Charlie's Diving Blog: Whale watching and three dives with the Silver Prince September 9, 2017

Last Saturday I did an all day, three tank dive trip on the Silver Prince. We had very calm seas and lots of entertainment from feeding Humpback whales during our trip down to Carmel Bay, while we were anchored for our first two dives on the Outer Pinnacles and Horseshoe Reef, and during our trip back to Monterey Bay for our final dive at Erik's reef. I took a few surface shots with my iPhone both before boarding Silver Prince and during the trip down. Below are a couple shots, more can be seen at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nwT2KUEZRyqy5z5E2

This is a view of the entrance to the inner part of Monterey Harbor, with a departing whale watching boat in the foreground. Silver Prince's departure time for this trip was 9 am so I had time to walk around a take a few pictures before suiting up and boarding.

Monterey Commercial Fishing dock - you can also directly buy fish directly from the fish distribution company on this dock.

Here's the "Coast Guard Breakwater" a popular, easy, shore dive site. Always lots of sea lions. A stand up paddleboarder was attacked by a white shark right off this a few months ago, but he was uninjured though his board got chewed on! We heard about another diver that recently saw a white shark go by while diving here, no problem. I consider it a likely white shark stomping ground because of all the sea lions. Every now and then we find a dead or injured sea lion from shark attack here...

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is just to left of center in this picture, the Hopkins Marine Laboratory is just to the right of the beach you can see in the background.

Rounding Point Pinos, headed for Carmel Bay, very calm conditions, heavy marine layer.

My iphone is hopeless with shutter delay and poor zoom capability, but I did manage to catch one Humpback back of the several we saw feeding on anchovies near Cypress Point. Lots of Humpback action on the trip down and back, and a couple great Humpback breaches to entertain us between dives while we were on the Outer Pinnacles and Horseshoe Reef in Carmel Bay.

Rounding Cypress Point, entering Carmel Bay. When we have exceptionally calm conditions, Greg and I dive the outer wash rock and inner pair of wash rocks here, can be a great couple of dives.

Our first dive was on the Outer Pinnacles. There was a small amount of kelp - maybe 10 % of normal but at least it is starting to recover from the urchin plague that followed the sea star wasting plague in 2013. It is a deep site, my dive was from 68 to 95 ft, would have been easier to go much deeper and get much colder! The surface 20 ft had a heavy plankton bloom with 10 ft of visibility but it opened up to 30 ft of visibility down below, but was dark due to the plankton layer above. Very good dive, I'd enjoy it more with a dry suit...53 degrees at the bottom. Below are some shots from the dive, you can see more at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cLUxDj2dhs1KyQZU2

I encountered an inquisitive China Rockfish on this dive, I usually find them quite shy, so this was fun. I suspect diving by myself helped with this...

Yes, I would definitely say that there was a plethora of Blue Rockfish on this site!

Snubnose Sculpin with a large Red Sea Urchin (still way too many sea urchins on this site).

Copper Rockfish with a sample of the rich invertebrate life on this site.

The Pinnacles have beautiful colonies of Hydro Coral, look at the colors!

I encountered one beautiful Lingcod on this dive.

I was very pleased to see a number of healthy, large spiny sea stars, here's one with my hand for scale.

Our second dive after a 60 minute surface interval (with hot cocoa and warm chicken noodle soup) was slightly shallower, I dived 64 to 74 ft. Horseshoe Reef is a new site to me though it may be near another deep dive site Greg and I dived a couple of years ago. Below are some shots from the dive, for more please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oxkCRxTPjnPijHZ72

Olive Rockfish

Another cooperative China Rockfish. This site has too many urchins, still, as well.

Horseshoe Reef has rich invertebrate sealife and this well camouflaged Cabezon. You see it, right?

I obviously love photographing Cabezon, love this shot with hydro coral.

The plankton layer where I did my safety stop, very important after two long, deep, dives, had Yellow Purple Striped Sea Nettles busily feeding on the plankton.

Silver Prince served us sandwiches and chips for lunch and then they moved to Monterey Bay for our final dive because the wind was starting to come up. We had two full Humpback breaches and lots of Humpback feeding action as we rounded Cypress Point. Erik's Reef is the name Silver Prince gives for outer Otter Cove adjacent to Erik's Pinnacle. The site has large rocks and is an excellent dive. Unfortunately there was a heavy plankton bloom in the top 30 ft so the visibility was only decent after I swam out from 30 ft of depth to 45 to 55 ft of depth, where the rock structure is the best anyway. Below are some shots from this dive, you can see more at:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FJRCW4aQqVx1qoWj2