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12/3/2011 East Pinnacle aboard Escapade by Vanessa Young -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, John Heimann, Vanessa Young

Visibility: 80' - 100' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 50F - 54F Surge:

Max Depth: 80FSW Avg Depth: 40FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time:

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
The day started with some whining about the conditions, and potential concern that we would be diving in the bay in some muddy water. We headed out to check the conditions with Mike Minard as Captain and prankster Mikey Bryan. They tried to scare us off and sorta mumbled they wanted to stay in the bay. I had to throw around my weight as "leader" and with a little help from Gary, we decided to head for Carmel.

Clinton, John, and I were first in the water and I heard John say the conditions looked amazing and I thought maybe he was being sarcastic. Dropped to find 80-100ft viz with lots of sea nettles and straight into a large school of blue rock fish. I could see the whole school and the whole dive site. It was incredible. John and I spent some time posing (or attempting with no success) to pose for some pictures for Clinton. We also swam to the other East Pinnacles for a long but successful hydrocoral hunt. On the way back towards the boat it was awesome to be able to see all the other teams of divers. The sea nettles were thick and were dancing in the sun beams.

The surface interval included the usual entertainment, but an unusual lack of food. Too bad, because I know my stomach was empty:/ Instead, we moved the boat about 180 feet and geared up for the second dive.

The conditions were the same epic blue, and Clinton, John, and I found ourself back at someone's favorite patch of hydro coral taking more pictures in the surge. I thought the surge to be particularly fun while attempting photos. Saw lots of big ling cod, more schools of rock fish, and one very friendly sea lion who was giving us a real show. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera as the sea lion swam right over Clinton and his camera while Clinton was looking everywhere to get his picture of him. The sea lion just dangled in his blind spot and seemed to be singing "catch me if you can."
I began to wonder what happened to the sea nettles, when the most dense school of jellyfish I have ever seen came into sight. The sun was in full force and only brightened the orange and red tentacles. It was indescribably beautiful and hands down the best jellyfish school I have ever seen. Better then my experience in Palau, Jellyfish Lake. Again, kicking myself for not having my camera.

The boat had to come pick us up because we were having so much fun following the jellyfish. We hurried back to the dock with a brief pause for a large pod of very small common nose dolphins. They were on the bow of the boat for a little while and then we headed for lunch at Phat Burger.

Amazing day. Clinton's pictures can be seen here: http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/v/local/ep_12-3-11/

11/20/2011 Deep E3 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: Surge: 8'

Max Depth: 205FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:35 Total Time: 1:30

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

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Today we were close to cancel the Escapade Tech trip due to bad weather but Capt Jarod decided to man up and go check it out in the morning. The winds were strong from the south but we were able to make it to the North side of Point Lobos. Once we got there conditions were good enough to go diving. We settled for Deep E3 and we dropped down to find 80-100ft of blue clear water. We were so glad we didn't cancel.

Teams dropped down to find an aquarium like conditions with tons of fish and amazing vis. We checked out the purple sea fan at the base on the pinnacle, and then we went for a loop on the north side on the pinnacle. We found a large toquina on the sand and another pink nudibrach. We saw several large vase sponges, one of them with 100 of brittle stars on it. We could see Rob and Allison about 80ft away so we used them for navigation aid and explore the reef to the north of Deep E3.

At the top of the pinnacle there were many red gorgonias moving with swells and many juv. yellow eye rock-fish, and large school of blue rockfish.

Visibility was so good teams motored from Deep E3 to E3, and the kitties made it to D3.

After the dive we swam with Risso dolphin!! They came close in several occasions and on one of them Susan saw a dolphin play with a piece of kelp, similar to what they do in Kona, where they move objecst btw their fins.

Not bad for almost a canceled day ;-)

Here are some images from Rob and Clinton.

11/6/2011 K1 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Jim Capwell, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 50' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: 53F Surge: 6'

Max Depth: 195FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:35 Total Time: 1:30

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

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
This weekend forecast was terrible and it looked like we were going to have cancel both tech diving day. Saturday there were very large swells and strong winds so the day got cancelled. Saturday night the winds dropped down quite a lot and the swells went down about 6ft, so we were able to get out on Sunday. With 6-8ft swells we made it to K1 and deployed the teams: Jim, Susan and Beto, Clinton and Ted, and Doug and Eric.

The down-line was at 80ft on the top of the pinnacle and we motored NW and down the wall. At the north end we found some very large lingcods, several large basket stars, some cute little octopies on the sand. We located a large overhand and we spend time going in and out of it. At 150ft we encountered a large ball of juv. rock-fish and we took turns scootering into them. Way cool!

The shallow area of the pinnacle has some really cool walls and tons of rock-fish at the top of the pinnacle.

During deco we had tons of jellies and some several little pompano fish inside some brown jellies.

Images from Clinton.

