I haven't been diving here in about 10 years. Whenever I tried to dive here it was either low tide (the slippery seaweed-covered boulders make it difficult to get to the water) or it was windy and the waves would make the required surface-swim difficult. Today (Aug. 7, 2021) it was both a very low tide and pretty windy. I went for a dive anyway. Trying to get in the water with my heavy and awkward cameras while being smacked around by the waves reminded me why I avoid diving here on days like this (the surface photos below were taken after the dive when the tide was higher). The surface-swim out to an exposed reef while the waves rolled over my head was an extra reminder. The visibility near shore was pretty stirred-up, but once I descended out near the exposed reef, it was a decent 15-20' in the shallows.
I swam down the rocky slope on the far side of that exposed reef. The rocks met sand about 30-40' deep and I followed my compass out across the sand. I wasn't trying to reach any particular spot, but I knew that the area off the point was a maze of rocky areas and I was bound to run into one of them.
After a longer than expected swim, I finally reached a rocky area 60' deep. The camera I use for close-up photos decided to not recognize the memory card so I was only able to take wide-angle photos during this dive.
On the far side of this large rock reef, there was a smaller rocky area about 80-90' deep. Visibility out here was about 80'.
The main reef sloped down from 50' deep at the top to an area covered with lots of feather stars and some crimson anemones about 95' deep. It seemed to continue deeper, but I didn't have the air to explore much out here since I was already far from shore.
I ascended up shallower and followed my compass back to shore. I took a few pictures in the shallows on the far side of the exposed reef at the entrance to the bay before surfacing into what seemed like 4-6' swells. I tried to swim through the gap between this exposed reef and the point, but after swimming for awhile, I realized that there was a current flowing out of the gap that was too strong to swim against. I ended up descending to the 18'-deep bottom and pulling myself along the rocks through the gap into the bay. My dive was about an hour long, but I was in the water for just over 2 hours, so half my time was spent struggling out and back on the surface. I think this is a great dive, but it really makes you work for it.
