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4/8/2012 Ed's Wall aboard Escapade by John Heimann -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: John Heimann, Nick Radov

Visibility: 50' - 80' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 48F - 50F Surge:

Scooter: Halcyon T16 Burn Time: 0:25

Max Depth: 234FSW Avg Depth: 190FSW

Bottom Time: 0:30 Total Time: 1:32

Bottom Gases: 15/55 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Double LP104,HP120 Deco Tanks: AL40,AL80
Deco Profile:
2s,7,5,5,5,5,20,6 up
Sue, Beto, Dionna, Mark, Nick and I went out for a nice Easter dive today. Conditions were very flat and we discussed the possibility of heading to Midway Pinnacle, but given the gas mix in our tanks and the fact that it was an hour closer to home, we decided to dive Ed Cooper's wall. This was my first time at the site and it was truly a spectacular dive. The water was cold, dark blue and very clear as we dropped down to the top of the wall. TAhe sponges, schools of bluefish, ling and various rockfish decorating the wall, which stretched out as far as the eye could see, made for a spectacular scooter experience. 20 min into the dive turned in to a chute and gradually ascended the reef to 110', where we began our deco among salp and Scrippsia Pacifica. It's hard to imagine a more beautiful setting in which to appreciate a fine Easter morning!

3/31/2012 Mile Buoy aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 5' - 40' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 50F - 51F Surge: 6'

Max Depth: 140FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:40 Total Time: 1:20

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Our tech trip on Saturday started with the following forest-cast (notice the mention of a train of steep waves???):

SOUTHERLY WINDS WILL INCREASE OVERNIGHT AS A STRONG COLD FRONT
APPROACHES THE COAST. THESE STRONG WINDS WILL GENERATE STEEP FRESH
SWELL. IN ADDITION...RAIN PLUS A LARGE SWELL UP TO 20 FEET WILL
BUILD IN FROM THE WEST SATURDAY AS AN ASSOCIATED LOW PRESSURE
SYSTEM PUSHES INTO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. THIS LARGE SWELL TRAIN
WILL BE STEEP AND IS EXPECTED TO PERSIST INTO SUNDAY. AT THE SAME
TIME A SOUTHERLY SWELL WILL MOVE INTO MOST OF THE COASTAL WATERS.
THIS COMBINATION WILL LEAD TO VERY HAZARD CONDITIONS.

However, the 35 knot winds were from the south which was supposed to make the bay flat. As we motored out we saw white caps inside the harbor and there were some wind waves from the south at Mile Bouy. Capt Jim took a look at the condition and monitored the wind and waves for a while, and as we hanged it there the waves coming from the south diminished quite a lot, so he gave the go ahead for the team of divers: Doug, Eric, Clinton, John, Susan and Beto.

We descended following the down-line and had great vis all the way to 100ft. Once we reached the bottom we found about 5-10 vis with a lot of sand in suspension. No the best conditions.... however, we just relaxed and zoomed into the invertebrate life at the site. We found tons of nudibranches, some of them trying to climb into the gorgonias, 3 nice basket starts and a lot of lingcods in the sand and crevices. The top of the site had very nice colonies of metridiums.

During deco vis was nice and we had tons of salps to look around.

Capt Jim said there were about 15min during the dive were the weather was totally crazy. It rained very hard, with 35knot winds and the waves came back. He could not have pick up any divers during that interval :-0. However, it didn't lasted very long so divers were not aware of it. I think we squeezed a dive in but probably not the smartest things to do after all.

Today the the bay is covered with NW white caps and I can see the train landing over Point Pi~nos ;-)

Here photos from Clinton.

3/17/2012 East Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Allison Lee -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Allison Lee, Robert Lee, Clinton Bauder

Visibility: 30' - 40' Time: 9:00 AM

Temp: 50F Surge: 8'

Scooter: X-scooter Burn Time:

Max Depth: 85FSW Avg Depth: 65FSW

Bottom Time: 0:45 Total Time: 0:50

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
1,1,2,1
Saturday's recreational boat was a little bit questionable earlier in the week, with a really bad forecast. But as we approached the weekend, the forecast moderated to just kind of bad, and with good viz reports from the bay, the trip was a go. We decided to try to sneak one dive in Carmel and then head back to the bay, since conditions were supposed to build quickly in the afternoon. We made it to East Pinnacle without too many theatrics from Neptune, and were ordered to get things moving since conditions were supposed to deteriorate.

