BAUE Trip Reports

Date

Older than
Newer than

Limit

Newest First
Oldest First

Region

Location

Diver

6/22/2010 Uncle Phil's Deep Trench aboard Phil Sammet's RIB by Kevin Dow -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Kevin Dow, Joseph (Karl) Haywood

Visibility: 60' Time: 9:44 AM

Temp: 50F Surge:

Scooter: X-scooter Burn Time:

Max Depth: 278FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:20 Total Time: 1:51

Bottom Gases: 15/65 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2,21/35

Backgas Config: Double HP120 Deco Tanks: AL40,AL80
Deco Profile:
6's, 30 6 up
A tale of three dives – Part three

Uncle Phil’s Deep Trench/Crinoid Canyon-n-n-n

The final dive was to be Karl H’s going away dive. Karl had completed his Masters degree here in Monterey and was in the midst of packing for his move down to San Diego. He graciously took a day off to dive with me on Phil’s Rib.

For this dive we targeted a bit of new area that is marked on the map as Uncle Phil’s Deep Trench but has also been referred to Phil as Crinoid Canyon. Phil had dove it just the other day and he said that for sure we would see Crinoids.

After gear checks and a quick splash we headed down to do our final checks and adjustments of equipment that may have gotten moved around after the back roll we traded okays, pointed our scooters down and hit the trigger. As it got darker and darker we started wondering when we would ever hit bottom. Thankfully we did and after a quick orientation we headed down the slope into the canyon. One the way down we had a positive moment as we immediately saw a rock with two crinoids sitting on top.

We meandered right along the canyon without seeing any more crinoids but came upon a nice Rat Fish hanging out on the bottom. I made sure to point him out to Karl as just a few minutes prior on the boat he had been remarking that he had not seen one while he was here. The Rat Fish took the opportunity of having our lights about to quickly chomp down something he had been eyeing on the bottom. We were happy to be of service!

After seeing a single lonely basket star on a Gorgonian the wall petered out so we reversed course and headed in the opposite direction. Here was where all the Crinoids were hanging out. It seems like every rock had at least four or five of them! No matter where you looked there they were in all sizes. Also in evidence were quite a few juvenile fish.

All too quickly we were out of bottom time so we it the trigger to start our ascent. We quickly passed by D3 and a small pinnacle west of E3 before ending up F3/G3 where we completed our ascent. All in all a wonderful dive.

6/20/2010 Outer Outer Pinnacles aboard Escapade by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, Jim Capwell

Visibility: 70' - 100' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 46F - 50F Surge: 1'

Scooter: X-scooter Burn Time:

Max Depth: 165FSW Avg Depth: 140FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Double LP80,HP120 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
Deep Stops
5,3,3,3,3,
17, 6 up.
This has been a rough year for local diving and for me personally. The weather has been consistently awful, and the worst of it has consistently coincided with dates I was to be diving. Add in some distractions and illness and I'm way behind on my dive quota for the year. Saturday was a good start in erasing that with a great dive at the East Pinnacle followed by some low-vis branching at the shale. Sunday I was diving with Jim for a T1 dive and we hoped to repeat the previous day's "run down to Carmel and get a dive in before the wind kicks up" plan.

As on Saturday the wind hadn't really started when we left the dock and we headed South. As on Saturday the water cleared up at Cypress Point and we dropped the downline at Lunaticos Annex at the Outer, Outer Pinnacles. Immediately upon descending we knew it was going to be epic. The reef was visible below us almost immediately and we knew the top was about 110 feet. The upper water column was filled with jellies promising an entertaining deco.

Arriving on the bottom we were presented with the sad sight of a relatively newly dead sea lion. Well, I guess starfish have eat too. Moving deeper John, Matt and Kevin found a ratfish cruising at the base of the wall and it patiently hung out as I tried to figure out how to take pictures of a 2 foot long fish with the 105 mm macro lens. Yes, I'd brought macro. I was tired from the previous day and didn't feel like re-configuring the camera. I was also worried that we might be limited to something in the bay where wide angle would have been pointless. Instead I was in Carmel in 100 foot vis. Ah well, time to look for macro subjects...

