7/17/2009 - Looooong Dives at Crescent Bay
Date: 07/17/2009
Time In: 10:26am / 1:19pm
Dive Location: Laguna Beach, California
Dive Site: N. Crescent - Inner Dead Man's Reef/Pinnacles
Viz: 10ish
Surge: Yeeeee-haaaaaaa that's what's on the other side of the viz!
Water Temp: 57-64°f (SUUNTO)
Max Depth: 50' / 32'
Bottom time: 88 / 109 min.
Buddies: Ruth "45 minute dive - BLEH!" Harris
I met up with Ruth to get a couple dives in at Crescent Bay. The side goal, of course, was 200 more minutes on Ruth's Dive-a-thon minute meter. I can maybe squeeze 200 minutes over two dives out of my HP100's. Ruth can easily do a 100 min dive on a 100. Solution? Ruth used my 100's and I had the luxury of diving with her and Larry's HP130's. Yeah-baby - who needs doubles (double 130's, however...).
The plan for our first dive was the front side of Dead Man's. We swam out and dropped down right on the edge of the reef. Keeping the reef on our right we quickly hit dead henge, and more importantly our first target, Dudley of Dead Man's. Viz far from being ideal for wide shots, and since I had my diopter on, I quickly snapped a few pics and moved on (no camera for Ruth today.)
My internal compass went haywire, and instead of heading in the general direction of seal rock, we ended up heading towards the deep end of Dead Man's. A little deeper than planned, but we still managed to squeeze out a decent 88 minute dive.
The dive-a-thon has a daily max of 200 minutes. That left 112 minutes for dive #2. Ruth wanted to hang around the pinnacles that lie between N. Crescent and Seal Rock. We dropped down at the edge of the reef, and within a minute of kicking hit the first large pinnacle - almost literally. The surge was strong today, and viz varied from 5-10'. With the large urchin population on this reef - you really have to be weary of where the surge is moving you. As we combed along the reef, Ruth came across a nudibranch that neither of us could ID. I tried to ease my way in for a pic, but with the combination of the surge, viz, extremely small DoF of my diopter, and Ruth having to hold some algae growth out of the way for the shot - all of my ID shots ended up in the trash can.
We continued around the reef, making at least one full loop around the pinnacle. As I was turning over rocks looking for the shy inhabitants of the reef, I came across a large flatworm. These are more commonly seen on deeper reefs like La Jolla Shores, so the find was a pleasant surprise in 30fsw at Laguna Beach. We made our way back inside the reef, where the surge and viz was even more of a challenge. We ended up getting separated in the shallows, but ended the dive safely and managed to come pretty close to the 200 minute goal.
Christmas Tree Worm
Dudley Lies here, Dudley of Dead Man's that is
Club Tipped Anemone
Limacia cockerelli
Mexichromis porterae
Peltodoris nobilis
Polyclad Flatworm
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