Date: 12-30-06

Time: 11:20 am

Dive Type: private boat

Location: North Branch of Sumner Canyon, Black’s Beach

Conditions: surface: calm and flat

Viz at Depth: a murky 4-5 ft.

Critters Seen: yellow sponges, Red and Brown Gorgonians, Painted Greenlings, Blacksmith and numerous female Sheephead

Max Depth: 104 ft.

Mix: 28%

This was one of those rare days when the action on the surface almost made the diving we did down below pale in comparison.

With Jackie on board as surface support, Barbara, Charlie L. and I motored out in in the Scuba Do in the direction of Black’s Beach under sunny skies and high hopes at around 9 in the morning.

As we rounded the bend at Boomer, just South of Scripps Pier, looking off to the West, we heard Jackie shriek in delight: whales breaching! Right next to a white motor boat about 300 yards West of us, we could see one blowing his spout and breaching the surface of the water.

We were already cruising at a pretty good clip, so Barbara simply made the necessary course correction and we began heading to the last spot we had seen the spout.

Being careful not to actually ‘chase’ the whale, we followed at a safe distance along what we guessed was his path and sure enough, within about 5 mins, he had blown his spout and breached again, this time we were a bit closer and were able to get a better look at his barnacle covered back as he breached about 200 yards from our Starboard side.

Cruising in a large, lazy circle, we waited for him to breach again, but alas, that was the end of his performance for the day, so after waiting another 15-20 mins with no further sign of him, we resumed our original heading towards Blacks’ Beach, everyone talking excitedly about the mammalian leviathan we had just seen. We think it may have been a juvenile Grey Whale, but it was hard to tell from that distance. Speaking with a nearby boat capt., it turns out there had actually been two whales, breaching in separate areas, not one as we had originally thought.

As if that were not enough, as we approached Black’s Beach, we were treated to several schools of dolphins frolicking and playing in the surf very near our boat. Later, Jackie reported that they were zooming under the boat after we had descended on our dive.

So, with this delightful start to our day topside, we were eager to get in the water and see what awaited us down below.

Approaching the area we normally anchored in, we were surprised to see that recent storms had swept away the green buoy marking the beginning of the Sumner Branch of Scripps Canyon, so we were forced to use prior GPS numbers we had in our device.

In light of the fact that we had no buoy to descend, it was decided that we would instead dive the North Branch of Sumner, using approximate line ups we remembered from our days with the Seadeucers Dive Club.

Lining the boat up directly opposite the parking lot at Blacks, we anchored in about 70 ft. of water and began eagerly suiting up for our dive.

The ocean was calm and the skies sunny and beautiful as we jumped in the water to begin our dive.

The plan was to drop down the anchor and head Northward along the North Branch wall and then head back when we reached our turnaround point.

Unfortunately, fate had other ideas in mind for us.

As we descended down the anchor line, we were shocked to discover that, unbenownst to us when we lowered it [the depth finder had indicated it was solidly in 75 ft. of sand], the anchor had fallen over the edge of the canyon into much deeper water.

We followed it down to around 90 ft. and were dismayed to see that it had somehow hooked itself under a ledge, rendering it nearly irretrievable from the surface, especially without damaging the delicate marine life, like Gorgonians and sponges living along the wall.

Thus was spontaneously born ‘The Anchor Retrieval Project,’ wherein Barbara gingerly removed the anchor from where it lay on the ledge, avoiding damaging the surrounding marine life, and, inflating her BC, began slowing ascending with it to the top of the canyon, with me underneath, carrying a goodly length of chain behind her.

Now, bear in mind that this anchor weighs only about 20 lbs., with the length of chain behind it, about 30 lbs., but, nonetheless, a considerable amount of weight to be taking upwards in deep water.

Barbara later commented how ‘easy’ it seemed as she used her inflated BC to ‘take the weight’ of the anchor, but this was also due to the fact that I was right behind her, carrying 30 lbs. worth of chain!

We finally got the anchor safely secured in the sand at around 75 ft. and when we turned around to begin descending again, we noticed the obvious absence of our third buddy, Charlie.

We descended back down to the original depth we had last seen him at, around 90 ft., but in the limited 4-5 ft. foot viz, he could have been just ahead of us and we never would have seen him.

Turns out he had kept going North, per our original dive plan, when we stopped to secure the anchor.

So, we went North for a while in the gloomy viz, looking this way and that for him, while occasionally stopping to admire the numerous Yellow Dorids and sponges and Painted Greenlings tucked away in the various nooks and crevices in the canyon wall.

There were also large schools of Blacksmith and Senoritas, including some really cute little babies in the water column.

We weren’t too worried about Charlie, as he is a certified Tech diver who was carrying a rather large [80 cu. ft.] redundant air supply with him and was used to diving alone when the occasion called for it.

