Date: 3/28/09
Location: Cleo St., Laguna/Montage, Laguna
Times: 11:40 am/2:15 pm [Approx.]
Surface Conditions: calm
Current: moderate at both locations
Viz: poor: 1-2 meters at both locations
Temp: 54 F.
Dive buddies: Dave H. and Mike H.
Mix: 31%/36%
Marine Life Observed:
Numerous Blacksmith fish, Sheephead, both male and female, Garibaldi, Senoritas, Black Perch, Painted Greenlings, Black-eyed Gobies, Calico Bass, Tree fish, Gold and Red Gorgonians, Yellow Bryozoans, Green and Red Spotted Anemones [Urticina lofotensis], Bat Stars,Red Volcano Sponge, Purple Sea Urchins, Tube-dwelling Anemones, Lacy Bryozoans, White Sponge, Giant Spined Sea Star, Spiny Lobster, Yellow Bryozoans, Rock Wrasse, Spanish Shawl, Blood Stars,Short Spined Sea Stars, Giant Keyhole Limpet, Warty Sea Cucumbers, Rock Scallop, Kellet’s Welk, Juvenile Rock Wrasse, Adult Rock Wrasse [male and female], Juvenile Sheephead….oh, and a Juvenile Moray Eel…..
Remarks:
Mike H. and I carpooled up to Dana Pt., where Dave’s super-cool boat, the Big Deal is slipped and within just a few minutes, he had that puppy up on the plane and we were cruising smoothly up to Laguna at a respectable speed, escorted by several pods of dolphins, leaping joyfully in and out of our wake.
Dive #1: Cleo St.
This, of course, is an approximation, since it depends on one’s ability to recognize certain landmarks in Laguna and then, determine where we were, but Dave seemed to know them pretty well, so we took his word for the fact that he recognized Cleo St. from where we had dropped anchor.
We wasted no time in suiting up and jumping in, the plan being to head towards some rocky reefs that jutted out of the water, between us and the beach.
One thing I had forgotten about Laguna [old hat to local residents, of course], was that the usual beach diving compass bearings here are rather strange to those of us who are from San Diego are used to: West being deeper and East being towards the shore.
In Laguna, due to the geographical orientation, North is towards the beach and South is seaward [is that right?].
So, you have to remember that, or you’ll get all screwed up and never find the boat—or the beach. 
Anyway, so we jumped in and headed towards the rocky reef between us and the shore.
Soon enough, we found ourselves
among several large, rocky outcroppings jutting up from the sand, enveloped by large schools of Blacksmith, both adult and juvenile.
At first, due to the poor visibility, I thought there wasn’t much to be seen here.
But, upon closer examination, I soon discovered that this area is replete with marine life, you just have to ‘zoom in’ close to see it.
Purple Sea Urchins were everywhere, along with lots of Gold and Red Gorgonians, all vibrating in a blur, our clue that this area was not without current.
Yellow Bryozoans and Orange Sponge
cover most of the rocks here.
Male and female Sheephead patrolled the area, along with numerous Garibaldi and Black Perch.
My REEF slate soon began to fill up with both invertebrates and vertebrates.
At one point, I saw a rather small Greenling actually chasing a much large female Sheephead, out of the area, post-haste. Size obviously not being a consideration to the much smaller Greenling.
We cruised about these large rocky outcroppings for about 50 minutes, before deciding that the 54 F. water was getting a bit chilly and we began heading back to the boat.
I definitely got a good REEF survey out of this dive, due to the abundance of marine life here.
Dive #2: Montage [Rock ‘n Roll, baby!]
After a nice, leisurely lunch of sandwiches, chips and Lisa [Dave’s wife]’s heavenly chocolate brownies, we were ready to pull anchor and move.
Dave pointed his speed demon South and we soon found ourselves at Montage, again, relying on Dave’s recognition of local landmarks to tell us were we were.
From the boat, we could see large rocks jutting up out of the ocean, between us and the beach at Montage: that was the goal.
So, we jumped in and after taking a compass heading, dropped down and headed towards the reef.
We had to cross quite a bit of sand, before finally arriving at the reef.
The reef was actually two long reefs, running East/West, parallel to shore [it’s backwards, remember?]
So, upon arriving at the first reef, we immediately became separated in the 2 meter viz and went our separate ways.
I followed the first reef Eastward, peering into all the various nooks and crannies.
These reefs actually resembled small walls, which jutted up from the bottom at around 40 ft., up to around 20 ft., so it was sort of like wall diving in 30 ft. of water.
Purple Sea Urchins were everywhere, along with white, red and orange sponges.
Gold Gorgonians covered these mini-sea mounts, vibrating rapidly in the current.
I followed a couple school of Blackmith fish Eastward, until I bumped into Mike again, busily photographing tiny things in the wall.
With no sign of Dave anywhere, we sort of threw up our hands and decided to follow the reef on our right, up to see how far it went.
Not realizing how close to the rocks on the surface we were, we continued on and up until we were in only 15 ft. of water, with white water foaming all around us.
Too late, we realized we had actually breached into the shallows where the rocks met the surface.
Rookie error!
We quickly found ourselves being sucked upward into a channel between the rocks on the surface and getting lashed pretty good.
I signaled to Mike that we needed to get out of there—fast!
We quickly dumped air from our BCs, and headed South towards open water, as fast as we could kick.
With a little help from Mommy Nature, we found ourselves getting ejected downward, towards the shallower sandy bottom.
We sort of bounced and tumbled around a bit, before settling on the bottom.
I looked over at Mike and he was giving me the universal sign for ‘wiping sweat’ from his fevered brow, and I couldn’t help but agree.
Whew!
We had been dumb, alright, but Mommy Nature had let us off with a light spanking, on the promise we wouldn’t do it again.
Chastened, we hastened Southward, towards were we thought the boat might be.
Still no sign of Dave anywhere, so we continued up and over one or two more reefs.
Finally, realizing that we could be anywhere at this point, I signaled to Mike that I was going up to look for the boat and would return forthwith.
He readily agreed to this plan.
Of course, I had forgotten that the viz was a mere 2 meters and so, when I returned to the bottom after taking a heading on the boat, of course I was nowhere near where I had left Mike.
I found myself in the middle of a sandstorm.
I had forgotten to allow for the stiff, 2 knot current that was pushing us away from the boat.
Oh, well, I thought: I’ll just head in. I knew Mike was a big boy and could take care of himself.
I popped up quite a ways from the boat and had to avail myself of the current line which Dave had been kind enough to let out, after returning to the boat, several minutes before us.
Mike popped up not long after me and also had to grab the current line and, soon enough, Dave had both of us pulled in to the boat.
One comical thing happened shortly after I got back into the boat.
I was helping to get Mike’s gear into the boat and lost my balance and toppled in, head first, with no fins on.
Luckily, I had my dry suit still zipped up, so no water got in.
But, the tank toppled in right after me and if I hadn’t made a point of dropping down, it might have bonked me on the head and that would have smarted considerably—I had a feeling that puppy had followed me into the water!
Anyway, all’s well that ends well and we all agreed the day had been a stellar success, despite the limited viz and the ‘spanking’ from Mommy Nature.
Dave soon had the Big Deal pointed South [or was it East?] towards Dana Pt and we soon found ourselves maneuvering between speed boats and million dollar yachts in the harbor.
Dave did a superb job maneuvering the long boat into the slip in the face of a stiff wind and everyone went hope happy after a great day in Laguna Beach.
Dive safe, everyone…..
