Very Good Dives with Beachhopper II at Metridium Mountain and Cabrillo Point (Hopkin's Reef), post retirement dives 947,8 July11,-2026

Beachhopper II had a full boat, typically 8 divers, includeing my frequent diving buddy Guy Foster and Jim Kirkland. One diver, Paul, was diving a rebreather and touring around with a scooter. The day started off with a pretty heavy marine layer but we had some sunlight on our second dive. Our first dive was Metridium Mountain named after the high mound of big rocks covered in Metridium Sea Anemones, aka Plumrose Anemones, up to about 2 1/2 ft high when fully extended. I was very pleased when I splashed and started kicking to catch up with Guy waiting to start down the anchor line, the water was blue and you could see quite a distance despite the surface layer being full of green "snot" algae bloom. Once we'd dropped 20 ft we could clearly see the dive site 40 ft below us, 65 ft down. Horizontal visibility was easily 30 ft, vertical 40 ft. Surface water temperature was 55 degrees, bottom was 51. It's a great site with lots of fish, both a variety of rockfish and lingcod. I was shooting my 60 mm Canon macro lens so no wide angle shots of the Metridium fields.. Below are some photos from this very enjoyable dive, to see more please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aDdUG8ppYfjJF4ez7 A beautiful Chestnut Cowry, about 3 inches long. Below:

Below: Cup Corals, about .75 inches across.

I saw and photographed a couple of beautiful Ling Cod about 2 ft long. Below:

A yellow nudibranch, a White Spotted Dorid, with a cup coral. Below:

Kelp Rockfish, below:

A view of the bottom of the front of an Orange Sea Cucumber showing its light colored feet. Below:

Below: A Blue-ring Topsnail in amongst Strawberry Anemones

Below: A four inch Painted Greenling beside an Orange Bat Star

A Black Eyed Goby parked in front of a Kellet's Whelk. Below:

Below: A San Diego Dorid, aka Leopard Nudibranch, next to a Red Sea Urchin.

I couldn't resist another closeup of a Painted Greenling. If only he had raised his dorsal fin...Below:

It was time to ascend to my safety stop. Our next dive was at a site called Carbrillo Point (sometimes also called China Point for the Chinese fishing village that was once there) within the Stanford University's Hopkin's Marine Reserve. We still had very good, easily 25 ft of visibility with a mixture of big rocks, some Giant Kelp (hurray!), and sand. Below are some photos from this fun dive, to see more, please go to: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aq9DhcUUqhHujoVN6 Below: The first of several Rainbow Nudibranchs I saw on this dive.

A five inch juvenile Gopher Rockfish. Below:

I saw more Dock Shrimp, aka Coon Shrimp, on this dive than I've ever seen before. They ranged from about 1 to 2 inches (about 2 to 6 cm). See several below:

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