Top 10 of 2013

Below are my top ten photos from 2013. The year brought with it new adventures both locally and on the road. Crtr Grl and I took a road trip to Olympic National Park, Washington and I got my second opportunity to dive with sevengill sharks in La Jolla, CA. We got lost at sea (for an hour) and we also completed our first half marathon in Las Vegas, NV. I didn't do as much diving as in the past, but made up for it with adventures on land. Crtr Grl is working on getting SCUBA certified and that means we'll be doing a lot more diving in the future!

2014 brings with it a lot of new opportunities, including a backpacking trip and a surprise we'll be announcing after the new year. We're super excited about all the adventures that await us. Now, without further ado are my top ten.


Heads & Tails - A pair of criss-crossing sevengill sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) at La Jolla Cove.


Dance of the Sea Lions - Young California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) converge to examine the approaching divers, at the Lobster Shack dive site at the Coronado Islands, MX.


Aquanaut - Astronauts Of The Sea - Rebreather Diver coming back from the depths.


Patience - Dive instructor and students at La Jolla Shores, CA.



Strip-O-Bacon - Colored rock strata in the Valley of Fire, Nevada.You can barely see a couple of hikers at the base of the rock tower for scale.



Quenching Thirst - After seeing the forecast, we decided to head to the desert and try to capture the storm. We weren't disappointed, with strong winds, fast moving clouds and rain. While driving along Pegleg Road (S-22) outside of Borrego Springs, the sun exploded through the clouds, illuminating the mountains. At the same time, rain was falling on the windblown sand at our feet.


Storm at La Jolla Cove



2nd Beach, Olympic National Park, WA.Our first outing in the Olympic National Park was to 2nd Beach. After a short 3/4 mile hike through beautiful forest, the trail leads to a set of steps down the hillside and drops you off on a beach that time forgot. Like a set out of jurassic park, the beach is covered in drift trees and off the beach are island 'stacks' with their own mini forests. Bald eagles fly overhead as they return to their nests in the trees off the beach. The sun never broke through the low clouds, but that didn't dampen the beauty of the rugged hidden beach.



Small waterfall along the Hoh River valley trail, Olympic National Park, WA.This small lush waterfall was up the hill from the main trail. We quickly agreed to take the trail to see how close to the waterfall we could get. Once we got up to the base of the falls, the only way to get across was a narrow tree that had fallen across the small ravine created by the stream. I ditched my backpack and with some encouragement from Crtr Grl, I carefully scooted across the log with camera and tripod.I successfully made it across and took my shots along a steep muddy trail that continued up and over the falls. On my way back, I lost my balance and fell into a bush along the side of the stream. As I fell, I was able to hold onto the bush to stop from falling all the way into the small ravine, but I think Crtr Grl's heart stopped. Another scoot across the fallen log and I was back on the right side of the stream. Everything is slippery in a rain forest, even if it hasn't been raining!



Home Is Where I Lay My Bed - Long exposure at the Oceanside Pier, Oceanside CA. After the stormy day, the skies around the pier actually cleared for the sunset. After the sunset, however, clouds started coming in again fast. And yes, that is a hammock. A kid strung it up to the pier pilings in the surf zone and was laying there over the water as the sun went down.

11/02/13 - Lost at Sea

Saturday was a learning opportunity. Because this was something of an embarrassing story to relay, I'm sharing it in the hopes that others can learn from our mistakes.

We headed out of San Diego Bay on my parent's boat under mixed cloudy/sunny skies and choppy seas to look for blue water and anything interesting to jump overboard and swim with - mola mola, kelp patties, etc. We passed through an area of low clouds on our way out, but it cleared up as we passed Pt Loma. Out near Buoy 1, we headed west. We soon came upon a series of large clumps of free floating kelp and decided that we should check out underneath them.


Carol and I before we jumped off a perfectly good boat. You can barely see the approaching fog bank on the horizon behind us. Photo by Jeanne McGee.

Carol and I suited up and got the camera ready. My dad positioned the boat so we were close to the kelp patty as we slipped off the swim step. As we started swimming to the nearest kelp, low clouds quickly came in, enclosing us in fog. We kept an eye on the boat as it drifted away north in the breeze, but didn't worry about it too much. We checked out the kelp patty and didn't find much under them except for a few schools of small fish. The boat had disappeared into the fog. Thinking my dad would be moving the boat back to the kelp any minute, we didn't worry too much.


