Posted by Max Bottomtime on March 22, 2003 at 13:55:18:
My buddy Brian and I went out this morning expecting zero vis and large swells. I just got my scooter back from the shop and wanted to go play with it. The inshore water looked like pea soup, so we decided to make a deeper offshore dive in hopes of actually seeing anything. We motored out to the Caissons, large figure-eight structures used in bridge tower construction. I have heard that there are four in the area, but I have only found two. They stand forty feet tall from a 160 feet bottom. Nearly every inch is covered by corynactis and metridium anemonies, along with scallops every six inches and dozens of lingcod in the sand.
Dropping down the anchor rode, we were pleasently surprised to see the ever-present school of blacksmith above the structure. At 120 feet, the visibility opened up to 15-20 feet. We swam around the wreck (my scooter battery had died before we even got in the water) and decided that since we both had very cold hands, we would begin our ascent ten minutes earlier than planned. It was a good thing we did. During our ten foot stop twp dolphins swam up to us to check us out. Neither Brian nor I had ever seen a dolphin under water. That really made the duve!
Maximum depth was 160 feet. Water temp was a refreshing 51F. It was very warm on the boat while putting on our drysuits and felt good to be in the water. Ten minutes later we wished we were back in the sunlight. Still, we had a good time. Now I need to go shower and build a burn tester for my scooter. :-(