Diver's Cove x2, North Laguna Beach

Thursday, August 23rd 2007

Took advantage of having the evening free so headed to Laguna for two dives at Diver's Cove.

Dive #1 ~Solo/ Dive #2  Buddies:  Jennifer, David, and Chris R.

Surf:  Ankle Slappers

Swell:  Flat

Surge:  Minimal to moderate at depth; less in the shallows

Viz:  10-15' in shallows; murky 5-10 at depth with lots of particulate in the water

Temp:  Toasty tropical 72 degrees  throughout both dives

Max Depths:  26'/ 23'

BT:  40"/ 75"

Great to be in the water.  First dive, I opted to dive without hood and gloves.  Oh what a feeling!  Since I was meeting up with buddies for a later dive, I decided to keep this one short.  In the 40" that I was down under, I had the most remarkable dive!  Giant Bat Rays, Horn Sharks, Morays, BIG bugs, and a Leopard Shark swimming freely as I was heading back to shore.  Viz was really nice in the shallows, so had a great time exploring reefs I hadn't seen  before.  Viz decreased as I headed for deeper waters due to moderate surge and particulate being stirred up.

Dive #2  Met up with buddies and explored more of the shallows.  Thinking we were headed for Fisherman's, we realized we were back where we started and noticed that there was a mild to moderate current running.  With that, we decided to head south.  I was hoping to hit at least 30-40' of water, but it seemed like it took us FOREVER to get some depth.  The night dive was pretty uneventful with the exception of spotting TWO GIant Black Sea Hares!!!  Mind you, these guys were bigger than footballs!!!  Oh...another giant...a bug that had to have been 15 pounds was out and about in the eel grass.  He was so big, my little hands couldn't even get around him.  We headed in early from our dive due to my primary light went out and my secondary was on it's way.  To bad too, for my buddy and I had well over 1000psi left in our tanks.  Ugh!

Thanks to Dave, Jennifer, and Chris for diving! 

Jan

7:56 PM - 8/24/2007 - post comment

Question about garden eels

Hi,
I work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and want to know if you have ever seen a harbor seal interact with any species of garden eel.

Thanks!
Jane

Anonymous - 5:36 PM - 3/31/2008

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