Jessica and I spent Sept. 24th → 30th in Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico. We had 4 dives over 2 days in addition to two days of snorkeling. We got to enjoy some very warm (≥ 80° F) water. During our first two dives we didn’t wear wet suits at all! During the second two dives we wore wet suits simply to protect from scrapes and jelly fish. The visibility was amazing, reaching 80 - 90 ft!
Day 1: Saturday
We woke up to the horrid sound of my alarm clock demanding we notice it was 6:30 AM. Our flight leaves at 10:00 AM, but TSA and such is a bitch so we have to get there early. Eventually, we got out of bed and cleaned off. We finished packing and double-checked everything before Ash (Jessica’s sister) showed up around 7:30 AM to drive us to the airport. The ride out was … interesting. Ash had an accident with her car a few (months?) ago and the rear driver’s side wheel well is bent in. Since she’s adding about 450 lbs to what she normally carries, the car will ride differently — the tire scrapes around every corner! I was pretty sure that each turn would be our last and the tire would blow out. It was mangled to begin with and I think we reduced it’s life by at least 3 months.
You’re supposed to give the TSA ninnys a good two hours to search through your luggage and wait in line. We walked straight to the metal detectors, put bags up, removed shoes, and heard the man behind the x-ray machine yell “BAGGAGE CHECK!” as each of our bags went through. My TSA crony was very kind and found the offending items pretty quickly. He gave them a funny look and I said “SCUBA weights”. The light went off in his head as he realized why the bag was (38 lbs) so heavy! He nicely packed stuff back in, trying to minimize invasiveness and wished me a nice trip. I turned around to see that Jess’ crony had totally torn everything apart and left her to put it back together. You win some, you lose some.
The flight down was uneventful, unlike finding Kurt & Marla. There are three terminals at Los Cabos — they were waiting at Terminal 1 and we were delivered to Terminal 3. Once they found us it was fine and we drove back to the condo. We unloaded our gear and puttered around for a few minutes while consuming tortilla chips and home made salsa & guacamole. After a few minutes I was anxious to get wet and Jess was anxious to chill out. Kurt and I went snorkeling while Jess & Marla hung around the condo to chat.
We went to Chileño and had a blast. The water was warm and pretty clear when we got in. I had no problem free diving around 15 - 20 ft. (the max depth). There were a lot of fish out, each with it’s own obvious personality and territory.
We saw paloma pompano, fat beasts that love to swim straight at you with maximum speed. They looked tasty. According to my book they’re quite tasty. We saw a few larger gafftopsail pompano that were quite shy. I think I saw some large Cortez angelfish and King angelfish. There were schools of Cortez rainbow wrasses. These fish were the most aggressive and I was able to poke a few of the sloppier fish while they tried to clean me. They shouldn’t let me do that. There was also one or two fat bumphead parrotfish. They were quite large so it’s luckily there were only a few. I got to chase a large secondary phase male blue chin parrotfish. It was quite lovely and let me follow it around for a while. There were some very large yellowtail surgeonfish — easily 11“ long. There were at least 6 feeding on the algae growing on the rocks. There were some smaller spotted puffers hiding down in the rocks with their cousins, the juvenile/female spotted trunkfish.
By the time we got back famine had passed to all concerned. Because it’s just ungodly hot and humid, driving to the marina beat walking hands down. Apparently Italian food is the big name in attracting tourists. Well, we’re tourists, so Italian it is! We had a small pizza as an appetizer at La Trattoriaand everybody had pasta for dinner. I had the Lobster Ravioli with shrimp sauce. Great flavor in the sauce but it was too rich. After dinner we split up, again! The boys headed out to get a fish ID book and drop by the dive shop while the girls tried to do some shopping. Luckily Kurt and I found the girls just as they were getting into the car, so we managed to get a ride back. Not bad for our first day!
Day 2: Sunday
Awoke this morning to much stiffness and grump. Since the room has two single beds and one fold-out couch you can guess where Jess and I slept. The divide between the two halves of the cushion is quite stiff and bumpy. It hits right about the small of my back, or my hips. We left the AC on full-blast over the night and probably ended up tensing all night long. Kurt & Marla made us breakfast of chorizo and eggs with tortillas, beans, guacamole and salsa. After we’d finished Kurt, Jess, and myself headed out for more snorkeling.
