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3/13/2011 Flintstones aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Jim Capwell, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 40' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 46F - 51F Surge: 12'

Max Depth: 150FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 21/35 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Yesterday we had several folks on the Escapade for our first R3 trip of the year. We're gearing up to
create a new type of charters on the Escapade. This will sit in between our tech trips and our basic
recreation diving trip. The goal is to visit sites that are not deep enough for the "tech" trips but a title
too adventures or deep for the rec boats, with access to deep water in the 120-130ft.

We had severals sites in mind but the swell where large enough yesterday that the only sensible diving
range was away from shore. After a little bit of deliberation we settled for Flintstone rock. This is the perfect
R3 site as the top of the pinnacle is a 40ft and it has access to a first deep section at 130ft.

We descended to find clear water, not as clear as last week, but still good 40ft of vis. We followed the north-south
crack at Flinstone while looking for a rat fish that Clinton and Allison saw a little bit before. We did not find it but we traveled
through the top of some nice pinnacles while watching large school of rock-fish, and tons of gorgonias on the
north site. We pay a visit to the onlyt left O2 bottle at the sand patch. The bottle is been there for about 10years and although it's
still full it's showing a lot of deterioration :-0. We also checked an old crab trap that's a the base on the main wall.

We finished our dive moving through the main crack on the structure. It goes from 120-100 ft and there are some nice
hydrocoral, bryozoan and metridiums making it the perfect photo area on the site.

After some 30min at the base we moved to 70ft and switched to our deco gas. Here is where the fun part of the dive is as you can still
dive while conducting part of your decompression stops. We move around the pinnacle at 70, 60, 50ft, while enjoying the view and swim
around large school of rock fish. We found a very large cabezon with very green coloration. It was a beautiful fish.

Toward the top of the pinnacle we could really feel the large swell going over us. I love hovering near the kelp with the gentle back and forth
movement as the swells go by. This is probably one of my favorite dive site!

After another 30min at the shallow part of the the pinnacle we head for the down-line/up-line and finish the top part of the deco on the
line.

3/13/2011 Hopkin's Deep Reef aboard HarryB's Boat by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Harry Babicka, Dionna House

Visibility: 7' - 15' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 55F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 75FSW Avg Depth: 55FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 0:40

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
After hearing the dive reports of being good after the Tsunami, Harry B and I wanted to take his boat out for a test drive and dive. He had it serviced with new and improved parts. ;-) Getting up one hour early was the hardest part of the day. We arrived and chatted with Carol and Royston for a bit. Got the boat in the water. The boat started right up and we motored out. We were greeted by a pod of 40 Risso dolphins as we turned the corner at the Breakwater. We followed them for some time towards Del Monte and cheered when they breached and twirled in mid air. We motored out to see where to anchor, and get other dive reports. The boat was purring like a kitty. Yay for the boat. Came up to Carol's and John's boats at Trevor's. They reported about 10ft, surge and current. Harry and I decided to anchor at Hopkins Deep. There was no wind or surface current and it seem very calm and peaceful. We got down and tied off on the anchor and reeled around. Saw the usual suspects. Alot of fish hiding inside the cracks and crevises. Saw a nice cabezon. Most of the Metridium were shrivelled up.. :( There was a strong slow surge. Harry thought the vis was 10ft at most. I thought it was about 20ft at most. Back on board, Harry let me take the wheel. There were big long swells as I drove in toward Breakwater. At one time it looked like we were driving up a hill of water. Very weird. Just did one dive. Harry's back was bothering him from all the Hockey he plays. We came in and chatted with Carol, Larry and Royston. We ordered our usual sandwiches from the Deli and called Mark Lloyd to offer him a pork sandwich. Teased him about the BBQ aromas. Not too much stands between Mark and his pork sandwich on dive days on Harry's boat, but, today it was school work that kept Mark home.

On the way out we stopped by and chatted with other BAUE folks just coming off the Escapade and hearing about their dive. Thank-you Mary Jo for the delicious brownies!!

Despite not the best conditions in the bay... it was fun.

