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Well..... A crazy busy year and a couple of injuries have kept me out of the water for the last 8 months! :O Sucks!!! BUT...made it out this weekend finally!!! It felt so good to get back into the water. I cruised down to Monterey Bay early Saturday morning (8-1) and headed over to "Breakwater". Kinda crazy weather there.Foggy which is normal near the ocean. But it was so heavy it was like a lit mist. (very different than the 90-95 degree weather at my house) But made it in the water nice and early before the sun "came up". OOOOH it felt good to be back in the water. Even though the viz was no good (5-8 feet), it still felt good. I went along the jetty trying to see what I could see and noticed a lot of jellyfish. Some small, some large. But all with loooong tentacles. (5-7’ average but some big ones up to 12’ long) So had to keep eye’s looking for a clear path through the water all the time.
Overall it was a nice dive. Got to try out a new camera housing I bought back in December and some new HP steel tanks I just bought. The water was a nice warm 55 degrees at 45 feet and the dive was 72 minutes. The 2nd and 3d dvies of the day were similar, but dove the area straight out from the beach so not as deep (about 30-35’) and even hit a few spots were the viz was 15-20’. Found lots of decorater crabs (which is normal) and several BIG ugly crabs eating the kelp. On the 4th dive....it started bad and got worse. Soon as I dropped I was bum rushed by a pack of rabit jellyfish. :) They were everywhere! There wasn’t even a hole to swim though. totally around me, in my fins, and above me. So after my lips, cheeks and forehead got stung....up to the surface. I did a surface swim over toward the wall and dropped down. Not as bad, but the jellyfish were still VERY thick. After about 20 minutes of playingchicken with all the jellyfish, I said, time to end this. Just wasn’t enjoyable. Couldn’t see anything coz only trying to find a path through jellys without getting stung again. And the paths kept getting smaller and smaller. They are beautiful to watch move through the water, but no fun when you’re out numbered by thousands! I was planning to do a few more dives and then relax and do acouple of night dives, but the plan didn’t include diving with all those stinging bastards. So new plan......relax, talk with friends for a while and then go home and clean the dive gear.
Overall it was a great day! I wasn’t at work and I was in the water.And it was good to relax and talk with friends inbetween the dives. The sun even managed to come out in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Which helped greatly in my afternoon nap in my recliner folding chair. :) I should be there again next week to if all goes well. that’s my plan anyway. :)