Date: 29 October 2011
Location: Anchor Bay, south side
Air temp 48* on entrance
Max Depth 35′
Vis: 15′

Checked out Anchor bay one last time. I had the intention of not taking any ab under 9″ this time. The first thing I did though was check out the large rock in the middle. No scallops that I could find, but didn’t go all the way around it either. Also seems like there aren’t many abs either but I didn’t explore it as well as I could.

Continued on my swim to the regular grounds. Took me a bit but I found the usual channel and rocks. All the abs I found were legals, but most in the 7″ range and a few in the 8.5 or so. They also seemed a little less abundant than the first times I went there. Eventually I found a nice “honey hole” that was about a 4′ diameter circle bored down in to the rock about 5′. Pretty circular but there was very little water movement down in the hole. Had to be about 5 good abs there, but only pulled one of them. Turns out it was about 9.25″ That was the only ab I pulled that day.

I also pulled 4 urchins that day, but like a fool only put them on top of my game bag and didn’t put them in the bag. On my way in I got tossed around in the surf and lost my board for a bit (it flipped) and by the time I got back to it, all the urchins had fallen off. I found one on the beach washed up, but that was it. Thankfully I still have all the rest of my gear.

Date: 22 October 2011
Location: Anchor Bay, South side
Temp: ??
Max Depth: 35′
Vis: 30′
Equip: 11lbs

Back @ Anchor bay for the 2nd week in a row. Headed up with Rod and met with Issac (IssacLee NCUH). Was a great day with very little swell and great vis. Had a ton of great dives. Rod managed to get his first ab in about 10-12′ of water. He held on to a piece of kelp at the surface and watched it for at least 10 minutes making multiple dives to get there. But he got it in the end which is great. He even found a pearl in it.

I pulled my 3 with no big problem. Found a cool place with some deep channels that bottom out at 35′ or so. Abs are on the tops of the rocks in 20′ or so and urchins can be found on the side of the channels. Kelp cover varies, especially with recent storms. Surge gets stronger especially over the 10-15′ flats that are shallower. 11lbs is just about right for weight for 30′ dives for me. I could probably go a little lighter, but I’m already experience slight trouble in 10′ dives and staying down.

Date: 15 October 2011
Location: Anchor Bay, south side
Air/water temp: ???
Time: 10a-11a
Max Depth: 35′
Visibility: 20′
Equip: standard equip, 15lbs weight

Since I was staying in Bodega Bay for the weekend, I decided to make a trip up to Anchor Bay again for some more abs to share with the MISH reunion kids. Drive takes about an hour. Rod was at the reunion but after a late night I figured he wouldn’t really be up for it. So I met up with Dennis (DennisB) from NorCalUnderwaterHunters.com (NCUH). We both ended up being a little late the parking lot, but turned out just fine. We also hooked up with a local diver that showed us a nice reef to go diving. Vis wasn’t the greatest in that you couldn’t see the bottom, but it wasn’t horrible and you could see more than 10′ which is my threshold for good or bad. Pulled my 3 in about 25-35′, all good 8.5″+ It was my first time ab diving in really good vis, so I think all the factors combined to help me get to my PB of 35′ that day. Nothing really special about diving that day otherwise. Abs were pulled from large flat boulder-type rocks scattered throughout the bottom. Found a nice crevice/V-channel cut in to one that had at least 3 or 4 big ones. I did struggle bringing up my last ab though, started to run out of breath and somehow dropped my ab gauge on my ascent. Couldn’t find it after I put my ab in my bag, so there’s a nice aluminum 7″ gauge sitting down there somewhere.