Story
and Photos © Elaine Jobin,
may not be reproduced in part or whole without advanced written permission.
We made it out for one last dive day in 2009!
The plan was to visit a set of pipes somewhere off Pt. Fermin. I had been to a set of underwater pipes before, but, these were different ones. Approximately 12 feet around, sitting at about 130 feet and decorated pretty complements of mother nature, wouldn't they make for some nice pictures with perhaps a little tunnel vision?
We had a smooth sunny cruise to the site. Ross carefully positioned the boat for a precise anchor drop - he is really good at those. I looked at the shore and our distance from the shore and wondered aloud - "Ross, are you sure we aren't going to be diving the end of a sewer pipe?" No he assured, somewhat bemused. He explained that it is a section of about three or four pipes joined together, open at both ends.
Our trip down the anchor line was totally uneventful. Visibility was at least 30 feet. Everything was looking good. When we got to the bottom though, it was a totally different story. Available light dropped off to dim and visibility to the length of an arm. Ross had been ahead of me and in an instant he was no where to be found. I followed the anchor line to the hook and I still couldn't see him. All I could see were huge white patches of squid eggs.
I wasn't sure what to do so I tried floating up a few feet with a good grip on the anchor line so as not to loose it. If I could just get above the bottom muck, maybe I could locate him or his bubbles - it didn't work - I couldn't get up high enough. Slowly I started moving in reverse up the line. When I got to where I could see 6 to 10 feet, I stopped and waited.
Shortly thereafter, Ross popped out of the darkness. He gave me a quizzical look and waved me back down into the muck. Once again I lost him at the hook. Feeling like a total failure, I repeated the "I look like such a wimp" anchor line retreat. Ross was onto my M. O. now and a minute or two later he was rebuddied up there with me. This time he signaled to scratch the dive.
We made a slow trip back up to the boat. Whatever we saw along the way was going to be what we saw for the dive. The scenery was sparse until we got to about 30 feet where lots of very small hydroids were drifting by in the water column. It was a little like being in the middle of a hydroid stampede. Most of them were quite small, and I had wide angle. I fought hard for a photo of the little critters so I could figure out what variety they were when I got home.
Cropped, sharpened, and researched they became Corolla calceola - commonly known as Sea Butterflies.
Back on the boat we were definitely disappointed that we had aborted the dive. Ross had run a line from the anchor over to the pipes and said that visibility on the top of the pipes was OK. I had never even seen the line. Ross said he had to be really careful because in the muck he had hardly been able to see the line either. Frustrated, we tried to decide what to do. A twenty minute hang on an anchor line hardly seemed like a dive day.
Ross has a theory that when the swell height is greater than 4 feet and the period greater than 15 seconds visibility on the San Pedro Shelf will suck 100% of the time, at least on the bottom. I guess you could call this the "Ross O. theory of visibility". The second part of the theory states that in these conditions the best local bet is the Olympic - so that is where we headed next.
After a long surface interval and some lunch, we discovered that the second part of the theory was holding true. Visibility on the wreck was probably 15 to 20 feet. Only problem was the bottom surge was tremendous. Holding any ground between the surge sets was nearly impossible.
I found enough shelter from the washing machine action in the wreck to get the strobes in position for some pictures. After that, setting up shots was next to impossible. Pictures were made where ever the surge would momentarily deposit me.....
I think that Ross, on the other hand, was still trying to figure out the ocean. He was down scraping away at the bottom signaling how hard it was here and how the ocean surge had cleared away a lot of the sand leaving what looked like an exposed shelf of slate. Uh Oh, maybe he was not only working on his "theory of visibility" but also considering a source of countertop material for his kitchen redo.....
Despite the surge we were able to circumnavigate the wreck in a reasonably short period of time. The photo ops were a little hit or miss, but these are a few of the images that I managed to grab.
After this dive we checked out a shallow potential dive site near the break wall. Visibility there looked like the worst of the day. Happy that we had at least gotten one good dive in we headed for home.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