Turns out, he did the correct thing: after a few minutes of not seeing us, he surfaced, and following Jackie’s directions to our bubbles from the boat, which it turns out, were not more than a few yards South of him, swam over to them and then dropped down almost directly on us on the canyon, as we were ascending upwards to the sandy section at around 75 ft.

We were glad to see his smiling face behind his mask as he ‘rediscovered’ our location, still having no idea that we had been diverted from the original dive plan by the ‘Anchor Retrieval Project.’

We continued swimming lazily along the sandy top of the canyon until, amazingly, we were back at the anchor, this time, in it’s new, secure location.

I had been having trouble with my regulator making ‘slurpy’ noises throughout the dive and coupled with the fact that I was now down to about 1000 lbs., I decided to quit while I was ahead and signaled to Barbara and Charlie that I was going to begin heading up.

I did a long, slow, leisurely ascent, combined with a one minute deep stop at 52 ft. and 5 minute safety stop on the anchor, before surfacing to hear Jackie’s version of what had actually happened on the surface during our absence, including the school of dolphins that had zoomed under the boat.

Barbara and Charlie surfaced soon after, tired but happy that they had gotten in a satisfying dive on Scripps Canyon.

After a leisurely surface interval and lunch of sandwiches and liquid yogurt, they decided to go a second dive on Scripps, going all the way to the end of North Branch, while I stayed on board and kept Jackie company, having decided that one dive was enough for me on this amazing day of dophins, breaching whales and heavy anchor chains.

Dive #1:

Date: 12-25-06

Time: 2:30

Location: El Rey, Wreck Alley

Max Depth: 85 ft.

Surface Conditions: calm, with small wind chop

Viz at Depth: 8-10 ft.

Critters Seen: Hundreds of Blacksmith, Sand Bass and Red Gorgonians

Mix: 32%

We just couldn’t resist taking the Scuba Do out on Christmas Day, so the plan was to go out and do one late afternoon dive on the El Rey, followed by a night dive on the Yukon—a first for us.

So, with Jackie along as surface support, we motored happily out to the El Rey and lost no time suiting up and jumping in.

Unfortunately for us, it was one of those days were the surface was calm and viz at the top was stellar, only to drop to around 8-10 ft. once we got down on the ship. But, nonetheless, we hadn’t been out there in a while and it was nice to be on the little kelp cutter.

There had been some seals frolicking about on the surface and sure enough, once we got down there, one of them was buzzing about playfully on the ship, zooming by us a couple time before departing back to join his playmates on the surface.

We think they were feeding on the huge school of Blacksmith fish that was grazing on the El Rey

We followed the base of the kelpcutter around in a clockwise fasion, checking out the various Sand bass sitting around in the sand, gazing at us curiously.

Then, went up and over to the deck and dipped down into a couple cut out sections in the deck, and down into a couple of holds, which was a bit dark and spooky in the late afternoon light.

Then, after swimming under the main kelp harvesting section a couple times, it was time to come up and we were grateful to have Jackie waiting for us on deck to help us with gear.

Dive #2:

Location: Yukon, Wreck Alley,

Time: 6-ish

Max Depth: 90 ft.

Viz at Depth: not bad: 10-12 ft.

Critters Seen: White Metridia, Painted Greenlings, Sand Bass

Mix: 32 %

After a leisurely surface intervel and dinner of sandwiches, chips and chocolate chip cookies, we moseyed on over to the Yukon, just as the sun was setting into a gorgeous display of scarlet, orange and yellow, forming the perfect backdrop to getting our gear together.

Now, the only other night dive I’d ever done in Wreck Alley was the Ruby E.,which is tiny in comparison to the Yukon at night.

I will also confess to having a bit of trepidation about diving the Yukon at night, since this was our first time.

Sure enough, going down the line, it proved be bit eerie, seeing the line extend beyond us, down into the blackness, not know what to expect. [It's all in the mind......here, play: 'Twilight Zone' soundtrack].

This wasn’t helped by the fact that about halfway down, we ran into a fishing line, attached to a weight, just hanging on the line, waiting for some diver to become attached to it. We made a mental note to forcibly remove it with a sharp instrument on the way back up.

Arriving on the Stern, it looked similar to the way in looks during the day, except quite a bit darker!

Barbara and I descended on down until we reached the sandy bottom and then began swimming forward towards the Mortar Bay.

In the dark, the giant ship looms like a ghostly spectacle next to you, with large, strange shapes on the deck and superstructure casting eerie shadows around you that move about as you scan your light around.
Originally, the plan was to explore more towards the forward gun area, but with a small than normal tank on my back and the fact that I will admit to feeling a bit creeped out down there, we scaled back our ambitions a bit, and decided to hang around the Mortar Bay area instead.