We went back to Chileño and saw a lot of the same fish. The water was beautiful aqua or slightly deeper blue. That’s a good sign. The water is light aqua when there’s particulate matter floating around in it. Particulate matter means reduced visibility. The surge was back the surface was pretty choppy. Jess and I headed out to a large rock outcropping and found more fish than we did last time. Each time I would dive down the Cortez rainbow wrasses would try to clean me off. They’re cleaner fish. It’s cute. Jess liked it. I found a few of the secondary phase male cortez rainbow wrasses, too! There were also some finescale triggerfish that were hard to chase down.
Everybody came back and showered, then split up to go hit up the town. Jess and I didn’t make it very far before deciding we needed hats. We found some nice straw hats and headed back to the mall for a snack. There’s a Häagendazs store in the mall where they’ve got cones and such! Awesome! $7 per scoop! Ouch! We wandered through the mall for a while and decided to get back in the condo for a nap. After an unspecified number of winks, Jess and I headed out to find another snack. Angy’s is just up the hill and wonderful. Marla recommended the chile rilleños but Angy was out. We opted for beef tacos and some soccer on the TV. Because Angy’s is up on the hill there was a nice breeze flying through the place the whole time. Since it’s just up the hill from the beach I expect she gets decent business on two fronts: people heading up from the beach and people leaving the resorts.
We made it back to the condo to find Kurt & Marla awake and chatty. We did some reading then headed out for some groceries and to get directions to Cabo Pulmo. Crashing was the only item on the menu after that final excursion.
Day 3: Monday
Awoke bright and early (well before the sun, actually) packed up and headed out to Cabo Pulmo. The drive out was pretty long and the last 6 miles are on a washboard road. I’d already made reservations with the Cabo Pulmo Resort and they were expecting us. We made it there 5 minutes ’til nine — on schedule. We unloaded our gear, paid for the dives and waited for the rest of the passengers to show up. There were two other couples with us and they were generally pleasant people. You can read the dive reports for El Bajo and El Cantil separately.
After rinsing off and packing everything back in to the car we sped off back to Cabo San Lucas. Ahhh, civilization. We showered and headed back up to Angy’s for lunch / dinner. I had the carne asada, which was excellent. Jess & Marla had enchiladas mole con pollo (read: chicken enchiladas with chocolate on top). That left us at about 4:00 PM with all concerned ready for a nap and some relaxation. I spent time writing up the dive reports and, obviously this post.
After naps and reading we headed out to Johnny Rocket’s for dessert. We had some fun trying to get the order across and thought we’d end up with a million different items. We ended up with, correctly: 1 BLT, 1 banana split (w/o chocolate: they were out), 1 chili cheese fries, 1 chocolate shake / 3.
Day 4: Tuesday
Awoke this morning after a very restful night of sleep to see sun light coming in through the window. What a difference from the night prior. We headed out in decent weather to find breakfast and visit the dive shop. We visited Señor Sweets again for breakfast. Marla and I had waffles, which were excellent. Jess had French Toast which was covered with granulated (vs. powdered) sugar. Kurt had some of the densest pancakes of his life and called it a day with only 1/3rd consumed.
By the time we left the restaurant the heat was rising quickly to the high 80’s or low 90’s. We made a left and swung around the marina to Blue Adventures. It looks like a nice enough place (the compressor looked quite clean). The owner instructed us to show up at the shop with our gear tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. Since this place is run by an American I’m hopeful for an interesting boat (vs. a panga) but I’m not hoping for too much. Marla pointed out that Cabo San Lucas marina is the most expensive in the western hemisphere (or similar). There are a handful of glass bottom boats — the rest are LARGE yachts.
Leaving the dive shop we came all the way around the marina to look for a particular arts & crafts store. We did quite a bit of walking while the temperature ratcheted up into the 90’s and the humidity soared into the 80’s. I thought I’d collapse from the heat. On the way back to the car we stopped by Tattooine. Jessica and I found some nice vases for a steal ($11 & $17). We also stopped by La Europa, a deli. We got some various salami, cheese, etc. for lunch. At the register the guy bagging our groceries folded our baguette in half to fit it into the bag. Marla and Jess were outraged. I was confident that we’d end up cutting it in half and couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.
