BAUE Trip Reports

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7/16/2005 Monastery North by Nick Radov -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Will Gore, Kevin Metcalfe, Nick Radov

Visibility: 15' - 20' Time: 11:14 AM

Temp: 50F - 52F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 167FSW Avg Depth: 72FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 0:59

Bottom Gases: 21/35,18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Double LP80,LP104 Deco Tanks: AL40
Deco Profile:
Somehow Kevin managed to talk me into doing another deep shore dive at North Monastery. He swam the deco bottles out first with a lift bag, then we all went back in with our doubles, picked up our deco bottles, and swam out even with the wash rock. Once we dropped we headed straight down the wall to about 160ft, then turned and swam along the reef at that depth for a few minutes. There's quite a few red gorgonians at that level and one large cluster of metridiums. Saw a good collection of nudibranchs including several Tritonia festiva and Flabellina iodinea, as well as the usual Cadlina luteomarginata and Archidoris odhneri. The fish were somewhat sparse. We moved up the reef in steps to 140ft, then 110ft, and turned around to head back. There wasn't much real deco required but we switched gasses at about 65ft and wandered back up along the edge of the kelp forest. Will had a leak in his boot so he was rather cold by the time we got out. At least the water has warmed up about 2degF in the last few weeks. :-)

6/25/2005 Mt Chamberlin - South Wall aboard Escapade by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Dionna House, Nick Radov

Visibility: 40' - 50' Time: 8:30 AM

Temp: 49F - 51F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 169FSW Avg Depth: 110FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:08

Bottom Gases: 21/35 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Double HP100 Deco Tanks: AL40
Deco Profile:
The seas were flat and we were lucky to have the Escapade all day. What more can we ask for! We headed southbound past Point Lobos and anchored on a spot called Mt Chamberlin. Slight current, but nothing to be to concerned about, since it was a live boat. The buddy teams were Sue Bird and Beto Nava, Clinton Bauder and David Chamberlin, Dionna House and Nick Radov. The depth range was 120ft down to 200ft
Although Beto described the wall running South, we just happened to have been on another reef beside the South wall. We explored the reef running west-east. Nick and I dropped down and found the top of the reef at around 130ish. We both agreed to drop down to 170ft to check it out for a few minutes then come up to 130 and hang out there for most of the dive. We dropped in and out of canyons and finally found 169ft. The vis between 40-50ft. The reef was covered with all the usual species, but what was very noticeable was the Elephant Ear Sponge and the beautiful topography. We made our way up to 130ft as planned and explored the reef until our time was up and we saw lights from a distance. It was Dave and Clinton. Not much longer we saw Sue and Beto. As planned we all met up as a group on our 70ft stop.
Surface Interval: A pod of Risso Dolphin�s came to visit us. We also saw a few humpbacks.
Dive 2:
Fanshell Beach Pinnacle: The top of the pinnacle was 50ish feet and it drop to 120ft Nick Radov decided to sit the second dive out and I was lucky to buddy up with Sue and Beto. We kept our max depth at 100ft. We were fortunate to be able to explore a swim through and on the other side of the swim through, David and Clinton were signaling to us GPO! The GPO was hidden in the cracks. The size of the suckers were pretty large though. Just around the corner, a smaller octopus came out to play with us. Very Sweet!.

6/25/2005 Mt Chamberlin - South Wall aboard Escapade by David Chamberlin -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, David Chamberlin

Visibility: 40' - 50' Time: 8:30 AM

Temp: 48F - 50F Surge: 2'

Max Depth: 180FSW Avg Depth: 160FSW

Bottom Time: 0:25 Total Time: 1:30

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

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks: AL40
Deco Profile:
70 7
60 4
50 4
40 4
30 5
20 18
10-0 7
Report from Clinton: We had a good group of 6 one the Escapade Saturday for some exploration diving; myself, Dave, Susan, Beto, Nick and Dionna. The plan was to explore the area Beto is calling Mt. Chamberlin which is a large pinnacle north of Flintstones. Naturally Dave had never seen this spot before and was worried that it might be another "Sammet Spire". Exactly why this was is unclear as the possibility of a dive anywhere near Flintstones being a bust is about zero.

