Outer Pinnacles on Dave's Boat

My goal for this dive was to get wet after 3 months off with no diving. Therefore, when Dave M. said he was diving on his boat on Saturday, I jumped on the opportunity. (I'm trying out my new philosophy of having fun for fun's sake.)

This time I came prepared for the cold, bringing an entire garbage back full of two layering fleeces, hats, ski jacket and ski gloves. I will tell you now that it didn't work. I was still rendered incapacitated by the cold of the 50 degree F Carmel waters, made much much worse by the heaving of the ocean on Dave's boat. I can't wait for my drysuit, which is coming in the middle of December, I can tell you. Also, the next time I go, I will be medicated with Scopalamine, for sure.

Details of the dive:

Dive #148
Depth: 78 ft
Time: 29 minutes
Visibility: 40-50 feet
Surgey: 6 feet

As we descended along the anchor line, my view was initially met by a school of 60 strong blue fish. I lingered in the school for a moment before fighting the current to the anchor line.

The next thing that came to view as we descended was bull kelp being thrashed about by the surge. Imagine three foot long green ribbons on a mound of rock headbanging in the waves. It was kind of amusing to see Dan trying to take pictures with the surge pushing him 3 feet in each direction.

When the bull kelp wasn't being flung into our faces, I was able to see wonderful colors and wildlife. Imagine a myriad of pink, purple and yellow hydrocorals (up north, California Purple Hydrocoral isn't just purple, I was told, but come in a variety of colors). Sculpins, kelp greenlings, strawberry anemones and sponges completed the tableau. A cabezon rested on a sponge. There was a glimpse of an enormous ling cod tail as it flitted into a cavern.

On the safety stop, we encountered a group of gorgeous sea nettles (see pic of sea nettles above). I think Dan took a picture of me getting close to a watermelon sized sea nettle before I finally backed off.

Afterthoughts

1. I am overweighted at 14 lbs. I plummeted like a stone at 60 feet. Also, the safety stop was hard to maintain and I ranged from 12 feet to 30 feet. I guess all that working out is paying off pound for pound in muscle.

2. At London Bridge Pub, where we had lunch and coffee afterwards, a bunch of instructors/old salts gave Dave a hard time about bringing people out on his boat. The subtopic was why had Dave let his dive instructor's insurance lapse. The undercurrent of the conversation, however, was that Dave M. was really running a charter boat rather than bringing "friends" along for a weekend's worth of diving.

For a fee less than the amount that professional charters charge, friends and acquaintances of Dave's can go diving on his boat for the weekend. Not only will he go to the normal Monterey dive sites, but will cross over to the Carmel side for the awesome, more challenging dive sites. The professional charters, on the other hand, will tend to cater to the least common denominator on the boat and stick to the less gas consuming, safer dive sites in the bay.

Apparently, the professional charters have given Dave a hard time regarding this issue, I was told. I do know, however, that the people who do go diving with Dave are not complete newbies, such as the type you might see on Monterey charter boats, and on the most part have quite a bit of experience.

All in all, I chalk it up to PADI professionals' tendency to bash others with less experience than they, and their tendency to be overly paranoid about litigation from newbie divers who get themselves into trouble.