Point Dume, a dive story

Dive #1 at point dume, friday afternoon. I easily entered the water at the beach, tiny waves. The water was a brisk 57 at the surface, 55 at depth. A 12 minute swim brought me to the outer pinnacle, the current was helping.

Garibaldi, guarding his crevice. There were many garibaldi nests at point dume, most were waiting for a female to lay eggs (red nests), but a couple were filled with eggs (yellow nests). I often heard the familiar "clicking" of the Garibaldi, trying to tell me to go away.

Hedgehog Hydroid. These small invertebrates can be quite beautiful close up.

Zooanthid anemone, there are a few of these at Point Dume,.

Swell Shark. When I saw this guy, he was trying to wiggle into a crevice into which he didn't fit. He must have heard me coming long before I saw him, the vis wasn't great. He was thrashing around, finally he gave up and swelled up.

Olive Rockfish. I always see a few Olive rockfish here, normally in the water column. It was nice to see one laying down that wasn't skittish at all.

well, your not going to believe this, but I was swimming around, and I thought to myself "I'd really like to find a lingcod and cabezon now". I thought it out loud in my head. I had just swam into the area where I usually see one or the other. Within 20 seconds, I'm looking right into this guy's eyes. He let me get close, and take about 5 shots. After the 5th shot, a cabezon swam over and sat right near the lingcod (shots of him in the gallery). I couldn't believe it! Surreal...

Lingcod

Brown Rockfish. Plenty of rockfish were out today, filling up all the cracks and crevices.

Zooanthid, Gorgonians. There are some areas with large fields of various gorgonians.

Black Perch. this guy kept coming up to me really close, he must have been attracted to my camera or strobe.

The swim back was against the current, it took about 24 minutes. Vis on the dive was decent, but variable, between 10-25 feet. 64 minute dive.

Today I met Charlene and 2 others for a dive at the pinnacles. The current had reversed itself from the day before, and the swim out was difficult. It took about 26 minutes for me to reach the pinnacle, I was tired. Only 2 out of 4 of us made the swim. very small waves on entry/exit.

The Black gay/lesbian pride association had rented the far end of point dume, where we enter the water. They didn't let us drop our stuff off there, we had to park far away. We did get our tanks brought over by a golf cart though, that was nice of them. someone lent us a push cart to bring the tanks back to the car.

Charlene, my dive buddy.

Sunflower Star. These are quite common at Point Dume.

CO Sole. We found him in the sand, and we could only see his eyes. He let me carefully dust him off, what a trooper.

Sheep Crab, taking a swipe at my strobe.

Starfish, Giant Keyhole Limpet

At one point in the dive, we were on the east side of the pinnacles, and needed to get on the west side. I found a narrow crevice with water rushing through that got us across, I went first. we felt like nemo, going though water flowing into us strongly, with bubbles through the water. for a few seconds the water reversed direction and I got a nice "shoot" partially through the passage. Charlene also got shot, but just for a couple seconds. We were fighting a strong current for most of the 30seconds through the narrow passage. very cool!

Gopher Rockfish in the starfish

On both dives, I saw (and photographed) a blue rockfish. I was excited, I love blue rockfish, and this is the first time I've seen them apart from santa cruz.

Cabezon

Vis from yesterday had deteriated, it was now 8-18 feet. Temp at depth was 54. We did see a lot of fish, a couple lingcod, cabezon, etc. We swam the entire back way underwater (didnt feel a current either way), and surfaced right in front of the beach with just a little air left. 68 minute dive. A great day to be out!

enjoy your day, Scott

• more photos from the dive

• Re: Point Dume Pinnacles, a dive story (w/photos) Max Bottomtime 12:25:56 07/02/06 (1)
  • Re: Re: Point Dume Pinnacles, a dive story (w/photos) Greg 10:22:16 08/29/06 (0)
• Great Report seahunt 11:16:06 07/02/06 (0)