Dive March 6 2004

The Alacosta (Portuguese for "To the Coast") diving club sent out a planning note in January for a diving trip to Point Lobos. I made my reservations on line and confirmed with Hank he was in. It had been just over two years since we last dove with the Alacosta dive group at Breakwater. The attraction both times (above and beyond diving) was a chance to go out in a boat and reach places that are inaccessible via a shore dive.

Stacey and the kids and I drove down Friday night and Hank picked me up the next morning, we swung by and got our tanks and were in line at exactly 9 am when the park opens.

It was a beautiful day for diving, the weather was sunny and warm, there was a little wave action. The hope was that the visibility would also be good.

The last time we set up the boats it seemed to take at least three hours to get the boats up, in the water and to the dive sites. We joked with the other Alacosta members about the time frame this time. Due to extra tanks and a little air blower we actually got the boats inflated in very good time. But it still seemed to take an interminably long time for everyone to get their gear on and get into the boats and start making our way to the dive site. The first boat had to slowly tool around the Whaler's cove waiting for the second boat to get launched. It was quite a feat to get all the gear in the boat and get situated. We had begun at around 9:15 to setup and I imagine left Whaler's cove around 12:00 noon, right on the 3 hour money mark. ;)

Originally the plan was to dive the pinnacle at the outer edge of Bluefish Cove after reconnoitering, the three to four foot swells made it a bit much so we headed further into the cove where the edges gave a bit more protection from the waves things were a bit calmer. We anchored in about 50 feet of water, got our gear on and one by one got into the water. By this time one of our parties was pretty sea sick, he was retching in the water, he said though once he was under he was fine. The visibility at the anchor point was around 20-30 feet. Hank and I swam towards the inner portion of the cove in the little arms on the left hand side of the map below. As we swam further into the cove, the horizontal visibility improved to to around 40-50 feet. We saw lots of great sea life, plants, fish and a couple of seals. The sun was amazing in the shallower parts of the cove. It was a great dive.

Unfortunately because we didn't get back till 1:15, and my wife and kids were waiting, Hank and I bailed on our second dive and we headed out.

Our dive location:

Beautiful weather at Point Lobos

An Alacosta boat inflated and waiting near the dock.

John ? and ? looking on. John is using an extra tank to fill the zodiac.

Janet and Marcel (sic) suited up and ready to go for a shore dive.

You never really ever look good in scuba gear.

The second boat landing at the boat ramp.