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!