I did a one-day, one-dive round trip today. Neither Gary nor Coleen could make it today and I couldn't resist getting wet. Water was cleaner than it has been in a long time, probably associated with a very high tide (5.5 ft). Estimated viz was 10-15ft. I could see adjacent sets of piles in both directions most of the time, that's about 15ft of horizontal visibility. I saw four nudibranch species, lots of Polycera atras (including a triple in the same frame), Triopha catalinae, Salt & Pepper, and of course several thousand Hermissendas. All in all a wonderful 63-minute dive.

There were several beautiful fields of seed flowers in bloom along Los Osos Valley Road and I spent some time photographing them.

It was great to get back in the water after missing a month (last June). First time I missed a month in years. Two more excellent dives with Gary. Water dirty, very green, visibility maybe 4-5 ft and DARK. But the critters were there!! A big first for me, a new nudibranch species Trapania velox. Gary has seen it before (it's on the Nudibranch page) but this was the first time for me. It's an exquisitely pretty little thing (Photo #1). Also saw a great little fringehead in a bottle having an exceptionally bad hair day.

On Thursday after the dive we walked about four miles on the Point Buchon Trail in Montana de Oro. Spectacular coastal scenery!!!

Two more exceptionally nice dives with Gary. Visibility still limited, water "muddy" colored and unusually cold for this time of year (50F). I finally found one of the pipefish Gary has been regularly seeing along the west edge of the stem of the pier, and it let me do a nice face shot. Lots of the usual critters out and about.

We spent some time photographing the nesting cormorants, both from Windy Cove and from the back parking lot of the Inn at Morro Bay. Lots of great bird activity in the air.

Two wonderful dives with Gary. Limited visibility but enough to see some nice critters. Highlight was a very pretty Janolus (Image #1). There are still lots of nice wildflowers in and around Morro Bay, I photographed some at Windy Cove while looking at all the cormorants nest-building in the trees.

I participated in a Mind Walk at the Museum on Monday morning 3/29, and then drove to Carizzo Plain to meet Gary and photograph the spectacular wildflower display. What an awesome place Carizzo is - never knew it existed. Returning to MB we did a very nice dive on Tuesday morning. We are seeing fewer nudibranch species now, still lots of Hermissendas but almost no other species except trilineatas which have become abundant. Go figger. Before the dive we were visited by an otter mom and pup who were hanging in the current right off the east end of the pier chomping on clams. Nice touch.

Very nice dive, first one after our bad day at San Luis Bay. It was like getting back on the horse after you have been bucked off. Gary did a dive on the previous day 3/15, I could only make it on the 16th but it was worth the long roundtrip dive. Highlight was a very cooperative little snubnose sculpin who let me have my way with him. Also a few nice serpulid worms. It was really good to do a dive with no equipment loss, rescue, etc. Will do a Mind Walk at the Museum on 3/29 and then Gary and I will do another dive on the 30th.

All last year I have been threatening to do this dive on my 70th birthday, today it happened. High tide was at 7am so Gary and I suited up in the dark and hit the water at about 6:40am. Visibility was very limited (about 3 ft.) but it was still fun to do the dive (and now I can say I did it on my 70th!!). Nothing special was seen (by me); some Hermissendas and several fringeheads. Gary had a better dive with pipefish and trilineatas. The most interesting thing I saw was a pelican sitting on the pile we use for our equipment when we leave the water (see photo). He/she was drying wings and seemed annoyed that we needed the space - he/she finally hopped to another nearby location. Gary had to head home after the dive - but Pam, Karen and Andy (and the doggies Sarah and Kiya) spent the rest of the day playing with the elephant seals, wine-tasting in Harmony, lunching at Nucci's in SLO, napping, and more eating at Harbor Hut. Great day!!!

