East side of Sunset Point, Carmel Bay

Greg Hoberg and I had an excellent dive just inside the eastern edge of Sunset Point.  We had mixed swells of 3 to 5 ft running and were able to shelter from around half the swells at this location.  The swells were short period from local afternoon winds so the surge only reached to about 30 ft for a change.  We found beautiful blue water with 40 ft visibility.  We saw lots of lingcod from small to large and a couple of very skittish cabezon.  There were lots of nudibranchs (I guaranteed that by choosing to use my wide angle lens for this dive....).  I still managed to get some decent pictures of pairs of white dendronotid and Ohdner's nudibranchs laying eggs.  We also enjoyed seeing a pod of Rizzo's dolphins inside Monterey Bay on our way out.  We only did one dive because there were small craft advisories coming up at noon and we wanted to make our way back to the harbor before the seas became truly unpleasant.

 Greg is re-positioning the anchor which I managed to drop into a hole that we would never have been able to retrieve it from pulling from the boat.  The key is to place the anchor where it holds the boat well enough that it is still there when we finish the dive while also not having it too stuck to retrieve.  We've blown that one way or the other a few times...good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from poor judgment.

 Greg getting lingcod closeups, at least he was until my approach caused it to move off....

 I followed the lingcod and got this face shot while Greg spotted a nudibranch.

 Greg getting a nudibranch closeup.  I didn't scare off the nudibranch.

 Amorous pair of white dendronotid nudibranchs, about 2 inches long, laying a string of eggs (kind of looks like a string of intestines....).  Could have gotten a better picture if I'd had my 60 mm macro lens but not bad for my 10-17 mm Tokina fisheye lens.

 Some white dendronotid nudibranch eggs on coralline algae.

 We had bright sunshine as well as clear water, a truly rare confluence in Carmel Bay.  I got some cool light back illuminating this shot.

 Kelp rockfish with a yellow dorid aka white speckled nudibranch.

 Hilton nudibranch, not bad for my wide angle...

 We had splendid light and visibility as we slowly froze in the chilly water.

 An amorous pair of ohner's dorids (nudibranchs) also laying eggs.

 Greg maneuvering for a shot of a big jellyfish.

 Greg's getting a closeup of a (TBD) whelk like snail laying eggs.

 Greg getting a shot of a blue rockfish picking apart a damaged jellyfish.  When the jellyfish get their tentacles torn up going through kelp the blue rockfish devour them.

 A lingcod watching Greg take a picture of another lingcod.  There were lots of lingcod on this dive.

For more pictures, please go to:  https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6027817864051945713?authkey=CPrg8b-J1Jid-gE