Saturday, May 21, 2016

Rainbow road

With A out of town and a nasty NW swell only just starting to taper off, a prolonged lack of diving looked like it was going to get even longer. Right up until sea_otter and I decided to throw caution to the wind and dive anyway. The primary option was Pt Lobos but we ended up deciding to go to the Breakwater as the swell still looked a little iffy.

With reports of 5ft viz and about a jillion OW students already in the water, we headed in and the first thing I noticed was that it was cooooold. My computer recorded 48F but it felt colder for some reason.
The second thing I noticed was that the reports of 5ft viz were quite incorrect - I could see at least 7ft in front of me. sea_otter's BigBlue light was amazing in these conditions and keeping track of her using the light beam was super easy. It was a lot brighter than the homebrew can light I was sporting.

We surface swam out to the No6 before we dropped and the rainbow nudibranchs, Dendronotus iris, made their presence known immediately. There were dozens of them feeding on the tube anemones, getting it on and laying eggs. Most had the reddish-purple coloring but I also saw a large white one. sea_otter found a small but stunning Mexichromis porterae. Turn pressure was reached right around the end of the wall with a conspicuous absence of pinnipeds. We did see some when we surfaced near the No7.
-> 41min, 47ft, 48F

Post dive at Papa Chevo's.

- U