Weather was insanely great with a smallish NW swell, sunny skies and hardly any wind. Better still the water was a completely different color than last week when the visibility was best measured in inches rather than feet. Visibility at Mt Chamberlin was easily 50 feet and it certainly is a reef worthy of naming after El Jefe. Dave and I meandered down a canyon that started at about 100 feet and hit the wall at around 150. The canyon was full of gorgonians and the wall a bright pink mass of Corynactis. We also saw a basket star sitting on top of a gorgonian. The highlight for me was finding a very large nudibranch which I think might be Dialula lentiginosa. This beast was nearly a foot long. If it is D. lentiginosa that's a range extension all the from BC. Pretty remarkable for an animal as conspicuous as this. Now if only I could remember to focus on getting good images of unusual things and and not rush off too quickly to the next thing. :-/

After the nudibranch we headed west until we hooked up with Sue and Beto who were scootering up and down the wall. The area where we found them featured all sorts of interesting topological features with some nice Elephant Ear sponges adding contrast to the Corynactis. During our Deco a bird made repeated visits to us. Seeing a bird fly by underwater makes you wonder if you're narced until you remember you're at 20 feet. :-P

For the second dive we moved up to Cypress Point and the Fanshell Beach pinnacles. Beto wanted me to lead the group to the swimthrough. Problem is I didn't really remember where it was. Fortunately Captain Jim put the hook right next to it. Better still just on the other side of the swimthrough we found a Giant Pacific Octopus back in a crack. 5 minutes into the dive we could have called it on account of already having seen everything.

Images from the video here. Not my best work but at least the video lights worked this week:

http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/album37

And some comments from Beto:

The area that Clinton mentioned is the best topography I've seen in Monterey/Carmel. The wall start at about 140ft and it goes down to 200ft. At the base on the wall there is a canyon going inside the wall for about 150ft. This canyon is probably 30ft width and it's covered with all kind of invertebrates: gorgonias, corynactus, big nudibranchs, etc. There were many species of rockfish: stary, rosy, vermillion, and even some small yellow eyes. Half way th the canyon there is a side tunnel that goes east back to the wall and there is a very nice arch/bridge to swim under. You can probably do a 20min dive just swimming the canyon and the side tunnel. Next time we'll get some video of it. This is probably one of the best tech dives in Carmel/Monterey :-)

6/24/2005 Naia Wall aboard Phil Sammet's RIB by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 40' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 48F - 50F Surge: 2'

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time:

Max Depth: 200FSW Avg Depth: 160FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:30

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Well this week weather was so good that Sue and I decided on a Frid/Sat diving plan. We meet Capt. Phil at Point Lobos and headed south to see what the ocean looked like. It was 2-4ft swell with a south winds, perfect conditions to try some new sites. I had a selection on area to check starting very close to Sea lions rocks (just out side the park) and heading west from there. This is a tricky area as there are some serious breakers to be worry about while doing your deco, but Frid's weather was good enough that we opted for the GPS closest to the rocks. The site, Naia wall, is a 800ft wall that start at 80ft and it drops down to 180-190ft. The wall is 800-1000ft long and it runs 300 degrees. Our anchor line missed the pinnacle by the 10ft and it went all the way to the sand. As we followed it down we had a look at the top of pinnacle. There were 4 to 6 small kelps at the top, and a lot of invertebrates on the way down. Very nice pinnacle. We scootered following the wall for 5 to 8 min, and until we reached a canyon going up. We had to back-up and while doing that we run into a school of about 20 big vermillion rockfish. We checked each other for about 1min. I love how these rockfish are not afraid of divers and actually come close to check you out. We continued scootering for another 10min and reached the end of the wall on the opposite side. This area is quite deep 200-240ft so we kept our depth while looking down at the amazing wall.
The deco was pretty uneventful and we drifted away from the breakers :-)
Here is a map of the area. This site should only be dived in very flat seas and south winds.
BTW, we saw some risso dolphins while entering the water so that's the reason we called Naia (dolphin) wall.

5/9/2005 Outer Ballbuster aboard Escapade by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, John Heimann

Visibility: 10' - 60' Time: 2:00 PM

Temp: 51F - 58F Surge:

Max Depth: 183FSW Avg Depth: 170FSW

Bottom Time: 0:25 Total Time: 1:15

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

Backgas Config: Double LP104 Deco Tanks: AL40,AL80
Deco Profile:
6,4,4,4,4,18,6 up.
Diving with John off of the Escapade. The original plan was to go South and dive Flintstones but the wind really picked up from the South making anything out of the bay dicey at best. We stuck our nose out Point Pinos for a look and quickly retreated into calmer water. We decided to dive a reef outside of Ballbuster that looked promising.

Visibility near the surface wasn't so hot but below 70 feet it opened up nicely to about 60 feet or more. The reef doesn't have the color of some of the Carmel sites but it was still very scenic with a good covering of Metridiums and gorgonians. We saw about every kind of rockfish imaginable including brown, starry, rosy, yelloweye, vermillion, canaries, blues and gophers. Beto also found a torpedo ray.

