12/4/2009 - Marineland At High Tide

I joined Lee Zaro and Angelique "Baby Killer" Neugent for a dive at the point this morning. Lee showed me his secret entry spot, but it was submerged. I entered near it and was able to get in without clanging my tank or face on any shallow rocks. Much easier entry than Ted's Rock.
We made a kelp crawl to the outer edge of the reef and dropped on a rock with two San Diego dorids on top. My camera wouldn't focus in macro today, so no nudibranch shots. I thought it was due to a low battery until I got home and realized I had mistakenly taken the camera out of macro mode. I managed to get a few mediocre wide angle shots.
Gorgonians abound at the point

I headed over to Ted's Pinnacle to check out the statue. Among the tunicates, sponges, Christmas Tree worms and algae growing on it, there is now Lacy bryozoan in the bucket. Every inch of the statue has become an artificial reef. I turned around to have a look at the Jesus Blob and it too is now covered.

I made my way back to the cove. Along the way a large school of mackerel swirled around me, scattering with each flash of my strobes.

The tide was high enough to exit right next to Jeff's Rock on the beach. I made it into six inches of water before a small surge of water pushed me down to one knee. Lee saw the entire exit and gave Angelique play-by-play. If you don't get knocked down at Marineland, you're not diving there enough. :)
The high tide brought in some 55F water, but the visibility was a little better than yesterday.