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2/20/2008 Mount Chamberlin aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 30' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 49F - 50F Surge: 6'

Max Depth: 190FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:40 Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: 50/25,O2

Backgas Config: Double HP120 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
5s,20
Susan and I went diving today on board the Escapade :-).

Our weekends have been pretty busy with teaching so we decided to create a new diving style. It's called 'Weds with Jim and Ed'. The idea is to take some Weds off and go do some fun diving on the Escapade. Today was the pilot program day.

We woke up before the 6:30 alarm due to some very heavy rain splattering on our window. It looked like the Gods didn't want to cooperate with our diving adventure. Nonetheless we decided to get breakfast, feed Naia (our dog) and head for Monterey.

The drive down was slow with heavy rain and a lot of traffic. I kept telling Susan that the clouds and rain were going to disappear any time soon, but was starting to question the decision to dive today myself. The rain fell harder as we continued to drive south.

The moment we drove into the wharf parking lot, the rain stopped and the sky started to open :-). We met with Jim and Ed whom had gotten pretty wet while running from their car to the boat, where all their water proof gear was stored. Without saying much about the improving weather (so as not to jinx it) we headed out to sea.

The usual conversation about where to go started. Jim Capwell said he didn't bother to look for a good dive site as Susan will most likely tell him where to go anyway. We offered that due to the weather we could try to stay in the Bay, but captain's orders were to head out to sea and see what we get. Although his heart was set on diving in the bay, Beto relented and we drove south.

Half way to Point Pi~nos the sky was pretty blue and the swells were only 6 to 7ft so we headed onward to Carmel. The swells were breaking pretty good on shore so we decided to do something in the Outer Yankee Point area away from the breakers.

We settled on Mt. Chamberlain which is a huge structure with a 800ft long east-west wall. We didn't have our scooters with us so we picked a nice shallow spot to put the downline, at about 135ft. We watched the buoy for several minutes and it didn't look like we had any noticeable current. We got all our gear ready and jumped in near the float.

The moment we hit the water we noticed a deceivingly strong current from the South so we starting kicking towards the float and descended while doing a quick check at 20ft. We had to kick quite a lot to stay within visual range of the line, and we really never got to it but it were close enough to use it as target for our descent. At about 110ft we stopped trying to stay on the line and headed for the bottom.

We reached the bottom at about 140ft on the north end of a sand channel that cut the wall perpendicularly. We located the side of the canyon and headed South. The terrain was amazing. There were gorgonians everywhere; it looks like weed fields but full of red little animals. It was a bit dark due to some brown water near the surface but we had a good 20-30ft vis. We slowly moved against the current as we swam in and out of small cracks and arches on the sides of the canyon.

We located a 4 inche juvenile yellow eye rock fish, and we covered our light and were able to get very close to it and had a nice look with the ambient light. The moment we moved one of our lights close, it swam away and hid in a small crack.

After 15min we finally made it to the main east-west wall. We leveled-off at about 190ft and enjoyed the view for several minutes. The wall goes from 120ft down to 220ft and it's a massive structure. We saw a very large china rockfish and very nice vermillion that were swimming around us, as well as a resident ling cod.

After a very short 20min we headed back inside the wall using a parallel canyon and it was a lot of fun to ascend up the narrow crack from 190 to about 150ft. Once we settled at that depth we went for a short drift dive. We saw a rock crab in a crack, plenty of decorator crabs, and a white umbrella crab on a ridge.

The current at 190 was not very strong so we were able to swim out, but as we swam shallower it was much stronger so we just relaxed and enjoyed the drift towards the center of the canyon. We found the lingcod again and some very nice nudibranchs as we moved north. Everything was covered with corynactus and elephant ear sponges :-). What a beautiful area.

As we drifted with the current I remembered there is a shallow spot (80ft) about 300ft away from the wall and for a moment we let the current take us north hoping to see the peak. As we moved north there was a squirrely current coming from opposite directions which we didn't like, so we headed back to the area where we dropped the down-line and looked for a 130ft peak there. After another 20min in the area we headed for the shallow spot and deployed our bag to let the boat know we were about to start drifting with the current.

The decompression was uneventful until we got to about 30ft. At that depth there were tons of moon jellies swimming around. We looked at them for a while, and then noticed a few broken pearl strands of tiny bubbles floating up from depth. Hmmmm. Where could those tiny bubbles have come from? When we finally surfaced to say hello to Capt Jim and his crew, we asked if by chance a whale might have swam under us during our deco hang. Sure enough, a whale had been swimming in our 'line' of drift... and although we didn't see it, we saw evidence of a gray whale friend!

At the surface we found great conditions, sunny sky and moderate swell. We got back on the boat, removed our gear and went whale watching for a couple of hours. There were rumors of a big pod of dolphin somewhere near Point Joe but we were not able to find them. Better luck next time!

