Two Very Good Dives on the Pinnacles, Carmel Bay September 22, 2020

 Greg Hoberg and I took his 14 ft RIB Zodiac around the Monterey Peninsula to dive on the Pinnacles just inside Carmel Bay.  Sea conditions were very good and, happily, were still pretty good for the trip back, too.  When we rounded Cypress Point (we were withing maybe 1/2 mile of the big wash rock off Cypress Point before we could see it due to mist and fog), we encountered a huge gathering of sea birds including the most pelicans I've seen anywhere in decades, perhaps ever.  I'm pretty sure that they were feeding on a shoal of anchovies.  The forecast was for increasing winds in the afternoon so we didn't want to go any further than we had to for a good diving site for the conditions.  We decided to dive the Pinnacles, the overall kelp forest there is perhaps 25% of what was typical in the past but it was a good, healthy, dense, forest on the part of the Pinnacle we chose to dive.  Below are some pictures from our two dives, to see the rest, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/G2k6EtfYNL2YMZqa8  

The first thing we do at the beginning of a dive is to go down the anchor line to make sure the anchor is secure but also that it and its chain will be retrievable from the boat when we're ready to go.  The anchor was just over a ledge and we both thought I'd have no trouble pulling it up....But after the first dive I couldn't get the anchor free of the bottom so we made our second dive at the same spot, but Greg shifted the anchor to make it even easier to retrieve, and I did, thankfully.  The anchor was at 65 ft.

The Pinnacles has some great grottoes with walls 25-40 ft high and 20 to 40 ft wide.  Here you can see kelp going to the surface from the top of the wall.  Our visibility averaged around 35 ft on this dive, water temp was 50 degrees.

I was shooting with my versatile Tokina 10-17 fisheye wideangle lens.  I seldom shoot macro when diving with Greg so that I can keep track of him and so we don't waste time re-locating each other.  I'm pleased with my success shooting a closeup of a Coraline Sculpin, about 3 inches long.

If you look in the direction Greg is looking in this photo you can just make out a harbor seal that periodically played hide and seek with us.

Here's another shot of our curious new friend.

Greg getting a shot of a Kelp Greenling, you can't see it in the Palm Kelp.

I took this quick picture after our playful friend tugged on my fin.  They love to sneak up and do that!

Diving in a healthy Giant Kelp forest is magical.  We saw many, many, happy Blue Rockfish schooling in the kelp. 

Yes, one could say there was a plethora of Blue Rockfish.

Two Good Dives off Cypress Point, Carmel Bay September 10, 2020

 Last Thursday, September 10 Greg Hoberg and I took advantage of very calm seas to take his RIB Zodiac around the Monterey Peninsula, at high speed, down to Cypress Point at the northern entrance to Carmel Bay.  The surge from the tiny swell that was running was small and we spotted the bottom 30 ft under the boat so we decided to dive there.  The sky was dark with a combination of smoke from California's awful wildfires and marine layer, in fact, when we left Greg's place about 8:30 we weren't sure if the air visibility was going to be so poor that we'd have difficulty seeing to cruise to our dive site.  The dark sky limited ambient light during our dive - though it wasn't all that dark for our eyes, but it limited my wide angle photos even though the visibility was 35 ft or so.

Our first dive was a circumnavigation (and a half...) of the outer rock at Cypress Point.  Below are some pictures from the dive, to see more, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/ibvkyhFCpXW1g93K7

On this dive we saw lots of blue rockfish but not many of the other varieties we usually see, we also saw two Cabezon but they didn't let me get close enough to photo.  We didn't see any lingcod.  Cypress Point is getting a lot of fishing pressure from shore launched fishing kayaks on top of the usual boat fishing...

Our second dive was just inside the pair of wash rocks just off Cypress Point, again, we did a circumnavigation.  We were buzzed by a sea lion but I wasn't able to get a shot of it.  Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please use the link below: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hWUHEEDJJkZEnPwo8

                     Greg being observed by a Kelp Rockfish

                     Large Spiny sea star with my hand for scale.  Kelp is recovering at Cypress Point, finally, still less that normal and more dominated by Bull Kelp than in the past, but some Giant Kelp present as well.  Still way too many urchins.

                     Greg getting a photo of a Black and Yellow Rockfish.  Still way too many urchins, as you can see, which is why the rock is so bare.

The ride back was as nice as the ride out, high speed, flat, very easy.  Hope we get out again soon.