Nixies

I had a cold for the entire Thanksgiving week, which sucked, since I was actually in Monterey the entire week, but couldn't dive that week or on either weekend around it.  So, I was definitely ready to get back in the water today, and the sea conditions were happy to oblige.  We made it to Yankee Point and decided to go to the Nixies.  I was diving with Rob, Kevin, and Matt.  We were diving as one team, but loosely paired up.  I had a LOT of trouble with my ears on the way down.  So much trouble that I would have given up, except that Kevin and Matt had gotten ahead of (below) us on the descent, so I couldn't just abort and send Rob with them.  Rob would have had to abort too, and then presumably Matt and Kevin would be waiting at the bottom of the line, wondering where we were, etc.  (We assumed they were at the bottom of the line, but since they weren't emitting bubbles, we didn't really know.) 

So, it took over 5 minutes to get down to the structure, where of course Kevin and Matt were waiting for us.  The viz was excellent.  Definitely worth the trouble of getting down the line :)  We headed down the structure that we landed on, and then once we got to the sand, we headed across to the sand to one of the deeper structures.  The water was very clear, though right at the bottom, it was dark, I think because we were in the shadow of the pinnacle.  Further up on the pinnacle it was much brighter, and pretty blue.  It seemed like up on the pinnacle, there were a few more gorgonians than usual for this site.  The other nice finds on the dive included a Tochuina, right at the bottom of the pinnacle, and a wolf eel.

Eventually we headed back to the original pinnacle where we started, to finish up the dive a bit shallower.  Deco was uneventful.  For the second dive, we headed to Mono Lobo, but considering how difficult the first dive had been for my ears, I sat it out.