Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
For me it was when I was called to go out to the harbor about 45 minutes west to the coast to unfoul a prop for a crab boat. When I got there I saw a group of very large male sea lions hanging around the boat around and under the pier. I asked if they were Okay and the guy said they shouldn't bother me, they were pretty mellow. So I got in, and the whole time I had a 900 Lb sea lion staring me down from about 5 feet away. That was a little unnerving.
The other time a buddy and I went south out of Bodega Bay in my boat to go dive Tomales Bay. I had never been there so after about 25 minutes of full throttle heading for the furthest headland sticking out I could see I realized it wasn't getting much closer. Turns out it was Point Reyes I was aiming for and we completely bypassed Tomales Bay by miles already. No problem, we decided to keep going and check it out. Getting past the two colliding currents that meet off the point was quite a thrill. It spun me 180 in an instant and put me up on quite a lean in the confused sea. I throttled it up and managed to get up and over the wash and we tucked back inside of the point on the south side. For a description, this place should be the definition no mans land. Everydody who views Point Reyes does so by driving out there and visiting the lighthouse. There would never be a reason why anybody would attempt to dive this short of just being crazy. If anybody knows about Pt. Reyes it's a lighthouse point that juts out into the Pacific and is north of the Golden Gate by 35 or so miles. It has claimed many ships in it's day and is one of the roughest windiest places on all the west coast besides Cape Mendocino. We happened to just catch it on a semi calm day.
The diving was absolutely on steroids! I had never seen anything like it anywhere. It's a reserve so no fishing, hunting, commercial take, nothing. I saw some of the biggest fish ever on the west coast. The cove is face with sheer cliffs that tower up to the lighthouse. Just south is one of the largest seal rookeries on the west coast too. That raised to pucker factor considerably in anticipation of running into whitey. We never did see whitey that day but we did see one very nervous sea lion buzzing by us once and then no more sea lion sightings, which is not a good sign. The dive, the location, the sea current collision, and the high probability of seeing whitey all were pretty intimidating.
The last one was once when we planned an expedition up just below Cape Mendocino to explore the Delgada Trench. We camped out in Shelter cove and lanched my boat then headed north for miles up the coast to find it. That was also a butt pucker and one of the most intimidating dives I've ever done. Murky green water made for horrible vis on top and made for a night dive below. The visibility opened up to 30 or 40 feet below the green line. Sheer walls, pitch black that just swallowed up our biggest lights. The bottom of the ocean just dropped out and was gone. We never did find the bottom. The canyon starts right from shore and withing a short 100 yd surface swim a diver could be in 300 feet of water. The sides of the trench are sheer walls with small shelves filled with millions of spotted shrimp. We found scallops 8 and 9 inches in diameter. Nobody as far as we know ever scuba dove this site before.
The conditions and typography all made for a very difficult time maintaining situational awareness, keeping track of buddies, keeping track of depth, time etc. Getting Instruments up in your face to see them and getting your buddy up in your face to communicate was the only way to keep track of things. Very intimidating dive indeed. We all maintained our cool and everything went off without a hitch.
What's your story?
The other time a buddy and I went south out of Bodega Bay in my boat to go dive Tomales Bay. I had never been there so after about 25 minutes of full throttle heading for the furthest headland sticking out I could see I realized it wasn't getting much closer. Turns out it was Point Reyes I was aiming for and we completely bypassed Tomales Bay by miles already. No problem, we decided to keep going and check it out. Getting past the two colliding currents that meet off the point was quite a thrill. It spun me 180 in an instant and put me up on quite a lean in the confused sea. I throttled it up and managed to get up and over the wash and we tucked back inside of the point on the south side. For a description, this place should be the definition no mans land. Everydody who views Point Reyes does so by driving out there and visiting the lighthouse. There would never be a reason why anybody would attempt to dive this short of just being crazy. If anybody knows about Pt. Reyes it's a lighthouse point that juts out into the Pacific and is north of the Golden Gate by 35 or so miles. It has claimed many ships in it's day and is one of the roughest windiest places on all the west coast besides Cape Mendocino. We happened to just catch it on a semi calm day.
The diving was absolutely on steroids! I had never seen anything like it anywhere. It's a reserve so no fishing, hunting, commercial take, nothing. I saw some of the biggest fish ever on the west coast. The cove is face with sheer cliffs that tower up to the lighthouse. Just south is one of the largest seal rookeries on the west coast too. That raised to pucker factor considerably in anticipation of running into whitey. We never did see whitey that day but we did see one very nervous sea lion buzzing by us once and then no more sea lion sightings, which is not a good sign. The dive, the location, the sea current collision, and the high probability of seeing whitey all were pretty intimidating.
The last one was once when we planned an expedition up just below Cape Mendocino to explore the Delgada Trench. We camped out in Shelter cove and lanched my boat then headed north for miles up the coast to find it. That was also a butt pucker and one of the most intimidating dives I've ever done. Murky green water made for horrible vis on top and made for a night dive below. The visibility opened up to 30 or 40 feet below the green line. Sheer walls, pitch black that just swallowed up our biggest lights. The bottom of the ocean just dropped out and was gone. We never did find the bottom. The canyon starts right from shore and withing a short 100 yd surface swim a diver could be in 300 feet of water. The sides of the trench are sheer walls with small shelves filled with millions of spotted shrimp. We found scallops 8 and 9 inches in diameter. Nobody as far as we know ever scuba dove this site before.
The conditions and typography all made for a very difficult time maintaining situational awareness, keeping track of buddies, keeping track of depth, time etc. Getting Instruments up in your face to see them and getting your buddy up in your face to communicate was the only way to keep track of things. Very intimidating dive indeed. We all maintained our cool and everything went off without a hitch.
What's your story?
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