3/5/2011 K2 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Jim Capwell, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 100' - 100' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 51F - 48F Surge:

Max Depth: 190FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Yesterday we had one of those incredible winter diving days. The weather forecast was a little sketchy but we pushed thorough and were able to anchor at K2.

As we hit the water and started our descend we could see the bottom at 130 half-way through our descend. We followed the down-line to the top of the pinnacle and from there headed North parallel to the main K2 wall. We could easy see from K2 to K1 which is about 100ft on the map, so visibility was subreal. The bottom at 220 have a series of inviting ripples and we motored around some of the main structure on the north.

Dionna's team found 3 rat fish on the south end and we all meet at the top of the pinnacle to see the huge school of rock-fish and others creatures.

Second dive was a Local Ledge with again amazing vis and great surge action to watch.

Epic diving in winter! If you can, go diving while this last.

Here are some amazing images from Clinton

2/13/2011 19SUR aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Joakim Linde, Jim Capwell

Visibility: 40' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 50F Surge:

Max Depth: 155FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: Total Time:

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

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Yesterday we were really lucky with the weather for a Feb BAUE tech charter. For the first dive we dove SUR 19 part of the Big Sur Banks. Visibility at the bottom was very good, at least 50ft, but towards the top of the pinnacle is was a bit
dark. We enjoyed looking at the purple/pink hydro-corals and found large school of rock fish and olive swimming around the pinnacle. We also located about 6 juv Yellow Eye rockfish :-) I'm again surprise of the lack of large red fish at this site :-(. There used to be severals adults Yellow Eye and tons of Vermillion of large size

For the second dive we enjoyed a nice loop around Lobos Rocks and visiting with the sea-lions with the movement of the swells.
At some point we had 4 seals lions swimming with us inside a large cloud of white water. I'm almost sure they were asking themselves what are these divers doing here ;-) This is probably my favorite dive site on the coast.

Here is a link for images of the dive.

Amazing condition for a Feb dive!

2/5/2011 McAbee aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' Time: 6:00 PM

Temp: 50F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 50FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 1:15 Total Time: 1:16

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Saturday evening found 15 BAUE members celebrating the Chinese New Year with a night dive in Monterey Bay. It has been several years since we've done a night dive from the boat, and it was way too long.

We had two groups: Rob, Allison, Micheal, Clinton, Kathy, Kevin, Gary, MarkL, Sue and Beto, were on the boat, and Dionna, Ken, Fofo, Ben, and Masao were at the break-water.

The boat group had a fun and relax time at McAbee Pinnacle. We found tons of crabs of all forms and shapes, some large octopi moving on the rocks and sand, one nice sail-fin sculpin and many other invertebrates. After about 75min of fun we all surfaced with big smile on our faces. I think we have all forgotten how cool it was to night dive in Monterey.

The shore diving group high-light was a bat ray on the sand, and several small octopi.

We all meet at Gianni's for a nice dinner!

Here is a link of images of the night dive.

Here are some images from the event.

Another fun BAUE event.

2/5/2011 Breakwater by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Masao Yoshimura, Dionna House

Visibility: 5' - 25' Time: 5:30 PM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 55FSW Avg Depth: 36FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
It was a pleasure to co-organize a BAUE invitational dive with Ben Villao. If you ever need a site briefing, talk to Ben. Some folks decided to go on a boat, others got enjoyment out of night diving at the Breakwater. People that were present were, Fofo Gonzalez, Ken Yuan, Masao Yoshimura, Ben Villao. After taking pictures, joking around and laughing, we planned our dive.

We swam out to the Metridium Fields via the big pipe. For a short time the visibility dropped, then got better as we got deeper. The metridiums were all out and feeding. we saw the usual suspects. Once time to turn the dive and head home, Masao and I went south east and Ben and the others went back via the pipe. There was talk of seeing a big bat ray just next to the pipe. The wing span was the length of Ben's arms spread out for a big hug. ;-) 8-)

Masao and I saw two pretty good size octopi, big schools of tubesnouts, and a bait ball. The most unusual finding was a huge shrimp, actually looked almost like a lobster, that burrowed into the sand at 40ish(ft) There were little worms that were darting around in mid-water. We did see a blanket out in 35ft of water near the middle reef area. Wondering how it got there? Perhaps someone in a wetsuit wanted to stay warm underwater? Hopefully, there will be divers willing to pull the blanket out from the bottom someday. It always amazes me how different a night dive can be at the breakwater. Everyone came up with smiles on their faces and hungry for pizza at Gianni's

Thanks to Fofo, Ken, Ben and Masao for a fun experience.

