Very Good Dive on the Pinnacles July 17, 2024

Greg Hoberg and I took his RIB down to the Pinnacles yesterday. We were surprised how rough it was rounding Cypress Point, and, on our return trip, the brisk wind driven waves were really steep. At the Pinnacles we were rewarded with very good visibility, 40 ft horizontal, 50 vertical. It's really fun diving the Pinnacles with good visibility, there were, again, lots of rockfish including a very large school of Blue Rockfish that I imagined were smiling to have a Kelp forest to shelter in. Below are some photos from our dive, for more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Dou4nzmuvDmrJZH96 As soon as we splashed we were greeted by blue water with excellent (for around here) visibility and a school of Blue Rockfish, below:

A Kelp Rockfish welcomed us at the anchor, below:

Greg photographing a large decorator crab on a sponge encrusted rock, below:

It's a pleasure to explore the canyons of the Pinnacles with a recovering Kelp forest (maybe 40% of pre sea star wasting/urchin plague size) below:

Can you make out the details of the extremely well camouflaged decorator crab in the right foreground below:

We had a good encounter with a usually very shy China Rockfish, both Greg and I got some good shots of it, below:

Below: Greg repositioning our anchor before we made our way back up the canyon and back up the anchor line for our safety stop. Unfortunately, due to the rising wind and the forces on the anchor line I had to bounce dive back down to remove the anchor from a crevice we'd never have been able to get it out of from the boat. At least I'd decided that we might have trouble so I'd stayed in the water after Greg got out and tried to raise the anchor. It's a real pain to get out of the water then have to put your gear back on and go back in....

It's a real pleasure to ascend and make your safety stop at 20 ft when you've got great light, visibility, a Kelp Forest, and schooling rockfish. Below:

The boat's up there somewhere in that kelp! Below:

The ride back was rough for the first mile....Then my 200 mile drive to home in Healdsburg took 5 hours due to a series of accidents ahead of me.... But it was worth it!