Two Low Visibility Dives with Beachhopper II , Post Retirement Dives 808, 809 November 16, 2024

Last Saturday, November 16, 2024 I made two dives, together with Guy Foster, with Beachhopper II following several days of rough seas, so the visibility on the two dives was very limited. On the first site, Mr Ed, visibility was only 3 ft and because it is also a deep dive, 70 - 80 ft, it was very dark as well. The second dive was at Tankers Reef, a site that until a few months ago, was an experimental site where divers culled the plague of purple urchins in order to allow Giant Kelp to grow. Happily, some of the Giant Kelp still endures. Visibility was better, it ranged 6 to 12 ft. I used my 7 mm wetsuit on this dive because my DUI drysuit is at Otter Bay Wetsuits for adding knee pads and adding a zipper catch. This was the first time I tried diving with the new deluxe heavy skin from Sharkskin as an underlayer and I was pleased with the additional warmth it provided. Full disclosure, I also used by chemical transition heating pads on each dive and the pads provide noticeable localized warmth for 20 minutes or so. During the dive at Tankers Reef, and this was my first dive on this site, I was delighted to see my first One Spot Fringehead, thanks to Jim Kirkland and Lisa. Photos from these two dives are below. It was dark with only 3 ft of visibility so I was glad I was shooting macro with my Canon 60 mm lens. Below is a Brown Cup Coral, about 3/4 inches across.

Below, a Snub Nose Sculpin:

Strawberry Anemones, each about 1/2 inch across, below:

Gopher Rockfish face shots, below:

Lingcod face shots, below:

I kept my dive very short, about 20 minutes because it was dark, cold, and very limited visibility and decided I'd save some body warmth for the second, hopefully better, dive. This was my first dive at Tankers Reef and it lived up to its reputation as a great site for macro photography. It's a relatively shallow dive, 36 ft, so light was much better as well as about 3 times the visibility range. I saw several different nudibranchs, a small octopus, and my first ever Onespot Fringehead. Below: Tankers Reef still has lines marking its boundaries, here's one of the tags that can be used to tell you where you are along the boundary line.

Various Nudibranchs, below:

Below are a few shots of the small, cooperative octopus I spotted. He was sligtly more than half the size of my spread hand.

I continued to follow the northern boundary line back past Beachhopper's anchor and then I spotted Lisa and Jim with the Onespot Fringehead. Lisa finisthed taking a couple pictures and then turned him over to my shooting. I was nearing the need to end my dive and go back to the anchor, up the anchor line, and do my 3 minute safety stop before running out of air. Below are my favorite shots from my first ever, after 46 years of diving Northern California, Onespot Fringehead, about 6 inches long.

To see the rest of my photos from Tankers Reef, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CtyRr99jJTRCuGK66