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BAUE Trip Reports
2/16/2003 Eric's Pinnacle Damnit! aboard Escapade by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Kati Laihia, Sami Laine, Clinton Bauder |
| Visibility: |
50' |
Time: | 6:15 PM |
| Temp: |
52F |
Surge: |
|
| Max Depth: |
50FSW |
Avg Depth: |
40FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
|
Total Time: |
|
| Bottom Gases: |
EAN32,21/45 | Deco Gases: | |
| Backgas Config: |
Single,Double LP104 | Deco Tanks: | |
| Deco Profile: |
min deco |
| |
Being as this was Kati's birthday and Sami's 1000th dive we decided to forego the original plan of getting some practice in. Besides, it was getting late and it didn't seem right to be practicing skills at night when all the cool critters were out.
Eric's is a great dive at night and there always seem to be interesting things going on. Kati found 4 separate Red Brotulas. I found what we think was a Northern Clingfish and a juvenile Wolfie. This, of course, was in addition to the usual octopi, shrimp and other night shift animals.
When we finished the dive Sami moved the anchor off of the reef onto the sand to make it easier to retrieve and we started up. As we did so I saw a Leopard Shark on the sand. I swam a few kicks away from the line to look at it. No more than 20 seconds later I turned around to find I was all alone. The anchor was dragging and Sami and Kati had followed it exactly as I turned my back. I shielded my light for a second and managed to catch a glimpse of their dive lights and headed back to them for the safety stop. |
2/16/2003 Pinos Buoy Jackpot aboard Escapade by Sami Laine -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Sami Laine, Clinton Bauder, David Chamberlin |
| Visibility: |
50' - 70' |
Time: | 3:42 PM |
| Temp: |
54F |
Surge: |
1' |
| Max Depth: |
176FSW |
Avg Depth: |
160FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
0:20 |
Total Time: |
0:59 |
| Bottom Gases: |
21/45 | Deco Gases: | EAN50 |
| Backgas Config: |
RB80,Double LP104,LP51 | Deco Tanks: | AL40 |
| Deco Profile: |
deep stops
70 5
60 3
50 2
40 2
30 3
20 7
10 4 |
| |
An afternoon trip on the Escapade with just Dave, Clinton, Kati and myself. We headed out after 2pm planning for one deeper dive first for Dave, Clinton and me followed by a shallower dive for all of us.
We motored out with the idea of looking around a bit for something new and interesting, and boy did we find it! Our plan had been to dive the reef around the Mile Buoy again, but the weather was so pretty we headed out a bit, to look around Deep Aumentos. We made some tracks around a rocky area extending from 120ft to 140ft, but decided to keep looking.
We headed over towards the Pt Pinos Buoy, and tracked across the extension of the ridgeline visible above water , near the buoy. We saw some interesting looking things on sonar, dropped the hook and headed in.
As we descended towards the anchor in jelly-filled water column, all of a sudden dramatic jagged peaks started appearing around us extending from sand at 176ft up to 120ft and above. Jackpot!
The site has two ridgelines extending east-west with a sandy area in the middle. Schools of Blue rockfish hovered near the peaks, with Starry rockfish in the cracks. Clinton even spotted a Red Brotula (Brosmophycis marginata), a first sighting for me!
The scenery was great, as you can see in this slideshow.The peaks were covered in Corynactis and sponges, with Red gorgonians on most slanted surfaces.
During our deco a slight current brought us jellies on parade. We saw mostly comb jellies and especially Leucothea pulchra, a very large and very delicate creature that reminded us of Star Wars Tie fighters!
Sometimes you get lucky when diving a new site, and today with hit the jackpot with PBJ - the Pinos Bouy Jackpot! ;-)
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2/10/2003 Breakwater by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Sami Laine, Kati Laihia, Clinton Bauder |
| Visibility: |
30' |
Time: | 9:15 PM |
| Temp: |
52F |
Surge: |
|
| Max Depth: |
45FSW |
Avg Depth: |
30FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
1:38 |
Total Time: |
1:38 |
| Bottom Gases: |
EAN32 | Deco Gases: | |
| Backgas Config: |
Single,Double LP80,LP104 | Deco Tanks: | |
| Deco Profile: |
min deco. |
| |
(Follows is Sami's report to ba_diving)
Insanity Files Ad Nauseaum.