Dionna

2/4/2011 Dos Gatos aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 100' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 53F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 209FSW Avg Depth:

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

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

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
What better way to celebrate the Chinese New Year than going out for a dive with friends. We met at the harbor at about 9am (very civilized boarding time) chatted for a while and then headed for Yankee Point. We had Jim and Joe, Kitty major and minor (Allison/Rob), and Sue and myself. The boat was handled by Jared who just got back from Antarctica, and said the water here is warm!!!, with Luke and Dave deck handling.

The goal of the dive was to find a GPO, and/or a Rabbit to match the celebration of the day, while doing a nice relaxed traverse from the Volcano to Dos Gatos.

We encountered some very strong current on the descent, and it took awhile for all the teams to get organized and make it to the base of Volcano Pinnacle, at about 190ft. After looking at some 'false crinoids' (AKA: brittle stars) at the base of the structure, we gathered the team together and headed around the main pinnacle.

Vis was close to 100ft and the walls were covered with invertebrates of all kinds. We scootered through a small canyon and then up the wall and landed amongst a massive school of juvenile (2-3" long) orange colored rock-fish. They were everywhere. The only thing I remember similar to this is diving in Fiji with all the small fishes swarming around you. Really cool! Jim said these fish were hitting his face and going inside his scooter prop.

We continued towards the deep Nixies and encountered even stronger current so we decided to head back to the main structure and look for shallower water. We found a nice valley with the base at 150ft and the top at about 90ft. We took turns going with and against the current. At some point I looked at Susan and she's drift-diving and saying look at me, with a big smile on her face. We found a large patch of lingcod eggs, a heart crab, and a school of blue rock-fish.

To end the dive we circumnavigated Dos Gatos for about another 10min and as we made it to the shallow area we finally found the Rabbit. The peak of the wall has two small spikes which look like Rabbit ears. Mission accomplished. Happy Year of the Rabbit!

After about 40min of total fun we called the dive, deployed SMBs and headed north with the swift current.

Here is a little map of the dive

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

1/30/2011 Hopkin's Deep Reef aboard Escapade by Kenn Hwang -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, Kathy Dicker

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

Temp: 53F - 53F Surge: 5'

Max Depth: 85FSW Avg Depth: 58FSW

Bottom Time: 0:50 Total Time: 1:00

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Despite a light turnout for the charter, Jim was kind enough to run the rec boat for the few hardcore divers willing and able to chance the monster swell forecasts. The forecasts apparently turned into actual 14ft swells day-of, so we (along with every other Monterey dive boat) played it safe and stayed in the bay.

Dive 1 was at Hopkins Deep, where Clinton, Kathy and I descended into clear, blue waters at 40+ft visibility!We could easily see fields of metridium 40ft below us as we followed the anchor line. Not a huge amount of marine life today, but we saw plenty of rockfish hidden in crevices and along the protected faces of boulders. I got a bit too close to a small lingcod, which swam away reluctantly, and found a treefish hiding in a small crack in the rock. Cormorants were also present, a few diving down past us and pecking at whatever they peck at in the sand. At one point, Gary and Suzanne swam over, motioning that they had found an octopus "back over there." We were just about out of dive time though, and ascended up the line uneventfully.

