1/26/2014 Pt Lobos by Jon McNeill

[jon]

1/26/2014 Pt Lobos by Jon McNeill -- [View in Reports Page]

Bottom Team:	Jon McNeill, Gary Banta
Visibility:	30' - 50'	Time:	10:28 AM
Temp:	54F - 55F	Surge:	3'
Max Depth:	104FSW	Avg Depth:	61FSW
Bottom Time:		Total Time:	1:36
Bottom Gases:	EAN32	Deco Gases:	O2
Backgas Config:	Double HP100	Deco Tanks:	AL40
Deco Profile:	3@30, 7@20, 6-up
Not many people at Lobos today, maybe because Mavericks was on Friday everyone thought it would suck. Conditions were beautiful, clear blue water everywhere. Gary and I scootered out and dropped at the worm patch, which was visible from the surface. Drove out past HITW and Seamount to Beto's and headed straight for the crack where Rob's giant pacific octopus lives. She was still there, but all we could really see were her arm and suckers. Spent about 15 minutes admiring the big lings and what looked like a wild dorid sex party, then followed the 100 ft contour east to find Q-tip. We initially missed Q-tip, and searched around for a bit, finally found it several feet shallower than normal because of the super-low tide. We cruised around the area for a bit, waved to Rob Lee, Teresa Luther, and Adam Rachman who were headed in the other direction, and wound up at the end of Granite Point wall. I saw a cool dark crack, and something told me to stop and look inside…wasn't expecting to find a second GPO. He was in a right-leaning diagonal crack on the west side of the wall, maybe 15-20 yards or so from the north end. Was right at 60 feet today, but probably a little deeper normally because of today's low tide. Crack opens up at the bottom so we could see his entire body, eye, and siphon. After congratulating ourselves several times underwater for our awesome GPO-attracting skills, we headed back. Gary pointed out some significant masses of Onchidoris bilamellata (barnacle-eating nudies) at the north end of Middle Reef. Headed back in along Middle Reef and up the sand channel, did our deco, and finished up an awesome day at Lobos.