All in all great to go diving!

10/29/2011 Unknown Location aboard Escapade by Mark Lloyd -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Mark Lloyd, Dionna House

Visibility: 30' Time: 9:30 AM

Temp: 51F Surge:

Scooter: X-scooter Burn Time:

Max Depth: 165FSW Avg Depth: 82FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:21

Bottom Gases: 18/45 Deco Gases: EAN50

Backgas Config: Double Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
Two dives on the Escapade today, one at a new site, the other at Outer Pinnacles. The water looked very flat in the bay so we were thinking it would be nice further out. As we rounded the corner it did get a bit choppy with the wind but still pretty good conditions. The water on the site was a bit green and as we dropped down it was dark with about 30 or so feet of vis. We headed south to the deeper part of the dive of 165' and slowly circled the huge pinnacle. I love being on the scooter trigger so the size of this dive site was to me fantastic. It just kept on going and going. We past Ben, Erik, and Doug poking around in some barnacles, and John, Clinton, and Matt, scootering in the opposite direction. There was a lot of the barnacles with some clear areas and lots of sheer walls. Not much hydrocoral but the structure was very interesting. At depth there were quite a few lingcods of all sizes. There was a very big school of rockfish at the top of the reef to give us some entertainment which putting up the bag. I had so much fun I could of stayed another 30 mins easily. After surfacing and chowing down on the chicken and brownies we made our way over to the Beach Hopper to make sure they were ok as their engine was not working correctly. After help arrived we made our way over to Outer Pinnacles to our second dive. Since the current was a bit strong we took our scooters again which was the right decision. Zooming down the canyons, whizzing past all the hydrocoral, yeeeeee haaaaawwwww ... another fun dive. I think Dionna was just hoping we would find our way back to the boat, which we did.

10/28/2011 K2 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Jim Capwell, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 20' - 25' Time: 11:00 AM

Temp: 50F - 53F Surge: 3'

Max Depth: 209FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: 0:45 Total Time: 1:40

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

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
After about 1 month of teaching I finally got to do a fun dive. Not that teaching is not fun just different kind of fun :-)

Jim, Allison, Ted and myself dove T2 pinnacle out of Yankee Point. Visibility deteriorate from last week epic diving to about 20ft and a little dark at depth, and the red-tide is in full action inside the bay, and rumors are it's also at Lobos.

Jim and I motored north on the main wall and found a nice Rat Fish half way. We hanged around for a couple of minutes as it was pretty friendly one. At the north end we found 5 basket starts, some of them quite large. We were looking for the purple sea fan but no luck this time, maybe it deeper....

On the way up we found several large lingcods and huge school of rock fish at the top of the pinnacle.

SMB deployment was challenging for both team as the bags got entangled with the down-line and also with each others. It was quite a lot of exciting from 70 to 50ft. Better than any class trick I could pull out ;-)

Nice to go fun diving :-)

10/28/2011 The Needle aboard Phil Sammet's RIB by Kevin Dow -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Leah Vieta, Kevin Dow

Visibility: 25' Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: 54F Surge:

Max Depth: 112FSW Avg Depth:

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:18

Bottom Gases: EAN32,21/35 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double HP120 Deco Tanks: AL80
Deco Profile:
Leah and I had last Friday off and conditions looked good so we took the opportunity to do some diving off of Phil’s boat. After some discussion back and forth we decided on diving the Needle. Neither one of us had ever dove the site before so it was a chance to see something new.
After a quick load up and launch of Phil’s RIB we motored out to the site and went through our gear checks. For this dive we were using 21/35 and spend some time deeper before ascending to conduct a second portion of the dive on 32%.
On the way down we passed by a nice school of rockfish before hitting the western portion of the wall. We started circumnavigating the pinnacle counter clockwise and immediately noticed the barnacle invasion had clearly made it was to the site.
Even still though there was good bunches of hydro coral that were looking very healthy and quite a large number of decorator type crabs on the site. At one point we counted at least five of them in a small area. Apparently they were all playing pretty nice. Another unusual aspect was the very large numbers of sea urchins on the site. Several large urchins and many smaller ones were out in the open with out a care in the world. Apparently the sea otters have not found this honey hole yet.
Swinging around the backside we stopped to admire several large lingcods as well as a “ginormous” vermillion. He had to be at least 50 pounds!
Coming up to our shallower portion of dive we got to admire the healthy walking stick kelp and explored the south side of the pinnacle. Here is where the sites color all seems to be concentrated. The entire wall is covered in pinks and lavenders of corynactis as well as several healthy colonies of sponges and other invertebrates.
A bit later we shot the bag and headed for the surface after a bit of time on deco where a sea lion decided to dive bomb us. What a wonderful site that is perfect for an R3 dive.

