| Limey Diver |
Farnsworth Banks June 10,2007On June 10th, 2007 I was lucky enough to get to dive one of my favorite reef dives ever.Farnsworth banks is (as far as I know -- and I am far from an expert) essentially one huge pinnacle on the backside of Catalina Island, that then "forks off" into a number of smaller pinnacles. Here is a small topographic map (Courtesy of I believe Phl Garner aka MaxBottomTime but I think he swiped it from somewhere else :)  I believe we dove E.Ridge 72 as another boat was anchored on the shallower E.50 (in these cases the 72 and 50 represent the depth of the tops of the pinnacle) This is known as an "advanced" dive site because it is on the windward side of the Island, and conditions can turn very easily. It is noted for pretty strong currents, and due to it being offshore and a lot of boat traffic, it's vital to come back up the anchor line. But. But but but. It is one fabulous dive! The main attraction is the presence of the purple coldwater coral (Or Blue hydrocoral as I've heard it described). This is one of the only spots in Southern California where you can find substantial amounts of it (I believe it is present in smaller quantities on San Clemente Island) The spot is also known for large hordes of stingrays, large offshore fish, tunas etc. etc. So we were pretty excited when we arrived at the spot without too much rocking and rolling! The first 10 or so feet of water was really clear, and I was pretty excited that we might have some good vis on the bottom. That feeling turned a bit sour though as we descended through 70 feet of murky water and a reasonable current. But conditions on the bottom opened up quite a bit, giving us 30 feet or so of vis. We released the cup to alert the boat that the spot was divable (they had sent us in first because they knew we would have no hesitation to call the dive if it sucked -- not sure if that's a compliment or not!) The end of the anchor line. There was still a fair current on the bottom, which seemed to change directions at will.   A closer-up view of the hydrocoral. Unfortunately my video lights give it a reddish tint  The plan had been to do 12 or so minutes out at 120 feet, and then come back at 100 or so (yes, probably violating the "clarified" MOD rules for 30/30) However, the interesting parts of the reef contrived to save me from having my GUE cards revoked, and stayed put at around 100-110 :) In the end we did about 30 mins at 100 feet. We headed off into the current, and around the side of the reef.  There was plenty of coral around, although I heard there is even more below 100 feet (we need to come back here for some deeper diving!)  Just as we were turning the dive, we were treated to a school of baitfish in the distance...   And then got divebombed by a sea lion looking for lunch!     Much to my shock, we actually managed to find the anchor line! A couple of last shots of the reef before we had to start our ascent    Unfortunately, the camera white balance was not really set right so the foregrounds look way too red.    All in all, a rather nice dive, but we didn't get to see any stingrays! Sadly, conditions were picking up a bit and we only got to do a single dive at this spot. The next spot was a bit of a "washing machine" and not conducive to much video-work 7:47 PM - 6/27/2007 - post comment
|
Description Dive! Home User Profile Archives Friends Recent Entries - "Some Reef" Red Sea 2008 - Red Sea 4Wrecks Part II redux - 4 Wrecks in one dive ... - Red Sea 2008 (Topside) - A little trip to Victoria, BC Friends - santafejoe - MaxBottomtime |