BAUE chartered the Cypress Sea, captained by Phil Sammet and Xcott Wolf to take us down the coast to explore the bank for the first time. This is arguably some of finest diving any of us have ever experienced in California, or for that matter the world. We concentrated on the SE side of the bank which has a lone high pinnacle at 120', averages mostly 160-170' and sections dropping off significantly deeper. Offshore weather and currents in this region are unpredictable, but fortunately both cooperated for us on this first visit. With 80+ feet of visibility and little to no current on the bottom we had 2 spectacular dives.

Divers:
Clinton Bauder
Susan Bird
David Chamberlin
Pete Gelbman
Will Gore
Kevin Metcalfe
Alberto Nava
Nick Radov

Boat Crew:
Capt Phil Sammet
Capt Xcott Wolf
DiveMaster Tad
Marcos Perreau Guimaraes

Topside Photography and Support:
Dionna House

Boat:
Cypress Sea

Well, short version is that it went amazingly well. We'll have a more detailed writeup of the trip, but here's just a little bit from my perspective.

Top-side conditions got a little sloppier than we'd hoped for, especially given the conditions in the past 3 or 4 weeks. However it didn't really pose any problems - the only issue was quickly and effectively getting gear and people back onto the boat, but that all went very well thanks to good crew and good divers.

We did some depth-soundings and after searching around the north side of the bank for a while decided to try the south side. The south showed more promise in terms of relief, with multiple spots showing spikes from ~170FSW to ~120FSW. We dropped the hook on one of the spikes - very close to the spot we had marked on the map as a potential 2nd dive site - the "120 spot" on the maps I have.

After dropping the hook we noticed that the boat was not moving despite a reasonably strong northerly wind. The assumption was that there was a current running the opposite direction. Therefore we decided not to stay anchored and threw a ball out on the end of the line and liveboated the whole thing. We found that there was in fact current, though it was primarily a surface current. There was still some current on the bottom but not too bad.

Before the dive Susan had said to me "we'll meet you at the Giant Octopus". Son-of-gun if that didn't really happen! Beto frantically signaled our group (Pete/Clinton/Me) and we rushed over knowing it had to be good. There it was - even larger than the one Clinton and I saw last week (!?!). It decided it wanted to "probe" Beto and Susan, reaching out several arms and touching them. For a few seconds there it looked like it was really gonna go for Susan - he was distracting her with one arm while the other one was sneaking up behind her. She decided she'd had enough and moved away a little. :-) I'm hoping the video Clinton got comes out OK.

Even without the GPO sighting it would've been an incredible dive. The top of the pinnacle had more hydrocoral than I've ever seen. There were more rockfish than I've ever seen - not only number but variety. Pretty much every fish in the book was well represented. Lingcod ... everywhere. There were even a few fish I couldn't ID - I have to go to the books and see if I can figure out what they were. There were tunicates there that I'd also never seen - something else to look up. Some vase sponges - one with a crab inside. 2 wolf eels. A variety of nudibranchs. Swim-through, big pinnacles .... and the *fish* - did I mention how many fish ????

Dives, deco and recovery all went very smoothly for all teams, albeit a little annoying with the SMBs - the wind was catching them and pulling them along. Though somehow Beto and Susan, despite being less than 20' from our team, had a line that went straight up whereas ours was being pulled off at almost a 45 degree angle and having lots of fun with Pete's valves. :-) No explanation except that Beto and Susan are just plain charmed.

After the first dive we reluctantly pulled anchor to search for a new spot. We find a very nice ridge that dropped from maybe 160 to 200 or so. Something to look at for the next trip (and there *will* be a next trip ...) but not this time. We circled back into the general vicinity of the first dive and found another spot that showed up on the finder as looking almost the same as the first. We dropped the hook again, but this time the current had abated so we kept the boat hooked.

Second dive went at least as well as the first, though no GPO. Still lots 'o fish, inverts and beautiful structure. There's some disagreement on whether or not the 2nd dive was actually at a different location. To me it looked similar, but not the same. Looking at the GPS coords and tracks, I'm still pretty sure it was a different site. However some are saying it was the same site. It's certainly possible. The GPS markings show that the 2nd one was probably 200' or so from the first one so it certainly makes sense that they look very similar, and it's possible due to scope on the line, etc. that it was in fact the same. Guess we'll just have to go back and try to figure that out for sure. :-)

Anyway, in addition to the amazing scenery, the visibility was stunning. It was crystal-blue with at least 70' of vis. That made it a lot easier to get an idea for the general topography and of course to see just how many fish there were. There was a murky layer in the first 30-40' or so (more so on the 2nd dive), but after it opened up .... whooooooiiieeee ... very nice. Sure wish I had my scooter with me to venture out and see what else was there. Next time ....

