Posted by Chris on September 08, 2003 at 11:29:32:
On Labor Day weekend my girlfriend Kathryn and I drove up to Mendocino County to stay with my friends Curt and Doris in a house they rented on the coast.
On Sunday August 31 we went to Iverson Point (with the permission of the property owner) for a dive. Iverson point is North of Anchor Bay and about 6 miles south of Point Arena.
Curt used a block and tackle to lower the gear down the 70 ft. cliff to large rock ledge below. We then climbed down the cliff, donned our gear, and did a giant stride off the ledge into about 30 ft. of water.
I was the first one off. Curt then tossed out my abalone tube with a rope attached. Inside was my camera and strobes. Unfortunately because of the rough terrain getting there I elected to leave my wide-angle lens behind. I’m sure the pictures would have turned out much better with it because I could have gotten much closer to the subjects.
Once I removed my camera from the tube, curt pulled it back in and attached the tube to the block and tackle. Then Kathryn and Curt followed me into the water.
For Mendocino the water was an incredibly warm 53 °F. The visibility varied from ten to thirty feet, also very good for that area.
The terrain below the point is a rock shelf, with many submerged pinnacles jutting up. There were numerous abalone and rockfish. I also saw some nudibranchs I had never seen before, but the pictures did not come out. The local kelp consisted mostly of bull kelp, with small spots of palm kelp. Because of the warm water it seemed that the bull kelp almost disintegrated in your hand if you grabbed a leaf.
The local anemones were huge, some as much as 9 inches across. I have one picture of my hand next to one of the smaller ones.
During the dive Kathryn and I became separated from Curt. Since I do not like rock climbing, especially with scuba gear, Kathryn and I elected to swim about one fourth of a mile down shore to a beach with a trail up. Curt went back up the cliff.
It was a great dive, but next time we’ll take the zodiac from Point Arena.
click here for Underwater Pictures from Iverson Point