Very Good Dives on the Pinnacles and off Pt Joe October 22, 2018

Greg Hoberg and I decided to go ahead and do a day of diving though the wind forecast was higher than we like it to be and it had been breezy Sunday night.  We're really glad we decided to go.  The winds dropped off enough to give us an ok ride out of Monterey Bay and the mixed swell wasn't too bad.  We could tell as we cruised down to Carmel Bay that the water was going to be pretty clear.  Our first dive at the Pinnacles was wonderful, average visibility was easily 50 ft sometimes more.  Water temp was 53.  I was eager to use my refurbished DUI drysuit (I stayed dry!!) and my refurbished Nauticam case, it also worked splendidly.  Below are some photos from our dive, for more please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/3ueKBhenqmv6qWQe6

 We knew we would have good visibility based on what we could see looking down the finally regrowing kelp on the Pinnacles (East Pinnacle on this dive), but we were excited to immediately see the bottom 40 to 60 ft below us when we splashed.  There was a huge school of Blue Rockfish, which love to hang out in kelp forests.  I even, a rare occurrence, decided to shoot some video with my camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXxSewkMjnU&feature=youtu.be

Yes, I would say there was a plethora of rockfish!

Though still only about 25 or 30 percent of normal, happily, both Giant Kelp and Bull Kelp have returned on East Pinnacle.

We had excellent visibility and light, though there was a heavy marine layer blocking direct sunlight.  Keep in mind we're down about 40-50 ft in this shot...

Rounding a large rock structure I was happy to be able to take a picture, thanks to my wide angle Tokina 10-17 mm fisheye lens, of both a Cabezon and a Lingcod in the same photo.  You do see them, right?  Below are zoomed in edits of each of them....

                                          Lingcod

                         Well camouflaged Cabezon.

Greg getting closeups of another patient Cabezon he found.

Because of the forecast for rising winds we prudently headed back from Carmel Bay after our dive on the Pinnacles.  Our second dive was off Pt Joe.  Visibility was excellent though not as good as in Carmel Bay.  Average visibility was about 40 ft.  We're really pleased to see Bull Kelp finally make a big comeback off Pt Joe, though Giant Kelp is still few and far between there.  Still, it is a wonderful improvement from the last three years.  Below are some photos from this dive, for more, please go to:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/xFXWXF7Hg39wAbHT9

Happily, finally, after three years, Bull Kelp is returning to once was a vast Bull and Giant Kelp Forest off Pt Joe.  Hopefully the trend will continue!

   We were visited by a young, curious, but quick and cautious Sea Lion a couple of times on this dive.

We also were visited by a California Sheepshead on this dive.

      Time for our safety stop, then a surface swim back to Greg's boat, as we had wandered a bit....

Since the water was so beautiful and the forecast was good for the next day we decided to dive a second day....To be continued, or, followed by tomorrow's dive blog....