I love weekends... I just love 'em.
Friday 3/17/06
Dive #1: Old Marineland, Palos Verdes:
Buddy: Radinator
Time: 0930 descent... after a looooong surface swim
Bottom Time: 58 minutes
Max Depth: 62 fsw
Vis: 20 feet below 40fsw, muck above 40
Wave height: 1 foot.. naw, maybe 4 toes
Temp at depth: Fffff50
Surface Temp: Fffff52
RadPossomMan and I rendezvoused under cloudy skies on a Friday for some AllForFun splash time. That insidious NW swell was tossing the water about on the Point as we watched a pod of large dolphin cruise through the bay. We opted for a Cobble Beach entry.. one of the easiest in memory. So easy that we had lots of energy to do the surface swim all the way out to Long Point.
"Are we There Yet??"
"No, keep kicking." "Now?"
"No, 5 more minutes".
"How about now?"
"Hey! We ARE here! Cool!" (I've gotta get some SSGs for these swims (Submersible Sun Glasses :14: ) We dropped right onto a rock at 35 fsw with a big beautiful coffee bean gastropod, with the bumpy mantle fully extended over the shell. It was HUGE... like maybe 7/8 of an inch!!! The KingKong of CoffeeBeans!! (yeah, they're usually tiny and hard for everyone except Mo2vation to find.. he's like a magnet for them!) We slipped down deeper amidst the towering pinnacles and were surrounded by nudibranchs.
Flabellina iodinea (FedEx's - dozens), Hermissenda (hundreds), Mexichromis porterae (1), Triopha catalinae (3), Acanthodoris lutea (2, mating), Cuthona divae (3), Sea lemons (dozens), Doriopsilla albopunctata (dozens), Diaulula sandiegensis (1).
I think I've seen about 15 different species here over three years, so 9 in one day is a blast. We were hovering and freezing in the 50F water, in drysuits with light weight insulation. We exited easily back at Cobble beach, and I made the mistake of saying, "At least Malibu will be warmer tonight for lobster hunting. It's always 55 there, so the wetsuit works best." (When will I learn that the little sea gods are always listening and laughing?)
It started to pour down rain as we finished putting gear away in the cars... just in time.. wow, what a fortunate morning of diving. Thanks, Ray! That was a blast!
Dive #2: Secret Spot 27B in Malibu.
Buddy: Mo2vation
Time: 8PM after a looooong beach walk with the mighty 130
Bottom Time: 58 minutes
Max Depth: 27 fsw
Vis: 8 feet, maybe
Wave height: 1-2 feet entering, 2-3 exiting
Temp at depth: Fffff50
Surface Temp: Fffff52
Hey!! Who turned down the heater on the pool. Popsicle-head on entry, progressing to whole-body cold in a wetsuit, moving on to wood-block hands and numb lips. Holy cow!! Where am I? Seattle? In a wetsuit?
Yeah, the end of lobster season brings out the nut in everyone. Lousy viz, cold water, scarce bugs, and we still had a good time messing around and rooting for lobsters for an hour in 'bu. At least we didn't get skunked. A couple of nice legals went in the bags. Plenty of shorties got gently handled, measured and released. We found a single rock with 19 (nineteen!!) FedEx nudibranchs (Spanish Shawls) of all different sizes. Round rays and sand bass flurried away on all sides. The bugs have left the building... or at least begun to congregate elsewhere in preparation for Lobster dating season. Have a good time, y'all, and we'll see you next year.
Thanks, Ken, for a fantastically fun season of lobster hunting and catching. How many times did you limit??? Yeah, you rule! I've got something to shoot for next season. At least this year I figured out how to grab them (with help from Ross, Ken, and Roger), and with Jaye's help, how to cook them. What fun!!
Saturday 3/18/06
Dive #3: Veteran's Park, Redondo Beach
Buddies: Ken and David C.
Time: 9AM, after a looong time watching the classes get hammered in the surf.
Bottom Time: 11 minutes
Max Depth: 57 fsw
Vis: 5 to 8 feet, maybe
Wave height: 2 to 4 feet entering, 3 to 4 feet exiting
Temp at depth: Fffff52
Surface Temp: Fffff54
Skills practice dive! We don't care about the surf... we're just going to get wet, hit the canyon, check gear, and practice. We absolutely nailed the entry, walking out into a well-timed lull, slipping on fins and kicking casually out. Love it! We grouped and confirmed the plan, then dropped to 28 fsw on the sand, regrouped to do modified S-drills. Nicely sorted out, in wing-on-wing formation, we headed toward the canyon. And got pulled up short by a leaky drysuit zipper, which lacks entertainment value in 52F water. We surfaced horizontally, kicked back, and nearly made it cleanly through the increasing surf until a tweaky wave grabbed a fin and sacrificed it to the inshore gremlins. Back to the beach, back to the cars, back to the drawing board. It was actually a good shakedown cruise for gear in preparation for the 3/25/06 Bo2Vation dive on the Pacific Star. Thanks, Ken and David, for being willing, eager, and philosophically good-humored.