Our adventures over and the temperature soaring we retreated to the air conditioning to read and nap until it got late / dark / cool. Tomorrow Jess and I will go on an exciting 3-tank dive around Los Cabos. I can’t wait!
Day 5: Wednesday
You can read the dive reports for Land’s End and Pelican Rock separately. At the end of yesterday’s post I thought we’d be doing 3 dives. Due to poor planning and miscommunications we ended up doing 2 and having fun trying to get some money back from the dive operator. I’ve learned two lessons from that. First, Jess gets to handle the money when it comes to diving. I’ve messed things up twice, so now it’s her turn to try. Second, pay for 2 dives up front. You know you can do two dives. If possible, ask about doing a 3rd á la carte that way you add on vs. trying to subtract.
After our dives we came back to shower off and eat. Now that’s done everybody’s sitting around reading and relaxing. For lunch I made a salad and Jess made a sandwich. For dinner we headed out to The Shrimp Factory. We were, as always, harassed by the timeshare people after we ate. Apparently citronella is unknown in these parts of the world — there were flies everywhere trying to get at the shrimp shells.
Day 6: Thursday
Today was another day of relaxation. We had breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It was decent and reasonably priced. Not too much more to ask for. During breakfast (around 8:30 AM) it was already getting hot and humid. We decided to spend a lot of the day inside to beat de heat.
For lunch Kurt, Marla and myself headed out to Los Anjos. This local buffet was entirely my cup of tea. There was rice, beans, tacos, enchiladas … lasagna? Either way, everything was tasty and there were lots of Mexicans around. That made me feel quite a bit better. They had a pitcher of something that they called lemonade. It was more like some-kind-of-melon-aid. It wasn’t too sweet and it was quite refreshing in the heat. By the time we got out of the place there were quite a few black clouds over head and the wind was really whipping up.
Day 7: Friday
Didn’t get much sleep due to lots of wind whistling through the hotel and lots of rain. Woke up to what looked like a full-blown hurricane outside. A cruise ship that should have anchored decided to go someplace else. Can’t blame them. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel and not venture out. We waited until about 2 hrs before departure before leaving the hotel and got to the airport with loads of time. The place was deserted. There were no cab drivers assaulting the fresh arrivals or anything.
After getting checked in we noticed that our flight was more than an hour delayed. Hooray. We spent the next 3 hours in the airport. Reading, walking, watching people, playing Bejeweled — these were the ways we could pass the time. Finally there was some activity at the gate … for a different flight. So, about an hour after we should have been boarding, we finally got on a plane. The flight home was very relaxing and brief. Ash was waiting for us at the airport in Jessica’s very comfortable car. That was quite awesome of her. She took us home and our vacation was finally at an end!
This dive was quite awesome. I was the first out of the boat (since I was in the way) and waited in the 20 ft. water while Jess came down, then went back up to change out tanks. The tank she’d been handed was very slowly leaking out of the valve → tank connection. Impossible to see or hear on land by painfully obvious under water. While I was waiting there were several yellowtail surgeonfish to keep me company. I suppose they’re quite used to snorkelers, so the diver was quite a sight. They kept coming around to see what I was up to.
Once Jess’s tank was all good we descended into the deeper and darker parts of the out cropping. I couldn’t see a bottom but rather quite a few ledges. Yikes. There was tons of life in all the wall crevices including unknown blenny from 2 - 10“. They were quite cute. There were also a few more moray eels to look at and there was one sea horse that another DM pointed out to us. In this other DM’s group was a couple wearing Force Fins. I was quite surprised to see them. I’d have liked a chat with them but they were up in their boat before I had the chance.
This dive was quite long and quite fun. I got loads more practice with my frog kick and think I’ve got it down pretty well now. I also don’t think I’ll be getting a set of Tan Delta Force Fins for myself — I can’t see any reason. The only drawback to my current fins are their length and that’s only a problem for about 5 minutes on the boat.
This first dive was excellent. We opted to wear our 3mm wet suits mostly for abrasion protection. There wasn’t too much surge as we went in so we could take our time getting situated before descending.
