Well, short version is that it went amazingly well.  We'll have a more 
detailed writeup of the trip, but here's just a little bit from my 
perspective.

Top-side conditions got a little sloppier than we'd hoped for, 
especially given the conditions in the past 3 or 4 weeks.  However it 
didn't really pose any problems - the only issue was quickly and 
effectively getting gear and people back onto the boat, but that all 
went very well thanks to good crew and good divers.

We did some depth-soundings and after searching around the north side of 
the bank for a while decided to try the south side.  The south showed 
more promise in terms of relief, with multiple spots showing spikes from 
  ~170FSW to ~120FSW.  We dropped the hook on one of the spikes - very 
close to the spot we had marked on the map as a potential 2nd dive site 
- the "120 spot" on the maps I have.

After dropping the hook we noticed that the boat was not moving despite 
a reasonably strong northerly wind.  The assumption was that there was a 
current running the opposite direction.  Therefore we decided not to 
stay anchored and threw a ball out on the end of the line and liveboated 
the whole thing.  We found that there was in fact current, though it was 
primarily a surface current.  There was still some current on the bottom 
but not too bad.

Before the dive Susan had said to me "we'll meet you at the Giant 
Octopus".  Son-of-gun if that didn't really happen!  Beto frantically 
signalled our group (Pete/Clinton/Me) and we rushed over knowing it had 
to be good.  There it was - even larger than the one Clinton and I saw 
last week (!?!).  It decided it wanted to "probe" Beto and Susan, 
reaching out several arms and touching them.  For a few seconds there it 
looked like it was really gonna go for Susan - he was distracting her 
with one arm while the other one was sneaking up behind her.  She 
decided she'd had enough and moved away a little.  :-)  I'm hoping the 
video Clinton got comes out OK.

Even without the GPO sighting it would've been an incredible dive.  The 
top of the pinnacle had more hydrocoral than I've ever seen.  There were 
more rockfish than I've ever seen - not only number but variety.  Pretty 
much every fish in the book was well represented.  Lingcod ... 
everywhere.  There were even a few fish I couldn't ID - I have to go to 
the books and see if I can figure out what they were.  There were 
tunicates there that I'd also never seen - something else to look up. 
Some vase sponges - one with a crab inside.  2 wolf eels.  A variety of 
nudibranchs.  Swim-through, big pinnacles .... and the *fish* - did I 
mention how many fish ????

Dives, deco and recovery all went very smoothly for all teams, albeit a 
little annoying with the SMBs - the wind was catching them and pulling 
them along.  Though somehow Beto and Susan, despite being less than 20' 
from our team, had a line that went straight up whereas ours was being 
pulled off at almost a 45 degree angle and having lots of fun with 
Pete's valves.  :-)  No explanation except that Beto and Susan are just 
plain charmed.

After the first dive we reluctantly pulled anchor to search for a new 
spot.  We find a very nice ridge that dropped from maybe 160 to 200 or 
so.  Something to look at for the next trip (and there *will* be a next 
trip ...) but not this time.  We circled back into the general vicinity 
of the first dive and found another spot that showed up on the finder as 
looking almost the same as the first.  We dropped the hook again, but 
this time the current had abated so we kept the boat hooked.

Second dive went at least as well as the first, though no GPO.  Still 
lots 'o fish, inverts and beautiful structure.  There's some 
disagreement on whether or not the 2nd dive was actually at a different 
location.  To me it looked similar, but not the same.  Looking at the 
GPS coords and tracks, I'm still pretty sure it was a different site. 
However some are saying it was the same site.  It's certainly possible. 
  The GPS markings show that the 2nd one was probably 200' or so from 
the first one so it certainly makes sense that they look very similar, 
and it's possible due to scope on the line, etc. that it was in fact the 
same.  Guess we'll just have to go back and try to figure that out for 
sure.  :-)

Anyway, in addition to the amazing scenery, the visibility was stunning. 
  It was crystal-blue with at least 70' of vis.  That made it a lot 
easier to get an idea for the general topography and of course to see 
just how many fish there were.  There was a murky layer in the first 
30-40' or so (more so on the 2nd dive), but after it opened up .... 
whooooooiiieeee ... very nice.  Sure wish I had my scooter with me to 
venture out and see what else was there.  Next time ....

To give you some perspective on the day, Clinton has said it was by far 
the best cold water dive he's ever done and one of the best of any type 
of dive.  Given the beaming faces on all the divers I'd have a hard time 
arguing with that.

There is a *lot* of reef out there and this trip showed just how amazing 
it is.  Needless to say I plan to make sure we do a lot of exploration 
in this area.

Thanks to everyone, from the divers to the crew to top-side photography, 
for making it an amazing day, with everything running very smoothly and 
professionally.  With the location and conditions, things could've 
gotten ugly in a hurry.  But a solid, well-trained group, a good crew 
and captain and a good boat made it just another day on the ocean.  A 
stellar example of teamwork, preparation and execution.

Oh, and if all the above wasn't amazing enough, we had our share of 
whale and dolphin sightings down-and-back and I almost forgot to mention 
the Albatross - lots of 'em!  Just after surfacing from our first dive 
Clinton said "turn around" - right in front of me, less than 10' away 
was a huge albatross.  Very cool.

Still beaming.

-Dave

Patty_Harris wrote:

> OK, gang.....the suspense is killing me.  How did things go on 
> Saturday?
> 
> Patty