We were greeted with pretty good viz, maybe 30 to 40 feet, though there was definitely a decent amount of particulate stirred up in the water. Stirred up by the mighty surge, which would periodically kick in and drag us around for a tour of the various sides of the reef. Though there were periods of calm in between, which made it possible for Clinton to line me and Rob up for some photos. Rob didn't even bother trying to shoot macro. We didn't see anything particularly unusual, but it was just a nice dive with good viz, pretty hydrocoral and a small school of blue rockfish atop the pinnacle. And after a week in Florida, the water didn't even seem that cold (and the tanks sure seemed light).

For the second dive, we hurried back to Monterey Bay and ended up at Hopkins. The viz was stellar and blue in the top 30 feet, and then there was a distinct layer where it switched to green, but still quite good viz. Very good viz for the bay. I definitely saw more of Hopkins than I have ever seen (at once) before. Aside from the nice Metridium-dotted vistas, we found a couple of nice critters too: a small wolf eel, a not-so-small and not-too-shy red octopus, and a big friendly cabezon. We surfaced to wind and torrential downpours, which made unloading the boat the roughest part of the day.

Rob and Clinton posted pictures here and I posted a full report here.

3/17/2012 Pt Lobos by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Alberto Nava, Jim MacDonald, Sandra Tullis

Visibility: 10' - 20' Time: 7:30 AM

Temp: Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 30FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:45 Total Time: 0:50

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Diving today with Sandra and Jim MacDonald to collect creatures for the Camel Mid-School kids. We had a great time collecting and playing with a nice harbor seals that wanted to take our catch. Not way ....

On the swim back we found a nice leopard shark on the sand, and we were able to hang around with it for a while. I could read Sandra and Jim minds... bag in front, push the tail, close the bag ;-)

It felt really good to shared with the kids!

3/9/2012 K2 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Jim Capwell, Alberto Nava

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

Temp: 46F - 48F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 220FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 18/55 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
On the Escapade today with Capt Jim for a little fun dive. Water looked very green all the way to Lobos, and a little less green in the K2 area. We jumped in to find green water on the shallow and a night dive at depth. Where did last weekend water went??

We enjoyed the south end of K2 for little bit, while scooters in and out of a school of juv rockfish, then headed for the canyon and the arch. This is my favorite part of the dive. The canyon is covered with red gorgonias, and there is a fun arch to go under.

We had a crazy sea lion playing with us at about 150ft.

We headed to K2 peak and enjoyed a large school of blue rock-fish .

Water was 46F at the bottom, and 48 almost all the way to the surface. That felt like a cold water shower!!!

3/2/2012 K2 aboard Escapade by John Heimann -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: John Heimann, Nick Radov

Visibility: 20' - 50' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 45F - 48F Surge:

Scooter: Halcyon T16 Burn Time: 0:35

Max Depth: 230FSW Avg Depth: 185FSW

Bottom Time: 0:25 Total Time: 1:32

Bottom Gases: 15/55 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Double HP120 Deco Tanks: AL40,AL80
Deco Profile:
1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,7,5,5,4,4,25+6 up
Dionna, Mark, Nick and I had the boat to ourselves for a great dive on the west wall of K2. Weather was doubtful earlier in the week, and we weren't sure if we'd get out of the bay, and only decided Thursday to take a chance on getting in a deep dive. To our pleasant surprise, the swell settled down to the point where we had nearly flat conditions all the way to Yankee Point. Given the NW wind, K2 seemed like a good option, so we dropped into the chute on the SE side, scootered S to the sand, and W along the wall, spotting several boot sponges and many elephant ears and big ling on the way. After a few minutes, we turned back and started ascending the chute, where we remained until we hit the top of the pinnacle at 70', decoing along the pinnacle, with pretty sponges, anemone, rockfish, and big ling (and no barnacles!) to look at for our deep stops and 70'-60' nitrox stops. Mark's first words back on the boat summed up the experience for all of us: "That was a REALLY fun dive! It went by really fast as I was enjoying it so much!"

1/29/2012 Ed's Wall aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

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

Temp: 48F - 50F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 220FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 18/55 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
I was suppose to teach a Fundamental class Frid,Sat, and Sunday but due to a reduction in class size, I was able to get Sunday free :-). What a better way to spend that extra day than diving on the Escapade. Jim said he also had a last minute cancellation on his morning charter, so Jim, Joe, Sue and myself decided to do a quick dive before his afternoon trip.