Land’s End is a large spire coming out of the deep that doesn’t quite break the surface. We went around it a few times in a helix formation. At one point near the beginning of the dive we were surrounded by the same unknown yellow fish as Cabo Pulmo. Quite surrounded, really, on all three sides. There was also a quite visible strand of cold (72° F vs. 81° F) water to swim through that felt rather nice. Round, and round we went. Our DM showed us the lair of a rather large moray eel. It’s head must have been 10“ tall, at least.
I got to practice my frog kick a bit more, but sometimes the current would really kick up and I’d revert back to the flutter. It’s nice having a slightly larger range of kicks. Round and round we went for a few more times before slowly coming back up and doing our safety stop. Once back onboard we got motoring back to our second spot.
This second dive of the day had one major highlight: warmth. The visibility was considerably degraded due to the current kicking up the sand. There were also quite a few nearly transparent jellyfish in the water. We were vigilant to their presence as Jess had been stung by one getting back in to the boat.
The current was really ripping again as we descended. It was quite an effort to get on a safe side of the reef and be carried along instead of smashing in to things. At one point a large sea lion went swimming by in the opposite direction, oblivious to the current that was besting us. At one point a very large moorish idol came around a corner to greet me. It was maybe 8“ long in the body. There were also many of the jellyfish to dodge as we went. The limited visibility and high current made inspecting the reef nearly impossible. So we flew by and had to end the dive when we, again, ran out of reef.
Like I said, this dive was warm and it was quite nice to get in without the need of any kind of suit. In the future we may elect for the lightest skin possible to keep the stinging critters off. Otherwise there was no need for thermal protection.
This dive was truly FANTASTIC. The boat was a panga, as expected, but highly customized. There were benches along either side that had Al 80 sized holes spaced wide enough for a person to fit between. We geared up (BCs → tank → hole) and headed out. Given the shape of the panga and 7 divers + 1 captain, everybody had to back-roll basically at once. Like a cute Asian girl at an illegal drag strip, the Captain would watch where we where, then let out “ah one, ah two, ah threeee” and we’d all back-roll. Because the water was roughly 86° F on the surface Jess and I decided to neglect our newly purchased 3mm wet suits and went in with just our swim wear. Thank God. The water was slightly cooler than the air, barely so. Because the surface current goes opposite the bottom current we had to check our buddies then descend. Jess and I were both OK so down we went.
And oh-my-god was it amazing. We in 3 ft. of water looking through 50 ft. of water to the bottom and all around us was nothing. For the second time I got the full sky-diver / Superman effect of slowly falling to the ground. It was unreal. It was warm. It was heaven. Rather than having thermoclines there were rather currents of unusually warm water. Once on the bottom we had to hold on for dear life while waiting for the DM to make it down. He had to deal with one of the other divers. Once down we let the current take us on a high-speed fly-through of the reef. Not having to swim was excellent and it let me practice my frog kick without the rubber band on. I think I’ve got it down well enough.
There were school of fish everywhere and of all different sizes. Many of the fish here we’d seen before. A few new friends were the ballloonfish. They came in many different sizes from a few inches to a foot or more. They’re very intelligent fish and know when they can approach and when they should be shy. Due to our speed I was unable to convey my friendliness. Every few rocks would have their own scythe butterflyfish which would hide when we passed by. I saw one or two male mexican hogfish swimming around on the bottom. There was also a school of hundreds of an unknown large (1 - 2 ft.) yellow fish that didn’t mind us being there.
All in all this drift dive was amazing. I only wish the current hadn’t been quite so fast so we wouldn’t have run out of reef so quickly. That’s really what ended the dive, not air on anybody’s part, nor, obviously, the cold. The blue-water ascent was truly fantastic since we could easily see all the way around all the way up. Getting back in to the boat was easy thanks to the ladder and helpful Captain.
Looks like the chop and surf Jess, Cliff, and I dealt with on Wednesday is just the beginning!
SAN DIEGO – Surfers can expect plenty of big waves this weekend as storm and full-moon driven high tides will produce eight to ten feet swells with waves up seven feet high, forecasters said Thursday.
