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BAUE Trip Reports
11/16/2003 Pt Lobos aboard Phil Sammet's RIB by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Alberto Nava, Clinton Bauder |
| Visibility: |
40' - 60' |
Time: | 10:00 AM |
| Temp: |
54F - 58F |
Surge: |
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| Max Depth: |
195FSW |
Avg Depth: |
180FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
25:00 |
Total Time: |
1:30 |
| Bottom Gases: |
18/45 | Deco Gases: | EAN50,O2 |
| Backgas Config: |
Double LP104,HP120 | Deco Tanks: | AL40,AL80 |
| Deco Profile: |
Deep Stops, 2,3,8,5,5,5,5,12,6 off,6,6 up. |
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Beto and I were diving today from Phil's boat at a new spot just outside of Point Lobos called Pinnacle Point Wall. We had low expectations for the day as the forecast wasn't so hot and reports from Saturday indicated pretty rough conditions. Instead we were greeted with sunny skies, light winds, clear blue water and a measly 6 foot swell. Wow, doesn't get much better than that. Indeed the dive was quite memorable.
The wall extends out to the North from Pinnacle Point Cove. The top is at about 120 feet with a precipitous drop straight to 200 feet. The best life was near the top but the bottom featured a couple of vase sponges, a multitude of starry, canary and rosy rockfish and even a red irish lord. The latter was so well camoflaged that when I looked up to signal Beto I lost sight of it and couldn't find it again despite not having moved more than a few feet. Beto also found a juvenile yelloweye rockfish. As we moved up the reef we were greeted by dense corynactis anemones and big elephant ear sponges.
I'd like to say the deco was uneventful but one of my deco regs decided that just wasn't in the cards. Despite working on the surface it immediately started to freeflow when I switched to it at 70 feet. We thought about switching regs or maybe swapping in a new second stage but I decided to feather the valve instead (only turn it on when I was actually taking a breath). This worked surprisingly well but I did have a few choice words for the reg when I reached the surface. One nice thing was the warmth of the water at nearly 58 degrees. That sure made the deco more comfortable.
A gallery of video frames from this dive can be seen here.
This image shows the route we followed during the dive. |
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