BAUE Trip Reports

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9/10/2005 Aumentos aboard Escapade by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Dionna House, Ian Puleston

Visibility: 10' - 20' Time: 2:30 PM

Temp: 53F - 55F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 70FSW Avg Depth: 50FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
Diving off the Escapade on an afternoon charter the swells have picked up so we stayed in the Bay. Few BAUE folks and some Aquan Sports instructors and friends heading out to Aumentos Reef and Eric�s Pinnacle. The plan was to get some line practice and stage bottle practice. Ian reeled out for the first dive and at the end of the reel did some stage juggling practice and reeled back in. I just practiced switching from a stage to backgas and clipping the bottle to the left d-ring. Frank gave me some different tubing (band) for stowing my hose. With this one, I did feel like I had to wrestle with getting the hose under the rubber band. Vis was nothing spectacular about 15-20ft. I managed to look up and saw a school of Mola�s swimming by above us. I got Ian�s attention to late though. We did see a few dead or near dead Mola�s at that site. We did see a beautiful juvenile tree fish hanging out in a crevice where it is safe. Colors were very vibrant, with orange cup corals in the background. It was sweet!!!

For the second dive at Eric�s Pinnacle I got in some reel practice. I wasn�t going to go the distance that we went on the first dive, we headed NW to check out some small reefs close by Erik�s Pinnacle. Vis was still about 15-20ft We were visited by a large curious sea lion that was managing to visit all the dive teams for a fin tug or two. It was all good. Great opportunity to practice or try out different things. Especially when we all have a sense of humor with some mistakes. ;-).

9/3/2005 E3 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Support Team: Mark Weitz

Visibility: 20' - 30' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: Surge:

Max Depth: 190FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
On saturday Sue and I were on the Escapede for the BAUE chartered trip. They initial plan was to dive at Mt. Chamberlin , the south wall and then Step2. However, as we approached the Yankee Point area the swell and winds were big enough that we had to abort and head for some protection in the E3 area.

We were part of the first two teams that got in the water. Susan and I, and Clinton and Gina C. We scootered down the anchor line and got to the top of the pinnacle after a couple of min. Once at the top of the pinnacle I remembered why this place was called E3. There were many Elephant Ear sponges of all sizes and shapes. Together with red gorgonias it made for a amazing scene.

Susan and I scootered around the pinnacles while looking at all the vermillion and big lingcods. We saw several gorgonias with simnias on them.

The gorgonias seen to have more invertebrates living on them that what I recall. Although I haven't been here in 6 to 8 months. We saw a couple of small brittle stars on the gorgonias.

Vis was 20-30ft but it was a bit dark. I was trying to look for some old cement blocks I saw in there a while ago but could not locate them. I'm wondering how they got there???

Once our 20min were over we heading for the top of pinnacle and locate the anchor line, and we could see Clinton and Gina on their way to us.

The deco part of the dive was a lot of fun as there were many E. Y jellies in the area, and a lot of them have small pilot fish on them. We saw one with 6 to 8 little fish :-). Susan and I stayed close to the anchor line using the scooters to stay in position. I would have like to scooter btw of the jellies but vis was not that great and i didn't want to get separate from the boat.

Second dive was Ball Buster as the ocean was rough and we needed to be back by 3:30. While looking for a fin that Gina lost we ran into a nice pinnacle south-east of BB which had a lot of rock-fish. It almost like the fish know to stay away from BB. Smart fish ;-).

Nice day of diving.

8/28/2005 Montana by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Martin McClellan, Alberto Nava

Visibility: Time: 11:30 AM

Temp: Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Long Burn Time: 1:00

Max Depth: 150FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:30 Total Time: 1:45

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: 50/25,O2

Backgas Config: Double LP95 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
5
4
4
4
5
14
up
Martin was down here for some fun diving at Lobos. We have tried to get him out to Montana at least 3 times in the last few months but weather has not cooperate until this past Sunday.

Susan, Martin and myself met at Lobos at 9:00, well 9:30am, and it was a perfect day. No swell, no wings, good visibility and blue sunny sky. There were a lot of locals at Point Lobos: Chuck and Linda, Russ and Randy from Light & Motion and many others so we chatted for a while before starting out dive. There we 5 scooter at Lobos!!

