Little did I imagine that my last successful day of diving for this year would be on October 17! Monterey-Carmel sea conditions became very frequently rough and sometimes rainy after that weekend and I had an epic bout with the flu-cold-crud that sidelined me for the first 2 1/2 weeks of November.
Enough of that, here's some photos from some of the great dives I had this year in Monterey-Pacific Grove- Carmel and in the Gulf of Mexico off my home town of Dunedin, Florida in April -June during a long visit there.
Greg Hoberg and I started off the year with an exciting dive with lots of curious sea lions off the Los Lobos rocks south of Point Lobos in early January.
We had several good dives in January, this one was at "Ghost Tree" off Pescadero Point where spectacular surf can be found when big swells come in from the SW in the winter.
Ghost Tree seascape, one of the still largely intact kelp beds left since the sea urchin plague outbreak that has followed the sea star wasting disease.
We found a beautiful Giant Kelp Fish on a stand of kelp at the breakwater in January. We dived the breakwater due to some mechanical issues with Greg's normally excellent outboard.
Rubberlip Perch, Coast Guard Breakwater, January, 2015
Greg with Kelp Greenling, Mono-lobo, March, 2015
Mono-lobo seascape, March, 2015
Strange, paper thin, filefish on Clearwater, Florida's artificial reef, April, 2015
Goliath Grouper with Donna, Shrimpboat wreck off Anclote Key, Florida, May, 2015
Charlie "selfie" with a Goliath Grouper, Shrimpboat wreck, off Anclote Key
Donna playing "peek a boo" with Goliath Grouper, Shrimpboat wreck off Anclote Key
Loggerhead Sea Turtle off Dunedin, Florida
Wheelhouse of the wreck of the Coast Guard cutter Sheridan off Clearwater, Florida
Great Barracuda on the roof of the Sheridan.
Tim Metcalf swimming beneath his wonderful boat which Tim generously let me use on our long Florida visit. It was great to be diving and fishing with Tim again, made me very homesick for Florida, would love to split my time between Florida and California for the rest of my days....
Large school of Spadefish on Rube Allyn artificial reef of Dunedin, Florida
Greg Hoberg took this excellent closeup of me and a cabezon on the Pinnacles after I got back to California.
Greg and I found the wreck of the Flavel off Cypress Point.
Some brass machinery on the Flavel.
Greg with a ling cod, Mono-lobo.
Greg with an egg yolk jelly, Mono-lobo.
Curious young harbor seal I nicknamed "Bennie" for his fascination with my "Jet" fins...remember your Elton John?
Greg and I were diving on a pinnacle off Cypress Point, surrounded by anchovies, we were visited by a humpback whale hunting anchovies, really cool.
A couple weeks later, we again saw humpbacks hunting anchovies north of Cypress Point, headed south. We again dived a submerged pinnacle off Cypress Point and were again rewarded by a passing humpback whale and his sea lion escort.
I'm looking forward to diving in 2016 though I suspect, since conditions have mostly prevented diving for the past two months, and we have a major El Nino, that diving this winter will be rare....I'm excited about a liveaboard dive boat trip I'm taking to Cocos off Costa Rico, this summer.
