It was a party, and people came from miles around . . . Peter and I from Seattle, HBDiveGirl and buddy from Los Angeles, and the "local" divers, several of whom drive up to three hours to come down to Monterey to dive.
We had announced this trip a couple of months ago, and we got an amazing response. Within a week, we had tanks lined up, scooters being lent, dives planned, and a boat chartered (I mean, WE didn't do any of this . . . the local divers did it for us.) Ben_ca even lent me a set of doubles for the weekend (which contributed to the hilarity, as it turned out.)
We came in Thursday night, met Claudette and Josh and had a lovely dinner together, during which Claudette and I adamantly refused to let anyone else get a word in edgewise, a pattern which was to continue through the entire weekend. Somewhat late to bed, and up early the following morning to follow Highway 1 to the entrance to Point Lobos State Reserve. Lobos is one's mental image of Monterey -- Wind blown cypress trees on the bluffs around the cove, waves breaking on the rocks at each end of the bay. There were otters playing in the kelp (Peter saw them but I didn't). And there were scooters . . .
Ben and David had been generous enough to provide theirs for Peter's and my enjoyment, although I think Chris and Kevin and Jonathan may have had more fun watching us flounder around with them than we were having. Descent, equipped with scooter and can light, left me wondering where the other two hands for ear clearing and buoyancy control were, and before I got it figured out, I had smacked into the bottom. A great way to impress our hosts with my diving skills. I regrouped and began to play with the scooter, and within a minute or so managed to get it pointed upward and fly up about 20 feet. Hmm. Back down and regroup again . . . Then, it began to work, and it's really a wild feeling to whiz through the water. We covered a lot of ground on the dive, which was fun, although I didn't see much of it. Keeping our leader in view and managing my steed was about all I had bandwidth for! All too soon, it was time to surface and scooter back to the boat ramp. I have to say that, if I lived in Monterey, I'd own a scooter, just to avoid the surface swims
Off we went to Turtle Bay for lunch, where I resisted the temptation to overeat the excellent Mexican food, and Peter did not. In view of what happened later, I was very glad of my restraint.
The second dive was Monastery Beach. We had "ideal" conditions for Monastery, I was told. When we went in, the waves were truly ankle-biters. Nonetheless, there is a long slog through heavy, shifting sand to the water. One walks a long way up a gentle slope, and a short distance down a very steep one. This is much easier to do going out than coming back in, as it proved.
We did South Monastery, which is a truly beautiful dive. One goes out along the kelp beds (and kelp is really gorgeous with the light coming down through it, just like all those marvellous photographs people post) and then one encounters a sequence of large rocks, covered in cup coral, sea stars, and the most bizarre, enormous crabs I have ever seen. They call them sheep crabs, i believe. We admired blue rockfish, who are amazingly unconcerned about divers. Painted greenlings and kelp greenlings were typically skittery. And, shortly before we turned the dive, we found a beautiful, fat harbor seal who came in and settled on the bottom right by us. I shone my light on him, and he shook his head just like a human from the glare, and then decamped.
On the way back, we got to admire the sea grass tossing in the surge, which should have been a warning. By the time we got back to shore, the waves were about 18" to 2 feet (I think -- I'd like to say they were six foot waves, but they weren't). They were breaking right where I could finally stand up to try to take my fins off, and that was a mistake, because I was promptly knocked down, and then repeatedly rolled. Poor Kevin had to put all his Rescue skills to work, since I couldn't get to my feet, and I couldn't get out into enough water to float and start over. Eventually, with a great deal of effort, he got my fins off and me upright and out of the water (Memo to self: Do NOT dive Monastery in doubles again. Ever.) But upright didn't last long, as my attempt to climb the short, steep slope ended with me on my knees, telling Peter to go to the car and get out of his gear and come back and help me. Luckily, he did NOT get pictures of me on my hands and knees in the sand, awaiting succor.
Off to Aquarius Dive shop for a fill, and then to the Breakwater for a night dive. Here, Claudette and Josh were surprised and delighted to find that Jonathan had recharged the scooters for THEIR use. When asked if he wanted to try them, Josh was briefly expressionless, and then this shy grin tugged at the corners of his mouth and he nodded very quickly. It cracked me and Claudette up. I thought deciding to do a night dive in an unfamiliar site as the first time on scooters was either very brave or an indication that neither of them had anything between their ears. As it turned out, it got more fun than that -- Both of them had their primary lights fail, so they were scootering along on their backups. They found everything they went out to find, and came back beaming and scheming to start scooter funds of their own.
Jonathan, Peter and I "kick dove" the Breakwater Wall. We saw pale silver sea pens and BIG translucent shrimp who were iridescent in the HID lights. There were lovely little red and white spotted crabs, and one enormous fish in a recess that none of us could identify. I got my aerobic exercise swimming after Jonathan -- All these scooter people have had their underwater speedometers completely recalibrated!