I wanted to take my camera to video some of those E.Y jellies that are in the area. However, after going th the dive objective I left my camera in the car. The objective was to give Martin an overview of the area and Susan some more practice with navegation to Montana and doing some reeling with the scooter. Soon we'll have a good team that can get there while I just concentrate on +-db, f stops and others ;-). We scooters for about 15min before getting to 80ft. Vis at 90ft was a least 50ft. The water column was filled with E.Y jellies everywhere. At some locations we had at least 8 of them separates 20ft from each other. Amazing view. Some of them had little fish inside, and some of them were been eating by rockfish. We scootered from 80ft to 140ft and we took our time to show Martin some of the navegation aid we used to get there. The little sea pens sand passages, the cross-road pinnacle, the weird metal object on the sand, and finally the last rock before montana. From there we ran a reel for 150ft to get to the south of the pinnacle. I'm always amazed with the side of the walls and how much life is in there. We saw a pretty nice Dinora Albolineata (firs time of the season) and some other big nudribrances. On the way back we cleaned a bunch of old line that was on the south area, and Susan did a great job reeling the line back to the little pinnacle. We need to get a photo of that metal block to try to identify it. During the deco we observed quite a lot of juv fish inside the cove. We saw a very nice 1.5 in Cabezon :-). All in all a great diving day :-)

8/27/2005 Pt Lobos by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Anibal Mata-Sol, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 50' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: Surge:

Max Depth: 77FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:17

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double AL80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Visibility at Lobos Point Lobos has been really good in the last couple of weeks. For that reason Anibal and myself went down to Point Lobos for some simple diving with our scooters.

Each one of us had a stage with 32% and 32% on our doubles. Anibal had 80LP and I had a "spare" set of AL80 doubles that I want to test. I put a big 11lbs V weight on those thing to make them neutral. This are supposed to be the DIR ocean tanks so wanted to try them ....

We scooters to middle reef, then granite point and finally to the kelp forest on the East side of Granite Point. This is a great area with a very dense Kelp canopy with makes the area dark. There are a lot of invertebrates under the kelp including some of the best hydrocoral in the reserve.

Visibility was 50-60ft at the best and not less than 30ft under the dark kelp.

We saw a really big Cabezon on the north coner of granite point. I think it leaves in there.

We turned around based on time after 30min. The area we turned around had some great terrain with a 40ft tall wall full of sponges and hydrocorals. Next time we need to go there with some cameras...

Anibal said this was his 3rd best dive in this area and the best thing is we didn't need any He and it was a non deco dive :-).

Once we run out of He this is going to be a very popular dive ;-).

8/21/2005 Pt Lobos by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 25' - 70' Time: 3:00 PM

Temp: Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Long Burn Time:

Max Depth: 80FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double AL80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
While I was supposed to stay home Sat/Sun resting and taking care of our little dog, the report of amazing visibility force me to go diving on Sunday ;-) Susan and I went to Point Lobos for a late afternoon dive. We started our dive at about 3:00pm. Pretty decent for a easy Sunday. Visibility at the Cove was only about 25-30ft but once we got to the sand channel and beyond the visibility open to 50-70ft. It's pretty amazing to dive in there with such a good visibility. You can see all the reefs, rocks and sand patches and it give you a pretty good idea of the navegation patterns and aids in the area. We met Mike and Josh for some power light show and then headed for Granite Point Wall. We stopped to play with Jellies on the way, and spent some times videos some of the nice Hydrocoral in that area. Later on we headed to a very nice kelp bed that's East of Granite Point. It's a very nice experience to scooter or swim under that really thick kelp which make the area dark but still have a lot of sun light penetrating from the canopy. After 60min of fun we headed back to the Cove. I'm glad we went diving after all.

Here are some images.

8/20/2005 Rubicon Wall, Tahoe by Martin McClellan -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Scott Ekkelboom, Martin McClellan, Dave Payne

Visibility: 40' - 40' Time: 3:59 PM

Temp: 48F - 64F Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Long Burn Time: 2:00

Max Depth: 110FSW Avg Depth: 60FSW

Bottom Time: 1:00 Total Time: 1:55

Bottom Gases: 30/30 Deco Gases: O2

Backgas Config: Double LP95 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
90-1
80-1
70-1
60-3
50-3
40-5
30-5
20-20
8 up
Our dive took us out from the swim beach at Bliss State Park to the sand roll over (sand wall) at about 15' to begin an easterly scooter to the wall about 1500 feet on a bearing of about 90 degrees. After a short 12 minute scoot, we hit the wall, dropped to 80', and began our journey along the wall at between 100' - 110'. We traveled on a 30/30 AL80 stage for 36 minutes and then switched to our back gas of 30/30 for the return trip to the beginning of the wall and then our scooter back between 30 and 20' doing our O2 time just below the sand roll over at 15' and then a nice swim (scooters off) in underneath all the beer drinking boat traffic from the sand wall to the beach (a bearing of just about due south).

