So better late than never? My apologies to all the folks who were kind enough to share their advice with me several weeks ago. It has taken a little longer than I wanted to get this up, but here is my trip report.
Awesome.
Backdrop: After what apparently had been several weeks of almost ideal conditions my wife and I arrive in Monterey on Saturday 3/21 just as a front is moving in which is predicted to bring gale force winds and sporadic rain. Walking to the wharf for dinner from the Marriott reveals steadily increasing winds and a light rain. As we head out to the boat Sunday morning, the front has brought 30 knot winds with gusts into the mid 40's and temps in the upper 40's. We get to the dock early and get our wetsuits on - thanks to everyone for that advice - and we're ready to go when Phil opens the gate.
After watching 3 boats leave and return, Phil from Cypress Sea and the eight divers aboard all vote to give it a shot anyway. Heading into the teeth of a 30+ knot wind and 6 to 8 foot swells doesn't leave us with a lot of hope, but Phil finds us a "calm" patch off of McAbee for our first dive. While it looks ugly at first, the bottom reveals 30' visibility and no noticeable surge. While we likely never went more than 100 feet from the anchor line, we didn't need to. The sun stars were very cool, the number of shrimp, crab, and other life in the crevices of the rocks, and the fish were all very cool. At the 35 minute mark I notice that I'm starting to have a bit of trouble holding my dive light and it occurs to me my fingers have started approaching numbness - time to head up. After getting aboard and using the "thermal recovery unit" to flush some hot water into my gloves and inside the wetsuit I head inside just as the anchor is pulled aboard and we head off. A couple of the guys report seeing sea lions and captain Phil reports he saw a whale slick probably less than 50' away from us - bummer that we didn't see it. The next stop is at Hopkins, where conditions are a bit worse - about 10 feet of vis and a bit of surge. Still the extraordinary amount of life is amazing and another 25 minutes ticks by before my friend signals he is low on air and we head up.
I can't wait to do this again. My wife has a cousin getting married in Gilroy in mid-june so we are planning to dive again that weekend.
Thanks again for all of the advice from this group.
Awesome.
Backdrop: After what apparently had been several weeks of almost ideal conditions my wife and I arrive in Monterey on Saturday 3/21 just as a front is moving in which is predicted to bring gale force winds and sporadic rain. Walking to the wharf for dinner from the Marriott reveals steadily increasing winds and a light rain. As we head out to the boat Sunday morning, the front has brought 30 knot winds with gusts into the mid 40's and temps in the upper 40's. We get to the dock early and get our wetsuits on - thanks to everyone for that advice - and we're ready to go when Phil opens the gate.
After watching 3 boats leave and return, Phil from Cypress Sea and the eight divers aboard all vote to give it a shot anyway. Heading into the teeth of a 30+ knot wind and 6 to 8 foot swells doesn't leave us with a lot of hope, but Phil finds us a "calm" patch off of McAbee for our first dive. While it looks ugly at first, the bottom reveals 30' visibility and no noticeable surge. While we likely never went more than 100 feet from the anchor line, we didn't need to. The sun stars were very cool, the number of shrimp, crab, and other life in the crevices of the rocks, and the fish were all very cool. At the 35 minute mark I notice that I'm starting to have a bit of trouble holding my dive light and it occurs to me my fingers have started approaching numbness - time to head up. After getting aboard and using the "thermal recovery unit" to flush some hot water into my gloves and inside the wetsuit I head inside just as the anchor is pulled aboard and we head off. A couple of the guys report seeing sea lions and captain Phil reports he saw a whale slick probably less than 50' away from us - bummer that we didn't see it. The next stop is at Hopkins, where conditions are a bit worse - about 10 feet of vis and a bit of surge. Still the extraordinary amount of life is amazing and another 25 minutes ticks by before my friend signals he is low on air and we head up.
I can't wait to do this again. My wife has a cousin getting married in Gilroy in mid-june so we are planning to dive again that weekend.
Thanks again for all of the advice from this group.