All in all it was a grand day out and a perfect way to break up the week.

Here are some sonar images

We're looking forward to more Weds with Jim and Ed :-)

2/8/2008 Montana aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 40' - 60' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 50F - 50F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 172FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:20

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: 50/25,O2

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
We had grantious plan of going to remote locations but the weather gods provides us with a different plan. Defiant the gods we still headed out of the bay and venture towards the Yankee Point but half way there we realized it was not going to happen. We check the NW side of Point Lobos looking for some protection from the swells, and after a while we decided to dive Montana pinnacle outsite of Whaler's Cove. Here the weather finally looked like we will be able to get wet.

Montana is a popular site for cooter divers departing from Whalers cove.However, diving it from a boat allows for more time at the site than travelling on the scooters.

Visibility was very good, at least 50ft, which allows us to get view of
the pinnacle. Sue, Karl and myself descended and head to the NW side of the pinnacle. We visited the sand interphase where we found good colonies of sea pens and some big lincond on the sand. Susan also found a couple of brittle start atached to some gorgonias.

We scooters from the N side to the South while travelling on the E wall at two different level. We stopped to check the cracks where we once saw
a large GPO but we didn't have much luck.

We saw several large lingcods hanging on the East wall, and swell as many decorate crabs.

After about 20min on the deeper part of the pinnacle we headed up shallowe and torwards the norh peak. In that area we found a pair of large dinora albolineat and Clinton point a Bocachio to us.

After about 40min on the site we deployed our SMB and drifted our
deco while looking at jellies and their parasites.

Another grand day out :-)

1/19/2008 Pt Lobos by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, John Heimann

Visibility: 30' - 40' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 52F - 52F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 65FSW Avg Depth: 45FSW

Bottom Time: 1:45 Total Time: 1:45

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
John and I got in two nice dives in Whaler's Cove after a long holiday layoff. We managed to survey all 4 nudibranch transects and had still had time left to take some pictures.

The first dive was spent on the 4 transects and despite the recent storms there was no shortage of slugs to be counted. We even managed to find 3 Flabellina trilineata which have been rare on the transects.

Conditions were actually nicer shallow near the launch ramp so for the second dive we decided that we would stay in shallow water. Despite some surge we found lots of slugs to photograph. Then, to top off a nice day, a small ratfish came to visit us for a few minutes at the end of the dive

Pictures here.

11/22/2007 Pt Lobos by Mark Lloyd -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Mark Lloyd, Marlies Lloyd

Visibility: 25' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 50F - 51F Surge:

Max Depth: 70FSW Avg Depth: 39FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 0:49

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Marlies and I had a reservation at Lobos today and pulled into Lobos at about 10:30. The ranger told us a group of divers had just pulled in then turned right round and left. Hmmmm.... hope that wasn't due to the conditions. It was bright and sunny so my hopes were up.

It looked surgy but divable so we geared up. We swam out and dropped down with the intention of heading North following middle reef. Down below the vis sucked big time but once at about 60' it opened up to about 20-25 and the surge all but disappeared.

With much of the kelp now dying back its a great time to do some exploring in the areas that you can't normally swim through. Once our time was up we headed back into the pea soup and surfaced about 1/2 way to the boat ramp.
Wow was it surgy there. I have never had such a hard time getting back in. Can you say 'Turtle' ! Yikes.

After doing the Monterey crawl I got my fins off and helped Marlies up. We finished it off with a nice picnic in the sun and a leisurely drive back home.

11/3/2007 Outer Pinnacles aboard Escapade by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Mark Lloyd, Dionna House

Visibility: 45' - 60' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 5'

Max Depth: 92FSW Avg Depth: 55FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Every dive there is something new - this one on the Escapade at the Pinnacle proper was great FUN!!! The water was very blue and the kelp was lying down awaiting the frolic and comic.

The first dive was great swimming through the canyons and going down right and left passageways and coming back to the anchor line. Mark and I did some juggling practice and all went okay. We came up laughing and smiling from the crazy upward and downward surge that kept us from staying in the 2ft window. Wow - hard to be able to evaluate that one if we have up and downward surge to contend to. It was still fun!!! And great to be underwater with the Sea Nettles and the beautiful kelp

