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3/6/2007 Pt Lobos by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Harry Wong, Dionna House

Visibility: 50' - 60' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: 51F - 53F Surge: 1'

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time:

Max Depth: 138FSW Avg Depth: 120FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: 21/35 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
Decided to take advantage of the wonderful dive conditions and needed a mental health day. Doc Wong and I met down at Pt Lobos for some fun on the scooters. Pt Lobos looked like a lake when we arrived. The tides were perfect to haul gear in and out of the water. We discussed our dive plan, went over the GUE EDGE. We scootered on the surface for a bit than dropped down to about 30feet of water and off we went. The plan was to explore the area a little north west of the Sisters. The visibility was about 50-60feet. The terrain was wonderful. I was sooo stoked about this dive. Saw some of our local rockfish, vermilions, and a few elephant ear sponges as we cruised by the various reefs. I navigated back to Beto��s Reef at 30 minutes into our dive. We hung out there until it was time to ascend to 70ft for our gas switch. We did this near Sea Mount. Doc Wong wanted to practice a blue water ascent with the scooter, I thought okay, with all the Tech 2 practicing I have been doing, I should be okay. ;-) �K�K Sure enough on the 70ft deco stop Doc pulls out his wetnotes to play a little tic tac toe�K. I was keeping track of deco time, location and of course depth while playing tic tac toe�K.. I thought for sure he would win�K. It was a DRAW!!! We drifted very slightly east. At around 40-30feet there were birds diving down next to us. Other than that, deco was uneventful. We surfaced, and scootered to the ramp. Didn��t see our Monkey Face Eel friend for his feeding. ��. I hope no one scared him away. Got out quickly and had to go back to work�K. Back tomorrow for some practicing.

2/25/2007 Pt Lobos by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Kevin Dow, Dionna House, Mark Lloyd

Visibility: 20' - 30' Time: 3:59 PM

Temp: 52F - 55F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 60FSW Avg Depth: 30FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:00

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
As Sami said, you never know about the forecast until you actually show up. This is a combined dive report for two days.

Saturday: A big BAUE group was at Pt Lobos to either practice for an upcoming classes, hunt down and identify Nudibranchs, or just for fun scooter diving.

My dive report for Saturday was, lots of practice with Mark Lloyd. We found a small reef with some sandy area at 40ft. We did valve drills, S- drills, hold buoyancy and trim, deploying and stowing a stage or two at 40ft, 30ft, 20ft and Opps!!! Dropped my big SMB with attached spool and watched it slowly sink to the bottom of the 40ft reef. Down I went to go get it. I shoot the bag and we surfaced with some small laughs and Mark saying �you won�t give me heat again about my SMB�. :-p. Second dive: Just like the first dive, but, shorter and not many mistake� Ah� Getting the bugs out.

Sunday dive report. Kevin Dow and I planned on a scooter run. Kevin and I brought the Gavin scooter in and after a few minutes of trying to find the big orange ball buoy, we discovered that someone thought it was a dive instructor�s buoy and brought it in. DOH!! We brought the buoy back in the water and hooked the scooter up to it. Susan was in waiting for us in the surf zone to gear up, than Kevin taxied me out on his scooter to where Susan had kicked out. We first helped Susan set the float for Beto�s Fundamentals Class, than we clipped the scooters on and off we went. We did the Barge and then out to the Metridium Fields, then from the big pipe back to the wall. It was sure fun !!! We made it out to the Barge in 11 minutes. Played around on the Barge while looking for critters. We saw the usual Kelp Fish that like to hang vertical. I must talk to them about their trim!!! We also saw a rather large Triopha Catalinae and Doris Montereyensis. There was a small school of Blue Rockfish off to the side of the Barge. Kevin gave me the signal that it is time to move on to the Metridium Fields. We covered a lot of sand until we saw white Metridiums. There were several reefs that we scooter around. On the last Metridium Reef I spotted an Aldisa Sanguinea eating on a piece of algae. We scootered to the pipe and followed the 30ft contour back to the wall. We surfaced to ride over to Beto�s Class to be filmed for our Oscar Awards. ;-) LOL�. I will not tell you who won for the best unconscious diver pose. 8-)�.. You had to be there!!!!...

