BrandonBianchi.com

Today was finally the day that I would venture off to Butterfly House.

I met up with Cliff at Aquarius for some quick pre-diving air fills and then we made the drive down to Butterfly House. Got a little later start than we had planned but it worked out in the end. While we were driving down the coast I was very impressed with how blue the water was looking. When we got there we did a quick site survey, the conditions looked more than okay, and Cliff gave me the quick tour of the “easy” way to get to the beach. Then it was back to the cars to gear-up.

We were both diving double today, so it took us a little bit of time to assemble all the gear. Once complete we made our way out to the water and let me tell you, its a fun walk with all the weight of the scuba gear down that hill. The real humorous part was when I started to walk my way into the water. See there was a lot of kelp bits for probably the first 20 feet out, and the tide was VERY low. Well apparently towards the right where we were entering there are a lot of underwater rocks. I think I managed to step onto every single one of them, which of course were all very slippery. After two unsuccessful attempts to walk out I just laid in the water and Cliff gave me a little push out to where I could stand up again. It was comical because both of us were falling victim to these rocks.

Once underwater we had a new challenge… the surge. There was a considerable ammount in the shallow waters near the short and pinnacles. We prettymuch dropped as soon as we got in since the kelp on the surface was somewhat bad, being that its starting to grow again and the tide being so low. Eventually we made it out past the last big rock to the left of the beach and continued to head at about 210 Degrees from there.

All I can say about this site/dive is WOW! WOW was it cold (46 mostly) and WOW was the rock structure amazing! We continues our way out, going over each successive ledge, gaining depth each time. I was in total awe of the huge rocks under water, and all of the growth they had on them. Several large fish were out today as well, most could have cared less about our presence. Something I was surprised by, since this isn’t a protected area. When we finally got some depth, id guess around 60-70 fsw, we swam through a gap between two rocks that was just COVERED in hydrocorals. They were beautiful, the purple and pink was so deep when I light them up with my light. Plus these were fairly large, id say about the size of a football. Of course there was also a blanket of strawberry anemones surrounding these hydrocorals. Made me wish that I had brought my camera. Right about now is when I noticed I needed to catch up with Cliff.

Moving out farther the landscape changed dramatically. We went from a rocky bottom to a sand bottom, with much larger individual rock structures stretched out all around us. Plus there was the perfect amount of kelp stocks going up around us. Right before we went to turn the dive in about 85 fsw with probably 15-20 fsw below us Cliff pointed to something in the distance. After I cleared the fog out of my mask I could see what it was. TWO Metridium, just happily growing on the corner of a fairly large rock. However, the swim up to them was just as impressive. We swam across a giant sand valley with dramatic walls of rock all around towards shore and smaller but still large rocks in the distance, surreal.

By this point we were about 45 minutes into the dive and in about 85 fsw, so Cliff and I agreed that it would be a good time to turn the dive. We started making our way back along the backside of some of these large wall rocks, and that’s about when Cliff asked me to drive. Unfortunately I hadn’t been paying very much attention to my compass, fortunately I had been paying attention to landmarks and such for my natural navigation. Back to shore I lead, seeing much more of the beautiful rock structure covered in all kinds of colorful coralline growth. Finally in about 30 fsw I signaled to Cliff that we should do our stops and go up to make sure we were on track. He agreed and up we went, only to discover that I had brought us back exactly in front of the mouth of the cove! All we really needed to do was drop back down and head straight in for shore, piece of cake! I was just glad that I hadn’t taken us to Carmel River Beach or something .

Te rest of the swim back had us find we were in much more surge again. It really wasn’t too bad because we were having fun riding the surge in, and using kelp stocks (which there are an excess of) to hold us in place while we waited for more forward motion. I guess we also both learned a valuable lesson from our entry, WATCH WHERE YOU STEP! Plus I have since heard that the south side of the beach is better for entry/exit as its less rocky, and that’s just where we happened to make our way out. This time taking much smaller, careful steps. It was quite exhausting with all the additional weight of the stray kelp holding you back though.

Once out of the water we quickly readied ourselves for the hike back up and out and to the cars. About halfway there I was day dreaming of how wonderful it would be to finally be there! All things considered, in the end this was a great dive! I’m not ure I would suggest the site to a first time shore diver, but it really is a poster child for why I love diving Carmel.

Dive #106: 83fsw max for 88 minutes. Varying vis, 25-30 feet in the shallow waters, 60+ feet at 70+fsw. Diving EAN33 with PSI Delta of 1945 (on Double 100’s). Download the Dive Profile

So MacHeist is doing their third bundle now. Looks like it started today. Their list includes:

Bundle Contents

	iSale	$39.95
	Picturesque	$34.95
	SousChef	$30.00
	World of Goo	$20.00
	PhoneView	$19.95
	LittleSnapper	$39.00
	Acorn	$49.95
	Kinemac	$299.00
	WireTap Studio	$69.00
	BoinxTV	$199.00
	The Hit List	$69.95
	Espresso	$80.00
	Big Bang Board Games	$24.95
	Total Value	$557.75
	Bundle Price	$39

Personally I love these. Plus $9.75 can be donated to one of their 10 charities. The more people that buy, the more apps get unlocked, plus I have never seen one of these things where all the apps didnt get unlocked. Actually, usually they add more. So go here and check it out! Support your wallett, charity, and me all at the same time! Well only me if you use my link and hook me up with some refferals.

I enjoyed myself assisting with the first days worth of diving for Aquarius Dive Shops most recent AOW class. We did three dives in one day, and man was I tired after. Took almost all day, don’t think we made it back to the shop until about 6. You could certainly see the students get more relaxed in the Monterey Diving environment as the day went on.

Visibility on Saturday was great at the Breakwater, and for our third dive (Naturalist / Photography) we ended up going to the Metridium. During our ascent I hung around 30 fsw to make sure everyone was with the group and the view was amazing. You had about 35-40 foot of vis and could see a ton of the field, plus there were Moon Jellies coming from every direction. Very nice treat for the student divers.

This weekend I will be dry though. I have to get ready for and help with our Baby Shower, and my show task is to brew beer with the guys. Also I would like to finish staining my first set of furniture that I am refinishing.

Video From my Recent Dives in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. Check it out… it was some great diving and the 80F water can’t be beat!

So here are my totally unedited JPG versions of my photos from my two dives yesterday.
I dove with Caribbean Divers in Boca Chica as the dive shop I had scheduled with over a month in advance canceled on me the morning of. Oh Boca Chica was a $50 cab ride one way ugh, oh well guess I learned. Anyway both dives have about the same profile, drop down to 65 fsw, stay until 0 min no stop time, and then fly high to the anchor line. Made me very glad to have brought my own computer. Please be patient with the link, Picasa is only 24% complete in the upload. When done there should be two albums, one from diving and one from today.

I also have shots of some of the sight seeing we did before the conference started this morning. Went to come cool caves, to the Lighthouse which is where the remains of Christopher Columbus are, and to the old Government District where the home of Christopher Columbus’ Son is. Saw the first church, jail, and street of the “new” world. I asked our guide where the last street of the “old” world was, but he didn’t know.

I may get some cool shots tonight… the Dominican Republic government is hosting a party for our group (North American Network Operators, NANOG). We are supposed to have the head of state as a speaker, and the President is hosting the event. They are holding it at the home of Christopher Columbus’ Son (its gotta have a shorter name).

Once I edit the photo’s and go through them upon my return, ill get them added to my Gallery and remove these.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bbianchi