Jim moved the boat to the Outer Pinnacles. Yes, this spot is very omen for Mark and I after today\'s dive. We jumped in and were able to descend near the stern of the boat. The vis was so great we were able to see the anchor line from the bow. With all the kelp near by, we had to be very careful with entangling all the bottles clipped to us. Once again there were canyons and passage way just like the first dive. Okay \"the fun begins\" time to juggle with cold hands and no dexterity. Instead of unclipping the butt end of the stage, I unclipped the 02 bottle. Doh!! Okay.. I can just bring the bottle around and hold it on my rightside, hopefully Mark will not go out of gas. Bouyancy and trim are okay. With my left hand I unclipped the stage and clipped it to the leash. At least I thought it was clipped to the leash. I moved the stage back and thought, \"hey aren\'t I slick\". But something didn\'t feel right. I brought the leash forward to notice that the stage was not there. I looked up to watch my stage rocketing up to the surface. Doh!!! I gave the thumbs to Mark and he thumbed me back. I thought: I didn\'t need that stage anyways, and where are the support divers when you need them??? ;-). I rolled myself upside to look to see where it went as Mark and I were making our ascent. Knowing it is up there somewhere, I rolled myself again to notice John and Clinton delivering my stage to me. I clipped it to me and gave them both a wave of thanks. . But where is my hot latte to warm my hands??? They both had big grins on their faces. What wonderful BAUE brother I have!!!! Oh yikes!! I thought ...they\'re going to give me heat for this on the boat. I started laughing. Okay back to the dive. Since we are obviously not at the anchor line and there was no current, I shot the bag and up we came. Kicking and laughing the whole way back to the boat. yes.. that stage on the surface is mine. Despite all this, Mark and I have improved... ;-)

Really great diving and having fun!!!!

Thanks to Jim Capwell and his wonderful crew.

10/28/2007 Pinnacle Point Wall aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 60' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 48F - 50F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 160FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:40 Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: 21/35 Deco Gases: 50/25,O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Yesterday we were diving on board the Escapade. Plan A was to go to Kawika's Garden in the Bay but due to the red-algae layer on the bay we decided to venture further out to Carmel.

We selected Pinnacle Point Wall, a 600ft long wall situated past the North-West corner of the Point Lobos Marine Reserve. We haven't dove this site for long time and the calm conditions made for a perfect day to dive this wall.

We had Clinton, Dionna and Mark in one group and Susan and myself on the other. Jim Capwell deployed his down-line at the top of the wall (120f) and the teams were deployed live.

The current was about 1knot so getting down required some effort. Susan and I landed at the top of the wall, and then second team landed on an annex pinnacle.

Visibility was very good, at least 60ft.. We could see Clinton's camera flashes and his team HID light 100 ft away.

Water was a little colder than previous weeks. We had 46-48 at the bottom and 50 during deco.

Here are some photos from Clinton, as well as surface shots of Orcas from Jim Capwell and a couple of sonar maps of the area.

A great way to finish a long weekend of diving :-)

10/20/2007 Lover's Point aboard Cypress Sea by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Ildiko Frank, Dionna House

Visibility: 10' - 15' Time: 9:00 AM

Temp: 52F - 53F Surge: 8'

Max Depth: 42FSW Avg Depth: 35FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Despite the weather conditions I was able to get on the Cypress Sea to do some Reefcheck Surveys with Ildiko Frank. It was the last reefcheck survey from an offshore site of the season, so I thought it would be a good idea to join the boat. Cyndi Dawson also needed more survey divers on board. It was fun to see some of the creative Halloween costumes on board too. We had hoped to get around the corner to do Carmel River Beach (aka: Stewarts Cove). The weather and sea conditions didn�t allow that to happen. So, since Lover�s Pt was a Reefcheck site that needed to be completed for MLPA reasons, we did just that. Ildiko and I were assigned the first core transect. We jumped in and swam to the area and descended. Found a nice kelp stalk to tie the transect tape to and off we went. We didn�t count many fish on our transect, however other reefcheckers did see some scattered schools of fish. While counting species, we were challenged with some long surge, but, managed to stay on the transect. Max depth was 42ft. with 10-15feet of vis. We all completed the site to contribute to making decisions on what sites are protected from Department of Fish and Game. Hooray for Reefcheck divers!!!!

The second dive was at Hopkins Deep Reef. This was a fun dive without having to collect data. Ian joined our team. I ran the reel as we explored the site. Ildiko had a real friendly harbor seal come and play with her hands and maneuvered himself to get his face scratched. The harbor seal had fun chewing on my fins and tugging on my line. The conditions deteriorated quite quickly. Funny coming up the anchor line and being swept from left to right at least 5-8feet. On our zig zag ascent we did see Sea Nettles� Max depth 66ft. with about 5 feet of visibility. We surfaced to higher swells with white caps tipping over our heads.

We wrapped up the day with a fun BBQ and fun times with new friends on Del Monte Beach.

