Keystone Jetty 2020/06/13 and 15
Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 10:17 pm
Finally got back in the water after spending three months dry. 2 tanks on Saturday and Tuesday.
The site was crowded on Saturday with both divers and boaters. I parked off to the side by the boat dock to keep my distance from people gearing up. It seemed like people weren't strictly sticking to a 5-person group limit, but it wasn't a clusterbleep either. And maintaining distance wasn't hard entering the water. Tuesday, dlh and I had the site to ourselves. There was even a young bald eagle hanging out on the jetty. Pickles was closed on Tuesday, but there was a long line of people waiting to get takeout on Saturday. I recommend ordering online and picking up when it's ready. Overall, I didn't have much cause for anxiety either day.
As for the diving, it didn't disappoint! Viz was maybe 15ft on Saturday. The water was greener and cloudier on Tuesday, <10 ft for sure. Currents were nothing on the first dive each day but strong on the second dive. I spent maybe 5 minutes on the pilings before heading back to the jetty on Saturday and didn't bother Tuesday. The rock of life was covered in more kelp than on my last dive in March. Not as many critters on it. But I found a big male scalyhead sculpin on it that was very photogenic. Elsewhere, I saw more scalyhead sculpins that were very cooperative. Mosshead warbonnets. Longfin sculpin. Tons of mating red rock crabs and a pair of mating helmet crabs. Hudson's dorid and clown nudibranch. Big ling cod. On Tuesday, I ran into a couple red rock crabs tearing apart the remains of a buffalo sculpin.
These were also my first dives with my new Backscatter MF-1 strobe, which replaced the second Ikelite DS-161 strobe I usually carry. I need to try a dive with the MF-1 as my sole strobe to get a better feel for it, but I really liked the results I got so far. I did supermacro (105mm + Nauticam SMC-1 diopter) both days and needed a lot of light given the small aperture. So the MF-1 was on or just below max power the whole time.
Hope to see you all from a safe distance while wearing face masks soon.
The site was crowded on Saturday with both divers and boaters. I parked off to the side by the boat dock to keep my distance from people gearing up. It seemed like people weren't strictly sticking to a 5-person group limit, but it wasn't a clusterbleep either. And maintaining distance wasn't hard entering the water. Tuesday, dlh and I had the site to ourselves. There was even a young bald eagle hanging out on the jetty. Pickles was closed on Tuesday, but there was a long line of people waiting to get takeout on Saturday. I recommend ordering online and picking up when it's ready. Overall, I didn't have much cause for anxiety either day.
As for the diving, it didn't disappoint! Viz was maybe 15ft on Saturday. The water was greener and cloudier on Tuesday, <10 ft for sure. Currents were nothing on the first dive each day but strong on the second dive. I spent maybe 5 minutes on the pilings before heading back to the jetty on Saturday and didn't bother Tuesday. The rock of life was covered in more kelp than on my last dive in March. Not as many critters on it. But I found a big male scalyhead sculpin on it that was very photogenic. Elsewhere, I saw more scalyhead sculpins that were very cooperative. Mosshead warbonnets. Longfin sculpin. Tons of mating red rock crabs and a pair of mating helmet crabs. Hudson's dorid and clown nudibranch. Big ling cod. On Tuesday, I ran into a couple red rock crabs tearing apart the remains of a buffalo sculpin.
These were also my first dives with my new Backscatter MF-1 strobe, which replaced the second Ikelite DS-161 strobe I usually carry. I need to try a dive with the MF-1 as my sole strobe to get a better feel for it, but I really liked the results I got so far. I did supermacro (105mm + Nauticam SMC-1 diopter) both days and needed a lot of light given the small aperture. So the MF-1 was on or just below max power the whole time.
Hope to see you all from a safe distance while wearing face masks soon.