Kelp and fish in the open ocean

As we swam to a couple of close kelp patties, we realized we still hadn't seen the boat. After about 15 minutes, we started getting concerned. Then the clouds/fog moved past and opened up. We could see much farther, but still couldn't see the boat. We were floating in the open ocean with no boats around and realized we were in real danger of being lost at sea.

Then, off in the distance, we saw my parent's boat heading generally in our direction. We could make out my mom on the bow, on the lookout for us. We waved our arms and splashed water, sticking near the kelp so we'd be more visible. My 14 pound weight belt kept me from getting too high up in the water as we bobbed up and down in the swells. They got closer, but still didn't see us. We started getting really worried when they kept going south, heading farther away from us again. Fortunately, we were wearing 7+ mm wetsuits so we weren't getting cold quickly.

After another 20 minutes or so, we saw a couple of sailboats heading in our general direction. One was going to pass close enough that we thought they might be able to hear us with no engine noise to drown us out. We yelled and waved our arms and were overjoyed when we saw the boat captain's head turn and then saw him turn his sailboat.

We were picked up by Philip. We quickly explained how and why we were alone in the open ocean. As I asked him to hail my dad, I heard my worried dad talking to the Coast Guard, working to get a search and rescue started. Philip had to break in a couple of times before everyone realized he had found us safe. We could see my parent's boat off to the west and Philip gave them directions to us. My dad, who is usually pretty stoic and in control of every situation, headed for a sailboat in the opposite direction before Philip got him turned around again. Under these circumstances, calm and rational goes out the window. I could see the look of relief on my parent's faces as they pulled alongside the sailboat.


While sitting on the sailboat that rescued us, Carol notices my camera dome cover floating by again. I quickly jumped off the sailboat to retrieve it.

Having no way of easily lashing up the boats, we decided we would have to jump off Philip's sailboat and swim back to my parent's boat. Carol had already taken her wetsuit half way off and while I encouraged her to put her hood back on and zip up, she was in such a hurry that she didn't want to take the time to zip up. I jumped off first and waited in the water for her. As soon as she jumped in the water, she practically floated across to my parent's swim step. Apparently, she suddenly noticed how cold the water was and didn't take her time swimming across. Back on board, everyone had a collective sigh of relief. We agreed we were done for the day and headed back in under sunny skies. Afterwards, my dad shared that they lost us 5 minutes after we went in the water. They started a search pattern, but because they had already drifted, they were searching too far away and couldn't see anything in the fog. Carol and my mom shared a few tears, relieved that it was over and we were safe.

Here's a list of things we should have done differently:

- We shouldn't have jumped off the boat knowing there was patchy fog and low clouds in the area. It's much harder than it seems to see people in black wetsuits and choppy water. Add fog and it's impossible.

-Carol mentioned that we should bring a whistle ahead of time. I even had one attached to my camera bag from hiking. For some reason, I didn't listen and didn't think it was needed. We would have been able to make a lot more noise with a whistle. Even on the sailboat, Philip said he had his stereo on loud and was surprised he had heard us.

- I own a large surface marker buoy (safety sausage) for boat diving, but didn't think we would need it for snorkeling near the boat. We would have been much more visible after the clouds had cleared if we had one.

- My dad commented after that he should have hit the 'Man Overboard' button on the boat's GPS so he would have the approximate coordinates of where they dropped us. Without that and having no points of reference, the ocean all looks the same. Even with that, we were still drifting with the kelp.

- And a general principle for all adventures is that we should be capable of self rescue. We'll be investing in something like a Nautilus Lifeline GPS/radio/EPIRB for future trips.

Scott

Dive Report - Pt Loma Kelp 3/24/13

Date: 3/24/13
Location: Pt Loma Kelp Beds on the Humboldt


More photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20130324-Scuba-Pt-Loma/

Dive #1:

Time in: 8:58 am
Time under: 54 min
Max depth: 81 ft
Ave temp: 52 F
Vis: 5-10 ft, mostly 5 feet of dark pea soup green
Waves: minor swells
Buddies: Marla, Mike, Terry, Kim, John


Cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) resting on the reef in the Pt Loma kelp beds.

