Posted by Max Bottomtime on December 12, 2004 at 20:55:08:
My buddy and I went out to a wreck several miles offshore yesterday and despite the Santana winds the last couple of days we had only six inches of vis at the bottom. It didn't look as if we would go out today, but we decided to give it a try. We made a dive at one spot off Palos Verdes that shall remain nameless because we found more than a dozen large male Sheephead and over 100 lobsters! My buddy even freed a Swell shark from a lobster trap. Vis was poor to fair at 6-10 feet. We surfaced to choppy seas, wind and cold, and blustery skies. We talked about calling it a day, but decided to check out one more spot. I'm so glad we did. We went to Buchanan's Reef, offshore between Marineland and Cardiac Hill. When we got in the water we could see the bottom clearly at 70 feet below us. Horizontal visibility was a good forty feet. This site is famous for finding Bruce anchors lost by non-diving boaters. We were not disappointed. We found a nice Bruce with lots of newer chain on it.
I felt bad for anyone that tried to dive Marineland. The waves were crashing on the rocks, keeping everyone away from the water, but just a couple hundred yards offshore was some spectacular conditions.