Video: great viz at McAbee on Saturday

[Gombessa]

Hope everyone's enjoying some (too much?) sun and great diving this weekend. We didn't have Lobos reservations, so Steve and I drove by CRB and BW before "settling" on McAbee. Tons of divers out, not too many reports of good viz. A few divers told us that we should expect about 5ft until depths of over 30ft, at which point it opens up tremendously. Buoyed by that, we geared up and dropped into green/brown muck. Amazingly, and just as described, once we made it beyond the first kelp bed, we could see the sun start poking through and the viz dramatically improved. We spent the dive in the 30-50ft range admiring swarms of huge nettles and blue rockfish, and were visited by a curious sea lion.

[youtubehq]FlCCayhqbY0[/youtubehq]

When we ascended, our float was gone. Someone on shore had recovered it, they told us it had broken free and floated away, but they recovered it, rope, weights and all. Lucky for us.

 

[Peter_C]

Other than a lip that got stung it looks like you had a really nice dive!

 

[Myka]

nice dive, I really like my dive the last week end with all the jellyfishs...
It was the first time that I saw so many !

2h20 of dive, it is exactly what I like to do too.

Thanks for the video. Is it a Gopro with a flat lens ?
Mickael

 

[Gombessa]

Other than a lip that got stung it looks like you had a really nice dive!

Yeah, thankfully it was just a baby sting! Have good vis and calm conditions really helps out in terms of nettle avoidance capabilities!

2h20 of dive, it is exactly what I like to do too.

Thanks for the video. Is it a Gopro with a flat lens ?
Mickael

Hi Mickael!

Not the GoPro, the video was taken with my standard rig - a Flip UltraHD with UWL-100 wide lens.

Sounds like conditions on Sunday really started getting worse throughout the bay. Anyone get some good dives in?

 

[pacificgal]

No good dives for me at Lobos Sunday. Viz was milky in the cove, considerable surge, it was just an awful couple dives. Dived with mastersniper, almost considered coming back to Monterey Bay after the first dive to see if viz was any better. Probably should have.
Glad you had fun though, I'll watch the video when my boss isn't around.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Kristina,

You'd be amazed at how the viz opened up at depth, I was at Macbee when Ken dove and filmed. I opted not to get into the muck.

He heard otherwise about it clearing up at depth and took a gamble and scored.

I phoned the Silver Prince and got taken out to Carmel, had the most awesome dive at N. Monastery which was just below you at Lobos.

That cove can become super milky sometimes, I know, I have been caught in it before.

So nice to know that at depth things can change, but then so does the dive plan, I don't like diving deep if I don't have to, my sac rate always goes up.

I like to stay within 60 feet max where my dives stay the calmest. Any deeper than that, and my anxiety starts to build knowing that I must stay overly vigilant.

 

[kathydee]

Sounds like conditions on Sunday really started getting worse throughout the bay. Anyone get some good dives in?

Looks like some beautiful diving & I love the music.

We did some nice diving on the Channel Islands on Sat, then headed back up to BW on Sunday. 35ft and above had swell and poor vis. Hit one thermocline at 12 ft another around 35-40 fsw. It was chilly at 48-50F but calm water below 40ft and pretty nice vis (20+ ft). Evening dive ran into night and we saw tons of little octopi ;-)

 

[Bogie]

Great video. I dove Pt. Lobos on Saturday vis was bad until 70 feet.

 

[Gombessa]

No good dives for me at Lobos Sunday. Viz was milky in the cove, considerable surge, it was just an awful couple dives. Dived with mastersniper, almost considered coming back to Monterey Bay after the first dive to see if viz was any better. Probably should have.

Aww, sorry to hear! It's a rare day when the vis in the bay beats Carmel, but it does happen. The only reason we weren't at Lobos is because we didn't have reservations!

Kristina,

You'd be amazed at how the viz opened up at depth, I was at Macbee when Ken dove and filmed. I opted not to get into the muck.

He heard otherwise about it clearing up at depth and took a gamble and scored.

I phoned the Silver Prince and got taken out to Carmel, had the most awesome dive at N. Monastery which was just below you at Lobos.

Sorry we missed you Mike! There were tons of people in the water and setting up on the beach, and yes the water looked AWFUL from shore, like pea soup. I'm amazed at the difference once we hit depth.

We did some nice diving on the Channel Islands on Sat, then headed back up to BW on Sunday. 35ft and above had swell and poor vis. Hit one thermacline at 12 ft another around 35-40 fsw. It was chilly at 48-50F but calm water below 40ft and pretty nice vis (20+ ft). Evening dive ran into night and we saw tons of little octopi ;-)

Wow, that's a lot of travel, welcome back Kathy! We noticed a significant thermocline as well, not surprising given the 80 degree surface temps on Saturday. It made for a really warm and fuzzy 10-ft stop I think our water temps were the Monterey norm of 51-52 degrees.

 

[ae3753]

Fantastic looking dive. Great viz and lots of creatures out.