The Pasley July 06 Dive Report Thread

[MaxBottomtime]

Nick, next time you're at the Moody you may want to save gas and dive both sections on the same dive. There are several cave lines running between the highest section of the bow and one of the life boat davits on the stern. You can easily cover all of the bow, stern and return to the upline in 30 minutes.
I have some video I shot of the stern section about ten years ago at http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=pacificcoast101

Unfortunately, the torpedo tubes and Sheephead ended up at someone's house. There is a Wolfeel who resides under the bow. I can't always find him though.
There is also video of the Olympic on that website.

 

[limeyx]

Nick, next time you're at the Moody you may want to save gas and dive both sections on the same dive. There are several cave lines running between the highest section of the bow and one of the life boat davits on the stern. You can easily cover all of the bow, stern and return to the upline in 30 minutes.
I have some video I shot of the stern section about ten years ago at http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=pacificcoast101

Unfortunately, the torpedo tubes and Sheephead ended up at someone's house. There is a Wolfeel who resides under the bow. I can't always find him though.
There is also video of the Olympic on that website.

Yeah, Rumbo told us about the line (after our trip though)

Will look at the video later...stuck @ work right now.

 

[JMdiver]

Hi All,
Just finished the second group of Reef Check & it was all that HBDiveGirl said it was & no one swam home. The crew of the Explorer was great, they went the extra mile my thanks to you all. The Explorer is now one of my top 2 boats that I like to dive. We also got to do a night dive, it was on Santa Cruz at Alberts. We got to do a survey at Cathedral Cove on Sun., everyone in the group was very enthusiastic & great to work with. Robert & I got in 10 dives in 3 days, Terry, Robert & I were the only ones that did the night dive. One of the highlights of the trip was counting 28 Lobsters on my transect line the rest is all a blur but I know I had a lot of fun.

Happy Diving
John

 

[LAJim]

10 Dives off of Excalibur II

Max. Depth 106 ft. under stern of King Cruiser
Max. Time 66 minutes (boat limit of 60) but sometimes enough air in the Al 80 that 75 min. would have been possible
Bottom temp. 86 F every dive.

It's low season out here but we had generally good weather. Seas were rough one day - real rough - which made for real interesting pick ups. Viz. ranged from 12 ft. to maybe 60 ft. with 40 typically. Sea snakes, scorpion fish, lion fish, a turtle etc. Made dives #95 through #104 here. Lot of current most days. Will post a longer thread about my reactions (mixed) to Thailand and diving in Phuket. Strong recommendations for SeeBees Divers and the crew of the Excalibur.

Back in LA Friday.

Jim

 

[limeyx]

Date: July 27, 2006
Dive Location: Veteran's Park
Buddy(ies): Claudette, Tevis
Time: ?
Bottom Time: 48 mins
Max Depth: 99 ish
Vis: 15ish
Wave height: ha ha ha -- none
Temp at depth: 57
Surface Temp: hot
Tide information:
Gas mix: air
Comments:

Had me a very nice dive with Claudette and Tevis last night.

There was absolutely no surf whatsoever -- we could have thrown our stuff in the ocean and geared up in the water if we'd wanted to.

I was a bit concerned that a diver on the way out (in a wetsuit!) was saying how warm it was -- usually warm water at redondo means cruddy vis. However, he was going right back in for a second dive, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad.

Plan was to go out to 100 feet or so, see what we coud see and then slowly wind our way back up to shallow water.

Claudette masterfully took charge of leading so I assigned Tevis the job of deco, leaving me to relax (Well, not 100% relax of course!)

I'm going to leave the descriptions of all that we saw up to Claudette as she'll do a far better job (i.e. she might actually know the names of some of the things rather than "fish" "shrimp thing" "nudibranch" "octopus" which is about as good as I get)

Water was a bit chilly at depth (57) or so and I was definitely glad of the drysuit (even though the exhaust valve on my backup suit doesn't really work that well).

Tonight was definitely octopus night -- we must have seen at least 10. Plenty of small ones, and one cute one living in a shoe.

Claudette pointed out numerous small nudibranchs which were so small I'd never have seen them on my own -- this is a photographers dream buddy.

Sadly I had left all my cameras at home.

We also saw plenty of weird kinds of shrimp, some crabe and some thornbacks? in the shallows. Also a small horn shark.

I had a bit of a fight with the drysuit from 50 feet up, but managed to keep it mostly under control -- counting the days until my main suit gets back with new seals.

All in all a really nice dive, especially as there was a cold Heineken waiting when we got out. Yeah, yeah, drinking and diving I know, but at least we waited until we got out.

Thanks guys! Until next time...

 

[undrwater]

Yes it was warm! But not nearly as warm as last week...68 suunto degrees at 73fsw! I foreswore my hooded vest again and ALMOST regretted it.

Not much to add...saw pretty much the same things, but I did see the "sperm" again, and yes...they were red heads! I found it difficult to focus on just one to make an accurate description, but they are not shaped like the brine shrimp of my childhood.

