La Jolla Shores Night Dive
Last minute dive with Debra, Ryan, James and Dan. Storm had calmed down, the swell was low and most importantly… Deb’s first dive back in the water after her Lasik surgery! The waves were knee slappers, so entry was easy, we kicked out with an occasional swell rolling through, but no biggie. The goal tonight was for Ryan to lead us to the mysterious angel statue located somewhere off Vallecitos Point at 112 feet. We dropped down in slop, maybe about 7 feet viz, BUT Ryan nailed the canyon wall. Nice! We followed the canyon wall to Vallecitos Point then headed down to 112 feet. No pressure on Mr. Divemaster candidate to navigate us, not at all… haha. As we descended down the viz was a hazy 10 feet at most. Strangely, we saw hundreds of Graceful Crabs running all over the sea floor. I wish I could have captured a photo but there was way to much debris in the water to capture anything farther than 2 feet from my camera. We hit 115 feet and knew we went too far. Ever see a temper tantrum underwater? I witnessed Ryan’s tantrum last night out of frustration of not being able to find the statue. Fists clenched and shaking, feet kicking, and you could see him going “ARGGGGGGGGG!!!!!”. Hilarious!! I’m sure he was dreading the teasing he was going to get on the surface. Just then James’ light flashed on a dark mass… THE STATUE!!! Ryan lucks outs!!! We finally get to see the mysterious statue we had only previously heard about. It’s a lot smaller than I imagined, but still cool! The dive was a success! I wish I could have gotten a full image of the statue but the viz and debris would not allow it. Next time!
Max Depth: 115 feet
Temp: 51 degrees
Viz – 3 feet in the shallows, 10 feet at depth
Current: Mild current pulling us north
Bottom Time: 42 min
Eye Candy:
The angel statue, hundreds of graceful crabs, sea lemon, sarcastic fringehead, anemones, brittle sea stars, pipe fish, giant sheepshead crab, pleurobranchaea californica, carpenter’s turrid nail, swimming crabs.
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