We peered into the the nooks and crannies of the Mortar Bay with our lights and could see the odd Greenling hiding in the corner, along with the usual assortment of White Metridia in the corners.

We then began ascending a bit, towards the top of the Mortar Bay and the hull area on top, where we noticed a bit of a current, so that made us decide to turn around the corner and descend a bit down to the cut outs at around 80ft., which were doing their usual ‘suck in and spit out’ number, causing us, in turn, to give them a wide berth—not wanting to get sucked into the bowels of the Yukon at night, for what I think are quite understandable reasons.

I will tell you that peering into those cutouts at night causes your imagination to come alive about what might be inside.

Descending back down towards the sand, we paid on final visit to the Mortar Bay area, to check for the Ling Cod that sometimes hangs out there, before looking at our gages an realizing it was time to come up.

Coming up the line was as eerie as going down it had been, because it feels weird to be suspended on a line in the dark, with no reference point either above or below you. You just feel like you are suspended in outer space, which in a sense you are.

We met up with our friend the fishing lure on the way up and, as promised, Barbara took the knife from my BC and, with a satisfying slashing motion, separated the sucker from the line, so no other diver would have an unexpected enounter with it in the dark, and put into her thigh pocket.

Coming up under the boat was a cool experience: seeing it in the beam of our lights from underneath, we were able to swim from the line to just under the ladder, impressing Jackie with our underwater navigational abilities at night.

As spooky as it was, I admit diving the Yukon at night is a great experience.

A word of advice: do it in calm conditions, as we did. Strong current is not something you want to contend with down there in the dark!

Date: 12/21/06

Time: 6 pm-ish

Location: Vallecitos St., Boat Launch

Weather: cool, cloudy, light breeze

Surf: 1-2 ft. [hadn't begun to pick up yet]

Viz in Shallows: beyond range of lights….??

Viz at Depth: 15-20 ft. I’d say….

Max Depth: 115 ft.

Destination: cavelet at 113 ft.

Mix: 29%

Critters Seen: numerous squid and eggs, fairly large adult octo, the
usual Hemphills hiding in the detritus, tiny, baby Horn Shark [4 ins.
max], baby Thornback and several sizable Sheepcrab….

First of all, congrats to Terry for inadvertently violating The Prime
Law of Underwater Photography, which states, in so many words, that
you only get the ‘Shot of a Lifetime,’ when you’ve forgotten to bring
your camera.

The great shots of the Turtle are an obvious [and welcome] violation
of said law!

As for our dive last night…..we’ll we didn’t have the good fortune
of bringing a camera with us [the housing's in the shop right now
getting a leak repaired], but then again, we didn’t see the ‘Shot of a
Lifetime,’ either….so, there is some small consolation in that,
anyway…..

Parked in a sweet spot on V. St., Barbara and I took a brief look at
the nearly non-existent surf, suit up and walked in.

Kicked out to around 65 ft. in depth and dropped, with the idea of
trying to find the cavelet–emphasis on the word ‘try.’

As we dropped past the initial steps of the canyon, we could see that
viz was going to be ‘cold water, winter season-good,’ and it was.

One of the first things we noticed were: quite a few squid in the
water column: about 4-6 inches in length and not shy about approaching
divers, either. They seem drawn to our lights. Saw at least one female
laying eggs [and mating!] on a kelp frond. Tis the season to ‘get
busy,’ I guess in Squid Land, eh?

We continued dropping until we were at approximately the depth of the
cavelet [113 ft.], and headed South, but alas: the gods were not with
us on this night, not for navigation, anyway: the cavelet eluded us
after about a 15 minute search, at which point, we were so pleasantly
narced after not having been in the water for two weeks and didn’t
really care that much, but began heading back Northward, towards the
Vallecitos Point.

Along the way, we came across huge clumps of detritus in the draws,
presumably left there by the recent winter storms and I had a
delightful time gently playing with my new buddies the Hemphills,
before carefully replacing them where I found them and resuming our
trek Northward.

Along the way, Barbara came across an absolutely adorable little Horn
Shark: he couldn’t have been more than 4 inches long, sitting by
himself among the strands of kelp on the bottom. Ah….for the camera,
eh? Rats!

Right next to him was a good 12 inch adult Octo, sitting right by a 4
inch Vermillion Rockfish, as if they have been friends for life or
something.

As we neared Vallecitos Point, we observed more squid in the water
column and the fact that the strands of kelp there seem quite healthy.
Let’s hope it’s a tiny kelp forest in the making over there…….

Coming back in over the sand, we came across a Thornback Ray and the
usual assortment of Round Ray, which would disappear in a cloud of
sand as we approached.

Into the shallows, we noticed the surge was picking up a bit, but
nothing like what Terry experienced this morning, so obviously, that
system he encountered moved in over night.

All in all, it was a delightful dive, and hopefully, the beginning of
the Squid Season in La Jolla!