And just to prove I'm not crazy (or maybe to prove that there was group madness happening at Vet's), others saw them as well.

I'm kicking myself too for not bringing my camera last night...

 

[limeyx]

Yes it was warm! But not nearly as warm as last week...68 suunto degrees at 73fsw! I foreswore my hooded vest again and ALMOST regretted it.

Not much to add...saw pretty much the same things, but I did see the "sperm" again, and yes...they were red heads! I found it difficult to focus on just one to make an accurate description, but they are not shaped like the brine shrimp of my childhood.

And just to prove I'm not crazy (or maybe to prove that there was group madness happening at Vet's), others saw them as well.

I'm kicking myself too for not bringing my camera last night...

Redheads have more fun.
Wish I'd brought my camera

 

[divinman]

Dive Location: La Jolla Shores/Here and there
Buddy(ies): Sean, Simon, Jochen, Tony +1
Time: 06:54am
Bottom Time: 66minutes
Max Depth: 83ft
Vis: 15-30
Swell height: NONE- think bath tub calm
Temp at depth: 60f
Surface Temp: 73F
Gas mix: 21%
Album: http://www.scubapost.net/forums/Scorpionfish/072706/

Met up with the gang from SP and we headed out toward the Secret Gardens. Most of us got there, some of us did not. Everyone agreed it was worth getting up so early. Things seen by me? A 2"long one-spot fringehead, many octopus, red-tipped dorid, bat rays, huge bait ball of sardines, halibut, sole, turbot...You know? The usual sand dive at La Jolla. Get out there while the gettins good. I will be going again tomorrow morning with hopes of more of the same 'ol same 'ol.

Sun beams....sorta

Nav class bouy?

Snail(sp?)

2" long one-spot fringehead

Red octopus

Red-tipped dorid

White urchins at the buffet

Lake La Jolla Morning crew

 

[alaity47]

Date: July 27, 2006
Dive Location: Veteran's Park
Buddy(ies): Ray, Paul
Time: 5:30pm (#1), 8pm (#2)
Bottom Time: 50min, 60 min
Max Depth: 60 ft, 50 ft
Vis: 15ish on both
Wave height: nada
Temp at depth: 64
Surface Temp: 74
Tide information:incoming
Comments:

Wow... so much nicer than the last time I tried to dive Redondo! Radinator gave me a chance to catch up on the skills I missed when I wussed out on our ADP dive a few weeks ago, so dive #1 mostly involved kneeling in sand. Poor Paul must have been bored out of his mind. Once I'd polished off all the bottom check stuff (and gotten right tangled up during the regulator sweep - need a little work there), we dipped down into the canyon a smidge and then tooled around the shallows.

Highlight of dive #1 was finding a little octopus on the way in. I noticed two pieces of shell held together by something smooshy looking, and touched the shell briefly to see if it was something alive. To my delight, it was a little octopus who then popped out to perform briefly, and darted away from the shell out into the open, mimicking a piece of seaweed. Of course, then I felt bad for harassing him - hope he found his way back into his home after we left.

Since the waves were still nonexistent, I was more than ready for my first Redondo night dive, at last! Ray and Paul with their monster canister lights took up positions to either side of me, and I "led" the dive with my wussy little lights (though they are nice for lighting up fish without blinding them). I was thrilled when Ray found me some sarcastic fringheads living in empty shells - first time I've seen these little guys, and they lived up to the hype. I couldn't stop laughing at their posturing.

We also spotted what appeared to be a juvenile barracuda, lots of crabs including a few mating pairs, plenty of snails roaming around, and three or four more little octopi. I also startled a cusk eel with my light, who pranced around for a bit and then dug himself backwards into the sand. Small rays and soles were everywhere, of course.

I can't wait to do this dive again!

And let's hope the nice conditions hold for a few days... my next ADP beach dive is coming up at White Point tomorrow. With my luck, it'll be 4+ foot waves again!

 

[Jake]

Date: 2006-07-28
Dive Location: Wood's Cove

I don't have the log data in front of me (will post it later), but I did want to post quickly and just say that diving in Laguna was absolutely fantastic today. This was my first time at Wood's Cove, which is quite possibly one of the best dive sites in SoCal, IMO. There was more life out today than I've ever seen here. Literally hundreds to thousands of fish. I counted 12 bat rays, several of which were in groups cruising over the high mid-water reefs at about 20fsw. There was also easily a metric buttload of lobster hanging out without a care in the world. Looks like there's gonna be some big ones in a few months! A cormorant surprised me as it came flying out from under a rock at about 30 feet. I checked my depth guage twice; I had no idea they could go that deep.

The water was amazingly warm: no hood or gloves for me today. I think it was maybe 66 at depth (44 max depth). I'll post the real temp later tonight. Viz was probably a messy 30 feet. Lots of particulate matter that the fish were feeding off of, so it was a bit cloudy, but you could see for quite a ways. Very nice. Wave height was probably about 1 foot.

In short, if you can get in the water ASAP, I recommend it!