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Monthly Archives: July 2018

Loblolly Point – 21 July 2018

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So far the summer has been amazing. The water temperatures warmed up and it has been sunny and calm in the weekends. What more can you ask as a diver?

This Saturday we did our GAFC (Great Annual Fish Count) dive at Loblolly Point. First dive was so good that I didn’t even question doing the second one, despite the fact that I needed to head home as early as possible.

For the first dive we took sort of  a 120 degree bearing. That takes us towards the Thatcher Island. After a while if you keep bearing right you will be going up and down over big boulders, and that’s one of my favorite things on this site. At strict 120 degree we get to the sand and eventually the reef. The sand is always fun and you never know what surprises it may bring. This day it was a bigass searobin. I don’t see these guys in Cape Ann that often, and this one was one of the biggest I have ever seen. One fish encounter may make a good dive a great dive. And now it became great dive 🙂

Second dive we hit north bearing (0 degrees). Passed over some shallow reefs and then found a sandy patch in between. Agitated by the diver fin kicks bunch of sand lances started shooting up and soon after pollock showed up, it was a feast for pollock and for our eyes. We were just sitting and watching the survival war going on in front of us. The dive was over and I wasn’t ready to get out. I signaled the buddies getting out that I am just going to hang out near the shore. I am so glad that Todd joined me (he is a great buddy that he never leave anyone alone) and we had another 35 mins of bonus dive

Such great day, with amazing encounters with bunch of fish and also some nudibranchs unexpected this late in the season. Now I can’t wait for next dive…

Buddies: Todd B, Mike S, Jason E, Amy N

Dive 1: 44ft, 64min, 53 F, 20ft viz

Dive 2: 30ft, 85 min, 56 F, 20ft viz

Cathedral Rocks – 8 July 2018

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The weather is going great this summer for diving. On this beautiful day we picked Cathedral Rocks. We are a little scaredy and lazy bunch that we don’t do Cathedral as often, we wait for the conditions to be perfect, as in flat calm seas and high tide. And finally those conditions were satisfied today.

Getting to the water and back was not horrible. The big rock had moved again so the path to the lower level opened up for an easier walkway. And the rocks are covered with lots of barnacles, making it a safer entry.

Under the surface the visibility was great and got even better below the first thermocline. We passed through two thermoclines, one at 19ft and one at 34 ft. Bottom was cold. We took 120 degree bearing to get to the depths of 80 ft. As we were swimming we noticed that we were also being dragged by a quite strong current. After going along with it for a while we all agreed that we should make a ~90degree turn to avoid horrible swim back against the current. Funny thing was almost as soon as we changed our route the current also changed along with us. With that we ended up overshooting the exit point but wasn’t too bad.

There were few pollock, flounder. Saw two northern reds, open, feeding. I took one or two photos out of courtesy, as I really don’t like them as my photo subjects. To my surprise found two tiny doto nudis. Too bad I had left my macro lens in the car. We also saw the sea lemon nudi, which really doesn’t require a macro lens 🙂

We had come for a single dive but luckily divers Doug and Ben were also at the same site and they were planning to do a second dive. So I changed my tank and my buddy group and went in for a second dive. This time we hit straight out (I think 60 degree). This course is more flat around 40-50 ft, does not get too deep. Throughout the dive we were kept company by school of pollock, which was really cool.

While seeing nothing too crazy we all had great dives. The conditions were beautiful. Hopefully we will get more days like this…

Buddies: Todd & Jason (48F, 52ft,65min)

Buddies: Doug& Ben  (46F, 46ft, 51min)

 

Halibut Point – 4 July 2018

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What a perfect day to be in the water. I don’t think I ever wanted to feel the cold water rushing into my wetsuit. When it did, it felt soooo good today. Even early hours of the morning the heat was hitting hard. The two round walk to the Halibut Point entry point did not help, either.

Finally, three of us (Bert, Mike and me) geared up and entered the water. Quickly took even heading towards north and submerged into green water. The water on the surface was quite warm (no data as I forgot my computer) but going through two thermoclines made me forget about the heat above the surface. Later I learn that the temperature at depth was 44F.

As we cut through the thermoclines the visibility also cleared up significantly. I can easily say it was around 30-40 ft at the bottom. Saw few flounders, one longhorn sculpin and  one shorthorn sculpin. Bert reported a big tautog, which I missed :(.

Overall beautiful dive, as usual in Halibut Point. Can’t wait for the weekend to come and it will come in 2 days, yay!!!

Buddies: Bert, Mike S.

62ft, 44F, 50min, 15-40ft viz

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