Sunday 3/19/06
Dive #4: Pipe Dream, 4 miles offshore, San Pedro Shelf, from the Orion III
Buddy: Ross-O
Time: 9:30AM
Bottom Time: 23 minutes
Max Depth: 135 fsw
Vis: 30 feet + on the bottom, 8feet in the murk above 40fsw
Wave height: Sporty 5 foot swells tossing a 25 foot boat.
Temp at depth: Fffff50
Surface Temp: Fffff54
Gas: 130cu.ft. of fresh air... ahhhhh!
Oh, boy, play time on the OrionIII. Ross headed us out on a gorgeous morning, with blue skies, icy clouds, and a bouncy surface. The anchor splashed into the murky green water, and the anchor line ran.. and ran... and ran. 135 feet below us was "Pipe Dream", a collection of Gigantic concrete aquaduct pipes, 12 feet in diameter, and 18-20 feet long. I had dived this site months ago, but the 3 foot viz had made it invisible. I trust Ross.. I do. But a giant Pipe?? I never saw it. I just saw bits of vertical structure covered with giant white Metridium anemones.
Today: We would try again. We geared FAST to get off the heaving deck (Oh man, is my non-diving husband ever a great sport to man that crazy deck while we dived. Thank you!!) Fingers lightly riding the anchorline, we zipped down into the green murk... and down, and down.... and down. And then, it hove into view: A magnificent cylinder, dwarfing Ross completely in the green-shadows, clearly visible in its entirety. Spot-lighted by our blazing HID lights in the nearly night-like darkness, it was thickly carpeted in 2.5 foot tall Metridiums, looking like white broccoli from the Jolly Green Giant's farm. The base of each Metridium was too big to be encircled by both my hands. The flowerettes on top were bigger than both my hands outspread. We hovered up and over the Pipe, along one side that was packed with squid eggs, along the top layered with ling cod eggs, and in through the center of the giant tubular space. Baby rock fish skittered next to us along the bottom. Not a wisp of silt moved as we mod-frogged our way through the portal. Wow! OMG... WOW!!! Absolutely mindblowing for me in the light, the colors, the life, the feeling of deep space at that depth. We stuck to the dive plan like stepped-on chewing gum, soaking up every precious minute of exploration. Big fish, red seastars, white anemones, HID light-sabers cutting the gloom. Wow.
We ascended spot-on, on a perfect roll-up-and-stop plan, re-entering the dark soupy murk of the upper water. Bubbling a bit enthusiastically, we clambered back aboard the rolling boat. So THAT is Pipe Dream. Wow! I love it. Thanks Ross, for a great dive to an amazing sight.
Dive #5: The Fog Wreck, a couple of miles out of San Pedro
Buddy: Ross-O
Time: 11:40AM
Run Time: 40 minutes
Max Depth: 105 fsw
Vis: 10-15 feet on the bottom, 8feet in the murk above 40fsw
Wave height: Sporty 5 and 6 foot swells tossing a 25 foot boat.
Temp at depth: Fffff50
Surface Temp: Fffff54
Gas: air
Murky surface continued, so Ross opted for another outside wreck, hoping to stay below the worst of the viz. We were grateful again to get off the deck with a minimum of bruising as it was tossed about by the seas. The viz was worse, but Ross put out a spool from the anchor and found the wreck. It's more covered than ever with very heavy nets. I thought I remembered where we had seen the wolf eels last time, but the net altered my landmarks, and I wasn't able to find them. The thick coatings of multicolored corynactis on the vertical projections continue to be a lovely feature of this little wreck. Every patch of sand under and next to the wreck is packed solid with squid eggs... just crazy-thick with them. We roamed all over it, seeing lots of big fish and huge fish-eating anemones, until our time was up again. We arose in well-planned steps, and then froze in the soup at 15fsw as we hung (conservatively) for nice long off-gassing period. Note to Santa: Thicker D.S. undergarments, pretty please? My tropical set just doesn't cut it in real SoCal winter diving.
Bonus Finale: A 25 foot grey whale was milling about inside the breakwater as we turned in past the Angels Gate. Ross set the boat adrift, upwind, and let us drift over the area a few times. The whale surfaced closer and closer of it's own accord, finally taking two slow easy breaths no more than 20 feet from us. It was breathtaking and beautiful. We enjoyed a wonderful couple of hours watching this beautiful animal moseying about, in no apparent distress. Just Chillin'. Thank you, Ross, for two great dives, fun on the boat, and super whale-watching!
I love weekends. I love diving beautiful places with great friends. Wow!
So, I surfaced on the beach side of the pier. I seen the others surface, gave them the OK sign, and bodysurfed out of the water. I waited for everyone to come out to see if they needed help.
We were only a couple miles north of you, and I drove back past you on the way home. Sorry about your trip on the Spectre.
