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| Photo by Robert Lee |
I managed to miss some really awesome dives in the past few weeks, due to a cold which turned into a sinus infection. From the looks of the pictures that Rob and Clinton posted, the viz was amazing. Sigh. But, I was finally back, and we made it to Yankee Point, despite a weather forecast that made that look quite unlikely. I guess when you add up all the times the forecast looks good and the conditions aren't, it's about time that we get the reverse situation.
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| Photo by Robert Lee |
So, having made it down to Yankee Point, we of course went to the current favorite area there, Mount Chamberlin. We went to the south wall, and ended up playing around at the southwest corner. I don't think that was really the plan going into the dive, but that's where we ended up :) The awesome viz with bright blue water has apparently moved along, sigh. The viz was still okay, but it was dark. Luckily we saw a few cool things to make up for that. First, we (and when I say "we", I mean Kevin) found the purple sea fan over near the southwest corner. Maybe I shouldn't say "the" purple sea fan, but "a" purple sea fan. The depth and general area of it seemed right for it being the same one that we've seen there before. Though it did seem a bit closer to the wall than I remember it.
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| Photo by Robert Lee |
The other really cool find was what looked like a blood red elephant ear sponge. We were heading up the channel from the south wall to K2, and we went under the arch/swim-through thing (apparently my going under there surprised Kevin, since I'm usually so un-fun). Right as I popped out of the swim-through, I saw this weird looking elephant ear sponge, and practically did a double take. I forced Rob to come back and take a look; then I forced him to take some pictures. It's so pretty! Upon closer examination, it looks like it is something red that is growing on the sponge. I don't really know what it is, but it looks pretty. Which probably means its some sort of terrible elephant-ear disease :P
From there, we continued on up the channel to K2. It seemed like the gorgonians were extra lush and bushy looking today.
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| Photo by Clinton Bauder |
Clinton was on the boat too, and he got a picture which I have to include, because I think it's totally adorable. As regular readers may know, I have an unnatural love of crinoids. Well, Clinton found a crinoid unusually shallow. It was hitching a ride on the back of a crab. So cute!
