Risso's Dolphins, Monolobo dive, and a mystery fish June 23,2020

Tuesday Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of very nice sea conditions to take his boat down to Carmel Bay.  The ride was a lot gentler than our trip last week which was our first since the coronavirus shutdown.  On the way down, we had to do some dodging to get through the kelp forest off China Point which is finally recovering from the plague of sea urchins that decimated it five years ago, it's back to about 20% of normal.

As we approached Cypress Point at the north end of Carmel Bay we suddenly started seeing large splashes offshore and quickly realized that there were easily a hundred Risso's dolphins spread over a large area.  We had some close approaches, really fun.  Some day I'll have to take some more surface pictures....

Because sea conditions were so good we decided to head down to the far end of Carmel Bay and dive Monolobo.  Because the swell was small, Greg took us inside the largely (80%) recovered kelp forest to anchor.  As we finished getting ready to splash I noticed that my mask wasn't sealing tight on my face like it always does, I had Greg make sure I didn't have the mask lip overlapping my hood, then I splashed.  I immediately had water leaking into my mask but Greg splashed and started down the anchor line, as usual, so I followed with a hand on my mask, clearing continually.  The leak wouldn't stop regardless of every gyration I tried...We swam out a glorious canyon with 30 ft visibility but I was not having a good time, my eyes were burning and soon my sinuses were clogging making depth changes painful...So, for the first time in 53 years of diving, I aborted our dive at the mid-point.  We swam under the kelp ceiling to get back to the boat and Greg went down the anchor line to insure we'd be able to get our anchor up...

So, the previous week's dive trip gave us a very rough ride back and I had a bruised derriere after we got back.  When I washed off my dive gear I discovered that my prescription lens had gotten popped out of the mask, which shouldn't happen, but I thought I had correctly reassembled it....But then I had the awful leak on this dive.  Once I got home I discovered the real problem, the mask skirt/body itself had a tear in it just behind the lens, the first time I've had a mask failure like that.  Well, it was a rough ride.....

Greg and I took his boat up to Monterey Bay to Moss Landing hoping to see whales, we saw a couple in the distance near the whale watching boat Blackfin but didn't fight the growing chop to go see them.  We did see a large jumping fish maybe four feet long, it jumped three times.  It was shiny in appearance with some green and it had a large frilly tail fin,   Not a tuna, don't think it was a mahi mahi, don't know what it was...

Here's a few pictures I took while my eyes were awash with sea water...

 A beautiful canyon, wish I could have enjoyed it more..

                         Greg found a Vermilion Rockfish

Good Dives at Monolobo and Fire Rock June 18, 2020

Hallelujah!  I finally got out for a day of diving the day after my 67th birthday!  Greg Hoberg and I had been set to go diving in March but the day before we were going Santa Clara County put our a shelter in place order for the COVID-19 pandemic.  Three months later, we decided to go out again, the forecast was reasonable and sea conditions were ok so we headed for Carmel Bay.  On the way out of Monterey Bay Greg spotted a huge Mola Mola as we passed it.  We circled back and it stayed up for us to make a close pass.  It was at least 5 ft long and 5 ft high!  The water in Monterey Bay was brown so we headed on for Carmel Bay.  The water color improved each mile we went south.  As we rounded Cypress Point to enter Carmel Bay the water turned blue.  The wind was from an unusual direction, the SW, and we decided to press on to Monolobo knowing the wind would be at our backs for the long ride back to Monterey Harbor.  When we arrived at Monolobo we could see down about 30 ft from the boat so we anchored for our first dive.

    We went down the anchor line as we always do to start our dive.  The hope is to have the anchor set to keep the boat in place but also to be easy to retrieve.  I was pleased that we were greeted by one of my favorite rockfish, a Vermilion.

    Monolobo%  has a series of walls and canyons and, happily, the kelp bed is back to about 75% of normal.

     The density and color of the invertebrate life is amazing.  The water was very chilly, 46 degrees.

     There are a few Metridium anemones at Monolobo.

                            Greg with Metridium.

     Monolobo is magical when you've got visibility and light!

Our next dive was at the North, the opposite end of Carmel Bay, at Fire Rock, a large wash rock off Pescadero Point.

  A large decorator crab.

   I spotted this Painted Greenling sheltering in a Rock Scallop shell.

    Greg found a well hidden Cabezon, you can just see it about a foot in front of his camera lens.

     Here's a shot of the well camouflaged Cabezon.

    Here the Cabezon's face is well lit.

    There are still too many urchins so too little kelp.  I got this shot of a large Spiny Sea Star eating a sea urchin.  If you look closely you can just make out some urchin spines between the sea star's legs. Eat up Mr. Sea Star!

A great kickoff to my 53rd year of scuba diving!