Point Lobos, Montery/ Carmel California

Saturday, August 4th

Point Lobos, Monterey/ Carmel California

Dive #1  Granite Wall/ Pinnacles

  62' 44"  54 Degrees Suunto ~Viz 30-40' at depth

Dive #2  Whaler's Cove

  15' 13"  54 Suunto  ~Viz 10' to 0'

Dive #3  Middle Reef

  72' 51"  50 Degrees Suunto

Buddies:  John and my son, Nathaniel

Made the long drive up to Monterey for the weekend to dive Point Lobos.  Dives #1 and #3 were spectacular with lots of life along the jetting walls and pinnacles including Anemones and Rockfish on steroids!    Several species of Nudi's were evidient, also on steroids.  Did I mention that they were HUGE?  One egg ring was bigger than my hand, I have never seen such a sight!  Several large Lingcod's, decorator crabs, bugs, and the usual sealife was spotted.  I also saw something I had never seen before, it looked like some type of sea cucumber, but will have to post a pic for proper ID.

On return of our first dive, a few divers told me of a Monkey Face Eel at the end of the boat ramp.  So with alot of enthusiasm, I decided to use up the remaining air that I had to take photos, since I had never heard of, nor seen a Monkey Face Eel before.  I found him right away, in which I snapped several photos.  I made attempts to get him to come out of his hole, but he only came out briefly, then backed back in to his comfort zone.

Temperatures at Point Lobos were mainly in the 50-52 degree zone.  I was fine the first and second dive, but after the third dive, my toes were numb!  I might add that I was wearing new booties too!  Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...........

Sunday, August 5th

North Monestary Beach, Monterey/ Carmel

This beach faces an old Monestary up on the hill.  How this beach got it's name, according to local dive shops and divers, is that you litterally have to crawl on your hands and knees in from of the Monestary to get out of the surf.  The name holds true...read on.

Conditions looked pretty good, so John and I got geared up.  The shore has a short shore break, and gets pretty tricky with low tide in that the beach sits almost at a 45' angle to the water.  One minute you're in two feet of water, next you're in 10' +.  John decided to enter with his fins on, whereas I decided to wade out to get past the surf zone before doning my fins.  John got immediately swept away, but was able to get past the surf zone without much of an incident.  I patiently waited for a lull then went in.  I was able to get past the surf zone, but the swells somehow seemed to be growing as we were kicking out.  They kept coming and coming.  We were discussing whether to call the dive or not.  Rather than going to the canyon, we decided to drop down and explore under the kelp canopy.  Viz over the sand was an easy 30-40', but once near the kelp canopy, viz deteriated immensely with massive surge...to the point I felt nausiated.  We decided to surface, and called the dive and more and more swells were coming in.  As were were making our way back to shore, other divers were on the beach, watching.  I calmly watched the swells with reg in hand, and watched the bottom to see how close I was in touching.  Once I was able to touch, I put my reg in, and dropped down low to....crawl out due the shore break.  John crawled out as well with out incident.  I on the otherhand, had some difficulty, for the sand was so loose, that my hands got burried as I was supporting myself on my hands and knees.  John and the other divers assisted me to stand up.  Whew!  What an ordeal!  But all in all, good practice.

Needless to say, the other divers decided to call the dive as well after seeing our exit and the mounting swells.

I hope to have photos posted soon.

Jan

10:01 PM - 8/5/2007 - post comment