To give you some perspective on the day, Clinton has said it was by far the best cold water dive he's ever done and one of the best of any type of dive. Given the beaming faces on all the divers I'd have a hard time arguing with that.

There is a *lot* of reef out there and this trip showed just how amazing it is. Needless to say I plan to make sure we do a lot of exploration in this area.

Thanks to everyone, from the divers to the crew to top-side photography, for making it an amazing day, with everything running very smoothly and professionally. With the location and conditions, things could've gotten ugly in a hurry. But a solid, well-trained group, a good crew and captain and a good boat made it just another day on the ocean. A stellar example of teamwork, preparation and execution.

Oh, and if all the above wasn't amazing enough, we had our share of whale and dolphin sightings down-and-back and I almost forgot to mention the Albatross - lots of 'em! Just after surfacing from our first dive Clinton said "turn around" - right in front of me, less than 10' away was a huge albatross. Very cool.

Still beaming.

-Dave

Hi gang,

Bay Area Underwater Explorers had the Cypress Sea chartered all day on Saturday for some off-the-beaten-path diving and exploration. We headed way south to Point Sur to dive the Big Sur Bank. This is a reef 3-5 miles offshore of the point. In places it comes up to within 120 feet of the surface. We've been itching to dive it and finally go our chance Saturday.

When left the dock at 6AM conditions in the bay and in Carmel were really flat and calm. When we arrived onsite at the bank around 8:30 it was quite windy and a bit choppy but it was clearly a happening place based on the huge cloud of birds working the area. There were even a number of albatrosses which is a bit rare for this area. We started looking for dive sites at the north end of the bank but after some driving around decided it didn't look sufficiently vertical. The other charted high spot is at the south end of the reef so we headed down there for a look. Jackpot! We very quickly found a pinnacle that started at 120 feet and dropped off dramatically to 170. Down went the anchor, followed shortly by the first dive team.

Susan and Beto were first, Pete, Dave and I second with Will, Kevin and Nick making up team 3. Vis at the surface was murky with barely 15 feet of visibility. At about 30 feet it cleared up dramatically and we could see Sue and Beto arriving on the reef nearly 100 feet below us. As we approached the bottom I could scarcely believe my eyes as I think this one rock has more hydrocoral growing on it than exists in the entirety of Carmel Bay. Swimming above it was probably the biggest school of blue rockfish I've ever seen. After lingering a bit we decided to press deeper and look at the base of the pinnacle.

The deeper parts of the reef consisted mostly of a boulder slope with less encrusting life. On the other hand there were exotic rockfish all over the place; starrys, vermilions, rosies, treefish and even several yelloweye rockfish. Within a minute or two Beto and Susan started frantically signaling us. Since Susan had been excitedly talking about octopus prior to the dive I had a funny feeling what it was. Sure enough I soon found myself looking at about the largest octopus I've ever seen. This one was nearly the size of Beto and out in the open too.

After our octo experience Pete Dave and I moved up to the top of the pinnacle to admire the hydrocoral. Beto and Susan reported later finding a wolf eel out swimming around and I think Team 3 saw one as well. Deco was uneventful and right as we surfaced we were greeted by an albatross which was floating just a few feet from our marker buoy.

Phil and Marcos got in during our surface interval and also reported a great dive. If Phil's truly excited about a dive you know you're onto something!

Dive two was at a sister pinnacle a few hundred feet away. This time I was diving with Susan and Beto. It had a totally different feel to it as the murky layer was now present all the way down to 60 feet which really cut down on the available light. Visibility was still great at depth though. The dive really felt like a night dive and it was really eerie being able to see the lights of other divers 100 feet away in the inky blackness. While we didn't see any octopus on this dive we did see even more fish than on the first one. I've never seen schooling vermilion rockfish before. Loads of lingcod too. Dave and Pete apparently found a huge swim-through with a vase sponge in the middle of it.

The ride home gave everyone a chance for a much needed nap. I don't think many of us had gotten much sleep the night before and I, for one, was truly exhausted. I also learned that you have to be extra careful unloading gear when you tired as if you're not you might drop a tank on one of your second stages! Doh! Anyway despite that it was a truly great day and I want to say thanks to everyone that made it possible; Phil, Xcott and Tad on the Cypress Sea, Pete for organizing and Dionna for helping out topside and taking pictures (which we'll be posting soon I hope).

