Posted by DougD on February 10, 2003 at 12:50:54:
Haven't had much to report lately but hopefully you'll like this one.
I was on the Pacific Star for my first 2-day boat trip on Saturday and Sunday. We were supposed to go to San Nic., but the Friday night swell and the uncertain forecast for Saturday sent us to San Clemente instead. It was sunny and calm. I've experienced colder days in August.
I woke up at Pyramid Cove and got in two dives before we moved to Seal Cove where I saw hundreds of shorts and a few well protected legals, a lot of big Calico, and one of the highlights of the trip, my first live abalone. I saw at about 5 really large ones and was surprised by how fat the shells were. I don't know which kind they were but they sure looked tasty. The last dive was a night dive at North Harbor.
As far as lobsters go the island lived up to it's name, but all the sites were really beautiful with about 30+ vis and temps in the high 50's to low 60's. I had my eye out for scallops but didn't find many, and none worth taking.
Saturday night the boat moved to Iron Bound Cove. Woke-up and did the dive but didn't see too many fish. A couple of Harbor seals were around but didn't come too close and mostly avoided us. More shorts. The bicycle patch on my left seal failed and my whole left side got soaked down to my waste, but I stayed warm. By the time the boat reached Eagles (we cruised a California Grey Whale enroute) Nest Cove I had dried out my suit and repatched my seal (I patched both sides this time).
At Eagles Nest I saw blue-banded gobbies and two eels (so there were probably more around somewhere, and finally some Garibaldi. Somebody saw a butterfly fish, and there were sheephead around us most of the dive.
My last dive of the trip was my 80th logged dive. We were at Starlight Cove. There was current in the beginning but it calmed down after a while. Over by the rocks I got separated from my buddies by bad vis and surfaced but didn't find them, so I soloed my way back to the boat. That was only the second time I've been under for any length of time without a buddy, but I found the dive was more enjoyable without them anyway. I was able to take my time and enjoy the sites. Right under the boat I found a rock formation with a bunch of kelp that had been held under by the current at the beginning of the dive. It was standing straight up now. I decided to stay on the bottom there and wait and see who came back to the boat. As I circled the rocks I found a crack with a Moray eel inside. He was surrounded by a bunch of cool shrimp. He looked kind of like he was going to attack me so I backed off. Sure wish I had had a camera, because nobody else got to see it.