Ken and I got in and waited for Dewey. Every dive so far it has been something else wrong with his gear, or he forgot something, or . . . We waited every dive. When he finally got in, we gathered up at the mooring line and talked about what we would do when we got down. I told them we would go right to the bottom, make a circle around the structure and then slowly ascend up as we circled it and saw what there was to see.
We followed our plan. The visibility was not very good - perhaps 10 feet. Lots of stuff floating in the water. The structure was completely covered in anemones - Plumose and Club-Tipped Anemones in so many different shades and colors. The red Club-Tipped Anemones are also known as "Strawberry Anemones", but as you can see in the photos, there are more of other colors than the red ones. They are really tiny - maybe 1/2 inch across, but there are millions of them!
Club-Tipped Anemone
Red Gorgonian
The white "fringe" on each of the limbs of the gorgonian is made up of the individual animals. They are tiny and nearly transparent and look like miniature anemones. So each of these fans is a colony of critters.
Fish Eating Anemone
This one was gorgeous! Each tentacle is a transparent hot pink.
Plumose Anemone
Club-Tipped Anemone
Rock Scallop
Plumose Anemone
Club-Tipped Anemone
We still had plenty of air left when we got to the top of the structure, so we hung out and just looked things over a while. When Ken had about 700 psi left, he signalled me and ascended with a couple of other divers who were going up the line.
Dewey and I stayed down near the top of the tower until we had used up our air and then ascended. The water on the surface was like a warm bath after being at depth.
During our surface interval, we travelled over to Pt. Loma to the kelp beds for the other two dives of the day. When we got there, Ryan gave us a briefing and emphasized not getting tangled in the kelp and how to get out if you do.
Being my first kelp dive and also being the "divemaster" for my little group, I was a bit apprehensive as we got ready. We did our giant strides in, waited for Dewey to get caught up and then descended. I had taken a compass heading and we struck out in that direction.
Swimming through the kelp was not what I expected! It was not at all scary or dangerous - not that it could not be if you were stupid and panicked - it was magical! It adds a new vertical dimension to the dive and was so much fun. I would do more kelp dives anytime!
The surface water was fairly warm - OK 66 degrees isn't warm, but. . . and murky from suspended algae. The bottom, however, was cold - the coldest so far at 53 degrees - but clearer with good visibility - much better than the tower.
Warty Sea Cucumber
Giant Kelpfish
These look just like a blade of kelp and blend right in. They don't move much and you can swim right up to them and they just pretend to be kelp. This one was over a foot long. You can see how much suspended gunk was in the water in this photo.
Lightbulb Tunicates
The semitransparent tubes with the orange "filaments."
Giant Spined Star
Garibaldi
Macrocystis (Giant) Kelp
I tried to take photos of the kelp, but with the surge, lack of a strobe, and all the gunk in the water, they didn't turn out too well.
We swam on our compass heading until the first one reached 1800 psi and then turned and went back to the boat on a reciprocal heading. Even with all the surge, it worked great.
After a surface interval, George decided he was done for the day, so I took Dewey and Ken and struck off in the opposite direction for the second kelp dive.
Orange Puffball Sponge
About the size of a softball!
Red Seaweed (Plocamium cartilagineum)
Rock Scallop
California Spiny Lobster
Ummm! Scallops and Lobster! Dinner!
The kelp was thicker going north, but our swim out and the reciprocal back brought us right directly to the mooring line.
This shows a little of what it is like to swim through the kelp:
Today's dives were more relaxing and we didn't have the long surface boat ride to and from, so I am not nearly as tired at the end of the day as I was yesterday. That one about did me in.
1 comment:
I would never have guessed that what you see is gold rather than the green in that video!
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