Conditions were good for a BigSur trip marathon however, we had to be back by 1:30pm so we reduced our expectation and headed out to Ed Cooper's Wall. This is a great dive site with a very long wall running South East, and it has great terrain and marine life. We saw tons of lincods, and large school of blue rock fish, as well as some health hydrocorals on the cracks. We could not find the resident wolf eels, neither the shallowest peak, but everybody had a great time.

Visibility was about 50ft, but a little milky. There were some nice brown jellies during deco, and grey whales on the way back home.

Loved to put a free day to good use :-)

1/21/2012 Rock Garden by Gary Banta -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Gary Banta, mykle hoban

Visibility: 40' - 75' Time: 9:00 AM

Temp: 51F Surge: 3'

Scooter: Gavin Long Burn Time:

Max Depth: 78FSW Avg Depth: 41FSW

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

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
…. Actually, not so much….

With the scary looking wave model and buoy data I decided to get up early and check out Monastery before 7AM. I drove through intermittent strong showers and gusts to find Monastery free from any swell. There was no wind the but there was surface chop of 2 feet with no organization. OK!

At 9AM Mykle and I scootered out to Worm Patch to find that from the surface 1” shells were clearly identifiable in the sand. OK!!

We dropped and headed out west past Rock Garden to the next “peninsula”. I have wanted check this area out since it faces the swell and should be beautifully decorated on the NW facing walls. But I needed a very calm day. We climbed to about 50' to find exactly the decorations I expected plus clouds of Blues, sea lions, and more Sheepshead than we have ever seen. At one time we had six directly in front of us. There lots of medium sized vertical walls all covered with red, pink, orange corynactus and red and orange sponges. The richest life is on one undercut wall rippling with red and orange life with six GIANT Metridium in the middle. The stalks are 10 to 13 inches! These must be very old or very well fed or both.

At the north end of the peninsula we hit 78 feet. We could see way north at the 100’+ bottom. We then rolled over to look up to the surface to see the sun ripples on the surface silhouetting a massive could of Blues, many of them very large. Nice tropical viz.

The barnacle debacle is over. Nearly all are dead and their shells are disappearing under new colorful life. A few swarms of Onchiadoris remain on cleanup duty, but soon they all will be headed off in search of the next crisis.

REMEMBER: Contestants MUST Be Present To Win

[Chuck, how did the dishwasher installation go?]

1/15/2012 Nixies aboard Escapade by Nick Radov -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Jim Capwell, Susan Bird, Nick Radov

Visibility: Time: 9:45 AM

Temp: 52F - 54F Surge: 2'

Scooter: Halcyon T16 Burn Time:

Max Depth: 216FSW Avg Depth: 84FSW

Bottom Time: 0:40 Total Time: 1:43

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks: AL40,AL30
Deco Profile:
6,4,4,4,4,20,5
This was my first attempt at underwater photography using a Canon S100 compact camera in a Fisheye Fix housing with a Sea & Sea YS-01 strobe. The few pictures that came out better than a blur are posted here. Hopefully I'll get better results once I add the macro lens adapter.

http://baue.org/images/galleries/v/local/Nixies_20120115/

We saw a number of gray whales on the ride out and back.

1/1/2012 Midway Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 40' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 50F - 54F Surge: 6'

Max Depth: 195FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:30 Total Time: 1:20

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
After a long trip with the relatives and wild deers Jim Capwell finally came back home, and we decided what better way to start the year than a trip on the Escapade. Clinton, Dionna, Joakim, Jim, Susan and myself loaded at 9am on 1/1/12 and headed out to see what conditions were like.

We made it to Yankee Point w/o too many problems, and after a little bit of negotiation we decided to continue to Mid-Way. What better way to start the year than with a BigSur Banks dive.

Jared dropped the ball and it didn't look like much current, but after a while he came back and said it looked like some deep current at the pinnacle. We dropped down and found 30-40ft of vis with spotty current coming from the South. We headed out West looking for all the cute fish and we did find several large ones. Some displaying some territorial behaviour and other just posing for the divers.

We found some nice hydro-coral on the south end of the pinnacle and hung around near the top for the rest of the dive.

My suit developed a leak so we called the dive short, just after 30min.

The landscape was almost as good as the dive with great sunny sky and the amazing mountains in the background. You could clearly see Pico Blanco behind the light-house and most of Garrapata state park. What an amazing place we live on.

Great way too start the year!

Susan wanted me to mention that we saw about 20 whales on the way south, mostly grey whales migrating to the warmer waters of Baja. Lots of spouts and whales tails... making it a fantastic first day of the year.

Pictures here: http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/v/local/Midway_1-1-12/

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