The Divers
David (Captain)
Cynthia

The Plan
Cynthia and I had not scootered together in a long time.  So, that was the plan!  It also involved Peter and Ryan, but due to the forecast of doom and gloom, they decided not to make the long drive for very iffy conditions.  I can't blame them, it was raining cats and dogs Friday night!  This was also the weekend of the Scubaboard Meet and Greet...so we planned to get there early...and then got there at our normal time because of the weather...it worked out.  I was car #4 and Cynthia was farther back due to her caffeine fix needs.  Anyway, even with all the forecast there was still a rainbow over Point Lobos when I drove up.

After we got settled in at our parking spots, we took a look at the water from the cliff.  There was some moderate wave action and a visible swell.  Lots of foam in the water in the cove and every once in a while a 3' swell would roll in.  Conditions looked sporty but divable!  We set up our gear and my left post regulator suffered a massive fit of IP creep.  I had an extra stage regulator handy so after a little dive site surgery, I was back in business!  The plan was fairly simple: We would scoot out on the surface to the worm mound and drop.  Then we would follow the sand channel / Middle Reef out to show Doc Wong and his buddy Greg where Itchy and Scratchy lived.  We would drop them off there and continue on our way out to Beto's Reef.  Our plan accounted for 30 minutes (depth adjusted) at 100', with time starting when we passed 70'.  We did a quick dive brief, a head to toe, and got in the water for bubble checks.

The Dive
The cove was pea soup!  Green, green, bright stirred up green!  We scooted out along the surface and Cynthia picked the spot to stop.  Even though we couldn't see the bottom (at a "deep" 24'), she put us right on top of the worm mound.  We dropped together, exchanged four OKs, and set off for the reef.  Visibility was so low I stayed in the sand channel until we got close to where I thought Itchy and Scratchy were and cut in to Middle Reef.  As this was my first time finding them by myself, I missed and wound up too deep.  So, I turned the team around and promptly scootered right past their home a second time!  We waved good-bye to Doc and Greg...and then found the wolf eels.  Oh well...

We took a quick gander in the hole but it was completely blocked by Itchy's head.  That is one mongo wolf eel!  We headed across the sand channel and passed Hole in the Wall on our way out to Beto's Reef.  We followed the rubble field out and passed to the right of Sea Mount before hitting the right side of Beto's Reef.  We continued about 2/3 of the way down before Cynthia's scooter gave us the finger.  Rather than continue out, we decided to just make our way back in kicking from that point.  There wasn't much to see given the visibility and all the stuff in the water...at least until I noticed all the chitons were "doing something interesting."  They were all poised with one end up in the air and they were curled up like upside down ice cream cones.  It finally dawned on me what they were doing when I found two within one foot of each other...and one was releasing a white streamy substance and the other was releasing a chain of yellow egg looking things.  Ah, the joys of invertebrate sex!  We made our way in slowly and fighting the surge that was a non-issue on the scooters.  On the way in, we found a large anemone eating a sea nettle at the end of Middle Reef. 

The Deco
We continued up the sand channel until we hit the worm mound.  Cynthia wanted to shoot a bag, but the poor visibilty in the cove made that a near impossiblity.  So, we made our ascent from 20' and called it a day.  Lunch was at a new place, The Wild Plum, with Doc Wong and Greg.