After two days of insanely great weather and fantastic diving last
weekend, we saw the forecast and couldn't stay away. Again, the usual
suspects (Kati, Clinton and I) and a fairly late departure. We got in
after 9pm. Topside conditions were great, flat calm, no wind, no surf.
We headed over the flat sands past the sea barf fields, and had a great
dive. Visibility was excellent at 30+ feet, temperature 52 degrees.
Octopi everywhere, especially teensy weensy itsy bitsy ones the size of
my pinkie. Crabs of all sizes from tiny hermit crabs to big sheep crabs.
Nudibranchs, including Dendronotus frondosus. A bubble snail (?, Clinton
may remember what it is). Many many species of shrimp. Little soles.
Fringeheads. Snails. A Bat ray! :-) :-)
98 minutes of most excellent diving.
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2/9/2003 Local's Ledge aboard Escapade by David Chamberlin -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
David Chamberlin, Susan Bird |
| Visibility: |
20' - 50' |
Time: | 2:45 PM |
| Temp: |
55F |
Surge: |
10' |
| Max Depth: |
96FSW |
Avg Depth: |
60FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
0:30 |
Total Time: |
0:38 |
| Bottom Gases: |
21/45 | Deco Gases: | |
| Backgas Config: |
RB80,Double LP80,LP51 | Deco Tanks: | |
| Deco Profile: |
min deco |
| |
We were running ahead of schedule, so there was enough time to allow our team to get sufficient surface interval to do a dive while the support team was doing their "fun dive".
Visibility looked to be excellent, as we could see the bottom from the boat. Based on reports from the first team, we decided to head down the anchor line and then off to the east. Surge was a bit heavy in the shallower areas, but as we moved off to the side of the pinnacle where we got some protection, it was much calmer.
We circled all the way around the pinnacle and returned up the anchor line.
There was lots of beautiful hydrocoral on the east side, as well as some cowries. Several cabezons, some lingcods, decorator crabs and a variety of other life. Very beautiful dive and a wonderful way to end a successful exploration weekend.
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2/9/2003 Local's Ledge aboard Escapade by Kevin Metcalfe -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Kevin Metcalfe, Kati Laihia, Nick Radov |
| Visibility: |
40' |
Time: | 2:30 PM |
| Temp: |
50F |
Surge: |
8' |
| Max Depth: |
88FSW |
Avg Depth: |
70FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
|
Total Time: |
1:02 |
| Bottom Gases: |
EAN32 | Deco Gases: | |
| Backgas Config: |
Single,Double LP104 | Deco Tanks: | |
| Deco Profile: |
min deco |
| |
After doing support in the morning, we did a fun dive at Local's Ledge. Kati was taking photo's and Nick and I were trying to be models. Nick and I will probably stick to our day jobs...
This was a beautiful dive with great topography and color. Beautiful hydrocoral. In places the surge was quite strong, but in the protected areas not too bad.
Days like this one almost make me wonder why we bother with flying to the tropics to dive. Almost...
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2/9/2003 Local's Ledge aboard Escapade by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Clinton Bauder, Sami Laine, Jim Capwell |
| Visibility: |
40' |
Time: | 2:15 PM |
| Temp: |
54F |
Surge: |
|
| Max Depth: |
90FSW |
Avg Depth: |
60FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
0:30 |
Total Time: |
0:45 |
| Bottom Gases: |
30/30,21/35 | Deco Gases: | |
| Backgas Config: |
Double LP80,LP104 | Deco Tanks: | |
| Deco Profile: |
min deco |
| |
After a weekend of exploration at E3 near Point Lobos we moved the boat back up to Local's Ledge for a fun dive. This was to give our support crew a chance to get wet. Also as it was a very flat day it was a rare chance to dive this spot.
I was frustrated early in the dive as I need to get some good hydrocoral footage for my library. Here I was on a flat day at Hydrocoral Central and I couldn't find any suitable hydrocoral for filming! After a bit of swimming I eventually hit paydirt and got some decent footage.
