It has been one and a half year I dove Cathedral Rocks, it was way over due. The conditions were perfect and we took the opportunity.
The visibility was sacrificed due to some “love juice” hanging on the water column. But still it wasn’t too bad, probably in the 7-10 ft range. Down to 65 ft I felt like we crossed two thermoclines. I felt cold in the drysuit, glad that I didn’t end up bringing my wetsuit to the dive. I think you tend to forget how miserably cold it can get, especially when you diving wet.
The first dive started uneventful. We were accompanied by a group of pollock for a while. Below 45-50ft we saw plenty northern red anemones, all open, ready for innocent prey. On the way back to the shore, first I came across a beautiful big searaven. As usual, she was not very helpful in providing good photos. My air was depleting and I was still at the bottom, so I gave up on the searaven, with only ass photos in my camera. Short after that I saw something sitting on a ledge, a decent sized fish, reddish color, more round than searaven or sculpin kind. I came close to it and realized it was a big lumpfish!! This was the first time I saw one of these so big! Such a beautiful fish, peacefully sitting there. Unfortunately I bothered him with bunch of flashes, then he swam away. I could only chase it a short time then had to continue ascending. It was a pleasure to meet him.
Second dive was uneventful. We were planning to do the same route, ended up quite different. Could not find the lumpfish, nor the searaven; could not see any northern reds. But observed a striper swimming by me and found two different kinds of nudis.
Overall it was a beautiful day of diving at Cathedral Rocks. Again a new siting for me, so exciting! Hope to come back to this site again, without too long of a break like last time.
Buddies: Jason, Dan, Bert, Todd, Mike, Jenna
~67 ft, ~48F, ~50 min