Video stills can be found here.

4/24/2005 Noonday Rock aboard Unknown Boat by John Heimann -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: John Heimann, Chuck Tribolet

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

Temp: 47F - 47F Surge: 4'

Max Depth: 95FSW Avg Depth: 90FSW

Bottom Time: 0:35 Total Time: 0:42

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Kawika, Chuck, Clinton and I took advantage of the flat seas today and headed out to the Farralons in Kawika's and Chuck's boats. Noonday is a gorgeous pinnacle with spectacularly vertical walls dropping from approx 70' to 150+. Vis was low at the surface but became clear and blue below 40'. Perhaps because it's so far offshore and not subject to predation by otters, there was an abundance of shellfish (large scallops, barnacles...) at the site. There were also huge schools of rockfish, though they were more skittish than those we find in Monterey. The Farralons are a beautiful place when the ocean is calm, and just being out that far in small boats is an interesting experience.

4/10/2005 Pt Lobos by John Heimann -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: John Heimann, Geoffroy Teyssonniere de Gramont

Visibility: 5' - 30' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 49F - 56F Surge: 5'

Scooter: Gavin Short Burn Time: 0:53

Max Depth: 118FSW Avg Depth: 90FSW

Bottom Time: 0:28 Total Time: 0:53

Bottom Gases: 30/30 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Our plan was to scooter out to Three Sisters and take a scootering and swimming tour of that area. After yesterday's storm, dive conditions were not looking promising, with braille conditions in inner Whaler's Cove and 5'+ swells rolling into Whaler's from Carmel Bay. Geoffroy and I scootered on the surface out to the mouth of the cove, and with vis there improving to perhaps 10' decided to go ahead with the dive. Familiarity gained from many recent swimming dives of the area, and use of 30/30 for zero narcosis, allowed us to do the dive successfully - we easily found the hole in the wall and lone metridium. By the time we got to Three Sisters vis was as much as 30', and here again familiarity from recent swim dives allowed us to confidently tour all the pinnacles in the area without worrying too much about about getting lost. Overall we had a pretty good dive, in what otherwise were very marginal conditions.

4/1/2005 E3 aboard Phil Sammet's RIB by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 50' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 46F - 50F Surge:

Max Depth: 200FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: 18/55 Deco Gases: 50/25,O2

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Sue and I took the day off to go diving before the onset of the big swells forecasted for the weekend. We went out with Capt Phil on his RIB, from Lobos. The original plan was to dive the south wall of Mt Chamberlin, but the winds were already picking up so we decided to stay close to home and do a traverse from E3 to Bluefish cove.
We dropped with our scooters at the top of E3 in about 120ft of water. The water was a very cold 46 degrees with scooter chill factor making it seem even colder, but the visibility was great!! maybe 50ft... We started our dive on the southwest side and looped around the base while enjoying the gorgonians and the big elephant ear sponges. From there we headed north torwards Deep E3, and at about 200ft we started seeing several vase sponges. Some had decorator crabs sitting on them, as well as small fishes living inside. On a rockface we found a small basket star entwined in a gorgonian. After spending 10min in this area we headed east towards the Needle and enjoyed a 10min scooter run following the outer wall of the area. There were huge China rockfish along the wall, and some big vermilion.
Once we got to the Needle we looped around once, taking in the beauty of the vertical walls covered with corynactus and zoanthids. This is an amazing pinnacle! Usually we circle the pinnacle many times, each time at a shallower depth, according to our deco plan. However this time we headed into shallower water at a 120 degree heading, to see what was there and if we could make it to Bluefish.
We scootered for a couple of minutes and found a long, narrow ridge full of multi-colored hyrdrocorals, where we did most of our 100-80ft stops. From there we headed south looking for shallow water, where we encountered a nice pinnacle that went from 70ft to 30ft, perfect for our 50% deco stops. The pinnacle was covered with huge hydrocorals and was home to a massive school of blue rockfish on the east side. Big swells and surge were already hitting the area so we took shelter with the rockfish for the remainder of the dive.
Once we got to 30ft, we shot our bag and moved away from the pinnacle. By this time we had scootered for about 70min, dove at least 5 different sites, and needless to say we really enjoyed the dive day. We slowly drifted among strands of kelp for our 20min of deco to complete the dive.
Top side conditions were not as bad as predicted, and it was a gorgeous, sunny day.
Here is the route we followed.

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