The Rubicon Wall is an impressive underwater granite cliff with all sorts of great unique geologic sights. Not much life but occasionally a big trout or macinaw. The wall waves in and out, runs for over a mile and there are some granite pinacles (albeit small) in a couple of spots along the way. One sees lots of abandoned boat anchors, anchor lines, fishing lures, downrigger weights and fishing line (watch this hazzard closely!).

The trip to the wall is a bit nerve wracking because of the boaters but if you start early you are better off. Leaving the beach, you scoot just about north to 15'(about 500' out) where there is a sand edge rolling down to some huge depths. You follow this natural navigation aid for between 12 and 15 minutes (nothing but sand, some shoes, shirts, towels, underwear...the usual Tahoe debris from the alert boaters above)and then you hit the start of the wall which is a bunch of boulders, huge boulders, and then the wall. The visibility right now is not really good as the algae bloom seems to be staying shallow where usually it migrates to the colder deeper water.

This is one of my favorite sites at Tahoe.

8/19/2005 Breakwater by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Suzanne L (Suz) Baird

Visibility: 35' - 40' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 54F - 55F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 55FSW Avg Depth: 50FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:15

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Was able to break away for a friday dive with Suzanne. Went out to try and locate the Barge. We were not able to find it, however, I got some good reel practice. We also had some fun interactions with a comerant bird that started to chew on my line while reeling in. Kinda reminded me of what my parrot would have done. It was funny, but, was worried that he would have gotten himself tangled. He Broke Free!!! I managed to lose my knife to Neptune. If found, it is a Black Remora Knife. Should be along the wall some where. Very relaxing way to start the wonderful weekend of good diving conditions

Saturday, I introduced Mark Lloyd from Holland to Northern California Diving at its best. He has not been in the water for 4 months, so, wanted to break him in. ;-) Kreshimir joined us. We toured the wall with hopes to find my lost knife and the second cinderblock. Wasn't successful with our findings, but, we sure had fun with the sealions and once again, some fun interactions with the comerant bird.

The second dive on Saturday was again with Mark Lloyd and Susan Bird joined us. We swam out along the wall and started to reel out to locate the barge underwater. While reeling out we had sealions come and play with us. In fact one of them seemed to have been rather fond of Mark. Either that, or just welcoming him to Northern California. Conditions were very nice. Although we were not able to find the barge, it was sure fun watching the sealions dart at us and meandering through the kelp forest on the way back along the wall. Ahhhhhh!!!

Great weekend of diving and great company!

Scooters would have been nice to have on our Barge journey!!!

Can't wait for next weekend.

8/15/2005 Pt Lobos by Devin MacKenzie -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Devin MacKenzie, John Heimann

Visibility: 15' - 50' Time: 2:00 PM

Temp: 49F Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Long Burn Time:

Max Depth: 185FSW Avg Depth: 140FSW

Bottom Time: 0:40 Total Time:

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

Backgas Config: Double LP80,LP104 Deco Tanks: AL40,AL80
Deco Profile:
15@20



5@70
Fast scooter out Beto's Reef then W across to reef chain to Twin Peaks. We had the intention to clean up the line around Twin Peaks. However, we scootered on line to the pinnacle and around counter clockwise and there was no stray line visible.

Topside conditions were dreary but vis was good outside of the cove and there was decent ambient light making it a 'blue' dive.

7/29/2005 Pt Lobos aboard Phil Sammet's RIB by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Alberto Nava, Susan Bird

Visibility: 20' - 60' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: 48F - 53F Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time: 0:25

Max Depth: 200FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:25 Total Time:

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: O2

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Susan and I went for a dive this morning at Point Lobos on Capt. Phil Sammet's RIB. Based on all the discussions about getting 'Lost At Sea' we were going to be really careful. We didn't want more incidents in one week. We have several plans depending on the conditions of the day. Lucky for us it was really calm seas, maybe 2-3ft swell not more. The fog was a bit dense (as it always is in summer). We met with Phil at 9:00, well 9:15 :-).... loaded our gear in the boat and headed towards sea.