...And it didn't much looking to find said macro subjects. There were interesting nudibranchs everywhere. So many that I didn't really do justice to some of the photo ops as I buzzed around like an over-caffinated hummingbird in a field of flowers. Good fun. Highlights included Cuthona albocrusta, Catriona columbiana and Doriopsilla spaldingi.

All too soon our bottom time was up and Jim send up our surface marker. About this time it began to occur to me that the water was cold. Really cold. I hadn't noticed while I was busy with the camera but now that we were sitting still, decompressing I started getting really cold. Note to self: Get that new drysuit and undergarment ordered ASAP! Eventually as we settled into the long 20 foot stop I unclipped the camera and started shooting the weird little critters floating by and this started warming me up, or possibly just distracting me from being cold. Either way the rest of the deco went by fairly quickly.

Back on the boat everyone had a grin from ear to ear. Definitely the best dive of the year so far. With the wind coming up we decided get out of dodge and call it a day. Next stop was Henry's BBQ on Lighthouse Ave. Summary: Great pulled pork and sweet potato fries, Meh tri tip and friendly but very slow service. Good thing I drank lots of Iced Tea or I think the food coma might have been a problem on the way home.

Pictures here:

http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/v/local/TechnicalBranching/

6/20/2010 Lunaticos Annex aboard Escapade by Kevin Dow -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Kevin Dow, John Heimann, Matt Vieta

Visibility: 80' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 50F Surge: 1'

Scooter: X-scooter Burn Time:

Max Depth: 187FSW Avg Depth: 81FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50,O2

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks: AL40
Deco Profile:
5,3's 9,9
A tale of three dives – Part Deux
Lunaticos Annex

Sunday dawned not quite as bright and cheery as Saturday but filled with optimism. We made it around the point on Saturday and had great viz. Today couldn’t be much worse.

After loading gear up on the boat and having a brief commiseration with Allison who was gracefully bowing out of the boat trip to help Rob with video for his class we headed out for out tech trip.

Making it around the point was about the same as before. Snotty at the mouth of the bay and then settling down a bit. We spent the time on the way down watching John H scarf down some cup-o-noodles and telling some of his (in)famous jokes. There was a brief discussion of dive sits and Jim suggested going to a spot he had dove before that was called Lunaticos Annex. As it was in the same area as our dive yesterday and that didn’t turn out to be a bad dive so the group went with it. This would turn out to be a really good choice!

Quickly we pulled up dropped the ball and got into our gear. After a quick gear match/check/plan review we splashed. Once again no current and viz even better than yesterday as it was approaching 80+ feet.

John H, Matt V and I were diving as a team with me videoing. The ball was placed perfectly on a ledge on the side of the pinnacle in about 140’ of water. We descended along the sand channel that runs between the two reefs before jumping a small ridge to see our first cool surprise of the dive. In a little divot/hole were 4 large examples of vase sponges arranged so nicely. After admiring them for a bit we continued on for a bit.
We next came across our second surprise of the day. There hanging out at around 165 was a beautiful example of a Rat Fish. What was so cool to me was how mellow he was. The only other Rat Fish that I have seen took off pretty quickly. This fellow was content to hang around an let us marvel and film him to our hearts content. At one point I turned around to find Clinton attempting to take pictures of the fish from ten feet away as was shooting Macro that day. With the bright clear water, his pictures turned out very well. Our final surprise was found by Matt when he found a couple of mating Doriopsilla Spaldingi. What a pretty slug with its bright iridescent blue edges.

Our deco was amusing as we spent time looking at the various jellies that drifted by. Everyone agreed though that the water temps were a bit on the cold side. Hopefully this will continue to give us clear waters for a while.

6/19/2010 East Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Kenn Hwang -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Nick Radov, Andrew Bell

Visibility: 40' - 60' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 48F - 50F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 87FSW Avg Depth: 49FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Diving the BAUE Rec Charter with Nick and Andrew.

I left for Monterey early, expecting a rush from the US Open, but apparently golf spectators are late risers, and traffic wasn't a problem. CHP was out in force along 101 and 152 though.

