Two Great Dives at Erik's Pinnacle September 8, 2018

On Saturday Guy Foster and I had two great dives with Sanctuary on Erik's Pinnacle in Monterey Bay.  As expected, due to the previous day's and evening's winds and a marine forecast for high winds starting at midday, we stuck to diving in Monterey Bay in order to avoid a rough ride south to Carmel Bay and probably a much rougher ride back to Monterey Bay.  We went to Erik's Pinnacle, one of the best dive sites in Monterey Bay, and were rewarded with outstanding visibility of 40 to 50 ft under a green algae bloom layer about 15 ft thick and which had 20 ft of visibility.  Water temp was 52 degrees.  Below are some pictures from this dive, I was shooting with my 60 mm Canon macro lens; to seem more pictures please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WqrE3eoMW8bLMreNA

We made both dives on this site because of the outstanding conditions we had there.

Small sculpin with strawberry anemones.  About 3 inches long.

    Coon Striped Shrimp, about 2 inches long

                                Bluebanded Ronquil, about 7 inches long.

                                         Brown Cup Coral with Orange encrusting spong

                                          Painted Greenling

                                     Coon Stripe Shrimp

                                Spot it?  Coralline Sculpin, about 3 inches long.

                                          Male Kelp Greenling

                                          Cabezon

                                          Cabezon, a difficult shot with my 60 mm macro lens narrow angle

                                Beautiful large Lingcod, about 30 lbs

                                          Monterey Dorid nudebranch

                                                 San Diego Dorid nudebranch, aka leopard nudebranch

    Cabezon portrait, Guy pointed this one out to me, it was feeling confident back in a hole but I could get close enough to get some shots.

                                          Copper Rockfish

                                          Juvenile flounder, about 3 inches long

                                          Strawberry Anemones

                                          Blackeyed Goby

                                                  White Spotted Yellow Nudebranch

Probably my best ever shot of a Senorita Wrasse.  They are in constant motion but this one was feeding on something, so paused.  About 6 inches long.

We had beautiful, glorious Giant Kelp to hang in for our safety stop.  I spotted this Blue Top Ringed Snail and amused myself trying to get a decent photo as the piece of kelp flapped in the current and swell as I did the same while maintaining my depth.