BAUE Trip Reports

Date

Older than
Newer than

Limit

Newest First
Oldest First

Region

Location

Diver

1/19/2008 Pt Lobos by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, John Heimann

Visibility: 30' - 40' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 52F - 52F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 65FSW Avg Depth: 45FSW

Bottom Time: 1:45 Total Time: 1:45

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
John and I got in two nice dives in Whaler's Cove after a long holiday layoff. We managed to survey all 4 nudibranch transects and had still had time left to take some pictures.

The first dive was spent on the 4 transects and despite the recent storms there was no shortage of slugs to be counted. We even managed to find 3 Flabellina trilineata which have been rare on the transects.

Conditions were actually nicer shallow near the launch ramp so for the second dive we decided that we would stay in shallow water. Despite some surge we found lots of slugs to photograph. Then, to top off a nice day, a small ratfish came to visit us for a few minutes at the end of the dive

Pictures here.

11/22/2007 Pt Lobos by Mark Lloyd -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Mark Lloyd, Marlies Lloyd

Visibility: 25' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 50F - 51F Surge:

Max Depth: 70FSW Avg Depth: 39FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 0:49

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Marlies and I had a reservation at Lobos today and pulled into Lobos at about 10:30. The ranger told us a group of divers had just pulled in then turned right round and left. Hmmmm.... hope that wasn't due to the conditions. It was bright and sunny so my hopes were up.

It looked surgy but divable so we geared up. We swam out and dropped down with the intention of heading North following middle reef. Down below the vis sucked big time but once at about 60' it opened up to about 20-25 and the surge all but disappeared.

With much of the kelp now dying back its a great time to do some exploring in the areas that you can't normally swim through. Once our time was up we headed back into the pea soup and surfaced about 1/2 way to the boat ramp.
Wow was it surgy there. I have never had such a hard time getting back in. Can you say 'Turtle' ! Yikes.

After doing the Monterey crawl I got my fins off and helped Marlies up. We finished it off with a nice picnic in the sun and a leisurely drive back home.

11/3/2007 Outer Pinnacles aboard Escapade by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Mark Lloyd, Dionna House

Visibility: 45' - 60' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 5'

Max Depth: 92FSW Avg Depth: 55FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Every dive there is something new - this one on the Escapade at the Pinnacle proper was great FUN!!! The water was very blue and the kelp was lying down awaiting the frolic and comic.

The first dive was great swimming through the canyons and going down right and left passageways and coming back to the anchor line. Mark and I did some juggling practice and all went okay. We came up laughing and smiling from the crazy upward and downward surge that kept us from staying in the 2ft window. Wow - hard to be able to evaluate that one if we have up and downward surge to contend to. It was still fun!!! And great to be underwater with the Sea Nettles and the beautiful kelp

Jim moved the boat to the Outer Pinnacles. Yes, this spot is very omen for Mark and I after today\'s dive. We jumped in and were able to descend near the stern of the boat. The vis was so great we were able to see the anchor line from the bow. With all the kelp near by, we had to be very careful with entangling all the bottles clipped to us. Once again there were canyons and passage way just like the first dive. Okay \"the fun begins\" time to juggle with cold hands and no dexterity. Instead of unclipping the butt end of the stage, I unclipped the 02 bottle. Doh!! Okay.. I can just bring the bottle around and hold it on my rightside, hopefully Mark will not go out of gas. Bouyancy and trim are okay. With my left hand I unclipped the stage and clipped it to the leash. At least I thought it was clipped to the leash. I moved the stage back and thought, \"hey aren\'t I slick\". But something didn\'t feel right. I brought the leash forward to notice that the stage was not there. I looked up to watch my stage rocketing up to the surface. Doh!!! I gave the thumbs to Mark and he thumbed me back. I thought: I didn\'t need that stage anyways, and where are the support divers when you need them??? ;-). I rolled myself upside to look to see where it went as Mark and I were making our ascent. Knowing it is up there somewhere, I rolled myself again to notice John and Clinton delivering my stage to me. I clipped it to me and gave them both a wave of thanks. . But where is my hot latte to warm my hands??? They both had big grins on their faces. What wonderful BAUE brother I have!!!! Oh yikes!! I thought ...they\'re going to give me heat for this on the boat. I started laughing. Okay back to the dive. Since we are obviously not at the anchor line and there was no current, I shot the bag and up we came. Kicking and laughing the whole way back to the boat. yes.. that stage on the surface is mine. Despite all this, Mark and I have improved... ;-)

Really great diving and having fun!!!!