Dive #2:

Time in: 10:54 am
Time under: 54 min
Max depth: 67 ft
Ave temp: 54 F
Buddies: Marla, Mike, Terry, Kim
Vis: 10-15+ much better
Waves: Surgey

Highlights: First time in the water with my D800. Good times with good friends.


Giant Acorn Barnacle (Balanus nubilus) and Club-tipped Anemone (Corynactis californica) on a reef off Pt Loma, CA.

On the first dive, I was setup for wide angle and eager to try video. Of course, conditions were pretty murky with very bad vis and murky green water. I spent the dive playing around with the camera settings and experimenting, trying to keep my dive buddies in sight. Turns out leaving the camera set to follow focus for video underwater is not a viable option. The camera spent most of the short video sequences hunting focus. Manual focus is not an option either, so I'll have to see how setting focus periodically works (with a decent f-stop). Lots to learn there.


Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea) on a reef in the Pt Loma kelp beds.

For the second dive, I switched to macro. Visibility was quite a bit better, on a shallower reef (~60 ft). I followed Mike and Marla and we found a nice pinnacle to investigate. I spent the whole dive there, going back and forth in the surge. There we found a nice cabezon resting on the reef, lots of flabellina trilineata nudibranchs, hermissendas, spanish shawls, etc. As we did our safety stop in the bluish water, surrounded by swaying kelp, a large school of senoritas swam under us. They were followed by a sea lion doing somersaults. Mike and I surfaced a little ways away from the boat and I guess they took a vote and decided to watch us swim to it (even though Ryan was going to come pick us up) since we were the last ones up.

Scott

Dive Report - Pt Loma Kelp Beds 2/16/13

Date: 2/16/13

Dive #1:
Location: Pt Loma Kelp Beds
Time in: 8:46 am
Time under: 53 min
Max depth: 78 ft
Ave temp: 57 F
Vis: 15-20+
Waves: Flat
Mix: 33%
Buddies: Kim, Mike H, Marla, Virginia


Giant Spined Star (Pisaster giganteus) and Spanish Shawl (Flabellina iodinea) nudibranch in the kelp forest off Pt Loma, CA.

Dive #2:
Location: Pt Loma Kelp Beds
Time in: 10:46 am
Time under: 59 min
Max depth: 64 ft
Ave temp: 55 F
Vis: 15-30+
Waves: Flat
Mix: 33%
Buddies: Kim, Mike H, Marla, Virginia


The fate of the blue planet is in my hands.

Photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/Dive-Reports/20130216-Scuba-Pt-Loma-Kelp/
Older dive reports/photos: http://www.underpressurephoto.com/share/y8kKlJq8A5w4g

Highlights: 1st dives in 2 months! Pimped my drysuit with dry gloves and a new silicone neck seal, which were awesome. Great conditions, great weather and great company.

I joined my dive buddies on a local charter boat (thanks Anita and Ryan!) and enjoyed beautiful topside and under sea conditions in the kelp beds off Pt Loma. Everything went right on this trip - I was able to get suited up with dry gloves for the first time by myself (being self sufficient getting suited up or unsuited is important). No leaks in the drysuit or in my camera housing. The first dive was spent playing with my camera underwater and just enjoying being warm and dry. During the safety stop, we were treated by a school of mackerel hanging out in the top 5 feet of water.


Three Lined Aeolid (Flabellina trilineata) on the reef off Pt Loma, CA.

I switched to macro for the second dive and remembered why I love hunting for treasure on the reef. Marla, Virginia and I hung out around 55 ft on the reef looking for nudibranchs and other reef creatures. Some of the highlights included a porters chromodorid, many three lined aeolids, a yellow spotted cadlina, my first sea spiders (with eggs!) and a pair of moray eels who seemed annoyed at each other. At the end of the dive, Marla and I saw a large jellyfish (not sure of the ID) just floating by underneath the swim step.

Scott


Three sea spiders (Anoplodactylus species) carrying eggs off Pt Loma, CA.


A pair of California Moray Eel (Gymnothorax mordax) in a crevice off Pt Loma, CA.