The first site was East Pinnacles, and considering the marginal conditions from earlier in the week we didn't really know what to expect. When we dropped, I was surprised to see the conditions were more or less phenomenal. 40-50ft (or greater) viz, and if the other dive teams weren't behind one of the pinnacles, you could almost always see them. The pinnacles are covered in densely packed pink and purple hydrocorals, with corynactis packed in between.

Since the wind and swells were scheduled to pick up significantly in the afternoon, we pulled anchor and retreated back into the bay for dive 2. We parked at Shale Island, where Chuck T. and apparently everyone else diving off a boat had the same idea. On dropping, everything was pea-soup green, and viz was maybe 5ft, opening up to 10 in places. The best part of the dive was that the sun would continually break through the cloud cover, and every time it did it was like someone turned on an emerald-green floodlight. Then the clouds would come back in a minute later and everything would go dim again. I also saw my first mermaid's purse (no idea if it's from a skate/ray or shark though). In all a great day to dive.

Short video up on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0WJ4-eadZk

6/19/2010 East Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, Melissa Litwicki

Visibility: 70' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 47F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 70FSW Avg Depth: 55FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Single HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
The wind had been howling in Monterey for at least a week and the forecast for the weekend didn't look promising predicting 15-25 knot winds. Conditions inside the bay where we might be sheltered were known to be mediocre with recent reports all indicating very bad visibility. Jim sent me an email on Friday asking me what I wanted to do about the charter. As I've missed way too much diving this year for various reasons I stubbornly said I wanted to go diving, damn the conditions.

Having done that I then spent the next 24 hours, and especially the drive down to Monterey fretting that I might have committed other people to getting up early and driving 2 hours for the pleasure of getting seasick and diving next to the breakwater in 5 foot vis. As we first caught glimpse of the ocean near the beach hotel my spirits started to lift as there was nary a whitecap in sight. At the dock Jim seem at least willing to give Carmel a look and off we went.

The right down was a bit bumpy but certainly nothing too scary. We wondered a bit about what kind of ride home we were committing ourselves too and promptly forgot about that as we rounded Cypress Point. There the ugly greenish-brown water rapidly transitioned to a beautiful deep blue. As anchored at the East Pinnacle Captain Greg reported practically being able to see all the way down the line to the top of the reef. Sweet.

I jumped in and went to put my mask on my head to see for myself. Naturally the strap came right off the mask. The buckle has been partially broken for months and I had neglected to do anything about it. Probably a lesson there somewhere. Fortunately in addition to the non-prescription backup in my drysuit pocket I had another prescription mask in my bag which the crew promptly retrieved for me. The delay meant we weren't first down the line but ah well, no real harm.

The visibility, if anything, was actually better than Greg reported. Melissa and I were able to see Allison, Jim and Erik on the reef the second we started our descent. We started off by heading west and then began a slow counter-clockwise tour of the pinnacle admiring the lovely hydrocoral. Surge was minimal and conditions couldn't have been much better. Not having a camera on this dive I immediately found a Cuthona lagunae. For whatever reason I never can find this species when I do have a camera but regularly see it when I don't. We found loads of other slugs as well including literally dozens of Hermissendas and Flabellina trilineatas.

At the East side of the pinnacle we encountered a large, tight school of blue rockfish. This was the first time I'd seen a school like this in at least 4 years which was certainly heartening. Hopefully they will recover now with the Outer Pinnacles being protected by the MLPA. Also saw several cabezon sitting right on top of the reef.

After about 40 minutes we started getting cold so we headed up. Looking at the conditions we decided discretion was the better part of valor and we headed back to Monterey. I might have preferred to go park at Stillwater cove and heckle the US Open but OTOH beating against 25 knot winds and 8 foot wind waves didn't sound like fun so I think we made the right choice.

Being cold (and looking looking at the icky green water at the shale) Melissa decided to sit out dive two. I buddied up with Allison. Visibility on the bottom near Shale Island varied from 5 to maybe 15 feet. Making up for this was the variety of slugs and we had a pleasant dive poking around and looking at small stuff.

In the end a really nice day of diving which all goes to show that forecasts are only good for keeping you occupied at work during the week. Except in extreme cases they shouldn't be used to talk yourself out of diving. Always go look. Otherwise you'll miss out on the days with 70 foot vis and no surge at the East Pinnacle.