We planned dives on Monday and Tuesday, the first trip in 2010. Monday's dive was made in what was certainly the most bizarre topside weather we have ever seen here; a driving rainstorm when we entered, and strong winds with whitecaps in the bay when we exited. Nonetheless it was a pretty good dive for me. Viz was only about 3-4 ft. but I managed to find a new species (for me), the beautiful and strange Dendronotus frondosus (top two photos). Gary has seen and photographed this one before but this was my first time. I also found two pipefish together (one shown in photo #3) and a nice Flabellina trilineata (fourth photo). The weather improved, and we spent Monday afternoon on the San Simeon beaches playing with the elephant seals. There are thousands of pups on the beaches now and it was fun watching the interactions between the pups and their moms. Tuesday we were greeted with another driving rainstorm. We were prepared to handle the rain, but when we checked out the water at the pier it was bright green with a visibility measured in inches. Looked like the bay was picking up a lot of runoff. So we grudgingly decided to abort and head for home early.

We have been having excellent visibility on the last few dives, but things sure averaged out on this trip. The surf was really kicking up outside the bay (15-20' waves) and there were still dredging operations going on inside the bay. As a result, the water was a metallic greenish gray color. On Thursday, the first of our two days, I dropped down to about 15 ft. at our entry point, and couldn't see my strobes. I thought my mask was fogged, so I cleared it. Still couldn't see anything. I put my hand in front of my mask, and determined that the visibility was about 2-3 inches. I headed east towards the stem of the pier, and couldn't see a thing. Recognizing that it was hopeless, I aborted the dive after about 10 minutes. When I surfaced near our normal exit point, Gary was there and had already come to the same conclusion. We regrouped, cleaned up, jumped in the car, and drove north to San Simeon where we had a wonderful time playing with the elephant seals. The big males were just arriving and we had some great photo op's with them up close down on the beach.

Friday the water cleaned up a little bit. The viz was about 3 feet which was enough to make a dive out of it. Gary went outside, but I stayed under the pier for most of the dive. I didn't see anything unusual but did manage a few images of Hermissendas and the beautiful little tube anemones which are everywhere near our exit point at the base of the pier.

I stopped at the Monarch Butterfly grove in Pismo Beach on the way home and spent some time there photographing that amazing winter event.

We took a ride up to the elephant seal beaches in San Simeon on Thursday afternoon after the dive. There are still lots of mature females on the beaches but the big males are starting to arrive and arrange their harems.

I continue to use the dual synch cord attached to the left housing connector, mainly because it continues to work. I will probably keep using that setup indefinitely now.

Gary and I met for a one-dive, round-trip day. Extremely high tide (about 5.5 ft.) and CLEAN water, maybe the best visibility we have ever seen. Surface was constantly visible, even at 29 fsw, and it is always great to look up and see several rows of piling. It was a FABULOUS dive, the best in a long time. Only thing that would have made it better would have been some sunshine, but you can't have everything. Water has mysteriously warmed up from 45 six days ago to 54 today.

Lots of critters out and about, and easy to see with the good viz. 4-5 species of nudibranchs with the highlight being several Polycera atra individuals all anxious to do stretching, cantilever poses. Also saw a nice Janolus/Hermissenda relationship. Saw lots of pretty little sculpins, they are very beautifully marked with interesting, colorful patterns. You just have to notice them, they are not shy and will hang around for several frames. I used my double synch cord setup again with the housing connector on the left side looking forward. Everything worked so I am going to keep using this for awhile. Eventually I will experiment to try to get back to two single cords but since the dives have been so good and the equipment is working I don't want to risk a change. All in all a great dive, best in a long time.

Thursday 10/29 was takedown day for our photo exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. Gary was still busy with harvest, so I came up alone on Wednesday morning. I stopped for pizza at Nucci's and met Maryanne (Chuck Adams' sister) for the first time. Checked into the BW San Marcos, and sampled the jacuzzi and then on to Harbor Hut for cioppino. Enjoyed everything but it wasn't the same without Gary. Did a nice early morning dive on Thursday, cleaned up and then headed out to the Museum where Rouvaishyana and his great docent crew helped me take down the photos and load them all in the car. We got a lot of nice comments on the photo exhibit, it was fun.