2/25/2007 Pt Lobos by Sami Laine -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Sami Laine, Clinton Bauder

Visibility: Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 54F Surge:

Max Depth: 50FSW Avg Depth: 34FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:25

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Single LP104 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Yup, not a typo, it's me!
I decided to do a dive at Lobos with Clinton, as the weather outlook looked very promising with practically no hail or lightning, and since we had no craft at all the small craft advisory wouldn't be an issue either.
To our disappointment the cove was calm with just a little surge at the ramp as we got in. I guess most everyone had been scared off by internet prognosticators, it was very empty and quiet at the parking lot.
Our plan was to take it easy, as I wasn't sure how to calculate the deco after my 1,400,635 minute surface interval since the previous dive (actually it's more like 1,400,575 minutes if you take the daylight saving time into account).
After a very thorough pre-dive briefing and gear check, we swam out and to my relief I still remembered which gear takes you forward and which takes you back, although the whole dive sort of took me back so to speak.
The plan was to do a basic S-drill, bubble checks and a trim check although my wife keeps reminding me I'm not that trim right now. Everything looked good, so we went for a little swimmie around the Middle Reef.
Looks like y'all haven't moved things around too much from where I left them in '04. We did a little nudibranch watching, and got the species counter to about 15 or so.
I was diving wetgloves (brrr!) so once we had circumnavigated the reef I was ready to come back and we got up near the ramp after 85 minutes.
A perfect example of 'go and look-see': we caught the perfect lull between the storms, vis was decent, surge was light even at the tops, and the sun was out as we packed the car.
It's good to be back.
Sami

2/9/2007 Kinder-Garden (D3) aboard Phil Sammet's RIB by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 40' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: 53F - 53F Surge: 6'

Max Depth: 190FSW Avg Depth: 150FSW

Bottom Time: 0:40 Total Time: 1:50

Bottom Gases: 18/55 Deco Gases: 50/25,O2

Backgas Config: Double HP120 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
6,4s
18 up
After getting back from caving in Mexico, I was looking forward to seeing some color fish and invertebrates. We had booked Phil to go out for some fun diving today.

We decided for an easy dive at D3. This is a nice pinnacle on the west side of Point Lobos which starts at about 150ft and drops down to about 200 to 220 on the north side.

During the descend vis was pretty good but once we got to the bottom it got a little dark. Maybe 40ft on top, 20 and the base.

Susan navigated around the pinnacle and I followed her. My eyes were having troubles with all these colors. There were many EE sponges and tons of red gorgonias, as well as some big white nudies.

We swam over a section where we found the large wolf-eel on the Discovery California DVD and we looked for it but not look. We did see some nice china rockfish on top of EE sponges. Cool!

Susan spotted a juv yellow eye which are always nice to see. This one was a couple of inches long.

We decided to multi-level the pinnacle as the top is pretty nice area. We did 20min at 190 and then moved up for another 20min at the top. The top is cover with tons of gorgonias and juv rock fish. We swam slowly while looking at the terrain and all the nice little fish. It felt similar to diving in the warm water when you move up to the top of the reef, 20 minutes when by and we realize we were not in the shallow reef so we started our ascend from 140.

The swell were builting up but the wind was from the south which made it ok for lobos.

