Spanish Shawl galore at Shaw's
Published on 2010-11-14 11:38:08
Saturday was a gorgeous day, sunny and midly warm and we all met at the top of Shaw's Cove stairs. The ocean down below looked like a lake, only distrubed from time to time by a 2 footer. Ideal.
We all geared up in minutes, except me of course, still in tropical-Saba-diving mode, forgetting my extra weights for my dry-suit, my computer, my gloves and other stuff that a few days of warm water diving had pushed back into some not-that-easily accessible part of my memory...
The seven of us dropped down at turn-around-rock. The plan was to head toward Shelly to check her out. Of course we got separated. One group went, the other missed it.
The viz was OK, in the 10-15ft range, worse at depth. Temperature was very comfortable in the 60-65 range. We ended up in the depper part of the reef, around 50ft in the realm of the tubular worms. We turned West toward the new kelp patches and met with the other group that we had lost earlier. One signaled for 3 octopus and 2 eels. Show off. All I had seen so far was a gazillion of Spanish Shawls scattered everywhere in the reef. That must have been baby season because a lot where no longer than 5mm.
We crossed back to the main North-South reef structure and I ended the dive by myself, spotting one small octopus on my way back to shore. I checked the crevice, but it was very surgy and whited-out.
After such adventure, we made a pit stop at Husky Boy where I redeemed my $10 gift certificate from the Laguna Sea Dwellers Easter Egg Hunt for a juicy Swiss-Mushroom-Avocado-Burger with fries...
Only three of us stayed for the second dive. The viz was actually slightly better, we even found Shelly! She was covered in baby Spanish Shawls. Could not spot the resident octopus though, maybe he got evicted because he had a bad mortgage or something. Darn economy!
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