The Mighty Lexy FEBRUARY 2006 Dive Reports Thread

[Peter McGuinness]

A little delayed, this is from Sunday.
Scripps Canyon, South/Sumner branch
Depth 102 ft
Time: 41 mins

Went once again for a dive with Barbara and Mike in their most splendid
little boat. Small swell but lots of chop made for a bumpy ride out but
the view was just spectacular: we could see both Los Coronados and San
Clemente (but not simultaneously as that would have required an
interocular spacing which is most uncommon in people - no matter what my
mother in law says)

The diving at scripps was every bit as good as mike reported, and one of
the nice things about modern technology is that it lets you verify the
claims - I pointed my depth finder at the most distant object I could
see (which was Jackie at the time - boy that yellow wetsuit is bright)
and it showed up as 40ft. Not bad vis at all.

We had a very cold but spectacular dive with the usual superabundance
of life that is scripps in greater than usual visual array. I'm not the
kind of person to say things like "dang" - I don't even know what it
means - but it's days like this that keep me coming back into the water.

remaining pictures at:
http://www.mcguinness-family.net/albums/diving/SanDiego//ScrippsCanyonFeb06/

 

[jerryn]

Date: Feb 19
Dive Location: Malibu Road
Buddy(ies): Student -- Mark
Time: 10:15 AM
Bottom Time: 37 Minutes
Max Depth: 31 feet
Vis: 12' - 18'
Wave height: 1' - 2'
Temp at depth: 56 degrees
Surface Temp:
Tide information: incoming
Gas mix: 32%
Comments: After doing the check out skills we cruised the reef. Good vis, lots of shorty lobsters, schooling senorita wrasse and schooling silver surf perch.

After surfacing F & G came over to see what we had taken. They were checking on the dive spots up and down the Malibu Coast on Sunday.

Date: Feb 20
Dive Location: Platform Eureka
Buddy(ies): Jim McMickin
Time:
Bottom Time: 58 Minutes dive No. 1 and 52 Minutes dive No. 2
Max Depth:
Vis: Forever
Wave height: probably 1' - 2'
Temp at depth: 52 degrees
Surface Temp: 59 degrees
Tide information:
Gas mix: 21/35 diluent
Comments:

The rigs were awesome. We did two dives with roughly the same profile off of the Psalty V. Vis was, as usual, amazing. The life seems to have come up quite a bit since I was last on them. I will have to bring my camera next time. Two divers on the boat were shooting macro and got some great shots.

We ran into a school of large Sheephead. They followed us up and bit both of us -- I don't look like lunch. There was obviously no concern on their part about us....

We had a stiff current during both dives. I don't know how to estimate the speed, but it took a fair bit of kicking to stay in one place. On ascent it was important to hide behind the pilings to get out of the current.

Great day of diving.

Jerry

 

[veek]

Date: Feb 23
Dive Location: Arroyo Burro Beach, Santa Barbara
Time: 7:47 pm
Bottom Time: 47 minutes
Max Depth: 22 feet
Vis: 12'
Wave height: 1' - 2'
Temp at depth: 55 deg F
Tide information: high

Mostly sandy bottom with some occasional boulders/ledges. We saw many sand crabs and small thornback rays, as well as a couple of lobster (short), a few shrimp, surfperch, and a few crabs, including a small one with roe. Near the end of the dive, when we were at 12', we saw a very unusual, elongated fish swimming within a foot of the surface. It looked just like someone twirling a ribbon! It was a whitish-pink color and swimming in circles, making 2-3 coils with a ~6-8" diameter. We watched it for about a minute, while it swam in place. Neither of us had any idea what it was, and after going through my fish ID books, I think that it looks like a quillfish (http://www.uwfishcollection.org/FishKey/ptil.html), but Santa Barbara is a little south of its usual range. If anyone has any suggestions about what else it could've been, please let me know!

 

[wetrat]

Great report Vanessa - keep 'em comin'!

 

[veek]

Thanks, John!

I'm a little disappointed that you won't be coming up north tomorrow, but then again, I haven't made it to any events south of Ventura! One of these days, though, I'd like to dive in your neck of the woods/kelp.

 

[divinman]

Me up with George and another diver ,who's name escapes me but I swear is a mermaid, for an 0-dark-thirty dive at Murray head. The stats are listed below, the images are below that. Thanks for leading the dive George. See ya next time.