Deco was uneventful and my new C400 kept me nice and warm. It's amazing how much difference a new C400 makes. About 6 more lbs of lead, but warm :-)

It's good to be back in bay area :-)

1/24/2007 Pt Lobos by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Paul Lee, Dionna House

Visibility: 25' - 50' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 52F - 53F Surge: 2'

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time:

Max Depth: 105FSW Avg Depth: 60FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:04

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
I met with Paul for some fun at Lobos�. We arrive with the conditions looking very lake like. This time I was not in huge rush to get in the water�. Of course we socialized a bit. In came Harry Babicka and Steve Wright. Steve is in town for a short time and will be going back to Afganistan. BE SAFE STEVE!!!!! Than Susan and Beto drove in to do some practice surveying. Paul and I suited up and did our GUE EDGE and we were on our way. The plan was to go out to the Sisters and circle the reef that sits westward of the Sisters. What a spectacular day to get a good look at the terrain. The vis was around 45-50feet. Besides enjoying the feeling of flying over reefs, there were at least 4 big male sheep heads that we passed along the way. We spotted a weight belt at about 100ft at that reef�. Paul seems to find a lot of goodies� I was glad he decided to leave it where we found it. There had to be at least 8-10lbs on it. We turned the dive and headed east back to the Lone Metridium. It was out and feeding very nicely. We circled the reef that it sits on and came to the Westside of Hole in the Wall. We followed that reef in. It was sure nice to see the other side of Hole in the Wall reef. We ended the dive at the ramp.

The second dive was frosting on the cake. First of all, we decide to stay shallow and explore new territory. We went out on the surface swim and saw an interesting worm? Or I thought it looked like a sea snake. It looked just like a strand of kelp. It was swimming around. We followed it for a short time until I noticed it was defecating. Ohhh!! Let us not go there!!! Ah�. We descended and went out to the eastside of the Middle Reef looking into nocks and crannies. On the way out 2 unusual looking divers passed us and tried to harass me. I had to show them who was in charge. They looked lost!!! ;-) Maybe too much bottom time!!! We saw a few gigantic abalone and there were several large size copper rockfish that were hanging out. Once in awhile we would get a visit from a harbor seal. They didn�t hang out with us to long though. The plan was to end the dive towards the right of the boat ramp. We circled the big rock that looks like an otter. Underneath, there is a cool looking crack. On a day like today with clean blue water, it was wonderful to see. Paul found a white dish in the cove. I wonder how that got there??? There were long shallow reefs that run northwest in that part of the cove. Lots of life growing on ridge. We finished the dive with feeding the Monkeyface eel. He seems to know when it is time for a feeding�. Two wonderful dives� it looks like the conditions are going to stay nice. GO DIVING!!!!

1/14/2007 Flintstones aboard Escapade by Susan Bird -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, Susan Bird, John Heimann

Visibility: 40' - 60' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 50F Surge: 10'

Max Depth: 80FSW Avg Depth: 65FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: 30/30 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
I would like to thank Suzanne Baird for organizing BAUE's first charter of the year!

We braved the extremely cold surface temperature to enjoy a wonderful, clear, sunny day on the water. It was a fantastic day for viewing whales & dolphins-- we sighted numerous whales (humpbacks and greys), and motored in the midst of a massive mixed pod of dolphins, some of whom rode the bow wake.

The conditions permitted a first dive at Flinstones, which is always a treat. Visability was very good at the beginning of the dive-- especially vertical viz... we could see straight to the bottom, and we wished we had mix for a deeper dive. The walls were as colorful/beautiful as ever, yet there weren't as many fish at the site as we have seen in the past.

Clinton brought his macro lens, and had to exercise a fair amount of patience dealing with the surge, which picked up during the dive. I kept looking for a whale to swim by... no luck there, but 3 lively sea lions put on quite a show for us.

The current also picked up towards the end of the dive, bringing with it the whitish, 'milky' visibility we have been seeing over the past few weeks at Point Lobos.

The Escapade tucked in at Pescadero Point for a delicious lunch of sandwiches & chili.

Second dive was at East Pinnacles, where we found a good subject for Clinton to photograph: an unfortunate decorator crab had fallen into the grasp of a rose colored anemone and its desperate legs were sticking out on either side of the predator's mouth.

The surge continued to grow, so we made our way back to the anchor line and called it a day.

We were joined on the trip by Marciano, a GUE cave diver from Mexico City, who will be visiting us regularly over the next year. We beleive he brought us good luck with the cetaceans, so we hope he will be back for our next charter!

