Old dives

15 divers at Monterey

Fifteen divers showed at Monterey's breakwater at 8:30 AM on January 12. This is the largest number of divers in northern California in many years. Many new club members showed up. Mark Griffith, Hank Humphrey, Chris Lundeen, Chris Fryer were among those who arrived early in the morning. We used two Alacosta inflatables, along with a boat belonging to a friend of Alacosta. Susan Carter led the dive from home. Janet Myers co-chaired the dive from Monterey.

We assembled the club Zodiac and Achilles in the parking lot, and headed for Eric's Pinnacle. The water had calmed down significantly from the small-craft advisories on Wednesday. Rob Vermeulen's drysuit seal split before the dive. He was taped up with duct tape, which lasted well into the dozen seconds of the dive.

The visibility was up to 15 feet, with occasional bits up to 17 feet. There were occasional rocks surrounded by sand, with the pinnacles rising 20-30 feet above the surface.

Underwater, we were buzzed by sea lions. John Beland and Kevin Dalley found a wolf eel in a crack in the pinnacle. The wolf eel back up as far as possible into its hole.

We returned to the breakwater for lunch. Some people (Janet Myers and Marcel) claimed seasickness and backed out of the second dive. Many lifejackets changed hands. Mark Griffith and Hank Humphrey dove from the beach for the second dive.

Jeff Lewis, Bill McDowell, John, and Kevin took the boat Hopkins reef for a second dive. Wes Askins, and Barbara Hatcher also joined the second dive, even though they were in wet suits. There were Metridium everywhere. Kevin spent a few minutes trying to place a hermit crab back into its shell, but it refused to go.

There were many tube anemones of various colors on both dives. Crabs were everywhere. Even a ling cod were viewed sunning itself on a rock 50 feet down.