Date: May 23, 2007
Time: 5:30pm/7:30pm
Location: Diver's Cove/Shaw's Cove
Depth (feet): 33/26
Dive Time (minutes): 50/57
Surf (feet): 1-2+
Surge (feet): 2-5
Water Temp (fahrenheit): 58
Visibility (feet): 2-15
Visibility Description: variable...see below
Notes and Highlights: Dove with Scott - was thinking that we were going to be doing some red-tide diving - but the swell, surge, and surf seems to have driven the red tide off of the beach a ways...water looked pretty inviting. First went in at Diver's and dropped into about 2 feet of vis in 10 feet of water...the surge was kicking up A LOT of stuff...but no red tide! I've recently chided a dive buddy for not testing his camera gear - resulting in a blown dive with a reversed battery. Karma kicked me in the butt by having me not take the 5 seconds needed to turn my camera on after I put it in the housing...and...dead camera. We proceeded over the sand a bit - startling several bat rays, and a guitarfish. Once we were in about 20 feet of water - the surge wasn't nearly as bad, and the vis opened up to about 15. Once we got to 30 feet however, we hit the "wall" of red tide...so we stayed closer in and poked around the shallower reef. Found the rock pool blennies again...and when I turned to get Scott's attention to show him the blennies - I almost had my head taken off by a large bat ray flying about 15 feet off the sand - with a smaller one right behind it...must be mating season. On the "way back" over the sand - an awesome video opportunity for a pair of mating bat rays swam slowly by me...did I mention karma?!
We exited uneventfully, and decided to try out Shaw's for dive #2. We dropped into about 15 feet of water, and heavy surge again...this time the surge felt even more forceful - not necessarily pushing you that far...just a very distinct, constant feeling of extreme pressure against you. At one point we were blown off the reef and whited-out (new word?)...A large number of small things were out...the surge making the pictures difficult...but there were many octopi, hopkin's roses, a tiny decorated crab (1 inch), and a tiny scorpionfish (1 1/2 inches)...have I mentioned my camera stinks for macro? Brittle stars, lobsters, blacksmiths, and garibaldi rounded out what was going to be a routine, outer-reef dive at Shaw's...until...
...I noticed an "eye" in the sand...and then a second - not very close to the first. A circular mouth was partially exposed, and I realized it wasn't a halibut. I've seen a few plainfin midshipman...but they are still rare enough that it was very cool. It was also a large one - nearly 2 feet in length and heavy. I "helped" it out of the sand gently, and was able to get some still-camera video clips (see below). Certainly made fighting the surge worthwhile, and guaranteed a good time was had by all.
