Posted by Max Bottomtime on June 18, 2005 at 17:00:30:
Date:
Dive Location:
Time: 10:03
Bottom Time: 1:05 on the forst dive, :33 on the second.
Max Depth: 63'
Vis: 12 feet over the reef, less in the cove.
Wave height: Flat for the first dive, 1-2' for the second
Temp at depth: 51F
Gas mix: Air (21%)
Comments:
I met up with close to a dozen divers for a planned get together at Marineland this morning. The security guard never showed up to open the gate, so we waited until the guy who checks the water quality each Saturday showed up around 9:00 to let us in.
We split into a couple groups and headed down to the point. The ocean cooperated nicely today. Easy entry with no blood or broken bones. Hermissenda crassicornis nudibranchs were everywhere today. We probably saw several hundred on the first dive alone.
Anemones, scallops, tunicates, gorgonian and various shellfish covered the reef. Everywhere we looked was a splash of color. We spent so much time on the main reef that we ended up with a long surface swim to the cove for our exit.
Jeff Shaw arrived in time to join us for our second dive. He had been at the DIR demo at Redondo Beach and drove into the Marineland parking lot in his wetsuit. I see surfers do that all the time, but not too many divers. Claudette said he should have had a reg in his mouth.
Claudette, Carlos, Bernard, Jeff and I set out to find the elusive loading dock from the old pier. We all got seperated in the milky water on the East side of the cove. I never found another diver, but I did manage to find the dock. It was in 49 feet about 100 yards offshore. It is a metal structure with flotations tanks below, a rotted wooden deck on top and a fishing net covering half of it. It was a pretty cool find in the middle of sand. I shot a liftbag and tied it off to judge the location for an attempt to photograph it tomorrow morning. There is some kelp growing on it, but not enough to reach the surface where we could easily find it.