Shaws Cove: Choppy with a chance of sunshine
Published on 2014-03-17 14:53:28
I've been sick. Hence the one month hiatus in my diving and my dive reports. Oh and I've been traveling a lot too. Coast to coast, across the Atlantic, across the equator, this kind of thing. Got the first tier VIP status on American Airlines in just one month, not that it matter because I'm already higher than that. Not like Clooney yet, but working on it... And since I burnt a couple of week ends doing that for work, I got Monday off as comp. Nice. Monday = nobody at the beach = parking next to the dive spot!
Anyway, a friend called and wanted to dive, the surf forecast was not looking too good, so I played it safe and decided to dive Shaw's Cove (for the 175th time probably). We met at 8am at the top of the stairs and geared up right away. Did not even check the swell or nothing... Too long out of the water methinks. But it was OK, the surf was pretty low, a few ankle slappers and a couple of nasty sets. We reached the surf zone pretty easily and realized we were being tossed around like a Cesar salad and splashed in the face like Shamu does at (now shameful, check out Blackfish) Sea World. The wind had picked up and a lot of wind waves were making our swim to the drop zone pretty choppy.
On the first dive, the surge was very strong in the crevice and we decided against going further than the archway. Five minutes into the dive I found a nice octopus all spread out on the rock. One month of dry dock and I couldn't fiddle with my camera controls fast enough to get the money shot. I got the 10 cents shot when the darn thing swam away a tucked itself into a rock crack though... We swam North-South and checked a little the inside reef past turn-around-rock. Nothing spectacular, a few eels, octopus, crab and the kelp is still there, that's a good sign.
On the second dive, the surge had receded and we went past the archway. The side rocks were covered with Hopkins Roses. Pretty. The channel to Crescent was whited out a little so we turned left into Star Wars Canyon. The surge was strong in this one; strong enough to push us towards the exit. I decided to give my friend the big tour of Shaw's and went all the way to the end of the reef where the tubular anemones spawn. There are less now than a couple of years back but these guys are getting bigger. At the end of the reef, we turned right, then left back into the inner reef where we were on the first dive. I was amazed my navigation skills did not betray me and we made it perfectly fine back to turn-around-rock and to the beach. Not many critters on that dive, it seems I was going too fast to see anything...
The water temperature was in the low 60's, the visibility in the 15ft-20ft range with green water near the shore and bluer at the end of the reef. A good day to dive, better than going to work anyway!
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