We had plan A, plan B, plan C and Option 1 ;-). We headed for the area of Plan A to see what the conditions were out there. This plan was to scooter Pinnacle Point Wall on the north-west corner of the Park. This wall is 700ft long, starts at 70ft and it drops down to about 220ft towards the end.

We motored to the shallow spot and evaluated plan A. One of the main dangers of diving this area are the famous Sea Lions Rocks. Waves break pretty badly over these rocks in strong weather. Today that was not a issue, even if we drifted into the rocks it would not be a problem (we might even see some cool sea lions :-) ). We then evaluated the fog. It was a thick fog, but with a high ceiling-- Phil said this has been the pattern over the last couple of weeks. We had at least 1/4 mile visibility, consistent with recent weather patterns. There was a very slight current, as predicted by the software which forecasts current conditions.

So divers and Capt. decided on Plan A. We would drop at the shallow spot, scooter in a 330 degree heading to the end of the wall and then loop around until our 25min bottom time was exhausted. Capt Phil would motor for 600ft from the descent point and hang there to wait for our bag to pop up.

The dive was really good. The shallow area of the wall has some big and healthy hydrocorals, some of them as big as the ones on Big Sur's banks, although not quite as abundant as we see there. The water was clear at the surface (40ft), there was a middle layer with a lot of particles, but it cleared again once we hit 100ft mark, aloowing at least 60ft viz. We scootered for a bit until we found the side of the wall. It drops from 100ft to 220ft at the sand. What a view!! :-).

We followed the wall for 4 min while looking at the usual marina life. The wall was carpeted with corynactous, elephant ear sponges, and many gorgonians. Half way along the wall we saw a little pinnacle on the left side and we looped around it a couple of times. Really nice terrain to play around. Once back at the wall we continued towards the deep section. The wall was really vertical and it has some very pointy ridges and deep cracks. At the end it breaks down and meets the sand at 220ft. Looking back from the sand to the top of the wall it looked to me like a huge castle. Here we were surrounded by all kind of rock fish. Vermilions, Rosie, starry, etc. We also saw many juvenile rock fish including one Yellow Eye.

After checking the end of the wall, we headed back to the middle section and surveyed the wall back and forth. We saw a very nice Cabezon resting on a Elephant ear sponge. This was a photo contest winner!!! We didn't have my camera, which is back at the shop for some upgrades :-(... next time...

After 25min of fun diving, we headed towards the top of the wall and did our deep stops while still enjoying the site. One we got to 80ft and approximately 600ft from the descent point we sent up our bag, and maintained our position on the wall until we heard the boat engine confirming the position of the divers. Once located, we moved away from the wall and continue our ascent.

Phil said we almost hit the boat with the bag, and told us he would have had to charge us for repairs :-;. That's what I call good team coordination. It's definitely a nice feeling to hear that boat :-).

The deco was quite interesting as we had many egg-yolk jellyfish going by. Some of them had little creatures living on their tops, and one of them was just on top of Susan tanks for a few minutes, yikes. The water was 48 at depth, and 53 degrees during the deco, so it was nice and warm.

All in all another great day of diving in paradise :-).

I hope conditions stay like this for the weekend.

See you on the Escapade on Sunday.

Sue&Beto

7/17/2005 Montana by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 50' Time: 12:00 PM

Temp: Surge:

Scooter: Gavin Long Burn Time: 60:00

Max Depth: 160FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 45:00 Total Time: 2:00

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Sue and I went for a dive at Point Lobos yesterday. We started the day with a late breakfast and arrived at Lobos around noon.
Our plan was to visit Montana on the west corner of the park. We put all our gear in the water and started our dive around 1:30pm.
Visibility was good. 30ft at the cove and probably 50-60ft as we scootered out. With this kind of visibility it was very easy to navigate to the pinnacle. On the way there we observed that most of our navigation glues were broken :-(, and decided to use a 150ft spool to mark the last section on the way there.
Once at the pinnacle we enjoyed the scenery for about 15min. We saw some very large Tritona Festiva, one of them was as large as my index finger and probably twice as thick. It was in a little sand patch which has some very nice orange sea pens.
There were many Vermillon rockfish, and we saw a large number of juv. Rosies. I have never seen that many in one place.
We found a new colony of Poly. worms. Very similar to the ones south of the hole in the wall, but this colony had 6 individuals.
We also checked the old octopus den, but he/she was not there :-(.
As always the time at the pinnacle went very fast and he headed back to our spool and reel it in as we moved throught 100ft of sand btw Montana and the next reef
All in all a great diving day.

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