Cress/ Mountain Street Sunday 8/18/07

Cress Street/ Mountain Ave, South Laguna Beach

***This is one of my favorite dive sites

Sunday, 7:00am

Surf:  1-2' and increasing

Swell:  min/ mod

Surge:  Heavy over the top and backside of second Reef System

Viz:  10-15' with lots of particulate in the water

Temp:  Tropical 72 Degrees

Max Depth:  29'

BT:  75 minutes

This site is usually known to most divers as 'Cress' but because of recent topagraphy changes and what nots, most divers enter off the stairs on Mountain Ave, rather than Cress Street itself.

My friends and I entered the water in front of the lifegaurd station and kicked out to the second reef system in which you can noramlly see the water peaking over the top.  Our mission:  Morays.  Dropped down on the reef and made our way to the side of one of the reef pinnacles.  Kathi and Steve immediately found a couple of large sized Morays, where John found a baby Moray not to far away, then another, and another.  As we moved on, I circled back around for I noticed something swimming freely.  To my suprise, it was a HUGE Moray that was out of his hole, exploring the rocks, then noticing me.  All I could think of was 'please don't bite me!' as he lunged for me.  I reamined calm as the eel felt non threatened, so for a minute or two, we were swimming side by side with each other.  I was then able to get Kathi, Steve, and John's attention, so that they could he him as well.

After our encounter with the Moray's, our buddy teams split up.  John and I went on in search of the 'cave.'  I felt to some degree that we were off the mark, so we circuled back around to the opposite side of where we saw the Morays.  On the way, John spotted a couple of Two Spot Octopi that were quite entertaining in that they kept changing colors in front of us as they were crawling over the reef.  I spotted a couple of Spanish Shawls in addition to all  the usual suspects.  Finally, we stumbled upon the cave.  It was quite surgey, but we still went in.  Bugs everywhere!  Small and large, including a grand-daddy!!!  The surge got the best of us, for all of a sudden Swoosh!  John got flused out.  He held on at the exit to wait for me.  I was determined to explore all the nooks and crannies.  I was able to exit the cave on the backside without incident.

John and I continued our dive, crossing paths with Kathi and Steve.  Lots of fish out over the reef including schools of Senorita Fish; Opal Eye; Blacksmith; Kelp Fish; Calico Bass; and Rock Fish.

Exited in 5' of water without incident with noticeable swell and surf picking up.

Jan

6:40 PM - 8/19/2007 - post comment