Date: 9/25/09
Dive Location: Vets
Buddy(ies): Angelique
Time: 8:56 pm.
Bottom Time: 1 hr 7 min
Max Depth: 77 fsw
Vis: 10 – 15
Wave height: 1- 2 feet
Temp at depth: 59F
Surface Temp: 70F

After hearing from Kalani that the vis was not looking good, I was not expecting much from the dive last night. While gearing up and getting ready to go, we were side tracked by many people asking about what we see down there. On the way down the stairs, we noticed two divers leaving the surf so we went over to see what the vis was like. The report was not helpful because the max depth these fellows did was 28 feet because this was one of their first night dives (Great to see new divers in the area!). When we reached the waters edge, I realized that OOPS I for got my gloves. There was no way I was going to go back up to the truck so off we went into the tiny surf.

The water felt warm on the way out and the bio-luminescence was off the chart. Just by moving your arm through the water, you could see how dramatic the effect is. We kicked out to the end of the pier and dropped down keeping a close eye on each other. We must have kicked further then the end of the pier because the way down was much longer then normal. When we hit the bottom, we were already at 60 feet!

As we started our way down the canyon, we noticed that the visibility was not that bad actually. The plan was to go to 80 work our way south and then take our time critter hunting in the salad bowl.

There were a few large sized Sheep Crab out along with a good amount of Sea Hares which I rarely see at Vets. Octo’s were out in full force and we also ran into a few Sarcastic Fringeheads. For nudis, I ran into the smallest Hudson’s Horned Dorid I have ever seen but my picture came out like crap. We also ran into some Flabellina Pricei, Spanish Shawls Dirona Picta and Triopha maculate.

One of the coolest things we did during the dive was turning off out lights at around 20 feet and moving around our hands to see the bio-luminescence. Believe it or not, we almost did not need our lights in the shallows! It was UNBELIEVABLE!! Get out there now to see this magnificent feat of nature.

Below are some highlights from the dive: