Farallons IIB

The first part of the 2nd Annual Farallon Islands dive trip aboard Monterey's Pacific Star is "in the bag". 18 lucky divers were aboard for two days of liveaboard diving at its very best. For those who did this trip LAST year, this year was better. Much much better.

For one, the weather cooperated. The winds were calm and there was very little swell. The only possible complaint was the bright but overcast skies; I didn't get to do much work on my tan. On the other hand, if the sun had cooperated, I wouldn't of had the time for the tan thing anyway... we were too busy diving. Needless to say, this planned two-day trip came off as a two-day trip. (Last year, following a day of 10' swells and high winds, the two-day trip ended at 11:00PM of day one).

For another, we were able to return to last year's dive site, the Cavern at the Isle of St. James. The Isle of St. James is a group of rocks at the north end of the Farallon Islands. One of those rocks has a huge cavern with multiple entries and exits. The "main" entrance is approximately 20' by 25' high. It's separated from a similiarly sized entry by a giant pillar. Inside, the walls are carpeted with life and the floor is covered by ochre stars piled 3 and 4 deep. The place is large enough that you're 20' inside before you realize it's a cavern. Looking back the way you came illuminates the structure of the entries. This year, the reefs outside the cavern were obscured by dense swarms of krill. This made it difficult to retrace last year's landmarks that led to the cavern. Instead, it was more along the lines of "head that way and, when you bonk on the rock wall, turn right". Not very elegant but it worked. However, the krill was so thick that entry into the cavern took a leap of faith. The reward, though, was clear water inside. Plus a discovery. The surge last year limited how far you could go into the cavern. This year, the krill swarms encouraged you to get a bit deeper where the water was clearer. From a bit deeper, the surprise was to look ahead and see the outline of an exit on the opposite side of the island (complete with the dim outline of a swooping snooping sea lion). The cavern turns out to be a tunnel system that undercuts the entire island. The shear size made passage easy (though caution was required on the open ocean side of the tunnel due to increased currents).

Needless to say, the Saturday spent at the Isle of St. James was a blast. Even if you didn't go to the cavern, the surrounding reefs were well worth the air needed to explore them.

Another factor that added to this year's outting were the animals we sighted. We had plenty of harbor seal and sea lion encounters with the latter guys coming literally within inches. There were big ling cod, little ling cod, really fat cabezons, schools of thousands of black and blue rock fish, a few wolf eels, a couple giant octopii, and a skittish mola mola. These were the underwater encounters. From the boat, there were the thousands of sea birds along with occasional but distant whale sights (except for the 3 or 4 mile cruise we did along side a pod of 6 orcas; those guys were sometimes within 25' of the boat).

A third major "positive" about this year's trip was the dive destination for day 2: Fanny Shoals. Located a few miles north of the Isle of St. James near Noonday Rock, we set anchor there following our orca encounter. This meant we had a late start but the delay turned out to be more than worth it.

Descending the anchor line revealed a bottom below 100' that initially looked like most any other off northern California. But that was viewing it from 60'. As you got closer, the most colorful place I've ever seen emerged. The bottom layer of water yielded visibility in the 60' to 80' range. What you saw were ridges and shoulders of bedrock with every square inch covered by life. Ambient light was bright enough (even with overcast skies) that a dive light was superfluous. Imagine house and office building sized structures side by side and sitting on a 110'-150' gravel/sand bottom. Every square inch of rock is covered by the brightest hues of pink, purple, and orange. Here and there, big round bushes of hydrocoral stood above the bedrock. Ling cod could be seen meandering here and there. A school of rockfish stood sentry above one of the high points. I laughed and whooped it up like an idiot during parts of the first dive (no - I wasn't narced) and cried on the way up the anchor line at the end of the last dive feeling like I did when I was a little kid and the last Christmas gift had just been opened.

The mid-water column at Noonday Rock didn't have the kind of visibility found at the bottom. Instead, pelagic planktonic life was thick enough to make visibility 25' and hazy. Time spent at the safety stop went quickly because of all the fascinating lifeforms that floated past.

Sunday's diving was limited to two dives due to the depths and constraints on the time we were to return. The original plan had been to do one jump at Noonday Rock and, then, return to the Isle of St. James for two more. After that first dive at Fanny Shoals, the captain of the Pacific Star might have gotten himself thrown overboard if he'd tried to move the boat. It was that good (and, of course, Captain Alan Cull never even considered moving the boat once he heard the rave reviews from the returning divers).

Speaking of the Pacific Star, they were once again professional to deal with and enjoyable to be around, substantially adding to the overwhelming success of the trip. The boat now mixes EAN32 and EAN36 on-board ($10/tank or $25/day) and this was the first time I, personally, have felt that nitrox was the way to go for some northern California diving (particularily at Noonday Rock). And, as expected, the food was plentiful and equally enjoyable (this is an important detail with me ;^).

The compliment of dive passengers was great. This was a diverse bunch from as far away as Idaho (nice to meet you, JD) that got along well and shared the joy of truly world-class diving. One of the crew aboard the Pacific Star (Bruce Watkins) has had the opportunity to dive extensively throughout California and the world. His first dive at Noonday Rock earned it the number 2 spot on his list of the best dive site anywhere. I think that's a pretty reasonable summary.

Finally, thanks are due the Pacific Star for taking on this trip and doing everything within their power to make it a success. FWIW, she'll be returning to the Farallons next weekend for a second 2-day trip. There are a few spots left and, I expect, some of those will be filled by members of this past weekend's outing.

Rocky Daniels
norcadiver@sonic.net

Noonday Rock, Farallon Islands, Northern California
125 feet, 35 minutes

P.S. - Did I mention the night dive at SE Farallons? Well, unfortunately, I have to go to work; maybe someone else will fill in that omission.

{norcadiver@sonic.net}