Shale Pictures here:

http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/v/local/SlugsAndSnailsonShale/

6/19/2010 East Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Kevin Dow -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Kevin Dow

Visibility: 60' Time: 9:24 AM

Temp: 50F Surge:

Max Depth: 87FSW Avg Depth: 64FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
A tale of three dives – Part 1

East Pinnacle.

Saturdays started off with a bit of a downer vibe as there was the possibility that once again like many of the past boat trips this year we might not be able to make it around the point. Jim was a bit concerned that all during the week the winds had picked up pretty quickly in day making for some snotty boating weather. Never the less we resolved to poke our nose out and see if we could make it around.

There was a bit of a tense moment once we got just outside the bay as we all were waiting for that tell tale sound of the boat engine throttling back signaling another trip of Monterey Bay diving but the seas settled down a bit after getting through the confused waters out at the point. Soon after we were on our way south to East Pinnacle.

Arriving at the site we found the seas not too rough so we quickly geared up and splashed in the water. We immediately noticed two things. 1) that the water was incredibly blue and clear and 2) no surface current at all. This was going to be a good dive.

Descending down the anchor line and almost immediately seeing the site was just joy. We ended up taking a bit of a northerly heading and just exploring the nooks and the crannies in the various canyons that seem to spread out from the pinnacle. Lots and lots of slugs abounded which made me wish I was more of a slug-o-phile and could name them, but alas. We did find nice example of a Dirona albolineata which I think might be my favorite slug. He was the size of a tennis ball and just curled up along the wall hanging out.

After a few more minute we curled back around the peak to the anchor line before setting off to another pinnacle just in the distance. After doing a slow lap around this just admiring the hydro-coral we came back for a final lap around the pinnacle before heading up the line. Above us was Clinton and Melissa enjoying deco and below was Jim, Allison and another happily sticking their noses deep into the walking stick kelp looking at nudibranchs. All in all a wonderful dive.

5/31/2010 Rock Garden by Matt Vieta -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Leah Vieta, Matt Vieta

Visibility: 20' - 30' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: 50F Surge: 2'

Scooter: X-scooter Burn Time: 0:25

Max Depth: 60FSW Avg Depth: 45FSW

Bottom Time: 1:18 Total Time: 1:18

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Single LP104,HP120 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
min
After an exhausting trip back from Montana, Leah and I decided to be lazy on Monday and sleep in. Kevin was kind enough to give us his Lobos reservation for the day, so off we went!

Leah has been wanting to do a fun dive at Lobos with her camera for quite a while, but it kept getting postponed. We finally made it! We headed out to the Rock Garden area and enjoyed a long, relaxing dive. The slugs were out in force, especially Phidiana hiltoni. We also had 2 separate encounters with Cuthona divae!

Turned the dive on cold and met up with the boat divers at La Tortuga for dive #2.

Some pictures are here

5/19/2010 Mt Chamberlin - South Wall aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 50' - 50' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: 46F - 50F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 185FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:40 Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
After some very long dives for the BAUE project we were hoping to stay dry
for a few more days but forecast showed the best diving day will be Wed and CAP asked
us for a little spin on the boat.

Susan, Jim, Joakim and myself dove the south loop at Mt. Chamberlin.

We dropped on the north side of the canyon and scootered out. We found the small arch at 185ft
and push through it. At the end there is a window that pushes you out back into the canyon. Really nice terrain :-)

We reached the wall and went west on it for a while. Vis was 50ft but a little milky at the bottom.

We found some very large tritona festiva, some simnia snail on the gorgonias. We were looking for
ratfish but not luck. There were a lot of lincods in the area.

After 15min of enjoying the wall we headed back into the canyon and levelled of at 150ft for the second part of the dive.

We found some nice patches of gorgonias and the bottom was all covered with brittle start. Really nice to see..

We motored towards K2 and poke on the West wall at 120ft. I love to scooter towards the wall and past it.... it feels like taking off....

We went towards K2 and enjoyed a few minutes at the 100-80ft range looking at groups of cowries, huge school of rockfish and some very nice sheapheads.