The high water may also cause some flooding in low-lying coastal areas, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Stan Wasowski. A coastal flood advisory will be in effect starting Friday night at 7 p.m. lasting until Saturday at 11 p.m.
A storm off the coast of New Zealand is fueling the high surf, Wasowski said. It will primarily be hitting the south-facing beaches.
Temperatures are expected to be in the 60s to 70s at the coast and in the mid 70s inland. Ocean temperatures are forecast to be in the mid 60s.
Jess and I met Cliff at the Shores last night for some canyon exploration. Apparently Cliff knows of a nice wall out there off the main Lifeguard tower and wants to explore it one section at a time. We never found that wall, but we found lots of other stuff!
The entry was pretty rough: there was some nice off-shore wind picking up the water and kicking up the swells. There was 3 - 5 ft. surf in the surf zone. Once we got past the surf zone there was some decent chop in the water, too. We swam out for a while and dropped in to about 20 ft. of water.
We headed west for a while and saw lots of rays (including a small bat ray) and a few shrimp. We also saw lots of Hornyhead Turbot as usual. There were a few larger Brown Rockfish out. There was a sardine or two that tried to eat Jess. I found one tiny octopus (two finger sized) that didn’t want to play. It didn’t ink me, but it did swim away.
Even though we didn’t find the wall we were looking for it was a good dive. Cliff is always fun to dive with.
w00t! 35 dives! According to figures through around by Steve and Jake that means I’m hooked!
Since it was my 35th dive I decided I wanted to make it last. The NOSC tower is a relatively simple wreck to dive and I’ve been there a few times before. The plan on this dive is always very simple with Jake: go down and have fun, when you’re going to head back up wave good-bye to somebody then head up.
We went down and I had a blast looking at all the starfish and getting my groove on with the Señoritas. They started to get very comfortable with me and I with them. That was great. I also managed to achieve perfect neutral buoyancy at 35 ft. One breath in would take me to 34 ft, the breath out would take me to 36 ft. It was fantastic! The shallow depth really keeps the air consumption good and gives you lots of time.
At one point I came across Jake cleaning off a scallop he had pried off the tower — dinner! The other fish were quite interested in the bits that were coming off (barnacles and such) so he had quite an audience. That was the last I saw of him and I puttered around for a while. He never waved good-bye to me so I didn’t feel the need to come back up. Turns out I was alone. I’d already snipped some fishing line with my shears and didn’t think I could get tangled in anything. It was kind of reckless of Jake to not come find me when he wanted to come up, but that’s kind of the way he works.
I came up to a boat full of cold, wet, grumpy people. Apparently Jake had gone up about 20 minutes before me! The sun had just about set, the wind had picked up, and the temperature had dropped 10° F! I got in the boat and we sped home — they already had the engine running. We didn’t finish packing up until well after dark and I felt pretty bad about that. Oh well, live and learn!
My first dive on the Yukon was awesome. I hope to get back out there several times as there is still a lot to see!
We descended down the bow anchor line and I headed for the bottom at about 100 ft. There were large Mertridium anemones all over the boat. That was a treat as I’ve only seen them on TV or in an aquarium. They ranged from an inch across to nearly a foot! They seemed to be much denser in some areas than others. There were also tons of fish swimming around that were obviously quite used to having divers around. Jessica let me borrow her HID light and that made all the difference in the world. The light produced many more colors than my little C8 ever has. I think I’ll be getting a new one some time soon, or maybe one of the LED lights.
After cruising around for a while Jake gave the “time’s up” signal and I headed for the top of the ship. I think we made it 3/4 of the way down one side before having to turn back. As we went along the top Jake decided to swim part of the way back inside the wreck. Gliding along the top I could very clearly see that the currents inside the wreck must be very interesting. Near each hole in the wreck there would be kelp. The kelp made it obvious that with each swell water would either go blasting into the wreck, or come streaming out. I could see that causing some problems on the inside.
The ascent and safety stop were relatively uneventful as was entry into the rubber duckie. I don’t remember exact figures, but I still had a decent chunk of air left and was a little grumpy about cutting the dive short. To be fair I was already on my second yellow deco dot, so coming back up wasn’t such a bad idea.
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