There was a major uptick in swell height predicted for the afternoon, and between anchoring and finishing our SI near Shale Island, a huge brown surface slick had overtaken the boat (by hundreds of yards). Figuring it was a surface layer, Clinton and I volunteered to be test divers to check out the viz (we actually first attached my camera to a spool and lowered it to the bottom to see if the viz cleared up, but it was swinging around wildly and we couldn't see anything other than green on the footage). It was indeed an opaque surface layer about five feet thick, opening into clear blue water all the way down, at which point it again became an impenetrable sludge (an ore cookie dive, I thought). Plus, the surge was up significantly, pushing us 10-15ft in one direction and then the next. We puttered around for 20 minutes trying to get some macro shots, at which point I got picked up by the surge and deposited over 15ft away (and 3x the range of max visibility) from Clinton. I couldn't see him, he couldn't see me, but we were both on the shale ledge so we kept looking one direction, and then the other, until the surge swept one of us to the other, at which point we thumbed the dive. In 3-5ft viz, Clinton led us straight back to the anchor, like a boss, and we ascended back up and through the surface layer.

All in all, a great day defying the forecasts, and the first dive more than made it worth the drive down!

Video: Hopkins Deep and Shale Ledge

1/29/2011 Breakwater by Kathy Dicker -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Kathy Dicker, Fofo Gonzalez

Visibility: 25' - 40' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 53F Surge:

Max Depth: 49FSW Avg Depth: 38FSW

Bottom Time: 1:51 Total Time: 0:01

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Fofo and I planned to explore some of the outer Metridium fields at BW last Saturday. We could still clearly see the bottom at 15ft depth, so expected a great dive.

Turned into a delightful kick out the pipe to incredible vis. My conservative estimate is 40ft?, but it could have easily been more.

It was so extraordinary, that I felt compelled to share. So at the risk of embarrassing myself, I spliced together some footage from my new little camera.

Please excuse the occasional image movement; it�s only my third time ever diving with a camera ;-).

Here's a little video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhT67sH9ofg

1/22/2011 K2 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Gid Liew, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 80' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: Surge: 17'

Max Depth: 202FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 18/55 Deco Gases: EAN50,50/25

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Thursday night we picked up GUE instructor Gideon Liew in SFO and drove him down to Monterey. He's teching a T2 class on Saturday with Matt, John and Jim as the students and with Susan shooting video, and later on he's working with Susan on her IE and with me on my Fundies renewal.

So before embarking on a very long teaching session we wanted to go out and have a fun dive together. Nothing better to bond GUE instructors than a fly-by scooter dive at K2.

We had booked Capt Phil several weeks ago, but we were not sure if the date was still in place. We double checked and he gave us the thumbs-up for our departure. The weather had calmed down a little bit during the week and the forecast was for 3-6ft swell, which is quite OK but the period was 17 seconds which makes for a lot of water moving at once.

While driving south along the coast we marveled at the topside scenery as massive walls of water smashed headlong into the rocks with spectacular force. The sun created golden-white reflections on the water, and Gideon was the first to spot a trio of gray whales swimming parallel to our boat.

After setting up the down-line on our site, we descended and were welcomed by very clear water. As we got to the top of the pinnacle I suddenly saw this very large wolf-eel, and just as I was about to signal by team mates I realized it was actually the steel-gray anchor doing an awesome impersonation of an eel .... ohh well... I'm glad I didn't signal Gid ;-)

We headed NW on the East Wall of K2 and reached the tip at about 200ft. This area has a lot of canyons and tunnels which funneled the 17 seconds swells making for a huge amount of water movement. The surge effortlessly stirred up the sand at 200+ feet!

Any time we stopped to inspect an attraction on the pinnacle, we were thrown back and forth by the mountainous flow of water. There wasn't much we could do to counter-act its effect, not even with a scooter (ohh well maybe a magnus). It was like being attached to the heavy end of a pendulum... we just hung there and let the water move us around as we tried to watch some of the marine life. We managed to find a basket-star and a six-spotted gunnel but you could only see them for a few seconds a time.

Throughout the dive, we noticed that bits & pieces of the pinnacle had been torn off by the surge. It looked like the pinnacle was being power-washed! As all of this was happening I had the feeling of how insignificant our power was in comparison to the ocean.

After 20min at the base we moved up to 150ft and hung out there while looking at the terrain and the marine life for another 20min. We spent the deco looking for southbound whales, to no avail.

We had a great dive,and topped it off with lunch buffet at Sam's.

Here we go on another teaching adventure!

Cherers, Beto (with a little help from Susan)

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