9/1/2007 - Beating The Heat

Jon Davies, Merry Passage and I joined Ross and Beth Overstreet for a couple of wreck dives this morning. We were being cooked in the hot Sun, so getting in the water was the best thing to do. The ocean was a little rough and the water six miles offshore was a murky green. Much to my pleasant surprise the visibility on the Ace One was the best I have ever seen. I could clearly see the sand from sixty feet above. The horizontal visibility was forty feet or more.
Large Lingcod the size of school buses, well, the short bus at least were guarding the wreck like sentinals. Vermillion rockfish filled the bow and several Cabezon scooted around the stern. The top of the wreck, or in the case of the Ace One, the bottom was covered in red algae and dozens of Tritonia festiva nudibranchs.
For our second dive we motored to Izor's reef off Huntington Beach. We dived a different section of the expansive artificial reef. A wall of Blacksmith greeted us to the rocky and concrete reef below. A Harbor seal swam through the Blacksmith, but seemed more interested in Ross' fins. He nibbled for awhile, then sped off.
San Diego dorids were the prominant nudi here. I was hoping to find a simnia snail among the numerous red gorgonian but had no luck. Jon enjoyed getting back in the 53F water after diving in Hawaii last week. I'm sure he was quite toasty in his wetsuit. :)

Splashes of color were covering the Ace One

The only Cabezon who allowed me to get close

Calico rockfish

One of the sentinals

Vermillion rockfish

Tritonia festiva and red gorgonian

Nudibranch eggs

Sponges, tunicates and algae were everywhere