Posted by David V on May 16, 2005 at 13:58:42:
Hello all,
After reading many dive reports, it's time I contribute as well.
Most times when you ask someone who dives Monterey/Carmel a bit about diving in Monterey, your answer will be prefaced with.... "On a good day". Generally, this means with colder water temps, and visibility challenges, a good day, can be like a lump of gold, (Hard to get, and hard to hold). This is because of the Monterey canyon and the upwelling currents....... yada, yada, yada.
Well, Sat was one of those days! The cloud cover of the early morning burned off to a very nice, sunny and warm day....... for Monterey.
Diving at Monastery Beach (In Carmel) has it's issues. The main issue, being the surf zone. The waves tend to be larger and the drop off from the beach is steep. Care must be taken entering and leaving the water here. Please enter and exit the surf zone with your regulator in your mouth. Also enter near the kelp forest, this will help slow down the waves a bit. The water temp on the two dives were 51 and 50 degrees. The visibility was at least 40 feet! Tons of critters came out to play as well! From Harbor seals to nudibranchs. A couple of nice size decorator crabs were spotted and few lingcod perched on rocks, and a variety of rock cod, perch, graylings, and a baby moray eel round out the day’s tally. The eel was about 6-8 inches long and looked like a blade of kelp, except it kept swimming. Very cool.
All in all, it was a great day of diving!