Dive Log 2/9/03
Location: Monastary Beach, in Carmel. It's across Hwy 1 from an old monastary (apparently now a convent)
Conditions: As far as surf goes, about as good as this location can be - almost completely calm; waves were about a foot high.
First dive: Swam out about 300 meters before diving down to 40 feet. After reaching the bottom, we continued out as the ocean floor slanted down, The next time I looked at my depth gage about a half minute later, we were already at 60 feet. We turned around at 71 feet and made our way towards shore, taking our time to examine everything that looked interesting. Total dive time: 42 minutes
Second dive: For this dive, it was only Matt (my instructor) and I. We decided to go as deep as we could just so I could see what it was like. We swam out to the same area as before, but after diving, we kept going down along the ocean floor. 60...70...80...90...the floor was dropping away so quickly that whenever I would stop, I would have to hold myself steady until I got my buoyancy balanced again; otherwise, I'd just slide down the hill.
It wasn't long before we were at 131 feet, where we stopped for a minute and I looked around. The red spectrum couldn't penetrate the water this deep, and green was already starting to fade, so the huge rock walls of the canyon were cast in a mysterious light. I was getting chilly at this depth, so we started back up again, and when we hit about 30 feet, we cruised around until my air ran low. Dive time: 30 minutes.
What I saw: Crabs, sea snails, baby kelp forests (they're just starting to grow back after the storms of December), skates, sea cucumbers (which look very strange), and lots of fish of all different sizes.
All in all, a great diving day!
Location: Monastary Beach, in Carmel. It's across Hwy 1 from an old monastary (apparently now a convent)
Conditions: As far as surf goes, about as good as this location can be - almost completely calm; waves were about a foot high.
First dive: Swam out about 300 meters before diving down to 40 feet. After reaching the bottom, we continued out as the ocean floor slanted down, The next time I looked at my depth gage about a half minute later, we were already at 60 feet. We turned around at 71 feet and made our way towards shore, taking our time to examine everything that looked interesting. Total dive time: 42 minutes
Second dive: For this dive, it was only Matt (my instructor) and I. We decided to go as deep as we could just so I could see what it was like. We swam out to the same area as before, but after diving, we kept going down along the ocean floor. 60...70...80...90...the floor was dropping away so quickly that whenever I would stop, I would have to hold myself steady until I got my buoyancy balanced again; otherwise, I'd just slide down the hill.
It wasn't long before we were at 131 feet, where we stopped for a minute and I looked around. The red spectrum couldn't penetrate the water this deep, and green was already starting to fade, so the huge rock walls of the canyon were cast in a mysterious light. I was getting chilly at this depth, so we started back up again, and when we hit about 30 feet, we cruised around until my air ran low. Dive time: 30 minutes.
What I saw: Crabs, sea snails, baby kelp forests (they're just starting to grow back after the storms of December), skates, sea cucumbers (which look very strange), and lots of fish of all different sizes.
All in all, a great diving day!