Thanks to Jim Capwell and his wonderful crew.

10/28/2007 Pinnacle Point Wall aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 60' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 48F - 50F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 160FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 21/35 Deco Gases: 50/25,O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Yesterday we were diving on board the Escapade. Plan A was to go to Kawika's Garden in the Bay but due to the red-algae layer on the bay we decided to venture further out to Carmel.

We selected Pinnacle Point Wall, a 600ft long wall situated past the North-West corner of the Point Lobos Marine Reserve. We haven't dove this site for long time and the calm conditions made for a perfect day to dive this wall.

We had Clinton, Dionna and Mark in one group and Susan and myself on the other. Jim Capwell deployed his down-line at the top of the wall (120f) and the teams were deployed live.

The current was about 1knot so getting down required some effort. Susan and I landed at the top of the wall, and then second team landed on an annex pinnacle.

Visibility was very good, at least 60ft.. We could see Clinton's camera flashes and his team HID light 100 ft away.

Water was a little colder than previous weeks. We had 46-48 at the bottom and 50 during deco.

Here are some photos from Clinton, as well as surface shots of Orcas from Jim Capwell and a couple of sonar maps of the area.

A great way to finish a long weekend of diving :-)

10/20/2007 Lover's Point aboard Unknown Boat by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Ildiko Frank, Dionna House

Visibility: 10' - 15' Time: 9:00 AM

Temp: 52F - 53F Surge: 8'

Max Depth: 42FSW Avg Depth: 35FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Despite the weather conditions I was able to get on the Cypress Sea to do some Reefcheck Surveys with Ildiko Frank. It was the last reefcheck survey from an offshore site of the season, so I thought it would be a good idea to join the boat. Cyndi Dawson also needed more survey divers on board. It was fun to see some of the creative Halloween costumes on board too. We had hoped to get around the corner to do Carmel River Beach (aka: Stewarts Cove). The weather and sea conditions didn�t allow that to happen. So, since Lover�s Pt was a Reefcheck site that needed to be completed for MLPA reasons, we did just that. Ildiko and I were assigned the first core transect. We jumped in and swam to the area and descended. Found a nice kelp stalk to tie the transect tape to and off we went. We didn�t count many fish on our transect, however other reefcheckers did see some scattered schools of fish. While counting species, we were challenged with some long surge, but, managed to stay on the transect. Max depth was 42ft. with 10-15feet of vis. We all completed the site to contribute to making decisions on what sites are protected from Department of Fish and Game. Hooray for Reefcheck divers!!!!

The second dive was at Hopkins Deep Reef. This was a fun dive without having to collect data. Ian joined our team. I ran the reel as we explored the site. Ildiko had a real friendly harbor seal come and play with her hands and maneuvered himself to get his face scratched. The harbor seal had fun chewing on my fins and tugging on my line. The conditions deteriorated quite quickly. Funny coming up the anchor line and being swept from left to right at least 5-8feet. On our zig zag ascent we did see Sea Nettles� Max depth 66ft. with about 5 feet of visibility. We surfaced to higher swells with white caps tipping over our heads.

We wrapped up the day with a fun BBQ and fun times with new friends on Del Monte Beach.

8/19/2007 Lingcod Reef aboard Unknown Boat by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Dionna House, Greg Holzer

Visibility: 30' - 50' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 1'

Max Depth: 55FSW Avg Depth: 44FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Cyndi Dawson from Reefcheck was able to get some extra funding for the certified Reefcheckers to board the Cypress Sea for Free on Sunday for more surveys. Since the visibility was so good in Carmel, we motored to Pescadero Pt. or AKA Lingcod Reef. The seas were very flat and tame. We anchored in 60 feet of water and we were able to see the kelp at least 40feet down. Perfect conditions for surveying this reef. I buddied up with Greg Holzer. We were instructed to do one Core Transect, which is a count of fish, invertebrates, algae, and uniform point contact for 30meters. We were in 50-55 feet running West at 300 degrees just off shore. Wonderful visibility! It was great to see this site and the layout. Lots of single stipe kelp plants to count on this site. Very challenging maneuvering around it!