Coming back to the boat we had some fun doing a safety stop next to the 10 foot shallow area. Don't get to see that up close very often! Surge there was pretty crazy but that was half the fun. |
2/9/2003 E3 aboard Escapade by David Chamberlin -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
David Chamberlin, Alberto Nava, Susan Bird |
| Support Team: | Nick Radov, Kevin Metcalfe |
| Visibility: |
20' - 50' |
Time: | 11:57 AM |
| Temp: |
54F - 55F |
Surge: |
1' |
| Scooter: |
Gavin Short |
Burn Time: |
22:00 |
| Max Depth: |
171FSW |
Avg Depth: |
150FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
0:25 |
Total Time: |
1:10 |
| Bottom Gases: |
21/45 | Deco Gases: | EAN50 |
| Backgas Config: |
RB80,Double LP80,HP120,LP51 | Deco Tanks: | AL40,AL80 |
| Deco Profile: |
70 5
60 3
50 3
40 3
30 3
20 12
10 5
|
| |
The goals of this dive were to remove the downline, then explore through Crabville and over to the Needle. We descended along the downline and removed the ties so it was free, allowing the surface team to pull it up. Then we removed the line we had set earlier as a reference for the photo/video teams and proceeded to scooter along the north wall of E3.
After reaching the NE corner of E3, we headed due north across the sand in search of the pinnacles in the Crabville area. We reached the first pinnacle after about 250'. We followed along its south side to the east until we found the E/W running sand channel. We followed the sand channel to the west, then rounded around the next pinnacle to the N/NE.
We then took a somewhat meandering path roughly E/SE towards the Needle. We successfully reached the Needle and circled around it as we ascended.
The geography throughout this entire run was spectacular. Hopefully we will have some of the video footage from this run up on the site soon to give some perspective on what it's really like.
This image shows a graphical depiction of the course we took on the sonar map. |
2/9/2003 E3 aboard Escapade by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Clinton Bauder, Sami Laine |
| Support Team: | Kati Laihia, Nick Radov |
| Visibility: |
50' |
Time: | 10:30 AM |
| Temp: |
54F |
Surge: |
|
| Max Depth: |
160FSW |
Avg Depth: |
150FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
0:22 |
Total Time: |
0:58 |
| Bottom Gases: |
21/45 | Deco Gases: | EAN50 |
| Backgas Config: |
Double LP104 | Deco Tanks: | AL40 |
| Deco Profile: |
1,1,1,1,5,3,2,2,2,8,5 |
| |
Back at E3 for more documentation. This time we focused on the SE corner before working our way back to the middle crack. I got some fairly nice footage of a vermillion rockfish on the reef and of the gorgonians in the middle crack.
Kati got some nice photos of us during our deco hang. |
2/8/2003 E3 aboard Escapade by Clinton Bauder -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Sami Laine, Clinton Bauder |
| Support Team: | Isaac Callicrate |
| Visibility: |
20' - 50' |
Time: | 2:00 PM |
| Temp: |
54F |
Surge: |
|
| Max Depth: |
160FSW |
Avg Depth: |
135FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
0:23 |
Total Time: |
0:58 |
| Bottom Gases: |
21/45 | Deco Gases: | EAN50 |
| Backgas Config: |
Double LP80 | Deco Tanks: | AL40 |
| Deco Profile: |
1,1,1,5,2,2,2,2,10,5 |
| |
For the second dive of the Day Sami and I swapped sides of the pinnacle with Joe and Susan. This time we worked the northeast side. A priority for this dive was getting images of the zoanthid infested gorgonian (1, 2) in the middle crack area.
I saw a large Mola Mola as we started the deco but it was too far away to get any good images. |
2/8/2003 E3 aboard Escapade by Susan Bird -- [View this report only]
| Bottom Team: |
Joe Talavera, Susan Bird |
| Support Team: | Nick Radov |
| Visibility: |
20' - 50' |
Time: | 2:00 PM |
| Temp: |
54F |
Surge: |
1' |
| Max Depth: |
169FSW |
Avg Depth: |
154FSW |
| Bottom Time: |
0:20 |
Total Time: |
1:07 |
| Bottom Gases: |
21/45 | Deco Gases: | EAN50 |
| Backgas Config: |
Double LP80 | Deco Tanks: | AL40 |
| Deco Profile: |
70 5
60 2
50 2
40 2
30 2
20 12
10 7 |
| |
|
Dive two for our team, this time we explored the SW wall of E3. This wall falls off sharply to the bottom, compared to NE wall. We swam to the far end of the pinnacle, then zig-zagged back towards the downline, and spent time in the middle crack area, where the zoanthid infested gargonian was being documented by Sami and Clinton. We ascended from the top of G3, taking full advantage of the excellent conditions and live boat support. |
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