Thank you to stellar Escapade crew Jim, Eric, and Abigail for the great day.

Here are some surface photos of the day:

1/10/2007 Pt Lobos by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 10' - 50' Time: 12:11 PM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 6'

Scooter: Gavin Long Burn Time:

Max Depth: 170FSW Avg Depth: 120FSW

Bottom Time: 0:50 Total Time: 1:20

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

Backgas Config: Double HP120 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
5,4s, 18 up
Susan and I looked at the weather and decided that Wed was a good time for diving just before the next storm and the really cold conditions.

We got to Point Lobos to find Dionna and Harry have had the same idea. We chatted for a while and setup up all our gear. The vis at the boat ramp was at least 60ft. We thought this was going to be a great dive. However as we scootered out we found a milky 10-20ft vis.

We went to Twin Peaks to see if we could located the small Yellow Eye rock fishes on the north end of the pinnacle. We did located two small fish and they are a little bigger than last year. One of them is about 5 inches and the other one is probably 4 inches. They are most of the time in the vecinity of some small cracks at about 170ft.

We looped some of the small pinnacles on the East side of TP and then headed back. Vis was kind of low and it took me a little bit of time to find the route back. Maybe I need to dive TP more frecuently ;-)

During the deco we had two large sea lions checking us out and barcking at us.

Nice way to start the year diving wise.

1/10/2007 Pt Lobos by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Harry Wong, Dionna House

Visibility: 15' - 40' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 51F - 53F Surge: 5'

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time:

Max Depth: 100FSW Avg Depth: 75FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Harry and I went down to catch the calm before the storm. Whalers cove was fairly flat with some wind wripples. The Vis near the ramp was beautiful. After talking to Susan and Beto we were on our way. We scootered out to Beto's Reef and to the Sisters. On the way out Harry circled Sea Mount to get a better look at it, Harry is still learning the Lobos Terrain and has to WOW (Whip Out Wetnotes) to ask lots of location questions underwater. I don't mind, it gives we a chance to relax and breathe. I am teaching him some sign language for easier communication. We had milky conditions, but, it was still nice to be out there playing with the sealions that were terrorizing some of the local fish. On the way in, we came to the lone metridium reef, and wanted to explore around the south side of it. We were amazed at what such beautiful terrain and rock formation there. Saw a few copper and gopher rockfish. We went back into the cove and Harry wanted to explore the east side of Middle Reef a bit. Saw that big male sheephead again. After this, Harry pulled a WOW and wrote, CAVES??. I thought okay, let us see if I can find...... ahhhh.. There is the landmark. The caves are just around this reef. Whew!!! We swam into the cavern, it was a little surgy, but, still okay. We cruised back over to the ramp for spectacular Visibility again. Last week when Harry and I went diving, as we were cleaning gear, we were visited by a few Risso dolphins in the cove. It looked like they were partying with the harbor seals or maybe just showing off. It was a real gift to see. :-)
.

Harry Wong Comments:

Incredibly fun dive. These scooters are getting way too addictive. Gas consumption is way down, especially for the distance we're covering. At the beginning of the dive I was to lead and navigate and as long as Dionna knew where we were, she'd continue to let me lead. It didn't take long for me to go the wrong way and she took over the leading. Viz at the end of Middle Reef was around 15 feet, not that great, but opened up past the Sea Mount.

I'm amazed at how easy it is to manuver the Gavin. Traveling in between some intereesting nooks and crannies was especially entertaining. Quite a 3 dinensional activity: up, down, forward, upside down, etc!

The East side of Middle Reef I find particularly interesting. I like the reefs, rocks and the different kelp there. When Dionna found the caves, I was pretty inpressed with the awareness of direction and her surroundings!! She swam in with her scooter off and came out and then I did likewise. I looked to see if there was a swim through, but the only opening out was on top and I could see the foam of the waves breaking over the top.

Swimming with the Gavin in my right had was pretty easy and natural I found. Next time I check out the cave I'll leave the scooter behind. I can tell, I'm going to love cave diving!

