12/17/2011 Lunaticos Annex aboard Escapade by Mark Lloyd

[marlloyd]

12/17/2011 Lunaticos Annex aboard Escapade by Mark Lloyd -- [View in Reports Page]

Bottom Team:	Mark Lloyd, Dionna House
Visibility:	80'	Time:	12:00 AM
Temp:	53F	Surge:
Scooter:	X-scooter	Burn Time:
Max Depth:	190FSW	Avg Depth:
Bottom Time:		Total Time:	1:40
Bottom Gases:	18/45	Deco Gases:	EAN50,O2
Backgas Config:	Double	Deco Tanks:	AL40,AL80
Deco Profile:
The weather was perfect today, nice and sunny as we made our way out of the bay. Jim indicated we could do Lunaticos Annex which to be honest I can't recall doing. The ball was dropped in a canyon between two structures. The canyon ran North to South, the South end being the deeper area. The depth at the bottom of the canyon was about 170. Following the canyon South we descended to about 190 where we found a nice vase sponge with hundreds of Elephant Ear sponges all over the walls around us. We scootered East around a small pinnacle then headed West past a number of other pinnacles. There were at least 5 or 6 other large vase sponges in this area with hydrocoral and more elephant ear sponges. With the great vis we scootered to the end of the reef, turned around and followed our way back to the original canyon. Once back to there we headed North, dropped down on the other side and scootered East where we poked our heads into a small cave. I couldn't see the end of it so we turned around, headed West, again encountering lots of sponges, schools of young rockfish, and a few Ling Cod. We ascended to the 150' level, spent a bit of time checking out the structure, passing a few of other dive teams then shot the bag. The current was virtually non existent and the shot line was visible for much of the deco as were some of the others on deco. Tons of cool looking jellies in the water to keep our interest and after we surfaced we dove into the chicken and brownies. We opted not to do the second dive but the teams indicated the vis was slightly worse but still pretty good. On the way back in a humpback entertained us with about 5 or 6 huge breaches.. fantastic! What a great day.