10/9/2011 The Needle aboard Escapade by Dionna House -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Clinton Bauder, Mark Lloyd, Masao Yoshimura

Visibility: 50' - 80' Time: 10:00 AM

Temp: 50F - 51F Surge: 1'

Max Depth: 90FSW Avg Depth: 60FSW

Bottom Time: Total Time: 1:00

Bottom Gases: EAN32 Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Double LP80 Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
A small group of BAUE divers met up for the BAUE rec. boat. Organized by the one and only "Vanessa Young". We set out and motored around the corner. There was some significant swell, but, we prevailed. The anchor was dropped at the Needle and we all geared up. I dove with Clinton and Mark dove with Vanessa and Massao. We thought it would be a dark dive due to the patchy fog. Once we got down, the whole reef opened up to 65-80ft of vis. Yeeehaaw. The Barnacles are still there. :-( We were able to see a large lingcod and cabezon. Many large patches of hydrocoral.

The second dive was at Outer Pinnacles. I dove with Mark and Massao. The vis held up to about 60ft. Fun antics on the dive!! hehehe... Many jellies on the deco.

Everyone came up with big smiles after every dive.

Mark showed me some of his dance steps of the Cha Cha, the Rhomba and whatever we decided to name the dance.

Great Dive.

10/8/2011 K2 aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Alberto Nava

Visibility: Time: 12:00 AM

Temp: Surge: 5'

Max Depth: 209FSW Avg Depth:

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

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

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
BAUE tech charter on Sunday. Plan A was to head to Big Sur for a Mid-way pinnacle dive but the swells and winds were a little too bad for that. We settled for a dive at K2 main wall. I have not done this dive in a while and I forgotten one
amazing this wall is. It run for about 400ft NW direction and there are a series of nice pinnacle at the north end in the 200ft range. There are usually large school of juv rock fish and people had been seeing a GPO in that area. We didn't see
the GPO but we had a nice time with 40-50ft vis and really nice clean water. We saw several very large lingcods resting on the wall small ledges, and they were very territorial. There was a large school of rock-fish at the shallow 80ft peak and several sheep heads swimming around. During deco we saw 8 inches long fish hiding inside a jelly. It was really cute.

9/25/2011 Nixies aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Susan Bird, Jim Capwell, Alberto Nava

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

Temp: 53F - 55F Surge: 4'

Max Depth: 205FSW Avg Depth:

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

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

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
BAUE tech charter on Sunday took us to The Nixies in the Yankee Point area. Conditions were better than expected. Its was dark at the bottom, but visibility was in the 20-30ft range with warmer water in the 51-55 degrees.

Highlight of the dive was Grunt Sculpin that Susan found walking about at the bottom, and then she also found a large Pacific Electric Ray. We were able to hang around with both of them with was really nice experience.

There was a strong current toward the top of the pinnacles, and we enjoyed a fun time driving in and out of the current while circling the pinnacle a couple of times.

We surfaced to found nice sunny skies and flat ocean for the drive back.

9/3/2011 White Cayon aboard Escapade by Alberto Nava -- [View this report only]

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Bottom Team: Joakim Linde, Jim Capwell, Alberto Nava

Visibility: 5' - 15' Time: 10:30 AM

Temp: Surge:

Max Depth: 180FSW Avg Depth:

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

Bottom Gases: Deco Gases:

Backgas Config: Deco Tanks:
Deco Profile:
Back on the Escapade for another BAUE tech charter. We were feeling like Bay Area Explorers so we decided to try some new dive sites. This is "dangerous" business as it's impossible to know if the site is good or bad by looking at the sonar that, so you have to take your chances. It might be an ok dive site, or it might be the best site on the whole peninsula waiting to be found.

First dive was a pinnacle south of Sur Banks which looked only like the famous SUR19 and SUR 20 on the sonar data, but about twice the size. The top of the pinnacle at 120ft had more kelp that hydro-corals, which was disappointing but on the other side there were tons of red rock fish: vermilion, yellow eyes and others. We were able to hand around with some quite large yellow eyes which does not happen often, and we also found a nice rat fish on the south end. There was quite a nice current coming from south so we alternate btw scootering south and drifting north. Vis was pretty bad 5-10ft and dark so not the best conditions.

Second dive was at a site north of Carmel. We have been trying to dive it for a while but never got around to it. At this location two parallel walls go for about 400ft in a north-west direction. The base of this canyon is at about 130ft and the top of the wall is at 80ft. We unfortunately hit a layers of bad vis at about 50ft and vis at the bottom was 5-10ft range and dark :-). We followed the cayon for about 400ft, while enjoying the terrain. The walls were all covered with the invading barnacles so they were all white. There were several nice patches of hydrocorals along the ride and some nice scallops. This is definitely a nice to check with better vis. We decided to name this one The White Canyon.

All in all two nice new sites, not the best vis but still a lot of fun.

Sonar data for Roxie

Sonar data for White Canyon

photos for Roxie

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