Divemaster Log Sept 20th. 2011, San Benitos:
Our 10 day combo trip to first visit the great white sharks of Guadalupe and then move on to San Benitos has been amazing. Our first dive was in a bay with a lot of sea lions. It was really cool, the vis was great (200 feet plus). Sea lions started playing with us as soon as we got in the water. It was a really calm dive with no current and no surge at any depth. I don’t think anyone looked at anything but the sea lions but when I popped my head under the kelp I saw about ten lobsters so there was lots of life around. Our 2nd dive the vis was a bit less (150 feet). It was like an underwater grassland with horn sharks and nurse sharks all over the place it was a lot of fun to watch the sea lions chasing the little sharks around. Dive 3 and 4 were at the same place and it was like a 3 meter high kelp forest that turned into bolder after bolder it was like as you went up the mountain the trees start getting thin and then you hit the tree line (the boulders) again on this dive the vis was great (150 feet) and also filled with sharks and sea lions.
Conditions: Vis 150-200 feet water temp 68f to 70f surge/current was little to none top side was sunny and hot all day
–DM Darcy
Divemaster Log Sept 21st. 2011:
Our first dive of the day was at Roca Ban, the vis was around 40 feet but you could not look more than 1 foot without seeing life everywhere. It was just covered! There are not enough tanks in the world for all the sweet macro shots you can get there. After the dive everyone said it was a lovely site. Dives 2 and 3 were with the harbor seals in the kelp vis was about the same as dive 1 (40 feet) and there was loads of stuff to see but as with the sea lions the day before everyone could not take there eyes off the harbor seals they was so big and so cute it was a great end to our trip.
Conditions: Vis 30-40 feet water temp 54f to 60f surge/current was big on the first dive and mild on dives 2 and 3 top side was clouds with the sun poking in every hour or so.
–DM Darcy
