August
2nd. The best time to shore dive in northern and central California
is between April and November, with the warmest air and water temperatures occurring
in September and October. That time is also when our summertime coastal fog
layer starts to break up.
On this day early in August, however, our Scuba Refresher dive for
Jerry and Suz was a near typical one for late summer. The dive site was Gerstle
Cove, an underwater marine preserve at Salt Point State Park (about 100 miles
north of San Francisco on the awesomely-scenic Pacific Coast Highway). The cove
is about a 1/4 mile wide and sits in a sheltered spot along an otherwise rocky,
wild coastline dotted with sea caves, separated head lands and huge kelp fields.
After we did an on-shore and in-water refresher and orientation to this dive
site, I told the somewhat skeptical Coloradans that the conditions were indeed
excellent for summer diving: slightly overcast (which kept the summertime plankton
bloom down and the visibility up); about 75 degrees (water was 56 degrees);
no wind; we dove on the slack between low and high tide (which meant the lowering
waters had been steadily warming for a few hours); and there was only a slight
swell from the northwest.
The last time PGD had dived this site (about 3 weeks earlier), there were
a few harbor seals in the water with us. This time we saw no seals, but there
were a few ospreys fishing the cove as we made our surface swim out towards
our dive buoy & flag. Descending into 20 fsw, we found (as the sun came out
a bit) a few glorious groupings of kelp and some very good-sized rockfish and
other kelp fish lurking about nearby. After about 30 minutes down, high tide
started to come on, bringing substantially colder water, and, with the afternoon
sun burning through more and more, plankton blooms seemed to appear from nowhere,
bringing visibility down considerably....Still, we kept on our heading toward
the mouth of the cove, and after spotting several very large sunflower stars,
we reoriented and headed back on the reciprocal compass heading back toward
shore.
