The night dive was my favorite dive in Belize. We went to the protected area Hol Chan, and saw a lot of things. There were a ton of rays, an eel, a massive hermit crab in a conch shell, an octopus, and a lot of fish following us for food. The red snapper was eating other fish that we shined our lights on. There were a bunch of fish following us that were interested in the worms congregating around the lights. I stayed behind and played with the group of smaller fish by trying to stay really still and watch them eat the worms. I got one worm in my ear, and it wriggled around for about 15 seconds before leaving, it felt really strange.
We took a day trip to the Lighthouse reefs, which includes the Blue Hole. We did one dive in the Blue hole and two dives on the reefs nearby. There was a nice break for lunch at one of the nearby islands, which was a habitat for the red footed boobies. The video below is a summary of the three dives, about 2 hours, taken down to about 6 minutes. The dives on the lighthouse reef were nicer than the dives close to San Pedro, with more fish, and more interesting formations.
The island for lunch with the red footed boobies had a few giant iguanas, frigate birds, and massive hermit crabs. The hermit crabs weren’t as big as the one we saw on the night dive, but still about the size of a baseball.
We had a great time diving near San Pedro. Steph did a total of 7 dives around the reefs there for day dives that are compiled into the video below. We picked out all the good parts, so from the 7 45 minute dives we have about 10 minutes of video. I didn’t do all the dives because I had headaches for one, and ear issues for another.
Steph and I went to Breakwater to dive the metridium fields. Metridiums are pretty 2-3 foot white anemones. We took the pipe out to the end and then went due north. I was able to spot a Sea lion along the pipe when looking back at Steph, and I saw one again when we were out at the fields. We also say a sea hare, which is a 1.5 foot long slug. It was the size of a rabbit and looked like a purple land slug. Steph got a headache after the first drive so we headed back. We went into Palo Alto for lunch at Umami burger. We then headed back to our places to clean our gear.
Steph and I met up with Tommy, Joe, and Jim for diving in Monterrey. We got up around 5:30, and I drove us to the dock. We got on the Escapade and headed out to Hopkins Deep and Macabee. The first dive was very nice, but very cold. It got down to 47F at the bottom. During the dive we saw some big ling cod, as well as a sea lion swimming up to Steph under water. She got a big surprise out of it, since it came up on her from behind. I had a good time on the dive, and need to remember to not have any of those 5 hour energies before diving. The vitamin B in them increases circulation, which can increase heat loss.
Yesterday Steph and I got up super early to head to Northern California to dive for abalone on the Sonoma Coast. We went up to a place called Salt Point State Park. Along the way we ran into the same traffic that I hit coming back from the Beer and BBQ festival. They had now closed the northbound lanes on 880, down to just 1 open lane. This made us at least 40 minutes slower. When we got the park we were a little late, but they were still getting set up. We talked to some of the people there and met an interesting bunch of people. After a safety briefing we got in the water around 11am. We went out in groups of 5; 2 buddy pairs and 1 instructor. Steph and I took about 15 dives each and ended up getting 3 abalone each for it. We quickly figured out how to find them, and how to get them off the rocks. I started cramping due to the long bike ride I took on Friday. I got one that was about 9 inches, and will need to have some people over to share it. There is a ton of meat to the 9 inch abalone.
When we got back in we tagged the abalone, and then got to learn how to prepare them for eating. It is a tough process to cut them up when they are so slimy, but it was fun for being a challenge. We had a nice picnic bbq there, and made some breaded and fried abalone steaks.
We then drove back, stopping by Stumptown Brewery on the way. I just got a couple diet cokes, and Steph got one of the beers. It was a relaxing time, and prepped me for the drive back. We went to her parents house for dinner of soup and cheesy bread. I showed them how to prepare the abalone on one, and Russell took over the other. He was so happy to be getting some abalone it was cute.
We then went home to clean our gear and go to sleep, it was a full day.
I’d be up for doing it again, but not sure when I’ll be able to find the time. I certainly don’t want to drive up to Northern California to do it. It is such a long drive, and hard to do when tired after diving.
This morning Steph drove to Monterey so that we could go diving on the Escapade. It was a good 2 dives, but all sorts of things went on. We went out to stillwater cove in Carmel. The boat tried to get us to Cathedrals, but the kelp and wind made it too difficult. We ended up getting tangled in the kelp anyway, but the dive was nice. I was buddied with Mai, and she was overweighted. When we tried to surface she was too overweighted to make it up, so I had to drop her weights and help her to the surface. Steph buddied with Jason, who had the exact opposite problem. He had just enough weight to make it down, but when he was surfacing on both dives he popped right to the surface. He also didn’t know how to position himself correctly to empty the BCD, so he was having issues from that as well.
We ended up diving Erik’s Pinnacle as the second dive and it was really nice. I would really like to go back there and dive it again. Mai sat out the second dive after the weight issue and the kelp monster issue. We got to see tons of fish, sea slugs, nudibranchs, and an octopus. The octopus was sitting on a yellow sea star and trying to blend in by being yellow as well; it wasn’t working. He was really cute, and we looked up the species afterwards as the red octopus.
After the dives we went and picked up Steph’s new hood at otter bay. The cat ears look better, but not great still. I drove back and took the fast way, going back over 17. Along the way we stopped at one of the fresh produce stands and got all sorts of snack foods and fresh fruits. I got 23 avocados, 20 tiny ones, and 3 massive ones of a different type. I think we should take 17 back every time we go to Monterey, but we will just have to see whatever Waze says will be the fastest way when we are ready to head out. It was pretty accurate on this trip.
We had a really nice tuesday in the Dominican Republic. We got up early to get to the dive shop but once we got there we realized it cost more than we had thought and I ran by an atm to get the extra. The dives were great as we went to Catalina Island to a place called the wall and the aquarium. We got 4 lionfish on the dives and 2 of then were big enough to eat. The lionfish was pretty tasty as it wasn’t fishy and was very light. I would love to get some more lionfish fillet. We played some volleyball and had lunch on the island as the dive master Igor told us how he ended up being in the Dominican Republic. He wad s really relaxed guy as was the whole staff. During the dives we saw some rays some eels lots of corals and sponges and fish of all kinds. When boating back to shore we had a fun ride with a few flying fish jumping out of our way. When we got back to shore the others were just driving up and we went to a restaurant for a apetizer that carlos liked which was starch stuffed with meat and fried. We went back to the house and relaxed had dinner and played Settlers.
Steph and I went to Stillwater Cove at Pebble Beach for a nice dive. The surface swim was incredibly long, about 45 minutes. The dive was nice, we saw; large valleys, small overhangs, sunstars, sea slugs, and a lot of abalone (shells and live). We also saw the cutest adolescent harbor seal. They have the biggest puppy-dog eyes and look like a stuffed animal. We had a bit of a BBQ on the beach there. Some of the other guys were spearfishing and caught a good number of fish. I was there with Greg, Mike, Dave, Joe, Joey, and a few others that I can’t remember their names.
It's an Exciting World 