8/19/2007 Lingcod Reef aboard Cypress Sea by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Dionna House, Greg Holzer

Visibility: 30' - 50' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 1'

Max Depth: 55FSW Avg Depth: 44FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Cyndi Dawson from Reefcheck was able to get some extra funding for the certified Reefcheckers to board the Cypress Sea for Free on Sunday for more surveys. Since the visibility was so good in Carmel, we motored to Pescadero Pt. or AKA Lingcod Reef. The seas were very flat and tame. We anchored in 60 feet of water and we were able to see the kelp at least 40feet down. Perfect conditions for surveying this reef. I buddied up with Greg Holzer. We were instructed to do one Core Transect, which is a count of fish, invertebrates, algae, and uniform point contact for 30meters. We were in 50-55 feet running West at 300 degrees just off shore. Wonderful visibility! It was great to see this site and the layout. Lots of single stipe kelp plants to count on this site. Very challenging maneuvering around it!

We were given a little more work on the second survey dive to finish up what others didn�t complete. We did a shallow Core Transect and one Fish Count. Swimming out to the locations took some careful planning, but, once we were there we got busy counting. We were at 30-35feet of water and running the transect line East at 120 degrees.

Observations: Pescadero Pt is an area that is fished often. We didn�t see much in terms of fish on the first transect due to doing the deeper transect count. In the shallower area, we did see more fish, especially those wonderful blue rockfish. The size was about equal in the 15cm and 15-30cm range. At the shallower transect, I counted the various kelp on our list, which was great to see on a transect line. Actually one giant kelp plant had at least 75 stipes!!!

It was alot of fun doing this!!!

8/15/2007 Coral Street by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Dionna House, Robert Lee, Cyndi Dawson

Visibility: 20' - 25' Time: 2:00 PM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 35FSW Avg Depth: 23FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:21

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
I was fortunate to be able to break away midweek to do some surveys with Reefcheck Northern California Rep. Cyndi Dawson. Our site for survey was Coral Street. Even though there were some white caps out in the exposed area, there was quite a bit of protection due to the dense kelp beds. Cyndi Dawson and Greg Holzer, being North Coast divers, geared up on the rocks at the parking lot as I parked on the street and set my table for easy entry and exit with doubles. The plan was to do 2 dives and knock out 6 core transects. This is counting Fish, Invertebrates, Algea and Uniform Point Contact at 35ft and 20ft depths. We kicked out and arrived at the first transect. As we were collecting data on each transect I had an extra support diver (Comerant) bird following me on each transect. I think he was hoping that I would scare up some food for him. The best part was to see this bird dive down and spear a black perch and bring up. I haven�t seen that behavior.

We were only able to do 3 core transects at the 30ft outer zone. The swell started picking up and the shallower zones would have been too surgy to get good data. Visibility was about 20-25feet. My job was fairly easy since the invertebrate that are on the list were scarce at the specific location. I counted a lot of bat stars!!! I was also trying out my new drysuit too. It felt good to be in a suit that fits and stay DRY again. Water temp was 50 degrees, total run time was 81 minutes

After about a 5 hours surface interval, I jumped in the water again at the Breakwater. Robert Lee and I were searching for Octopi. The visibility was not good. We took our time finding the pipe out to the Metridium Fields. The Metridiums were all out and feeding. They looked happy. It is great to see them glow as you shine the HID lights on them. We did see an orange metridium. We managed to see about 4-5 octopi that were about 1 foot in length. They displayed several colors for us. Robert was able to get some pictures of them. I spotted a Dirona albonileata on one of the reefs out there. Water temp was a toasty 55 degrees. Total run time was 108 minutes. The hardest part of the day was the drive home after being in the water for 189 minutes... 8-)

8/12/2007 Pt Lobos by Mark Lloyd -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Mark Lloyd, Dionna House

Visibility: 5' - 80' Time: 10:37 AM

Temp: 49F - 55F Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time:

Max Depth: 113FSW Avg Depth: 60FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:19

Bottom Gases: 30/30 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Lobos was nice and sunny when Dionna and I showed up at 9am. It was certainly a BAUE day with lots of people showing up to do a Nudibranch count with Clinton. We were hoping for some great vis and were not disappointed. After dropping just before the cove exit we scootered out to hole in the wall. Vis was very good at about 50' or so and continued to get better. Still lots of kelp around with many smaller strands which looked like cave line going up. Continuing on we zoomed by Beto's reef and passed the deeper Sister. We could see two structures that looked like twin peaks but I guess were not. John called them 'twin cheeks', seems appropriate. At this point we were only 14 mins into the dive, wow! lots of time left. At this point I when I looked up I could see the surface at over 100'. We turned around, headed back and navigated over to the middle reef. Saw Clinton and gang counting Nudibranch's then surfaced back at the boat ramp. What a great dive, the scooter performed great and I am just starting to get comfortable with the positioning so the dive was very relaxing.

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