Dive 59 - Dead Mans Cove - Laguna Beach, CA

This was my first dive without Jenni.  It was weird.  It was still fun, but not quite the same without her.  It's kind of like playing with a friends dog, it's still fun, you're still playing with a dog; but it's not as great as playing with your own dog.  Not that Jenni is a dog... she's more of an octopus...

Anyhow.

Fun dive.  Mike invited me out on the Riviera he showed up hung over, possibly still drunk; not sure.  But it's always fun to dive with Mike.  I felt a little bad, because in talking to other people on the boat I realized everyone else was pretty lacking in experience.  It's not a good sign when I'm the 'experienced' diver in a group.  So Mike wound up leading the dive, I buddied up with a guy named Adam and we also had a couple and a pair of lesbians from a clown school join us (yep, that's the truth).

All in all it was the best conditions I've seen to date in Laguna Beach.  We dove dead mans reef.  Good vis and we got to see 2 awesome things.  We saw a mother Octopus protecting her babies, so she wouldn't come out and play.  I did learn that mother octopi will actually eat there own arms before they leave their crevice when they are protecting their young.  That was great.  But my favorite part of the dive was seeing a Sea Hare that was probably 18 inches long and 12 inches tall/wide.  To give you an idea, most Sea Hares are about the size of your hand, this one was the size of a 20lb dog.  It basically looked like a GIANT slug.  So cool.

This was easly the best dive I've ever had off the Riviera.

·      Time In:                                   11:58

·      Bottom Time:                           00:35

·      Depth:                                      35ft

·      Buddy:                                     Mike Kelly

·      Visibility:                                  10-15 ft

·      Temperature:                            59º