For awhile the dive was kinda average, water was VERY cold (45F, I think the coldest I have ever measured in MB), viz not very good with lots of small particulate material in the water column, and nothing too exciting in the way of critters. Then it happened. I spotted a small octopus peeking out at me from a large broken horseneck clam shell (photo #1). After a few frames it eased out into the open and jetted a few feet away where it let me get a few full-body shots while it changed colors and shapes to confuse me (photo #2). I was not confused, so it jetted away again, just a few feet, but this time it landed right in front of a large one-spot fringehead blenny (photo #3). The blenny looked confused, coming WAY out of its lair and seeming to check out the octopus. The octopus hung around long enough to let me get several shots, left profile, full frontal (photo #4), and right profile (photo #5), until it tired of all this and jetted away into the gloom for good this time. All this was witnessed by a smiling crab with a moustache and a mohawk (photo #6). It was a GREAT encounter, I've never seen anything quite like it. That made it an excellent dive. BTW camera and strobes worked fine, I used the double cord connector again. I will stick to that setup for awhile as long as it keeps working. Gonna do another one-day trip with Gary tomorrow 11/4 Wednesday.

Things finally came together today. Weather was beautiful, my strobes worked, and I exited the water with all the same equipment I entered with, all of it attached to me in pretty much the original position. I tried a dual Nikon synch cord plugged into the left bulkhead connector with a plug in the right bulkhead connector. It worked fine, but I would sure like to find out why the individual cord setup didn't work. It might be a cord; it might be something in the right bulkhead connector. Anyway even though it was a little awkward keeping the cords off of the front of the port, it sure beat the hell out of the strobes not working at all!! :) The dive was LONG, an hour and eight minutes. Visibility was excellent again, maybe 12-15 ft, one of those days when you could see several rows of piles at the same time. Once I got out to the south (outside) edge of the pier I turned left (east towards Los Osos), pushed along gently by the slowing incoming tide, and eventually got to the east end of the pier before I turned around and let the now outgoing tide take me back. I constantly heard boat engines directly above me, which was a little unnerving. Lots of critters, several species of nudibranchs (Hermissenda (of course), Aeolidia papillosa, Acanthadoris lutae, sandiegensis, but sadly I didn't see Triopha maculata on this trip), but the highlight was several different sculpin, including a gorgeous little gold one that I need to indentify. I was so happy with the sculpins that I already put 4 of them in the Fish Gallery. I was prepared to stay another day to further investigate the problem I've been having, but everything went so well today that I decided to head for home. Plus it's just not the same without Gary, who will be busy with harvest through October.

:(

So Sad!!!

7 hours of driving, 48 minutes underwater, no pictures.

When I got home I tested the strobes in air and they did not work. I put on the YS-90DX strobes (with their own cords) and they did work. I then put on a dual Nikon synch cord in one of the housing bulkhead connectors, attached it to both SB-105 strobes, and lo and behold, they worked fine on every setting, including TTL. So the problem is NOT the strobes. It could be a cord, or it could be a connection in the housing. I will put a plug in the other bulkhead connector and try the dual-cord setup in the pool with the SB-105s, then maybe go back to MB next Monday (12:45 pm high tide). I desperately need to do one dive where everything works.

Gary and I did a single dive today. We got in early, about two hours before the slack high tide, and the current was ripping pretty good. The dive started fine and as I was under the pier, making my way south towards the outside edge of the pier, I noticed that I had lost one fin. I backtracked, hoping that it had gotten stuck on something, but that was not to be. I couldn't find it anywhere. Deciding, with that current, that my fin was probably in Los Osos by now, and realizing that it was really difficult to move without literally pulling myself along using something solid on the bottom (kicking with one fin was pretty useless), I decided to just stay put and see what I could see close to shore. I actually had a pretty nice dive under the pier close to the exit point, fired off 40 frames, and finally called it quits after about 40 minutes. But, with benefit of two fins, Gary emerged about 25 minutes later reporting a magnificent dive outside, finding a fabulous fat Janolus barberensis and lots of shrimp including a new one.

Stopped by the museum and showed Coleen and Sean our underwater photo exhibit. The exhibit looked great and it was fun to see and hear a few families pass by and "oooh and aaaah" over the prints.

Gary and I hung our photos for our new exhibit at the museum. They will be on display for several months.

UPDATE: When I got home I cleaned everything up and examined all the connections, inside the housing, the strobes, cords, etc. Everything worked in air, every combination of strobe and setting. So I put on the SB-105s and went into the pool where I shot 46 frames of my test fish (see image to the right) with all kinds of settings. Everything worked fine. So I will keep my fingers crossed. Next week Gary and I will do two dives in MB and then I head off for my sand tiger shark dive in North Carolina.