Posted by seahunt on August 20, 2003 at 20:13:24:
At least according to the 3 day swell map, the seas north of San Francisco are dropping and should continue to
until Sunday morning at least.
I'm off at 5:30 sunrise tomorrow for the diving of Mendocino. Drive from Oakland to Santa Rosa. Stop in Petaluma
for dry ice. Then take hiway 157 for about 157 miles through the Anderson Valley. Awesome views going through
the coastal mountain ranges, past the winerys. Through the redwood groves to where the sea suddenly appears
and the road ends at Hiway 1.
The North Coast is all beautiful and the Mendocino Coast, where the redwood trees grow down to the sea, is some
of the most beautiful and rugged of the whole North Coast.
15 miles north is a dive shop at Fort Bragg. Nearby is the village of Mendocino. Yah. It's a pretty neat artists colony
in a place of inspirational beauty.
The seas should be calm, but there will be a wind in the mid afternoon when I get to the coast. My soul will be
singing. My heart will be buried in memorys.
I'll be staying at Van Damme Cove campground with Eric and the divers that make the meet. the camp is in an
absolutely gorgeous forested canyon. A lot of good people should make it by. I'm flying my pirate flag. There's
gonna be some great cooking and some wild stories. They're going to be mixing tri-mix in the campground. It's
gonna be fun amoung friends.
Camping, how historic for this simple technoloony
They're going to wait for me to get there and we're heading out to auqa incognito. Pick up one ab for dinner.
North Coast diving is the best in the entire world! It's vital, thick, colorful life fed by the cold nutrient rich waters.
More than that though, its a place where divers can test themselves as much as they might want to and often
more than that. Diving can be fairly easy there sometimes, but good conditions are not the norm. It is a great
place to find a fantastic physical challenge. You can really test all your dive skills and systems there. Its the
freebee of the place.
The diving is pimieval. Out on the reefs, the fish do not know what divers are. The macro photography is
outrageous. There are artifacts, anchors from Gold Rush era ships that came there for lumber and food
from the farms. Life is thick all the way to the shore. The rocks of the reef are huge monoliths with cracks
going deep between them. The cracks are full of life and wonder. The hunting is fun.
I always wondered why in ways I liked free diving better than scuba. I think that it is that they are like going
through a beautiful forest, but scuba is as to free diving as going on a bicycle or on foot. Also the free diving
focuses the mind and the hunting sets loose the instincts.
I have a 9-10 inch ab measure. I can only take home 3, so I can look a lot for big ones. Maybe I can find
some of those Puget Sound Crabs that they were finding down deep at the mouth of the cove. I might even
take a fish or two if they get in my way.fs
With luck I'll get to dive the sea mount, Colby Reef, 2 miles south of Mendocino once again, though I heard
that they were exploring more and found other interesting, untouched reefs, This is adventure diving.
Sunday morning, go for a last dive and the long slow drive back, soaking in the beauty of the North Coast.
Enjoy the diving, seahunt
