8/7/2011 Midway Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava

[beto]

8/7/2011 Midway Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View in Reports Page]

Bottom Team:	Susan Bird, Alberto Nava
Visibility:	20' - 60'	Time:	11:00 AM
Temp:	48F - 55F	Surge:
Max Depth:	197FSW	Avg Depth:
Bottom Time:	0:40	Total Time:	1:30
Bottom Gases:	18/45	Deco Gases:
Backgas Config:		Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
For the last two years we had been trying to dive Mid-way pinnacle. This is located btw Big Sur light-house and the BigSur banks. The list of reason we haven't gone there is quite large: bad weather, fog, people wanting to dive sur19 or sur20, and many others. However, on Saturday we motored out and by the time I went up to talk with Jarrod about dive site destination the GPS was already set for Mid-way or MW as we have been calling it. We got there, dropped the down-line, resettled the down-line and went for our dive. By the time we got to 70ft visibility was about 50ft, and the water was nice a blue :-), with a nice current coming from the south. We motored to the base of the pinnacle at about 190-200ft and looked around on the rocks and cracks in the West side. We found a nice wolf eel resting at the bottom. There were tons of fish at the base and did a full circle around the pinnacle while motoring in and out of overhand and large cracks. After 20min we moved up to the shallow (150s) , and spent quite a lot of time looking at invertebrates and hydro-corals. There were many egg jellies in mid water and we had a lot of fun seeing them fly by pushed by the strong current. At some point we scooter to the south end of the pinnacle and then let go with the current. It was quite fast ride !!! After the dive we headed home and joined Capt Jim for a celebration of his birthday. MW pinnacle rocks!