It is always a pleasure to take a trip to the shores of Monterey, CA. As you leave the LA area and begin the 6 hour drive to reach the beautiful bay area you see the colors change. It is truly nice not to look out the window and see only brown dead grass and desert on all sides. The Bay area is foggy and cool bringing in a large variety of life. Birds, foxes, raccoons and the occasional owl are to be seen. Yet the waters off the coast offer up some of the most diverse sea-life to be found along the California coast. What better place to take a slow weekend than back home in my childhood stomping ground. The Monterey bay.
Nick and I took the "red bandit" Ak
a the subaru. As getting the most out of your gas is not just a dive thing. We traveled up to my parents ranch in the hills of the bay. It was indeed nice to be home even for a few days. But the trip was to be more than just a trip home. We had several agendas to get down and so we knuckled down and got to business.
First order on the list was to organize the gear and set up the plan for the dives. As Nick had not dove in the Monterey Bay before it was imperative to get him in at two of the more frequented locations. First Monastery Beach and Second Breakwater Pier.
However before any of this could occur it is imperative to know a little more about the local environment. What creature are indigenous to the area. What they do and where to find them. We were lucky enough to have a few Guest passes for the Monterey Bay Aquarium and so we stopped off there first.
After that we load up the car and headed out of town toward the Monastery beach area. Arriving there we found it fairly calm and no people diving. We scoped it out and things looked real good. So we broke out the gear and loaded up for a nice dive along the North East wall of the bay. I was interested to see how my new dry gloves would work out with the cold Monterey water.
To Be Cont....
