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A small but enthusiastic group of Alacostans ignored dire weather reports and headed out to Monterey for a day of diving on the Monterey Express on the President's Day Holiday. As it happens, they were the lucky ones: those that chose to ski instead missed great conditions and perhaps had to endure a massive Highway 80 traffic jam. Traffic to Monterey, on the other hand, was reasonably light, and the boat was heading out at the very civilized hour of ten a.m, making the arrival time do-able even for notorious President's Day latecomers Kevin Dalley and Susan Carter.
Susan and Kevin even had time to make a stop at the Breakwater on the way, in order to allow Kevin to demo one of Backscatter's finer (read pricier) still camera housings. Breakwater conditions were a harbinger of good diving to come, with perfectly flat water, 25 foot vis, and a deserted parking lot. Once Kevin had signed the paperwork to rent the housing and Kevin and Susan arrived at the boat, they were joined by Alacostans Janet Myers and Robert Kent.
Captain Tim of the Express, noting that the bay was protected from the strong SE wind, decided not to attempt Carmel. Rather, the first dive was at in the bay at Outer Aumentos, where the group found flat surface conditions, little current, almost no surge, sunshine, cold water with temps of about 47 degrees, and excellent horizontal vis of up to fifty feet. The surface was readily visible from the bottom depth of sixty feet plus. The reef was covered with corynactis and ling cod, and some rather territorial rockfish that provided entertainment. Huge jelly fish were camera fodder for the safety stops.
As they headed out for dive number one, Susan told Kevin that her compass was broken, and Kevin pointed out that he planned mostly to watch his camera, given that he had signed away his life, not to mention his credit card limit, as a deposit on the housing. Thus the two didn't move very far underwater, but the lack of attention to navigation didn't really matter, since Capt. Tim slipped anchor. Result: Kevin and Susan, last of the divers to surface, found themselves 200 yards away from the boat, where they stayed put until Tim came to pick them up.
Janet and Robert also had a great dive (and a long swim to catch that wayward boat). For Janet the dive was particularly noteworthy, since it was her last dive ``ever'' in a wetsuit: the new drysuit is purchased and waiting a bit of in- water instruction in the very near future. Janet even had a ceremony in honor of the occaison: staying topside and sitting out the second dive while Robert and Kevin, toasty in their drysuits, did a second excellent dive at Chase Reef. (Susan figured that if Janet was going to sit the second dive out due to cold, that it would be the least Susan could do for her friend to keep her company and protect her from Capt. Tim's bad jokes.)
After a sucessful day of diving, the four Alacostans braved the service at the Fish and Chips place, and Kevin was heard to say over and over again: ``Did I tell you yet how cool I thought that housing was?'' We look forward to seeing the succesful photographic results as entertainment at a future Alacosta meeting, and hope that they remind folks that sometimes the best Monterey diving comes just before a winter storm...
blurb@alacosta.org