We were given a little more work on the second survey dive to finish up what others didn�t complete. We did a shallow Core Transect and one Fish Count. Swimming out to the locations took some careful planning, but, once we were there we got busy counting. We were at 30-35feet of water and running the transect line East at 120 degrees.

Observations: Pescadero Pt is an area that is fished often. We didn�t see much in terms of fish on the first transect due to doing the deeper transect count. In the shallower area, we did see more fish, especially those wonderful blue rockfish. The size was about equal in the 15cm and 15-30cm range. At the shallower transect, I counted the various kelp on our list, which was great to see on a transect line. Actually one giant kelp plant had at least 75 stipes!!!

It was alot of fun doing this!!!

8/15/2007 Coral Street by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Dionna House, Robert Lee, Cyndi Dawson

Visibility: 20' - 25' Time: 2:00 PM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 35FSW Avg Depth: 23FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:21

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
I was fortunate to be able to break away midweek to do some surveys with Reefcheck Northern California Rep. Cyndi Dawson. Our site for survey was Coral Street. Even though there were some white caps out in the exposed area, there was quite a bit of protection due to the dense kelp beds. Cyndi Dawson and Greg Holzer, being North Coast divers, geared up on the rocks at the parking lot as I parked on the street and set my table for easy entry and exit with doubles. The plan was to do 2 dives and knock out 6 core transects. This is counting Fish, Invertebrates, Algea and Uniform Point Contact at 35ft and 20ft depths. We kicked out and arrived at the first transect. As we were collecting data on each transect I had an extra support diver (Comerant) bird following me on each transect. I think he was hoping that I would scare up some food for him. The best part was to see this bird dive down and spear a black perch and bring up. I haven�t seen that behavior.

We were only able to do 3 core transects at the 30ft outer zone. The swell started picking up and the shallower zones would have been too surgy to get good data. Visibility was about 20-25feet. My job was fairly easy since the invertebrate that are on the list were scarce at the specific location. I counted a lot of bat stars!!! I was also trying out my new drysuit too. It felt good to be in a suit that fits and stay DRY again. Water temp was 50 degrees, total run time was 81 minutes

After about a 5 hours surface interval, I jumped in the water again at the Breakwater. Robert Lee and I were searching for Octopi. The visibility was not good. We took our time finding the pipe out to the Metridium Fields. The Metridiums were all out and feeding. They looked happy. It is great to see them glow as you shine the HID lights on them. We did see an orange metridium. We managed to see about 4-5 octopi that were about 1 foot in length. They displayed several colors for us. Robert was able to get some pictures of them. I spotted a Dirona albonileata on one of the reefs out there. Water temp was a toasty 55 degrees. Total run time was 108 minutes. The hardest part of the day was the drive home after being in the water for 189 minutes... 8-)

8/12/2007 Pt Lobos by Mark Lloyd -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Mark Lloyd, Dionna House

Visibility: 5' - 80' Time: 10:37 AM

Temp: 49F - 55F Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time:

Max Depth: 113FSW Avg Depth: 60FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:19

Bottom Gases: 30/30 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Lobos was nice and sunny when Dionna and I showed up at 9am. It was certainly a BAUE day with lots of people showing up to do a Nudibranch count with Clinton. We were hoping for some great vis and were not disappointed. After dropping just before the cove exit we scootered out to hole in the wall. Vis was very good at about 50' or so and continued to get better. Still lots of kelp around with many smaller strands which looked like cave line going up. Continuing on we zoomed by Beto's reef and passed the deeper Sister. We could see two structures that looked like twin peaks but I guess were not. John called them 'twin cheeks', seems appropriate. At this point we were only 14 mins into the dive, wow! lots of time left. At this point I when I looked up I could see the surface at over 100'. We turned around, headed back and navigated over to the middle reef. Saw Clinton and gang counting Nudibranch's then surfaced back at the boat ramp. What a great dive, the scooter performed great and I am just starting to get comfortable with the positioning so the dive was very relaxing.

8/6/2007 Lobos Rocks aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Alberto Nava, Susan Bird

Visibility: 40' Time: 9:00 AM

Temp: 51F Surge: 6'

Max Depth: 100FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:10

Bottom Gases: 30/30 Deco Gases: O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Saturday diving with BAUE team onboard on the Escapade with Jim Capwell and his crew. Weather was better than previous weekends so we decided to
dive north of Point Sur. We started by diving Lobos Rocks. This is always a great dive and we have several divers working on photos and videos of the area. Unfortunatly the Sea Lions didn't wanted to play with us. Maybe they knew about the landlord recent visits. Visibility was about 40ft with 4-6ft swells pounding on the rocks. It's always fun to hang watching the waves break on the wall :-).