Happy dive. Cool stuff. Camera depth rating test successful :Toasting:

Terry

Date: 02/24/06
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/Murray Head
Buddy(ies):George, +one
Time: 06:30a
Bottom Time: 66 minutes
Max Depth: 201
Vis: 10-15
Wave height: small, weak,
Temp at depth: 49 Frigid F
Surface Temp: 55F
Tide information: Didn't look

Image Gallery:
http://www.scubapost.net/forums/Scorpionfish/022406/

 

[Peter McGuinness]

La Jolla Shores
Fri, 24th Feb
Time: 7:00pm
Surf: negligible
Temp: warm on top, bloody cold below.
Vis: variable - 8ft in spots up to 40ft+
depth: 110ft
bottom time: 51mins

Went out with Barabara and Mike to the draw between the main wall and the cruiser. Surface conditions were great, with clear water as we kicked out. I noticed a bit of biolum just before dropped and sure enough, at 50ft just at the lip of the canyon, the vis was dreadful. However, I could see a very pronounced thermocline, and as we dropped through it the temp went down by 10 degerees and the vis opened up to as far as our lights would penetrate.

We spent lots of time grovelling around the detritus field which was full of life far too numerous to list but included a huge number of small octopus, including a real baby, which was less than an inch and clinging to a piece of alga.

We found a nudi which I thought at first was a dendronotus iris but the photo tells me I am wrong - I would appreciate an ID, if anyone knows what it is.

The vis closed in again as we came up through 50ft but then opened out so we had 40ft plus in the shallows. A great dive and fantastic conditions still.


The rest of the photos are at:
http://www.mcguinness-family.net/albums/diving/SanDiego//ShoresFeb06/

with the new ones starting at number 4571

cheers,
Peter

 

[divinman]

We found a nudi which I thought at first was a dendronotus iris but the photo tells me I am wrong - I would appreciate an ID, if anyone knows what it is.

Definitely a D. Iris Peter. The white margin around the foot gives it away. Their color ranges from White to a deep ruby red. Nice image btw.

Terry

 

[divinman]

The Stats:

Date: 02/25/06
Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/South Canyon
Buddy(ies):Tyler and Janet
Time: 07:48a
Bottom Time: 81 minutes
Max Depth: 98ft
Vis: 5-40
Wave height: HA HA HA..."no waves for you!"
Temp at depth: 49 Frigid F
Surface Temp: 56F
Tide information: Didn't look

Tyler, Sean, Max, Cheryl and Janet me up at the main lot for a dive. It was nice. Vis was nice. Life was abundant.

Highlights:
Whale vertebrae
lots of nudibranchs
funny octopus playing hide and seek
Big cancer crab
awesome vis at depth
Everyone made it back alive.

Images are at:http://www.scubapost.net/forums/Scorpionfish/022506/

 

[Frank O]

Date: Friday 2/24/06
Dive Location: Old Marineland, Palos Verdes
Buddy(ies): The chica!
Time: 8:06 a.m.
Run time: 72 min
Max depth: 49 ft
Vis: 30 ft+ shallow, 10-15 deeper
Wave height: Were there waves?
Temp at depth: 52.9 F
Surface temp: Warmer than that
Tide information: Ebbing
Gas mix: 32%
Comments:

Awesome dive Friday morning at Old Marineland as dark blue spread across the swell maps. Surf was about as minimal as it gets -- easy slide-in off the rocks at the point, hitchless walkout at the cobble beach. Claudette reported she could see the bottom from the surface when we dropped at about 35 ft. Vis was actually better in the shallows (20-30) than at 50 ft (where it clouded up to 10-15).

Ran across nine species of nudibranchs on a 72-minute dive -- a group of four sea lemons mating, numerous Hermissendas, white-spotted porostomes, Spanish shawls, San Diego dorids, Porter's chromodorids, a Cuthona divae, yellow dorids and a yellow-edged cadlina, plus assorted egg ribbons and strings. Only downside was it was a little chilly in a wetsuit (53 F), so after the better part of an hour we headed over to the sand where there were several whelks cruising across the sand like desert caravans and a flounder or two. Saw a little bit of kicked up silt inside a round hole which suggested a mantis shrimp may have just ducked in. Crystal-clear water as we surfaced just off cobble beach. Diving doesn't get much better than this ...