Speaking of pictures...

http://tinyurl.com/4hk7x

:-D

Clinton

Bottom Team: Kevin Metcalfe, Will Gore, Nick Radov
Visibility: 10' - 80'
Time: 10:00 AM
Temp: 52F - 56F
Max Depth: 172FSW
Avg Depth: 160FSW
Bottom Time: 0:25
Total Time: 1:08
Bottom Gases: 18/45
Deco Gases: EAN50
Backgas Config: Double LP80
Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile: Deep Stops, 5,3,2,2,3,10,5

Got up at 2. Yes AM. Got on the boat at 6. Got off the boat at 6:30. PM. Got home around 9.

In between we had two pretty spectacular dives. The ride down was nice with several of us taking naps. We got to the general area at around 8:30 and started looking for spots. We found a pinnacle that topped at about 120' and was about 175' in the sand around it. Conditions were reasonable so all three teams went in right after each other. Beto and Susan went first, followed by Dave, Clinton and Pete. Nick, Will and I went in last.

Going down there was a bit of current and it was pretty green. By the time we got down around 70' it opened up and on the bottom the visibility was a pretty honest 60-80'. The reef itself was awesome. Lots of vertical relief, lots of Hydrocoral, lots of color. Just cool in general. I'll let the people who actually know what they are looking at describe in more detail what they saw. I do know that towards the end of our bottom time we ran ito Pete, Clinton and Dave and Pete was trying to get us to follow them, but we were out of time. Turns out they found a Giant Pacific Octopus that was bigger than the one they ran into the previous week in Carmel. Had we understood what they found we probably would have extended things a bit, but they were unable to find it anyway so we didnt' miss out.

After our gas switch at 70' I shot a bag and in retrospect the next 30 minutes remind me of the Hemmingway's "The Old Man and the Sea". At first the bag started pulling a bit and I figured that it was the swell. If I didn't let a bit of line out it was going to start pulling me up so I let more line out. And more. And more. By the time we were at our 50' stop the 150' spool was pretty much all out and Will handed me his reel and I ended up letting out another 50' to 100' of line out. Finally as we got up around 30' or 20' I was able to start reeling it back in and got back to being right under the bag. At first I thought that perhaps our bag had got caught on the shot line and we were drifting. Now I can only guess that the current was going two different directions at different depths.

In between dives, Phil and Marcos dove the same pinnacle.

We motored around for awhile looking for another spot and finally found a "different" pinnacle within 300' of the first one.

The second dive was a repeat of the first. Visibility was if anything better, but it was darker I think due to the layer getting thicker. A few divers thought that we were back on the same pinnacle. I'm not sure, but I don't care. I would dive that pinnacle every day for a week and be pretty happy.

The ride home was uneventful except for the sleeping bodies strewn throughout the boat. It was a great day, but a REALLY LONG one.

Dionna should get major kudo's for spending the whole day on the boat helping out. Also, as usual the crew was on the Cypress Sea was great.

Others have given all the important details, here are highlights of my dives:

Dive 1: Dropping onto the top of the highest spot we could find on the depth finder we were greeted by a Hydro coral garden that was so spectacular we we almost didn't bother venturing any further. None of us had ever seen such large, dense and vibrant clusters before. Just 4 minutes into the dive, under a rock out cropping along a gentle slope at 160', Beto and Susan were timidly greeted by the most immense Giant Pacific Octopus any of us have ever seen. Think double the size of the beautiful specimen at Monterey Bay Aquarium. After trying every trick in his bag of camouflage tricks, he gingerly extended a tentacle to Beto & Susan as if to say, "Well, if your going to stay here I might was well say hello". Enchanting experience - we'll be back Greedo.

Dive 2: Towards the end of end of dive, Dave and I were exploring a 170' deep crevice with interesting formations and discovered a large chunk of rock that at some point in history had crumbled onto itself forming a 30 foot long narrow cavern, covered in life. We swam through single file and popped out onto a sheer face on other side of the the pinnacle! We weren't able to capture video or photograph this adventure so we'll leave some things unrevealed at this point in time. In the middle of this tunnel that we're now calling "Jedi Cave" is a surprise treasure, "Wampa". You'll know it if and when you see it!

It was really a spectacular dive. I d rank it a notch up Farnsworth Banks, that was so far my best dive in California. Too bad I didn't get the camera down though I enjoyed not having anything to do but to watch and play model for Phil's camera. Thanx guys for letting me in to buddy with Phil. Now I have another obsession, I HAVE to get back there ;)

Marcos.