For the second dive we headed up for Flinstone. We haven't dove it this year so it was time to jump on this incredible pinnacle. There were a lot of moon jellies in the water. Visibility was 40-50 but with a lot of particules in suspension. We dove the main wall that cross the pinnacle south-north.

I took my video camera out for a test ride after some repair so here and some videos of the dives:

Clip of Lobos Rocks

Clip of Flintstones

Good thing is the macro-blocking at the begging of the tape is fixed, bad thing is my monitor and one of my handles are out of batteries, and my E/O connector is not working all the time :-0

Photos from Clinton and Robert are in this album

7/28/2007 Big Sur Pinnacle aboard Unknown Boat by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Alberto Nava, Susan Bird, Devin MacKenzie

Visibility: 20' - 50' Time: 8:00 AM

Temp: Surge:

Max Depth: 100FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: 30/30 Deco Gases: O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
On board of the Cypress Sea for another Big Sur extravaganza day. We started very early and left port about 6:00am. On board we had some of the usual suspects: Clinton, Cameron, Susan, and Keith, and we had Devin with us for his first Big Sur trip.

The forecast was for strong winds and gale force winds south of Big Sur but Clinton�s report on the 3am forecast was a little better so we decided to head south.

The first dive was at a pinnacle a few hundred feet west of the Point Sur lighthouse. We have gone by this reef structure many times but the 10ft shallow peak plus the large waves break at the top made us continue our drive, and we have create a strange name for it, Bloody Stump. Today the weather was the best we had in a few weeks so we decided to give it a try.

Capt Phil anchored the boat and let go of enough scope on the line so the boat was clear of shallow peak. Susan, Devin and Beto jumped in the water and were dragged by the current towards the anchor line. We descended to find a 60ft ledge with a lot of bulk kelp attached to it.

Our plan was to circumnavigate the reef which was about 600ft long. We head NW for about 10min. The terrain was not expectatular but there were a lot of purple algae covering the terrain. The force of the waves washing the area is so strong that very few animals can attach and survive in there. We reach the north end and turned around, no without first noticing the 1 knot current that was going North :-0.

The south side of the reef had much more life and we found a small appendix to the reef where we saw several huge lingcods and vermilions hanging around.

We made it back to the anchor line and rejoined with Clinton, Cameron and his brother for a nice safety stops on the anchor line. Visibility was not as good as last weekend but still good 30 to 40ft.

This site was not as interesting as we expected but we did it and were back in the boat with no injury ;-)

For the second dive we motored south to get protection from the weather and dove Compost reef. This is always an incredible dive with several wolf eels, octopuses and amazing invertebrates life. Especially there is a nice overhand at 60ft which is cover with corynactus of different family competing for space, some pick and some purple.

For the third dive we decided to head even farther south moving away from the strong winds and large swells on the north. As always Phil wanted to dive Partington canyon and we almost had a mutiny about it. We have dived it at least once on all the trips down there. It�s good but not that good. So we headed a little farther south looking for some clear water.

As we looked at the laptop and other tools on the boat we realized we were out of the sonar data range and left with the old tools: depth finder, terrain, rocks and kelp to locate good dive sites. I thought we had all the sonar data we needed but this proved we can still venture outside that range.

We ended anchoring the boat at the Partington Point proper and located a nice reef with clear/water and some nice kelp. Susan and I descended, crossed the kelp and found the wall on the other side of the kelp. It was really fun to be scooter in and our of the breakers and we eventually headed SW to the deeper section of the reef. We located a nice cavern on the wall and entered to look for invertebrates. We were hoping for an octopus but no luck. At the end of the reef there was a huge school of rockfish and all kind of clam shells, some abalones and quite a lot of crabs of all kind.

All in all it was great diving day. Ahh yes I almost forgot to mention the ride back home. One of the worst I ever had with lights, cabinets and boxes coming from the roof and walls of the boat as we had to endure several hours of pounding waves and winds :-0

Click Here for some maps of the dive sites.

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