The end of dive treat is becoming quite a tradition, our friend the Monkey Face Eel looks like he's expecting us now. He comes out of his hole to get the kelp I feed him. Very cool in an ugly-cute sort of way! Actually he's really cute!

1/10/2007 Pt Lobos by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Harry Wong, Dionna House

Visibility: 15' - 50' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: Surge: 5'

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time:

Max Depth: 100FSW Avg Depth: 75FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Harry and I went down to catch the calm before the storm. Whalers cove was fairly flat with some wind wripples. The Vis near the ramp was beautiful. After talking to Susan and Beto we were on our way. We scootered out to Beto's Reef and to the Sisters. On the way out Harry circled Sea Mount to get a better look at it, Harry is still learning the Lobos Terrain and has to WOW (Whip Out Wetnotes) to ask lots of location questions underwater. I don't mind, it gives we a chance to relax and breathe. I am teaching him some sign language for easier communication. We had milky conditions, but, it was still nice to be out there playing with the sealions that were terrorizing some of the local fish. On the way in, we came to the lone metridium reef, and wanted to explore around the south side of it. We were amazed at what such beautiful terrain and rock formation there. Saw a few copper and gopher rockfish. We went back into the cove and Harry wanted to explore the east side of Middle Reef a bit. Saw that big male sheephead again. After this, Harry pulled a WOW and wrote, CAVES??. I thought okay, let us see if I can find...... ahhhh.. There is the landmark. The caves are just around this reef. Whew!!! We swam into the cavern, it was a little surgy, but, still okay. We cruised back over to the ramp for spectacular Visibility again. Last week when Harry and I went diving, as we were cleaning gear, we were visited by a few Risso dolphins in the cove. It looked like they were partying with the harbor seals or maybe just showing off. It was a real gift to see. :-)

1/1/2007 Pt Lobos by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Harry Wong, Dionna House

Visibility: 25' - 35' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 52F - 53F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 88FSW Avg Depth: 60FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
I jumped on Doc�s offer to go diving on New Year�s Day. Nice way to start the New Year and more time on the scooter. Our original plan was to go dive at the Breakwater because Pt Lobos was FULL. We contacted Pt Lobos that morning and heard that there were several no shows. Back to Lobos for more scooter FUN!!!!. We went over the GUE EDGE and got in the water to do our bubble checks on the regulators and the scooters. I lead the dive out to Granite Point Wall. We were able to get a glimmer of a harbor seal that swam by us on the way out. Doc pulled out his wet notes to ask about some navigation landmarks. I confirmed we were at Granite Point Wall. I wanted to check out the reef that I have been exploring just a bit north of Granite Point Wall. This time I went North West and followed the rocks along the sand next to the reef. There were some dramatic parts of the reef that I liked. Nothing much out of the ordinary though. The depth there was around 85ft. We traveled about 500ft out, than we came back to Granite Point Wall and followed it around into some canyons. There was one particular pinnacle that looked like a finger. This was right next to a larger reef that made it a beautiful area to explore in between. Doc went in to check it out and came back. I watched an admired how awesome this was to see and experience. Vis was about 35ft. On the way back to the Middle Reef we stopped to check out Doc�s pitch on his scooter. He is getting use to his new toy. We made our way back to the middle reef�s wonderful rocks with sponge and with time remaining. We went over to Hole in Wall to play around. Doc was still getting use to his pitch on his scooter. At this time we were just about ready to start our route back into the cove for our ascent. Visibility deteriorated as we got shallower. We stayed very close to each other. We found our bouy line and clipped off the stage and the scooter. I was not quite ready to surface and get out the water and Doc was thinking the same. We played around doing some drills at 10ft, than went up to about 5ft near the ramp to feed Susan�s monkey face eel friend some algae growing on the ramp. After 90 minutes underwater I was getting cold. we came up laughing and out we exited in the low tide once again. :-) Happy New Year !!! Welcome 2007

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