After about 45min of fun we let go and drifted the deco. During it we saw a large purple jelly that was about 40ft long... really cool!

4/16/2010 Flintstones aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Jim Capwell, Susan Bird, Joakim Linde

Visibility: 40' - 80' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: 48F - 53F Surge:

Max Depth: 180FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 1:00 Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50,50/25

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
After last weekend weather we were due for some good conditions. Sue, Jim, Joakim and myself were on board of the Escapade for a fun adventure. We decided to dive Flintstones. This site has lost its popularity to Mt. Chamberlin's main peaks K1, K2 and its South wall, however it's still a fantastic dive and one of the main attraction is that the top of the pinnacle goes all the way to 40ft, so we can do quite a lot of fun-deco :-). I also have quite a lot of personal attachment to the site as I done a lot of dives here and have quite a lot of good memories from the old days :-).

This dive site is a very large underwater mountain with a large crack or canyon crossing the mountain in a north-south direction. There is a large sandy area on the north side of the crack and a couple of smaller mountains around the
sandy patch.

We dropped the down-line on the south end of the crack. We jumped into the water to find a very clear water and not much current. We reached the start of the down-line at about 130ft and descended to the bottom at 150ft. From there
our teams spitted with Joe and Jim going on a loop on the west side and Sue and myself going to another reef parallel to the main structure which goes to about 180-200ft. We took a little detour of the normal route to check some
carved canyon that I have never seen before. Vis was that good.

The reef was spectacular with tons of gorgonias, red fish and several large lingcods. After about 20min of checking the parallel reef, we headed back to the main structure and ascended to about 140 for the second part of the dive. Here he headed north and ran over the old O2 cylinder that came from the Cypress Sea many years ago. There is still one of them under the sand :-0, and a little bit later we saw the huge school of black rock fish swimming towards us. We scootered around the fish for a couple of loop and at
that point we looked up and we could see the surface very clearly from the reef. We headed back to the main structure and swam through the
main crack and through a section full of metridiums. We could see Jim and Joe light and silhouettes at least 60ft way from us.

After 40min of fun we met we Jim/Joe at 70ft and continued onto the third part of the dive. The way to deco at Flintstone is to do one loop
around the structure every 10ft. That comes very close to 6,4s ..... we ran into another large school of rock-fish hiding from the current, and a large section of large hydro corals. After what felt like short 60min we deployed SMB and drifted with the current. Temp was 48 at the bottom and 50-53 during deco.

On the way back there were Risso Dolphins in Carmel and some of them were very friendly :-)

Surface condition were very clear and warm with the Carmel/Big Sur coast on the background.

It does not get much better than that in Monterey.

4/11/2010 19SUR aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Discuss this report in the BAUE Forum
Bottom Team: Jim Capwell

Visibility: 5' - 10' Time: 1:00 PM

Temp: 53F - 53F Surge:

Max Depth: 15FSW Avg Depth: 10FSW

Bottom Time: 1:20 Total Time: 1:20

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
The plans for the weekend were pretty ambitious. We had T1 trip on Saturday and T2 trip on Sunday plan on the Escapade.

We meet at the dock on Saturday morning and drove out to Point Pi~nos. The moment we try to go south we were confronted by a very strong south wing :-(. We decided to save the mix for another day.

Due to Saturday condition and Sunday forecast Captain CAP decide to call Sunday off. It's a dynamic environment after all....

On Saturday we went for breakfast at The breakfast club, then a trip to the sport center for a nice swim, where I shared my lane with a 75yr old gentlemen than was making me work hard to keep up. It was inspiring to swim with him :-)

Sunday afternoon CAP call me to see if I want to test our new Santi undies. We didn't have anybody to drive the boat so we just went under the boat and tested the gear. We saw tons of Hermisendas, a lot of hermit crabs, and two very cool sarcastic fringed-heads on inside the holes of a lead-acid battery. If they live there it might be a great place to get video of them. After a few minutes they didn't mind our lights any more. We found another one just under the boat, but didn't want to interact with us much.

So after all .... we went diving on the Escapade, well under the Escapade ;-)

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 Next