Off for excellent pizza and dive talk, and finally in bed about 11, only to get up and do it all again the following morning.
We had announced this trip a couple of months ago, and we got an amazing response. Within a week, we had tanks lined up, scooters being lent, dives planned, and a boat chartered (I mean, WE didn't do any of this . . . the local divers did it for us.) Ben_ca even lent me a set of doubles for the weekend (which contributed to the hilarity, as it turned out.)
We came in Thursday night, met Claudette and Josh and had a lovely dinner together, during which Claudette and I adamantly refused to let anyone else get a word in edgewise, a pattern which was to continue through the entire weekend. Somewhat late to bed, and up early the following morning to follow Highway 1 to the entrance to Point Lobos State Reserve. Lobos is one's mental image of Monterey -- Wind blown cypress trees on the bluffs around the cove, waves breaking on the rocks at each end of the bay. There were otters playing in the kelp (Peter saw them but I didn't). And there were scooters . . .
Ben and David had been generous enough to provide theirs for Peter's and my enjoyment, although I think Chris and Kevin and Jonathan may have had more fun watching us flounder around with them than we were having. Descent, equipped with scooter and can light, left me wondering where the other two hands for ear clearing and buoyancy control were, and before I got it figured out, I had smacked into the bottom. A great way to impress our hosts with my diving skills. I regrouped and began to play with the scooter, and within a minute or so managed to get it pointed upward and fly up about 20 feet. Hmm. Back down and regroup again . . . Then, it began to work, and it's really a wild feeling to whiz through the water. We covered a lot of ground on the dive, which was fun, although I didn't see much of it. Keeping our leader in view and managing my steed was about all I had bandwidth for! All too soon, it was time to surface and scooter back to the boat ramp. I have to say that, if I lived in Monterey, I'd own a scooter, just to avoid the surface swims
Off we went to Turtle Bay for lunch, where I resisted the temptation to overeat the excellent Mexican food, and Peter did not. In view of what happened later, I was very glad of my restraint.
The second dive was Monastery Beach. We had "ideal" conditions for Monastery, I was told. When we went in, the waves were truly ankle-biters. Nonetheless, there is a long slog through heavy, shifting sand to the water. One walks a long way up a gentle slope, and a short distance down a very steep one. This is much easier to do going out than coming back in, as it proved.
We did South Monastery, which is a truly beautiful dive. One goes out along the kelp beds (and kelp is really gorgeous with the light coming down through it, just like all those marvellous photographs people post) and then one encounters a sequence of large rocks, covered in cup coral, sea stars, and the most bizarre, enormous crabs I have ever seen. They call them sheep crabs, i believe. We admired blue rockfish, who are amazingly unconcerned about divers. Painted greenlings and kelp greenlings were typically skittery. And, shortly before we turned the dive, we found a beautiful, fat harbor seal who came in and settled on the bottom right by us. I shone my light on him, and he shook his head just like a human from the glare, and then decamped.
On the way back, we got to admire the sea grass tossing in the surge, which should have been a warning. By the time we got back to shore, the waves were about 18" to 2 feet (I think -- I'd like to say they were six foot waves, but they weren't). They were breaking right where I could finally stand up to try to take my fins off, and that was a mistake, because I was promptly knocked down, and then repeatedly rolled. Poor Kevin had to put all his Rescue skills to work, since I couldn't get to my feet, and I couldn't get out into enough water to float and start over. Eventually, with a great deal of effort, he got my fins off and me upright and out of the water (Memo to self: Do NOT dive Monastery in doubles again. Ever.) But upright didn't last long, as my attempt to climb the short, steep slope ended with me on my knees, telling Peter to go to the car and get out of his gear and come back and help me. Luckily, he did NOT get pictures of me on my hands and knees in the sand, awaiting succor.
Off to Aquarius Dive shop for a fill, and then to the Breakwater for a night dive. Here, Claudette and Josh were surprised and delighted to find that Jonathan had recharged the scooters for THEIR use. When asked if he wanted to try them, Josh was briefly expressionless, and then this shy grin tugged at the corners of his mouth and he nodded very quickly. It cracked me and Claudette up. I thought deciding to do a night dive in an unfamiliar site as the first time on scooters was either very brave or an indication that neither of them had anything between their ears. As it turned out, it got more fun than that -- Both of them had their primary lights fail, so they were scootering along on their backups. They found everything they went out to find, and came back beaming and scheming to start scooter funds of their own.
Jonathan, Peter and I "kick dove" the Breakwater Wall. We saw pale silver sea pens and BIG translucent shrimp who were iridescent in the HID lights. There were lovely little red and white spotted crabs, and one enormous fish in a recess that none of us could identify. I got my aerobic exercise swimming after Jonathan -- All these scooter people have had their underwater speedometers completely recalibrated!
Off for excellent pizza and dive talk, and finally in bed about 11, only to get up and do it all again the following morning.