Posted by Ross-O on March 09, 2003 at 20:25:10:
Hi Gang,
Beth and I had a great time on the Sundiver on Saturday. The group was mostly composed of divers using DIR type gear. There was about 6 sets of doubles, 3 Gavin scooters, and Ben's Jet Boots to give the trip a certain tech diving look. It was all just for practice and fun since no one went particularly deep or stayed very long.
The first dive was Farnsworth Bank. It was absolutely incredible with the purple hydrocoral, lush invertibrate life, and huge nudibranches running around everywhere. I can't wait to go back. I'm already shopping for a drysuit and bigger tanks so I can back and hang out for a while! The vis must have been more than 70 ft.
The second dive was lobster cove. Vis was significantly less here but the dive was still a blast. We found a bunch of abalone. I've heard Chris Grossman talking about feeding them kelp so I gave it a shot. I was amazed to see the little fellow move so fast to latch onto the kelp! I've also never seen abs with shells so clean before. We watched the guys with scooters blow by us a few times on the outside of the kelp. I found the Leafy Horn Mouth at this site.
The last dive was Eagles Nest. It was a good time with much better vis, probably back in the 40-50 ft range. Here's where I found a funny looking little fish that reminded me of a tadpole. It stayed on the bottom and moved like a tadpole. I snapped a couple of pics of it for ID once I got back to the boat. Marta noticed that it looks similar to a Northern Clingfish described in Humann's book.
To steal a line from Brad - I love the sea!
(especially with some air strapped to my back)
Cheers,
Ross-O