Posted by NightDiver on October 22, 2002 at 09:12:08:
Snuck in a late night dive last night in Laguna Beach. Was a little concerned because the surf has been up and, on top of making the entrance/exit a bit dicey, it has a tendency to screw up the visibility.
Checked out Cleo, Thalia, and the rest South of Main Beach. Occasional sets to 3' breaking well out from the beach. Given that these are such shallow dives and subject to surge, we decided to head North of Main Beach. Great choice...Diver's, Shaw's and the rest were sheltered from the swell and you could tell just looking down from the cliff that the visibility was up in the 20' neighborhood. Surge was still decently strong, but nothing we couldn't live with. Water was relatively warm and the marine layer was hiding the moon and keeping the air temperature up as well. Just turned into a great night for a dive.
Worked our way around to our semi-secret spot which always seems to move around a bit. Took a compass heading and dropped on the sand and then swam for a bit before hitting the reef. Ended up with five legals in the bag, including one in the 3# range. The visibility throughout the dive was unbelievable. Didn't see any moreys for a change, but ran across a number of very large sculpin. Also, must have seen five or six horn sharks, of various sizes, sleeping on the reef.
All in all, a great dive. Always nice when the ones you think are going to be a bit tough turn out to be very memorable instead.
DSAO,
NightDiver