo! Bug Festival. We combed the shallows between 8' and maybe 20' and found lots of bugs in the sand, though many were undersized. DFG stopped in on our captain while we were down but never came back. We brought up 10 bugs, but remeasured every one of them just to be sure, and tossed back 3 that were on the borderline. Gerry grabbed a couple of big boys, one of which enjoyed playing tug o' war with his finger. This was my first time ever hunting for bugs and I had a blast. Had one full tank in reserve, but by 4:00am just didn't feel like doing another dive.

Kevin

 

[Mo2vation]

Dive #1
Date: 10/1
Time: 8:30 PM
Dive Location: Secret Lobster Spot
Bottom Time: 68 Minutes
Max Depth: 23'
Viz: 10-ish... maybe a little more
Surge: LOTS
Temp at depth: 58° Suunto
Surface Temp: 62° Suunto


Plans changed, so Arnaud and I went out for bugs. I brought up 3 keepers (including one close to 3#) and he brought up a keeper. Not a bad night.

All this posh every year about lobbies being in 10' at opener wasn't the case for us. Not that with the surge we could see at 10'... after rooting around for an hour at 20 - 23 feet, we decided to go in and try shallow.

I got tired of getting bounced off of the rocks, so we called it.

I gotta get a wetsuit. I really don't want to go through another local lobster season in my drysuit again. Its no biggie, but its a pain to vent / purge / vent / purge / lather / rinse / repeat when we're rotting around in 15 - 25 feet of water.

I missed a really big one last night. There were two, and the big guy was just out of reach, so I grabbed his buddy. Tonight I return for 'zilla.

I hope.

---
Ken

Tonight we return.

 

[mark99]

Date: 10/02/05
Dive Location: Catalina, Ship Rock X2, Arrow Point
Time: 8:30, 10:30, 12:30
Bottom Time: :38, :32, :40
Max Depth: 98, 98, 54 fsw
Vis: 60 ft
Temp at depth: 60 deg.
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Boat: Sea Bass

It started out pretty windy but as the day went on the sea flattened and the sun came out. Ship Rock is a spectacular site just as the sun is coming out from behind the clouds. There was a bit of current at the surface but it was pretty calm below. Although the vis was excellent there seemed to be a bit more debris in the water. We saw the usual Catalina marine life, except there were noticibly fewer lobsters. Chance? Hmmm..... The water seemed a little warmer than a couple weeks ago, the thermocline was at about 70 ft. Overall a very pleasant day, and back at the dock at 3:15.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Just a quick report on diving conditions in the Redondo/Pv area.

Palos Verdes/Flat rock area ....

Thank you so much, Roger, for the reports. I know things can change reasonably quickly, but it's nice to know which areas are pretty hopeless...at least from shore. The canyon was foul yesterday morning, while I heard that Marineland had 20+ viz on the reef east of Cobble Beach this morning.
Gotta go check the Magic 8 ball and find out when the Red tide will dissipate.... |-)

 

[Mo2vation]

Dive #1
Date: 10/2
Time: 7:45 PM
Dive Location: Secret Lobster Spot
Bottom Time: 104 Minutes
Max Depth: 27
Viz: 3 - 10-ish... maybe a little more, often a lot less
Surge: Less than last night
Temp at depth: 57° Suunto
Surface Temp: 62° Suunto

Another keeper. No 'Zilla. Arnaud bagged a couple tonight. We saw a lot more tonight than last night.

"Saw"... that's funny. More like ran over more. The viz was so bad that we were literally running over them. Mostly shorts. Time to move to spot #2 on Friday after I get back from DEMA.

I need a wetsuit. Its just such a schvitz in the DS for these dives.

So far, so blessed. 2 for 2 on local bug outings this season!

The BioLu still amazes me.

I need to invent a Folding Pole Spear. Kind of like a tent pole or one of those canes the blind sometimes use... just keep it in the pocket or behind me in the plate where I can grab it and snap it into place. Both nights I've seen HUGE halibut. I mean, I like Lobster, but 1 lobster = one meal. These fishies would give us a dozen really nice steaks. These were BIG 'buts (and I cannot lie...)

In the bad viz tonight about a 5' Guitar Fish scared the bubbles out of me... I jumped and about spit the reg when he leaped up.

Fun Fun.

---
Ken

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Date: October 2, 2005
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores
Time: 10:56 and 4:08
Bottom Time: 1:34 and :48
Max Depth: 79' and 59'
Vis: 20ish
Wave height: 2-3'
Temp at depth: 53F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments: The great conditions we had yesterday didn't stick around for today. The Leopard sharks were still there and vis in the shallows was still good, but there was patchy red tide and a lot of surge everywhere. Missy and I headed to Fringehead City first, where we found...I think you can guess. On the way back in we found a few Dendronotus Iris nudis and a small horn shark hanging on for dear life in the heavy surge. Missy got a little chilled on this dive, thanks to the large amount of water that entered her drysuit.
For our second dive we headed back toward Marine Room to look for the elusive ladder leading the way to the canyon. I finally got to see it today, and it was well worth it. Nearly every rung had Fringeheads in them plus two Cuthona divae nudis laying eggs.
Despite the surge and colder water today we still had our usual great time.

 

[divinman]

good hunting phil and missy. thanks for the report.